Affiliated Faculty: Deep Connections Across Campus
Back to 2021/2022 Report
MPSI is fortunate to have enlisted nine Wayne State professors from a range of disciplines to serve as affiliated faculty members. They join us from departments in psychology, psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience, public health, family medicine and pharmacy. Each has a special interest in furthering MPSI's work and mission, and helps by building collaborations, mentoring MPSI trainees, and bringing new perspectives to research studies and recruitment. While the details of the research and major grant awards of MPSI affiliated faculty are not listed in our basic report, we can't help but spotlight at least a few of their extraordinary achievements.
Faculty profiles
Hilary Marusak
Dr. Marusak is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences. She directs the THINK Lab, which focuses on characterizing the impact of childhood stress and trauma on brain development in children and adolescents, and the neurodevelopmental mechanisms leading to anxiety and other "fear-based" disorders, such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). She won three major awards in the past three years for excellence in teaching, in research and as a junior faculty member making outstanding contributions to neuroscience. Dr. Marusak has also published 10 articles in The Conversation, including a look at new research on the source of the "runner's high."
Dr. Marusak is principal investigator or co-PI on two major grants. The first is a $3.5M award from the State of Michigan to study the impact of cannabinoids on brain inflammation and thoughts of suicide in veterans with PTSD. The second is $423,500 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to look at the correlation between peer victimization and physiologic sensitivity to threats in adolescents.
Hannah Schacter
Dr. Schacter is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology. She is especially interested in understanding how youth adjust when faced with interpersonal stressors such as bullying, discrimination and dating violence. Most of her research takes place outside of a lab. Rather she tries to capture information from youth in their everyday environments to observe their lives as they are lived. Ultimately she wants to uncover interventions and social policies that can promote healthy adjustments and relationships in adolescents.
Dr. Schacter received Wayne State teaching awards in 2021 and 2022 and was named as the first faculty advisor for the Giant Step Teen Conference in 2022. She is the co-principal investigator with Dr. Marusak on the $423,500 grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development on peer victimization and physiologic sensitivity to threats in adolescents. Her Visionary Grant on improving health outcomes in adolescents with asthma also won funding from the American Psychological Foundation.
Dr. Schacter is establishing herself as a media expert on stress and anxiety in teens, especially during the pandemic. She was interviewed by the New York Times about teen anxiety over removing COVID protection masks. National Geographic interviewed her about how COVID-19 changed children's friendships. She also published four articles in The Conversation, including her most recent story on bullying.
Christopher Trentacosta
Dr. Trentacosta is a Professor and Director of Clinical Training in the Department of Psychology. His research examines self-regulatory skills and emotion competence among parents and their young children. He is a multi-principal investigator on two large, multi-year R01 grants. The first, through the National Institutes of Mental Health examines the impact of prenatal inflammation on neurodevelopment from pre-birth to age 9. Since many developmental and psychiatric disorders likely originate during prenatal development, this $3.6M award aims to understand disease pathways and identify postnatal environmental modifiers for early detection, prevention and treatment of disease.
The second grant is a $2.6M award from the National Institute of Environmental Health Studies to look at micronutrients and toxicants in utero and in childhood. By analyzing tooth biomarkers, brain development in utero, and early childhood psychosocial environments, the team will work to understand the impact of nutrition and toxicities on pregnancy as a guide to identify modifiable factors for prevention.