Community Research Group Alumnus

See what former Community research group lab staff are doing now

Alivia Foster

Alivia Foster is a first year Clinical Psychology PsyD student at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, FL. She earned her BS in Psychology from Michigan State University Honors College in 2020 and her MA in Forensic Psychology from George Washington University in 2022. She was Dr. Woolard's Community Research Group Lab Coordinator from January 2022 until she moved to Florida to pursue her doctorate degree in June 2023. Alivia has a variety of experiences, including working as a probation intern, a legal advocate for local court-involved youth, a crisis counselor, and many research assistantship positions. Professionally, her clinical and research interests are both forensic psychological assessment and evaluation. Currently, Alivia is working with Dr. Randy Otto, PhD, ABPP to develop empirical research on (forensic) mental health clinician and practitioner decision making, and she represents the student body as Research Chair for NSU's Forensic Advocates for Rehabilitation and Reintegration group. In her free time, Alivia is a certified personal trainer so you can likely find her at a gym, playing with her cat Armani, or cooking!

Jenna Douglas

Jenna Douglas, a 2019 graduate, was selected as a Fulbright Scholar for the 2023-2024 academic year as an English Teaching Assistant in La Rioja, Spain. While at Georgetown, Douglas was a research assistant with the Community Research Group, analyzing the role of parental advisory in juveniles comprehension of legal rights and decisions. Additionally, she authored a thesis to understand the complexities parents have navigating the juvenile justice and education system. Outside of the classroom, Douglas was a peer mentor to students in the DC community, and served as a leader of an Alternative Break Program, Cease Violence Chicago, through the Center for Social Justice. Douglas graduated with honors in Psychology, Phi Beta Kappa, with magna cum laude honors. After graduating, Douglas served as an education public policy and advocacy intern with Alliance for Excellent Education, helping to inform Congressional staffers about disparities in education before taking a full-time role with Aspen Institute. At the Aspen Institute, Douglas developed professional learning experiences for education leaders to increase educational equity in the K-12 education system. Currently, Douglas works as a Strategy & Analytics Consultant for Deloitte Higher Education Consulting where she helped launch the New Era Forum, an inaugural convocation for presidents and chancellors of universities to discuss the most pressing challenges in higher education. As a Fulbright Scholar, Douglas plans to deepen her understanding of the role that education plays in building the social fabric of our global society and advance her career to continue increasing opportunities for students, especially those facing the greatest challenges.

Rafi Freund

Rafi Freund graduated from Georgetown in 2023 with a BA in Psychology, with Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude honors. Through the Community Research Group, Rafi authored a thesis on the use of videoconferencing technology for criminal pretrial hearings. Specifically, Rafi’s work compared two different video layouts for their impacts on a defendant’s eye gaze, understanding, and perceived fairness of their hearing. Outside of the classroom, Rafi spent five semesters as a teaching assistant in statistics, which awoke in him a passion for teaching. In the long term, Rafi hopes to combine his interest in psychology and law with his love for teaching. For the 2023-24 academic year, Rafi received a Fulbright grant to work as an English Teaching Assistant in Berlin, Germany. Rafi is lesson-planning and delivering instruction for 200+ fifth- and sixth-graders in a public elementary school. Rafi hopes that this experience will not only improve the language skills he earned through his German minor at Georgetown, but also better prepare him for a career in academia.

Ian Torres-Figueroa

Ian graduated with a Bachelor's in Psychology (Georgetown ‘22) and Master’s of Science in Integrative Neuroscience with a specialty in electrophysiology (Georgetown School of Medicine ‘23). Dr. Woolard's Community Research Group was his entry to the world of research in which he was part of the groundwork team who designed the qualitative qualtrics forms for processing Civil Protective Order (CPO) cases and Eviction Orders filed in the District of Columbia and Prince William County Court systems with the goal of identifying criminal, domestic, circumstantial, and socioeconomic factors leading to case outcomes. Following his undergraduate graduation in 2022, he pursued a Master's in Integrative Neuroscience during which he worked as a graduate researcher at the Rauschecker Laboratory on non-human primate electrophysiology, immunohistochemistry, and neuroimaging research and as a Research Technician at the Wu Laboratory working on rodent ex-vivo SRW and LTP electrophysiology experiments. Currently, he works as a chronobiology clinical research fellow at the Center for Military Psychiatry and Neuroscience Behavioral Biology Branch of WRAIR (DoD) on research aimed at the exploration and development of experimental technologies for monitoring, preventing and/or reversing the decrementing effects of sleep loss, stress, and fatigue on soldier cognitive performance and operational judgment via Transcranial Direct/Alternating Current Stimulation, EEG, and fMRI.

Jackie Ayers

Jackie Ayers is a College of Arts and Sciences graduate with a double major in psychology and government. Her honors thesis examined the impact of childhood physical neglect and multi-type childhood maltreatment on later violent crime. Jackie plans to pursue a PhD in clinical psychology and to work as a therapist specializing in early childhood trauma and victimization.

Michael Parker

Michael was a research assistant and thesis student in the Community Research Group from 2021-2024. His thesis covered prosecutor decision making in cases where prosecutors charge juvenile offenders as adults, and the role juvenile maturity plays in that decision making. Since graduating, Michael has begun pursuing a J.D. at Georgetown Law downtown and serves as a summer clerk at the Georgetown Juvenile Justice clinic.

Eva Cagliostro

Eva Cagliostro served as a research assistant in the Community Research Group from January 2021 to May 2022. She earned her B.A. from Georgetown University in 2022, majoring in Psychology with a minor in Cognitive Science. After graduation, she spent three years as a legal assistant in the Corporate Finance & Securities practice group at Milbank LLP. Eva is currently pursuing her J.D. at Duke University School of Law.