Doree is the Lead Administrative Assistant for Dr. Dunn and the Dunn Lab. She joins the Dunn Lab team at her alma mater, Purdue University! Doree obtained her bachelor’s in RHI Management from Purdue, followed by a post-grad associate’s in Paralegal Studies. After a career in healthcare administration and operations, she’s excited to be part of this ground-breaking research team!

Dr. Mackie O’Hara joins the Dunn Lab as a Research Assistant Professor, overseeing the research pertaining to children’s teeth. Mackie completed master’s (2016) and doctorate (2021) degrees in Biological Anthropology at The Ohio State University, where she focused on understanding how stress events, climate, evolutionary history, and diet influence enamel thickness and tooth shape in both extant primates and fossil hominins. As a post-doctoral researcher at University of Kent (2022-2024), she worked to identify the cellular mechanisms that produce variation in enamel thickness within human ancestors and modern humans. Mackie is passionate to understand how early life experience is embodied in children’s teeth and how those teeth can be leveraged to provide insights about future health, resiliency, and growth and development.

Simone Lemmers, Ph.D., is a biological anthropologist joining the Dunn Laboratory as a research fellow with expertise in dental and bone histology. Simone is broadly interested in how we can use hard tissues to answer questions on life history, growth, development and responses to physiological stress, in both modern and fossilised tissues. She completed her PhD at Durham University, UK, where she focussed on stress, life history and dental development in primates. During her previous postdoctoral work in Cyprus, she was highly involved in non-destructive approaches to the analysis of archaeological human remains, including application of Synchrotron Radiation enabled research in the context of pathology, stress and health in past populations. Within the Dunn Lab, she will contribute to the ALSPAC and STRONG studies working with deciduous teeth to assess the impact of early life adversity and stress on mental health and depression in later life.

Dr. Mona Le Luyer is a biological anthropologist joining the Dunn Lab as a research fellow. She has extensive experience studying prehistoric and recent human teeth to characterize interactions between biological, environmental, and sociocultural changes. Within the Dunn Lab, she will contribute to the STRONG study using children’s teeth to assess the impact of early life experiences. Mona received her PhD from the University of Bordeaux, France, where she studied dental evolution in Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene human populations. During her postdocs at the University of Kent, UK, she investigated enamel biorhythms and childhood growth trajectories to unlock evidence for understanding the mechanisms underlying dental evolution. She is broadly interested in anything we can learn about teeth and from teeth: identifying any factors or stress that might have impacted dental structures, how and when they got embedded in teeth, understanding their evolution through time and throughout lifespan.

Brooke McKenna, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist joining the Dunn Lab as a postdoctoral research fellow. She received her doctorate from Emory University in 2023, where she examined the interplay between biological factors (e.g., epi/genetics, gut microbiome) and environmental influences (e.g., childhood trauma, chronic stress) that contribute to psychopathology within and across generations. In the Dunn Lab, Brooke studies how alterations to DNA methylation can help us better understand how adversity and protective factors become biologically embedded to influence the development of psychopathology. Broadly, Brooke's interests center on diversifying science and promoting health equity while examining the biological, social, and developmental factors that contribute to risk and resilience against depression, PTSD, and other psychological disorders.

Sammy joins the Dunn Lab as a Data Analyst. She graduated from the University of Iowa in 2019 with a B.S. in Psychology and minors in Criminology and Human Relations. Sammy has worked as a Research Assistant for the Developmental Psychopathology Lab at Iowa, a Clinical Research Coordinator for the Laboratory for Youth Behavior at MGH, and a Clinical Research Coordinator II here in the Dunn Lab. Her research career has broadly focused on child development, resilience, and behavioral disorder treatment. Sammy is now completing her Master’s in Data Science at DePaul with a concentration in Healthcare. She hopes to continue her work and is looking forward to better understanding what factors may influence vulnerability and resilience towards mental illness.

Sherief joins the Dunn Lab as a Senior Clinical Research Coordinator. He graduated from Clark University in 2018 with a B.A. in Psychology (with Highest Honors) and a minor in Biology. As an undergraduate, Sherief worked in a breadth of research areas ranging from neurodevelopmental disorders, trauma in international groups, and addressing mental health disparities. Prior to joining the Dunn Lab, Sherief worked as a Clinical Research Coordinator at the AJ Drexel Autism Institute, where he studied early detection and intervention of autism and Down syndrome. Broadly, his interests include bringing a precision medicine approach to psychopathology with a particular focus on culture. In the Dunn Lab, Sherief is looking forward to better understanding how type and timing of adversities affect different vulnerable groups.

Anna Großbach joins the Dunn Lab as a visiting PhD student in Genomics Data Science. She graduated from the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany, with a B.Sc. in Biology focusing on Molecular Genetics and Genome Evolution. From 2019 to 2021, Anna completed her M.Sc. in Anthropology, with a particular focus on Evolutionary Biology and Bioinformatics. In 2021, she started her PhD in the Simpkin Lab at the University of Galway, Ireland, trying to better understand the dynamics of epigenetics in early stages of life and its susceptibility to external factors, such as adversities.

Abigail Higgins is a PhD student in the History of Science Department at Harvard University. She is interested in the history of medicine, health, and the environment in the 20th and 21st centuries. She is also a member of the GenderSci Lab, a collaborative, interdisciplinary research lab that generates concepts and methods for scientific research on sex and gender. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with an A.B. in History and Science (Highest Honors) and a secondary in Global Health and Health Policy. Prior to joining the Ph.D. program, Abigail worked in the healthcare and life sciences industry.

Caitlyn is an undergraduate student at The University of Texas at Austin pursuing a major in Biosociology and Medical Ethics, and she is so excited to be working in the Dunn lab! Her research interests lie in how epigenetic changes are affected by social factors, which in turn, influence psychopathology risk and outcomes. In the future, Caitlyn hopes to become a physician-scientist to work in both clinical practice and epigenetic research.