Project Team
Jane Cooley Fruehwirth
Principal Investigator
Jane Cooley Fruehwirth is an associate professor in the Economics Department at UNC. Her research focuses on the economics of education. She became passionate about applying her economic skills to studying college student mental health as she experienced the increasing struggles of her students with anxiety and depression.
Krista Perreira
Co-Principal Investigator
Krista Perreira is a professor in Social Medicine at UNC. She studies disparities in health, education, and economic well-being and inter-relationships between family, health and social policy. Her research combines qualitative and quantitative methodologies and focuses particularly on the experiences of immigrant families.
Wave One Team
Tiffany Eden
GRA
Tiffany Eden, MPH, (she/her/hers) is a doctoral student in the department of Health Behavior at UNC Chapel Hill. I study adolescent mental health from adolescence through emerging adulthood, with a particular emphasis on marginalized populations. I am passionate about supporting youth holistically as they transition into new phases of life and am an advocate for creating supportive and inclusive environments for youth of all identities.
Benjamin Gorman
URCT Team Member
Benjamin Gorman is a second-year Neuroscience and Communication Studies double major. His fascinations with the brain and mental health have inspired him to join the Transitions team and, more broadly, to pursue a pre-med, pre-psychiatry path. In the future, he hopes to combine research and clinical care to improve outcomes for people with psychiatric conditions, especially affect disorders including bipolar disorder. In the mean time, he’s still waiting on his Hogwarts letter and would put absolutely anything in a sandwich.
Luke Hargraves
URCT Team Member
Luke Hargraves majored in Public Policy and Music and minoring in Business Administration. As a tour guide for incoming students, he was interested in the Transitions project as he wanted to understand how students’ mental health developed and changed throughout their first year. In the future, he is interested in pursuing a master’s degree in public policy and continuing to research the social sciences.
Susan Huynh
URCT Team Member
Susan Huynh double majored in Psychology and History. As a peer mentor for first-generation college students, she was drawn to the Transitions project because she wanted to further explore how transitioning into college affected students’ mental health and how to ease that transition. In the future, she is interested in attending graduate school to combine her love studying social psychology and history because people are absolutely fascinating.
Sarah Parker
URCT Team Member
Sarah Parker double majored in Economics and Computer Science. She was interested in studying mental health in first year students because she has experienced the difficulty in transitioning into college and wants to help the University focus on additional resources to help students with an easier transition. Sarah is starting a job as an advisory associate at KPMG in Charlotte, NC this January.
Brittany Wiafe
URCT Team Member
Brittany Wiafe majored in Health Policy and Management with minors in African Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies. Having witnessed mental health crises in her peers, especially Black women at Carolina, she was interested in researching ways to prevent these occurrences early on in students’ college careers. In the future, she plans on obtaining a master’s degree in Public Health to examine how health care systems can better serve the health needs of Black women as a way of achieving health equity.
Wave Two Team
Siddhartha Biswas
PhD Student
Siddhartha Biswas is a doctoral candidate in the department of Economics at UNC Chapel Hill with a focus on the economics of education and labor economics. His research combines economic theory, data analysis, and policy evaluation to understand behaviors and outcomes relevant for young adults, including financial constraints to education, determinants of college enrollment, and mental health.
David Lambert
Data/Project Manager
David is an economics major at UNC-Chapel Hill with expertise in Stata and graphics design.
Michael Almaguer
Undergraduate Team Member
Hello! My name is Michael Almaguer. I am a senior double majoring in Economics and Mathematics, minoring in Statistics. I am interested in studying mental health as it is a deep seated problem. 17.3 million Americans are predicted to have had a major depressive episode. Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death for those under 35. Like any health problem, this needs to be fixed. After undergrad I plan on pursuing a phd in economics doing research in applied micro with a focus on health.
Caroline Carpenter
Undergraduate Team Member
Caroline Carpenter is a senior double majoring in Economics and Public Policy with a minor in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE). She has worked on mental health advocacy within her Resident Advisor position and is pursuing a thesis on mental health policy in public universities this upcoming school year. She is excited to be on this team and to see the impact that this study will make on destigmatizing mental health in the research environment and by providing better support for UNC students.
Gabriela Goodman
Undergraduate Team Member
Gabriela Goodman is a sophomore double majoring in Economics and Public Policy. After being involved in developing a mental health curriculum for her school county, she became acutely aware of the positive impact that mental health support and education can yield. She is excited about the potential applications of this research and interested in exploring ways that institutions can better support mental health.
Emilia Mazzolenis
Undergraduate Team Member
Maria Emilia Mazzolenis is a junior double majoring in Economics and Psychology with a minor in Statistics and Analytics. She is deeply interested in mental health and, more specifically, in the ways that Major Depression and Eating Disorders disrupt people’s lives. Through research, she hopes to help people with mental disorders improve their quality of life. Her career plans after graduation include pursuing a PhD in Behavioral Economics and working for the Tech industry.
Mollie Pepper
Undergraduate Team Member
Mollie Pepper is a senior double majoring in Economics and Global Studies with a Computer Science minor. After graduation, she hopes to work for a couple of years, before attending law school. She is interested in learning about the ways universities can best support their students, particularly women and underrepresented minorities, and is excited about this project’s potential to impact programming and resources for incoming first years at UNC and beyond.