Fellows: 2006-2007

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Jill Antonishak, Ph.D.
Dr. Antonishak is a Congressional Fellow in the office of Senator Tom Harkin. She received her Ph.D. in Community and Developmental Psychology from the University of Virginia in 2005 and her B.A. from Goucher College. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in adolescent development at UVA, where she worked on a longitudinal study of adolescents, their friends, and family. She has received fellowships from the Pediatric AIDS Foundation and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, and has also received the University of Virginia Developmental Training Grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. Her research focuses on adolescent peer groups and problem behaviors, and the application of developmental psychology to law and public policy. Her legislative interests include mental health, prevention, childcare and education, humanitarian assistance and poverty relief, crime and juvenile justice, and media issues.

Lauren R. Baskir, Ph.D.
Dr. Baskir received her doctorate in Applied Developmental Psychology from Fordham University in May 2006. She was granted the Dissertation Research Award from Fordham University for her work investigating and integrating neuropsychological and behavioral components of adolescent decision making. During her graduate career, Dr. Baskir was awarded a Teaching Fellowship, and in August 2005, a Senior Teaching Fellowship at Fordham University. For her master’s thesis, she completed a research placement at a residential facility for juvenile offenders which complimented her work, prior to entering graduate school, at an alternative to incarceration program for juvenile offenders. Dr. Baskir is currently an Executive Branch Fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health in the Neuroscience Center.

Dara Blachman, Ph.D.
Dr. Blachman is an Executive Branch Fellow at the Office for Behavioral and Social Science Research at the National Institutes of Health. She received her Ph.D. in Clinical/Community Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, during which time she consulted to the Alameda County Department of Children and Family Services around improving foster parent retention. Dr. Blachman completed her predoctoral internship at the Institute for Juvenile Research (IJR) at the University of Illinois at Chicago where she was involved in several community based prevention programs in urban Chicago neighborhoods. Most recently, Dr. Blachman was the Madigan Postdoctoral Fellow at the Family Institute and School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University. Her research interests include the interactive role of peer, family, and community/cultural influences on children’s socio-emotional adjustment and mental health, with a particular emphasis on healthy development among minority children living in poverty.

Erika Feinauer, Ph.D.
Dr. Feinauer is an Executive Branch Fellow at the National Science Foundation in the Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences (BCS). She received her doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Department of Human Development and Psychology. Her academic interests lie in the fields of Developmental Psychology and Bilingualism. Much of her own research has focused on the relationship between ethnic identity formation and academic achievement for bilingual and ESL students. She has specifically investigated the role that heritage language maintenance plays in both ethnic identity formation and English literacy outcomes for Latino pre-adolescent students. Erika has spent considerable time looking at immigration policy and issues that affect language-minority and immigrant children. Previously, she served as a member of the editorial board for the Harvard Educational Review Journal and was co-chair of the Special Issue on Immigration and Education (2001).

Gina R. Hijjawi, Ph.D.
Dr. Hijjawi is a second year Executive Branch fellow for the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) in the Prevention Research Branch. At NIDA, her program areas include HIV/AIDS, criminal justice issues, and health disparities. Dr. Hijjawi received her doctorate in Community Psychology from the University of Virginia. Her policy and research interests include low-income families and fatherhood, drug sentencing policies and the criminal justice system, HIV/AIDS prevention, and health disparities. During graduate school, Dr. Hijjawi worked with the Public Defenders Office as an Assistant Sentencing Advocate, working with clients with substance abuse problems and metal illness. She also conducted a needs assessment for the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County (VA) Commission on Children and Families to determine the needs of low-income families and children. As a research consultant at Public/Private Ventures in Philadelphia, PA, Hijjawi evaluated programs serving fathers transitioning out of the criminal justice system, faith-based programs serving high-risk youth, and a mentoring and tutoring program for at-risk children in low-income schools. Dr. Hijjawi recently worked at the American Psychological Association in the Public Policy Public Interest Office on legislative issues related to older adults, domestic violence, youth suicide prevention, and universal mental health screening for children.

Laura Hoard, Ph.D.
Dr. Hoard is a second year Executive Branch Fellow at the Office
of Planning, Research and Evaluation in the Administration for Children
and Families (ACF). She will continue working on several projects
begun in her first year, including serving as the project officer on the Implementation Evaluation of the Head Start I am Moving, I am Learning health promotion and obesity prevention enhancement and the Evaluation of the Head Start Oral Health Initiative. Prior to her work with ACF, she worked on policy and program evaluations such as the evaluation of states' implementation of teacher quality provisions for the No Child Left Behind Act. Dr. Hoard received her Ph.D. in Family Studies and M.S. in Marriage and Family Therapy from the University of Maryland, College Park. She is a member of the NICHD-funded Research Network on Measuring Children's Activity in its Social Context. Her research interests include chronic illness, disability, obesity, and resilience
within families and children.

Carmela Lomonaco, Ph.D.
Dr. Lomonaco is a second year Executive Branch Fellow working in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Southern California and has research interests in adolescent risk behaviors, especially youth violence. Prior to her fellowship, she served as the Assistant Director of LA Net, a practice-based research network in the USC Department of Family Medicine, where she specialized in research on health and health care disparities in pediatric populations. She has expertise in gang violence
research; especially how environmental factors influence gang formation and persistence. Dr. Lomonaco is the past recipient of both the 2005 USC Urban/Global Fellowship for Adolescent Urban Homelessness and the 2004 SOPHE/CDC Violence and Injury Prevention Fellowship.

Amy L. Madigan, Ph.D.
Dr. Madigan is a second year Executive Branch Policy Fellow at the Head Start Bureau of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) assisting with the launch of a “Research to Practice” effort. She received her doctorate in Applied Developmental Psychology from George Mason University where she conducted research on early childhood education interventions and school readiness, family conflict and violence, and the interaction of multiple family and community risks. As a former William A. Morrill Public Service Fellow at Caliber Associates, Dr. Madigan was involved in research on effective practices in child abuse prevention and child welfare. Her interests focus on the synthesis of developmental research, program development/evaluation, and evidence-based policy formulation for the promotion of child and family wellbeing.

Behnosh Najafi, Ph.D.
Dr. Najafi is an Executive Branch Fellow at the Child Care Bureau in the Administration for Children and Families. She recently received her doctorate in Developmental Psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her research is largely concerned with how teaching and learning arrangements are provided for children across cultural communities. Her previous work has compared modes of children’s social interaction across cultural backgrounds and linked them to the routine practices of their family and community settings. At the Child Care Bureau, Dr. Najafi anticipates working on issues related to early learning initiatives for English Language Learners and Native American children.

Nicole Gardner Neblett, Ph.D.
Dr. Neblett is an Executive Branch Fellow for the Department of Health and Human Services in the Child and Youth Policy Division of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE). Her work at ASPE includes analyzing and monitoring research on barriers to employment among low-income parents and the prevention of youth risk behaviors. Before working at ASPE, Dr. Neblett completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the National Poverty Center in the School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. During her post-doctoral fellowship, she investigated the links between single mothers’ experiences with welfare and work and the social and cognitive well-being of their children. Dr. Neblett earned her doctorate in Developmental Psychology from the University of Michigan, where her research focused on the effects of parental job experiences on adolescents’ future orientation. Her policy interests include welfare, the effects of poverty on children, the school-to-work transition, and work-family balance.

Purva Rawal, Ph.D.
Dr. Rawal is a Congressional Fellow working in Senator Joseph Lieberman's office. Over the last year in Senator Lieberman’s office, she has been working on a wide range of health issues affecting Americans, including reducing healthcare disparities, improving federal infrastructure for translational research, the role of the federal government in facilitating health and medical assistance during times of disaster and emergency, and positive youth development and mentoring services. Dr. Rawal completed her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and a Predoctoral Fellowship in Health Services Research at Northwestern University's Feinberg Medical School in 2005. She has also worked with the Board on Children Youth and Families at the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine. She is interested in child and family health and mental health issues, improving healthcare service delivery, juvenile justice, positive youth development, child welfare, the effects of media on child development, and early childcare and education. She has published articles and book chapters on several of these topics.

Taniesha A. Woods, Ph.D.
Dr. Woods is a Congressional Fellow in the office of Senator Dodd who is working on the Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee’s subcommittee on Children and Families. Her most recent work examined the relationships between academic achievement, racial identity, and racial socialization within the context of discrimination in African American adolescents. While completing her graduate studies, Dr. Woods served as a Dalmas A. Taylor Memorial Summer Minority Policy Fellow through the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, working on issues related to health care disparities, education, and children’s mental health outcomes. She has previously held an American Psychological Association Minority Predoctoral Mental Health Research Fellowship.