Principal Investigator
Stephanie L. Leal, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Integrative Biology & Physiology, UCLA
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychology, Rice University
NARSAD Young Investigator
Editor, Nature Scientific Reports
Contact
Email: stephanieleal@ucla.edu
Office: LSB 2802
Research Interests:
Dr. Stephanie Leal is an Assistant Professor of Integrative Biology & Physiology at UCLA, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychology at Rice University, and Director of the Neuroscience of Memory, Mood, & Aging Laboratory. She received her B.S. in Biopsychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2011 and her Ph.D. in Psychological & Brain Sciences from Johns Hopkins University in 2016 working in the lab of Dr. Michael Yassa. She completed postdoctoral training from 2016-2019 at the University of California, Berkeley with Dr. William Jagust. Her research interests focus on the neurobiological mechanisms underlying episodic memory processing and how these mechanisms are altered in aging and disease states. She develops and utilizes sensitive cognitive tasks, advanced neuroimaging techniques, and translates these methods to states of cognitive impairment. Her overarching goal is to understand the factors that modulate episodic memory processing in order to restore the system to normal function in disorders of mood and memory.
Michele Medina
Research Coordinator
Research interests: Michele received her B.S. in Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience from Texas A&M University in 2025 and is currently a research coordinator in the Leal Lab. During her time at TAMU, she worked in the lab of Dr. Jessica Bernard, where she studied the cerebellum’s role in age-related cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease. Additionally, in the lab of Dr. Theodora Chaspari, she developed speech-based machine intelligence models for detecting depression. Her research interests include identifying biomarkers of neurodegenerative diseases and investigating the neurobiological mechanisms of memory. In her free time, Michele enjoys drawing, watching the latest movies and shows, and exploring antique shops!
Lorena Ferguson, M.A.
Graduate Student
Psychological Sciences
Rice University
Contact
Email: lferguson@rice.edu
Office: BRC 780B
Research Interests: Lorena graduated with a degree in Cognitive Science from UC Berkeley in 2016 and is currently a fourth year doctoral student in the Leal Lab. She previously worked in the lab of Dr. Robert Levenson, where she examined emotional regulation in patients with neurodegeneration and their familial caregivers. In the lab of Dr. William Jagust, she assessed the neurological basis of memory changes across the lifespan in a novel memory task. In the Leal Lab, she studies the intersection of aging-related neurodegenerative diseases and neuropsychiatric disorders. In her free time, she enjoys reading, baking, and hiking.
Fernanda Morales-Calva, M.S., M.A.
she/her/ella
Graduate Student
Fulbright García Robles Scholar
Psychological Sciences
Rice University
Contact
Email: fernanda@rice.edu
Office: BRC 780B
Research Interests:
Fernanda is a fourth year doctoral student in Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. She received her B.A. in Psychology from Universidad Iberoamericana (Mexico City) in 2017; her M.S. in Clinical Neuroscience from University College London in 2019, and her M.A. in Psychological Sciences from Rice in 2023. She previously worked under the supervision of Dr. Robert Wykes (Queen Square Institute of Neurology), where she studied gene-therapy approaches to drug-refractory forms of epilepsy. Prior to coming to Rice, she worked as a data analyst in clinical trials. Fernanda is interested in the neurobiological underpinnings of episodic memory and its changes across development. She is currently investigating cultural and genetic risk factors of Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias. Fernanda’s work is supported by a Fulbright García Robles grant, an APAGS Psycholgical Science Research Grant (PSRG), and a Social Sciences Research Institute’s (SSRI) Pre-Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (PDR), and copious amounts of coffee. In her free time, she enjoys reading, traveling, and watching movies.
Kayla Clark, M.A.
Graduate Student
Psychological Sciences
Rice University
Contact
Email: kayclark@rice.edu
Research Interests:
Kayla graduated from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 2019 with a degree in Biopsychology, Cognition, and Neuroscience and is currently a fourth year doctoral student in the Leal Lab. During her time at Michigan, she worked in the lab of Dr. Patricia Reuter-Lorenz studying the effects of training and concurrent transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on verbal working memory. After graduating and having an interest in emotion, she worked for two years as the lab manager in the lab of Dr. Maital Neta where she studied the relationship between valence bias, emotion regulation, individual differences, and their neural correlates. In the Leal Lab, Kayla is interested in studying the intersection of memory and emotion by investigating the relationship between memory, music, and emotion in aging and Alzheimer’s Disease. In her free time, Kayla enjoys watching movies, reading, and spending time outdoors!
Madelyn Castro, B.S.
Graduate Student
NSF GRFP Fellow
Psychological Sciences
Rice University
Contact
Email: mc151@rice.edu
Research Interests:
Madelyn completed her bachelors of science in psychology and minor in neuroscience from the University of Minnesota in 2018. She is currently a second year doctoral student. Prior to becoming a doctoral student and working at Rice as a lab manager, she was a clinical research coordinator at the N. Bud Grossman Center for Memory Research & Care at the University of Minnesota studying Alzheimers & dementia where she learned how to utilize imaging tools such as MRI, EEG, MEG, and PET-CT. Her research interests include the neurobiological mechanisms of anti-depressants and emotional memory. Madelyn’s work is supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP). In her free time, she enjoys being active, talking her lab mates ears off, and hanging out with her dog, Zeus.
Former Lab Members
Hannah Ballard, Ph.D. (2022-2025) – Postdoctoral Fellow (Now a Researcher at Kinder Institute for Urban Research!)
Jasmine Liew (2024-2024) – Research Assistant
Inés Iriondo (2023-2024) – Research Assistant
Michele Medina (2024-2024) – Visiting Summer Research Assistant
Thara Venkateswaran (2024-2024) – Research Assistant
Angie Cordova (2024-2024) – Summer NSF REU Fellow
Thomas Witherspoon (2024-2024) – Research Assistant
Ashwathi Nair (2023-2024) – Research Assistant (Now a medical student!)
Ella Zhou (2024-2024) – Research Assistant
Ivanshi Ahuja (2023 – 2024) – Research Assistant (Now a medical assistant!)
Eva Dicker (2019 – 2023) – Graduate Student (Now an Assistant Professor at Seattle University!)
Alexis Bailey (2022 – 2023) – Research Assistant (Now a medical student at Baylor!)
Sydney Bogan (2023 – 2023) – Research Assistant
Amy Lam (2023 – 2023) – Research Assistant
Michelle Sekili (2022 – 2023) – Research Assistant
Renae Mannion (2021-2022) – Summer NSF REU Fellow
Chandler Bannis (2022-2022) – Research Assistant
Gabriel Bolanos (2022-2022) – Research Assistant
Madelyn Castro (2021-2022) – Lab Manager (Now PhD student at Rice!)
Nessa Kim (2020-2022) – Master’s Student (Human Factors) (Now PhD student at Rice!)
Amritha Harikumar (2020-2021) – Lab Manager (Now PhD student at Georgia State University!)
Rishi Vas (2020-2021) – Research Assistant (Now a medical student at Columbia!)
Brandon Hayes (2020-2021) – Research Assistant (Now a PhD student at UC Davis!)
Taylor Phillips (2020-2021) – Research Assistant (Now a research specialist at UPenn!)
Lorena Ferguson (2019-2020) – Lab Manager (Now PhD student at Rice!)