PASO: THE PROGRAM FOR ANXIETY, STRESS, AND OCD
PASO: THE PROGRAM FOR ANXIETY, STRESS, AND OCD
The Program for Anxiety, Stress, and OCD (PASO) is a clinical research program committed to understanding the causes, consequences and associated features of anxiety, obsessive-compulsive, and hoarding disorders. We are involved in cutting-edge research on the biological, psychosocial, and cognitive risk factors for mood and anxiety disorders.
In addition, we engage in research collaborations with other laboratories at the University of Miami, across the United States, and even across the world. We provide both group and individual cognitive-behavioral therapies for a variety of anxiety, obsessive-compulsive, and hoarding concerns
TEAM MEMBERS
Lab Director
Lab Director
Dr. Kiara Timpano
Dr. Kiara Timpano is the Director of the Program for Anxiety, Stress, and OCD (PASO), and a Professor in the Department of Psychology at UM. She received her PhD from Florida State Unviersity and completed her postdoctoral training at Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School. Her research interests include understanding risk and vulnerability factors that play a role in the etiology, comorbidity, and maintenance of anxiety and obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders. Dr. Timpano is a member of the Scientific and Clinical Advisory Board of the International Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Foundation (IOCDF). In her spare time, Dr. Timpano follows her montessori calling with various DIY projects, loves getting outside, and travels whenever possible.
Grad Student
Graduate Student
Amelia Dev
Amelia Dev is a sixth-year graduate student at PASO and is on internship! She graduated from UC Berkeley in 2017 and then worked as a lab manager with Dr. Don Moore at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and as a project coordinator with Dr. Sheri Johnson in Berkeley’s Clinical Psych department. Her research interests surround judgment and decision making in mood disorders, anxiety, and OCD. She is particularly keen to understand how cognitive biases, specifically biases in predictive processes, influence psychopathology. Outside of the lab, Amelia likes to bake baked goods and eat baked goods, read fantasy books, travel, and hang out with her cat.
Grad Student
Graduate Student
Amanda Belanger
Amanda Belanger is a fourth-year graduate student in the PASO lab. She earned her B.S. in Psychology and French Language & Literature from Fordham University in 2019. Amanda spent two years working with Dr. Emily Stern at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Her research interests involve mechanisms and maintenance of hoarding disorder, with the goal of improving treatment outcomes. Specifically, she is interested in understanding how individuals with hoarding learn over the course of treatment and how this learning may be shaped by emotional responses to sorting. In her free time, Amanda enjoys reading, taking care of her many plants, cooking, baking, and crafting.
Grad Student
Graduate Student
Lauren Milgram
Lauren Milgram is a fourth-year graduate student working jointly in the PASO and CAMAT labs. Lauren worked at PASO as an undergraduate student before graduating with her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Miami in 2020. Lauren then completed her post-baccalaureate research training at Brown University Medical School, where she conducted research on pediatric anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Lauren has since returned to the University of Miami to continue her study of anxiety, OCD, and related disorders in youth and adults. She is particularly interested in examining mechanisms of change during cognitive behavioral therapy for these disorders. In her free time, Lauren loves to explore all the restaurants and beaches that Miami has to offer.
Grad Student
Graduate Student
Judy Xu
Junjia (Judy) Xu is a second-year graduate student in the PASO lab. She earned her B.A. degrees in Psychology and Neurobiology from UC Berkeley in 2022, while working under Dr. Sheri Johnson and Dr. Ann Kring in their research labs. After that, Judy worked as a clinical research coordinator at the OCD Institute at McLean Hospital. Judy’s research interests surround the cognitive and affective mechanisms involved in the etiology and maintenance of OCD, as well as their transdiagnostic roles across anxiety and mood disorders. Particularly, she has a keen interest in how cognitive vulnerabilities, such as intolerance of uncertainty and emotion-related impulsivity, interact with the daily dynamics of emotions to impact decision-making and foraging behaviors. In her spare time, Judy loves playing with her cats, watching TV, spacing out in the sun, experiencing new and bizarre restaurants, dreaming about karaokes, and traveling all around the world to spend time with family and friends.
Research Assistants
Yewande Shitta-Bey
Thomas Magee
Seth Cox
Cristina Albornoz
