Pediatric Cancer Survivorship Outcomes & Intervention Fellows

Biography

Cassie Argenbright is originally from Dallas, Texas, and attended The University of Texas at Arlington (UT Arlington), where she earned her Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a minor in Neuroscience. She continued her research at UT Arlington, focusing on preclinical behavioral assessments of affect and cognition in neuropathic and nociplastic chronic pain; she subsequently earned both her master’s and doctorate in Experimental Psychology with an emphasis in Health and Neuroscience. At St. Jude, she uses a translational science lens to advance the understanding of chronic pain in long-term survivors of pediatric cancer. Argenbright is passionate about developing interventions for chronic pain in survivors that address the pain experience, including its biological, emotional, cognitive, social and health factors.

Biography

Sarah Benstock was born and raised in Houston, Texas, but has since lived in several places across the United States and the United Kingdom. Because of her lifelong interest in psychology and how the brain works, she began to pursue a research career during her undergraduate studies at the University of St. Andrews. She worked in the cognitive psychology labs as both an undergraduate research assistant on pseudoneglect and as a project leader on predictive coding in the brain. Benstock attended graduate school at Texas A&M University, where she earned her doctorate in Medical Sciences, specializing in psychiatric and behavioral genetics. She is particularly interested in understanding the biological mechanisms and genetic risk for psychiatric disorders and how research can improve long-term mental health outcomes and prevent depression and anxiety.

Biography

Brooke Charbonneau was born and raised in Littleton, Colorado. After she graduated summa cum laude with her Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology at the University of Colorado Denver, she earned her Master of Science and doctorate in Psychology with an emphasis in cognition at Montana State University. Her prior research aimed to understand how to best support individuals who have lower working memory capacity; this work has demonstrated the beneficial effects of natural environments, goal reminders and embedded task support on working memory task performance. She has also focused on identifying the mechanisms of these supports by using both physiological measurements and newly developed cognitive task. Because many clinical populations have impaired working memory capacity impacting their quality of life, Charbonneau hopes to apply previous findings to pediatric cancer survivors to help decrease the burden of coping with cancer-related cognitive impairment.

Biography

Bhakti Chavda was raised in Mumbai, India, before moving to the United States for a master’s in Biotechnology from the University of Pennsylvania. While finishing her doctorate in Health Communication at Purdue University, she developed an interest in decision-making and human–computer interaction; her work at St. Jude seeks to examine the ways in which people’s use of technology can impact their health.

Biography

Letian Lei earned her doctorate in Psychology at The University of Hong Kong, where she investigated the physiological and neural correlates of unconscious emotional processing. Her doctoral research pinpointed the key role of the cerebellum in community populations. At St. Jude, she is focusing on emotional processing of medulloblastoma survivors, who experience cerebellar dysfunction. Additionally, she is interested in investigating other cognitive and emotional late effects of cancer survivors, incorporating behavioral and neuroimaging data.

Biography

Sandra Soca Lozano was born and raised in Cuba, where she began her career as a psychologist working with children and adolescents with cancer and their families. She completed her early academic and professional training at the University of Havana, where she also taught Health Psychology and Family Psychology. Soca Lozano later moved to the United States and earned her doctorate in School Psychology from the University of South Florida. She completed her predoctoral internship in pediatric psychology at Nemours Children’s Health in Delaware. Her clinical and research interests center on pediatric psychology, childhood cancer survivorship and promoting emotional well-being and healthy behaviors. At St. Jude, her research focuses on developing digital behavioral interventions that integrate emotional health with health behavior change among adolescent and young adult cancer survivors. Soca Lozano is passionate about making evidence-based psychological interventions accessible, culturally responsive and relevant to the everyday challenges young people and their families face.

Biography

Tanya Paes was born and raised in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. She earned her master’s degree from the University of Oxford and her doctorate from the University of Cambridge. Her research focuses on how to support the development of cognitive and behavioral skills, particularly executive function and social-emotional skills, in children who may be at risk for later cognitive difficulties, including survivors of childhood cancer. Paes has experience working with children from families with low incomes and those from diverse ethnic groups using experimental, observational and longitudinal methodologies.

Biography

Hazel Yu earned her doctorate in Human Development and Family Science from Purdue University, where her research focused on understanding the joint roles of environmental and genetic factors in shaping adolescent psychopathology and substance use outcomes. At St. Jude, Yu studies the impact of early exposures, such as neighborhood conditions, and integrates biological data to identify risk and protective factors for psychopathological symptoms among pediatric cancer survivors. She is also interested in examining how environmental stressors and neurocognitive changes influence substance use among survivors.