Three psychologists selected as 2022-23 UCLA Society of Hellman Fellows

Assistant professors Bridget Callaghan, Dave Clewett and Lauren Ng have been being selected as 2022–23 UCLA Society of Hellman Fellows.

The UCLA Hellman Fellows Program was established by the Hellman Family Foundation to support and encourage the research of promising assistant professors who show the capacity for great distinction in their research.

Callaghan studies how different early life experiences influence interactions between physical and mental health across the lifespan. She directs the Brain and Body Lab, which has a goal of using research that combines analysis of behavior, neural systems, gastrointestinal bacteria and health, and physiology to create better mental and physical health treatments across development.

Clewett’s research seeks to understand how arousal responses — particularly those elicited by emotional, stressful or motivating (rewarding/threatening) situations — influence:

• what people remember: the information they selectively attend to and remember later on
• how people remember: the way in which memories become organized and updated over time
• when people remember: certain neurochemical and brain states, such as elevated norepinephrine and dopamine release, that are induced before, during or after an event.

Ng conducts translational psychological science and health disparities research for children, adolescents, and adults. The goal of her research is to reduce mental health disparities for underserved, minority communities in the Unitd States and in low- and middle-income countries. In addition, her research emphasizes bi-directional learning between global and local research and practice settings to improve access to and quality of care in the United States and around the world.