Lab Members

Julia Parish-Morris, Ph.D.

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

Ashlee Yates Flanagan, Ph.D.

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. 

Current Clinical Research Assistants

Amanda Lee

Amanda Lee is a Clinical Research Coordinator within the SoAL Lab. She primarily leads the Sex and Gender in Autism (SAGA) Study, which investigates sex differences and gender development in children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder, with a focus in females and gender diverse populations that have been traditionally understudied in research. She also assists in Floreo, a recently completed intervention study meant to strengthen police safety skills with Autistic individuals. Her research interests are broadly centered around improving systems of care (e.g., academic, clinical, and research settings) for minoritized autistic individuals through community and culturally centered lenses. Within this goal, she hopes to utilize practices of implementation and dissemination science to improve community members' access, inclusion, and collaboration across settings. 

Amanda received her B.S. in Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience and Psychology from Virginia Tech in 2021. Prior to joining the SoAL Lab, Amanda was the Lab Manager for Dr. Anna Fisher’s Cognitive and Social Development Lab at Carnegie Mellon University, where she helped lead two intervention studies: 1) a strengths-based learning experience with youth and adolescents that explored historic roots and present-day manifestations of systemic racism and 2) an intervention study that examined how diverse children’s books could be used to foster positive racial socialization in children. Amanda plans to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology to strengthen her clinical and research goals and continue working alongside community members. 

Meg Lyons

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 Sex and Gender in Autism Study (SAGA), 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.   

Sarah Schillinger

Sarah works at the SoAL Lab as a clinical research assistant. She supports several of Dr. Parish-Morris's studies, including the CONNECT project, exploring conversational and standardized language in autistic and non-autistic teenagers. She also manages students on the LENA project, which studies vocalizations in infants at elevated-likelihood for autism. Finally, Sarah enjoys running visits for the SAGA study, which investigates sex differences, gender development, and camouflaging in autism.

Sarah earned a B.A in Psychology from Grinnell College in 2023 with concentrations in Neuroscience and Linguistics. As an undergraduate student, she worked with Dr. Ann Ellis exploring how language and scene knowledge interact, and worked with Dr. Paula Yust studying friendship in preschool-aged children. Additionally, she worked at the Grinnell College Preschool as an assistant teacher for four years. She hopes to continue working with children and conducting research with a PhD in Clinical Psychology.

Calli Faulk

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.

Current Undergraduate Students:


Keshvi Chheda

Keeana Dicette

Mia Gallagher

Eva Levy

Jessica Lip

Jana McClary

Ivana Obima

Allison Pearlman

Genevieve Raju

Nisa Rufaida

Emely Seda

Nirvaa Shah

Marion Schroder

Nyla Taliaferro

Samantha Valdes

Sanjana Vinjamuri

Annie Wu

SoAL Lab & Undergraduate Students, Summer 2024