Meet Our Directors and Staff Members

Nicholas Epley

Nicholas Epley

Faculty Director
John Templeton Keller Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science and Neubauer Family Faculty Fellow

Nicholas Epley
CDR Executive Director Amy Boonstra

Amy Boonstra

Executive Director
Email
(773) 702-7307

Amy Boonstra is executive director of the Roman Family Center and oversees programming and initiatives. With her team, she leads the center’s infrastructure, program development, fundraising, and partnerships. Amy has a PhD in sociology from the University of Michigan and an AB from the University of Chicago.


Amy Boonstra
CDR Lab Director Becky White

Rebecca White

Director, Labs Services
Email
(773) 702-2621

Rebecca (Becky) oversees the center's research labs and partnership data collection sites. Becky has a PhD in quantitative psychology from the Ohio State University, with focus in the study of judgment and decision making, and she is also an Adjunct Professor of Behavioral Science at Booth.


Rebecca White
Kaushal Addanki

Kaushal Addanki

Research Application Developer
Email

Kaushal assists faculty by developing, programming, and troubleshooting computer-based study materials. He focuses on web-based programming and provides support for studies on Qualtrics using Javascript, PHP, and other relevant languages. Kaushal received his BA in Psychology and MS in Computer Science from the University of Chicago.

Kaushal Addanki
Lucia Agajanian

Lucia Agajanian

Assistant Director, Virtual, Pop-Up, and Campus Labs
Email

Lucia Agajanian supports research and operations in the Campus, Virtual, and Pop-up labs. She helps with operational strategy, accounting, data quality, and general management for the lab spaces. Lucia received her BA in Radio/TV/Film and Psychology from Northwestern University, and she will begin pursuing her MSW at the University of Chicago in fall 2024. 

Lucia Agajanian
Ryan Bruno

Ryan Bruno

Research Professional, Hyde Park & HOPE Lab
Email

Ryan Bruno helps to facilitate research for faculty, principal researchers, and collaborators of the Roman Family CDR. He holds a B.S. in Neuroscience from DePaul University. He also works as a Research Professional for Emma Levine and Jane Risen. He is interested broadly in how we can form accurate beliefs about the world, and why we often fail to do so. He is particularly interested in the psychology of unfounded beliefs, dishonesty, and how our beliefs influence ethical decision making. 

Ryan Bruno
Taylor Christiansen

Taylor Christiansen

Lab Research Assistant, Mindworks
Email

Taylor supports research and operations at Mindworks. Her background is focused on language and speech. She has a BS in Communication Disorders from Brigham Young University. Taylor gained research experience in labs centered on Aphasia, non-verbal communication, and in our Virtual, Pop-Up, and Campus labs. 

Taylor Christiansen
Holden Emig

Holden Emig

Research Professional, Campus, Virtual, and Pop Up Labs
Email

Holden serves as a project manager for the full life-cycle of research studies conducted in the RF-CDR Labs by affiliated faculty and graduate students. He has a BS in psychology from the University of Kansas. He is generally interested in the mechanisms underlying prosocial decision-making. 

Holden Emig
Brian Ge

Brian Ge

Research Professional, Mindworks
Email

Brian works to promote positive visitor experiences at Mindworks and also coordinates with Roman Family CDR faculty collaborators to facilitate research operations. Brian earned his BA in psychology from Pepperdine University and has an MA in the social sciences with a psychology concentration from the University of Chicago.

Brian Ge
Janice Im

Janice Im

Assistant Director, Epley Lab
Email

Janice manages the Epley Lab, where she oversees research projects conducted by Nicholas Epley and his collaborators. She also provides support for center's labs and supervises research assistants. Janice received her BA in Psychology from Adelphi University Honors College and her MA in Social Sciences from UChicago.   

Janice Im
Yui Ito

Yui Ito

Assistant Director, Events & Programs
Email

Yui organizes workshops, brown bag talks, retreats, the Think Better speaker series, junior faculty visits, PhD orientation, and annual celebratory events. She also manages accounting. Yui has her BS in Health Sciences from DePaul University and her MS and OTD from UIC.

Yui Ito
Jasmine Kwong

Jasmine Kwong

Director, Mindworks
Email

Jasmine Kwong oversees research operations at Mindworks, the world’s first behavioral science discovery center in downtown Chicago. She leads the Roman Family Center's engagement strategy and programming for students, alumni, and the general public. Jasmine has an MBA and AB from the University of Chicago.

Jasmine Kwong
Don Lyons

Donald Lyons

Associate Director, Mindworks
Email

Don manages research professionals who carry out research operations in the Mindworks Labs and oversees the operations that support research. Don is a part-time MBA student at Booth and previously served as Lab Manager for Nicholas Epley.

Donald Lyons
Dylan Morrow

Dylan Morrow

Research Professional, Mindworks
Email

Dylan helps to advance research for faculty, researchers, and collaborators at the Roman Family Center for Decision Research. Dylan gained his BS in Psychology (Neuroscience Track) and BA in Philosophy from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and he earned his MA (Psychology Concentration) from the University of Chicago.

Dylan Morrow
Chris Partridge

Chris Partridge

Communications Director
Email

Chris implements the center's communications strategy to attract new research participants and amplify the innovative work of our faculty, labs, and researchers. He manages the center’s social media, email marketing, event promotions, and other communications efforts.

Chris Partridge
Andrea Rivera-Martinez

Andrea Rivera-Martinez

Lab Research Assistant, Mindworks
Email

Andrea supports operations and research projects conducted at Mindworks. Andrea joined the center as a research assistant through the HBCU & HSI Bridge Scholarship Program at the Graham School after graduating from the University of Puerto Rico with a BA in Psychology.

Andrea Rivera-Martinez
Nina Semushina

Nina Semushina

Associate Director, Campus & Virtual Labs
Email

Nina supports researchers who conduct studies in the Campus & Virtual Labs, manages research operations, and mentors research assistants in data collection methodology. They have a PhD in Linguistics and Anthropogeny from UCSD. Prior to joining Roman Family CDR, Nina worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Chicago Department of Psychology. 

Nina Semushina
Rui Sun

Rui Sun

Principal Researcher, Statistical Consultant
Email

Rui provides statistical consulting services for researchers affiliated with the Roman Family Center. Additionally, she assists in evaluating the appropriate analytical approach given the real-world conditions in which data were collected; evaluates the relative appropriateness and performance of distinct statistical methods for specific datasets, and assists researchers in applying and interpreting these methods to their datasets in novel and sophisticated ways.

Rui Sun
Adam Vargas

Adam Vargas

Senior Web Applications Developer
Email

Adam develops and troubleshoots research applications. He focuses on both client- and server-rendered, modern web app frameworks and is lead developer of the MyCDR study management platform. Adam received his BA in Psychology from the University of Notre Dame and is a certified professional programmer.

Adam Vargas

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