Director
Julia Parish-Morris is an Associate Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania, and a Scientist at the Center for Autism Research at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. As a developmental psychologist, Dr. Parish-Morris studies clinical language and social attention phenotypes across the lifespan in individuals with neurodevelopmental or psychiatric differences. Specifically, she uses computational approaches – including NLP and machine learning – to quantify social communication, with a focus on understudied subgroups like autistic girls. Dr. Parish-Morris graduated magna cum laude from Smith College, and earned her PhD in Developmental Psychology at Temple University, with postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Pennsylvania and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She has lectured about communication and social attention at conferences and workshops both nationally and internationally, and is the recipient of multiple prestigious fellowships and awards from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Autism Science Foundation, and the American Psychological Association.
Post-Doctoral Researchers
Dr. Yates Flanagan, is a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Autism Research and is mentored by Julia Parish-Morris, PhD. Dr. Yates Flanagan received her doctorate in School Psychology from Tulane University and holds a master's degree in Counseling from New York University. She completed her APA-accredited internship with the University of Tennessee Psychology Consortium, where she also trained in the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities program. As a result of Dr. Yates Flanagan’s leadership role during her internship, she was listed as a 2022 Emerging Leader for the Association of University Centers on Disabilities. As a fellow at the Center for Autism Research, she serves primarily in two distinct roles: clinician and researcher.
Ultimately, Dr. Yates Flanagan’s research aims include co-constructing culturally responsive research designs for children on the autism spectrum and families identifying as Black, that explore early identification of ASD, gaps in services related to ASD, and caregivers’ perspectives and experiences of ASD services.
Staff
Research Technician
Calli works part-time on Dr. Parish-Morris's team, as well as part-time in Dr. John Herrington's lab. In the SoAL Lab, Calli supports transcription efforts on the SAGA and CLASS-ACT projects.
Clinical Research Assistant
Hannah Franke is a clinical research assistant in the SoAL Lab. In this position, she works with Dr. Parish-Morris and many collaborators on the CONNECT study, which investigates spontaneous natural conversation in autistic and non-autistic teenagers. She also manages students on the LENA study, which explores the relationship between infant vocalizations and subsequent autism diagnoses. Her primary research interests are the psychological and linguistic mechanisms of social conversation in a real-world context, and she is thrilled to explore these questions as a member of the SoAL Lab!
Hannah graduated from the University of Iowa with a B.S. in Psychology and a B.A. in Linguistics. During her undergraduate education, she worked with Dr. Bob McMurray in coordinating a research study to investigate the impact of prediction on spoken word recognition. She also worked with Dr. Ethan Kutlu to explore the effect of personae on scalar adjectival implicature. Hannah intends to pursue a PhD in Psychology or Linguistics to continue collaborating with incredible researchers on questions of language use, social communication, and human connection.
Data Analyst
Lizzy Fulop works at the Center for Autism Research (CAR) as a data analyst. In her role, she develops and manages study databases and facilitates data processing and visualization. As a part of the Data and Statistical Core at CAR, the role includes supporting individual study teams, such as Dr. Julia Parish-Morris’s SoAL lab, as well as data integration across the Center. For the SoAL lab, Lizzy’s role focuses on generating audio files for transcription for the team and outputting metrics on transcribed audio files.
Lizzy graduated summa cum laude from Temple University with a Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience. During her undergraduate studies, she was part of the student volunteer program at CAR. After Temple, she gained hands-on experience in clinical research and received a Certificate in Data Analytics at the University of Pennsylvania. She is currently working towards her Master of Science in Data Science part time at Eastern University. Having an autistic family member drives and inspires her passion for this research.
Clinical Research Assistant
Nasya Howard is a Clinical Research Assistant for the SoAL Lab working under Dr. Julia Parrish-Morris. She works on various studies within the lab including the SAGA study, as well as the Digitizing Human Vocal Interaction study. Nasya is also a Lead Transcription Assistant within the Center for Autism Research (CAR). Throughout the year she oversees the training of student intern transcriptions, for various study and grants at SoAL; As well as maintains communication with the University of Pennsylvania’s Linguistic Data Consortium (LDC). Before joining the lab Nasya attended the University of Pittsburgh. She graduated April of 2024 receiving a B.S. in Statistics. Building on her strong foundation in research, statistics, and data, Nasya plans to advance her career by obtaining a Ph.D. in Biostatistics. By pursuing this degree, Nasya aims to expand her research capabilities and make a meaningful impact on healthcare, particularly for marginalized communities.
Clinical Research Coordinator
Meg works at the SoAL lab as a clinical research assistant. She assists a variety of studies under Dr. Julia Parish-Morris including the Digitizing Human Vocal Interaction study, the SAGA Study, and many of the collaboration studies the lab supports. Meg also trains student interns on transcription for various projects and grants within SoAL as well as maintains communication with the Linguistic Data Consortium (LDC) at the University of Pennsylvania.
Meg graduated summa cum laude from the George Washington University in May 2023, receiving a B.A. in Honors Psychological and Brain Sciences as well as a B.A. in Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies. As an undergrad, Meg worked with Dr. Michelle Stock in the Health Cognitions and Behavior Lab aiding research that utilized social psychological theories to understand risky health cognitions and behaviors with a focus on racial and gender discrimination. Meg intends to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology to further her interests in child development and behavioral healthcare.
Clinical Research Assistant
Current Undergraduate Students:
Nutsa Abashidze
Emily Chau
Keshvi Chheda
Keeana Dicette
Gabrielle Duncombe
Abby Fulop
Rakshit Gadamaset Rupesh
Ziqi Guan
Sara Katanick
Chelsea Louis
Nicole Marie
Jay Michell
Anjali Rajagopal
Ananya Ravi
Meilani Rea
Nisa Rufaida
Emely Seda
Sophia Tian
Samantha Valdes
Jessica Wang
Annie Wu
SoAL Lab & Undergraduate Students, Summer 2024