Gabriela Aquino

Gabriela is a second year PhD student in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences. She received her B.A. in Psychology and a certificate in Community-Based Assessment and Evaluation from St. Mary’s University.

Gaby’s research focuses on marital and parenting influences on children’s socio-emotional development. She is primarily interested in examining how sociocultural factors impact parenting practices and young children in Latinx families. Gaby has also done some work on atypical development and is currently investigating parenting influences on children’s development of ADHD symptoms.

Ashleigh Aviles

Ashleigh is a fifth year doctoral student in the Human Development and Family Sciences department at The University of Texas at Austin. She received her B.A. from Columbia University. Ashleigh’s research interests include attachment theory, the socio-emotional development of children from infancy to early childhood, promoting positive parenting practices, and parent-child relationships in general. Currently, she is researching the intergenerational effects of emotional abuse, and the identification of early parent-child boundary disturbances. 

Areas of interest: parent-child attachment processes, emotional abuse, emotion regulation, role reversal
Email to link to: ashleigh.aviles@utexas.edu

Saralyn Foster

Saralyn has a B.S. in Nutritional Sciences from Texas A&M in College Station, completed her dietetic internship at Baylor Medical Center in Dallas, and a M.S. in Health & Kinesiology from UTSA. She is a doctoral student in the Department of Nutritional Sciences and her research interests include mother and infant nutrition. She has worked as a registered dietitian for 13 years primarily in pediatric inpatient and outpatient settings.

Marcela Abrego

Marcela is a doctoral student in the Department of Nutritional Sciences. She earned her Master of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where her areas of interest were Nutrition and Health Quality. She has been an Intervention Specialist at UNC, a Research Assistant at the University of Virginia, and Research Data Analyst for an international fatty-acid-focused non-profit named GOED.

Marcela’s research interests are in Maternal, Infant, and Child Nutrition and Health, particularly regarding metabolic syndrome. Her career goal is to work in academia as a research investigator and educator and to contribute to health policy improvement for mothers and children.

Luis Velasquez

Luis Velasquez is a fifth year Ph.D. student in the Department of Educational Psychology. He received his BA in Psychology from UC Berkeley.

Luis’ research focuses on the integration of attachment theory with family systems theory and related evidence-based interventions designed to improve the parent-child relationship. Luis is primarily interested in engaging in research that will help inform treatment and intervention, particularly for underserved and minority populations.