Dr. Mari Davies

Sports Concussion Institute and UCLA Health Services Research Group. Study of neurobehavioral correlates of mild traumatic brain injury and associated clinical disorders in children, adolescents and young adults. Advisor: Tony Strickland, M.S., Ph.D., Clinical neuropsychologist and Associate Clinical Professor of Neurology, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. 2011 – 2013

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UCLA School of Public Health. HIV Nutrition Research Project (Gl-CRSP) of child and maternal health in rural Kenya, in conjunction with Dr. Charlotte Neumann, M.D. (UCLA), Dr. Judith Ernst (University of Indiana Medical School) and Moi University, Kenya, Department of Public Health. 2007 – 2009

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UCLA Department of Psychology and UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences. Informal continuation of interdisciplinary dissertation research on infant siblings of children with autism examining social-emotional processing using eye tracking, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in children and adolescents with autism. Faculty advisors: Marian Sigman, Ph.D., Susan Bookheimer, Ph.D., and Mirella Dapretto, Ph.D. 2009 – 2011

 

UCLA Department of Psychology and Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Interdisciplinary dissertation research with advisors Marian Sigman, Ph.D., Susan Bookheimer, Ph.D., and Mirella Dapretto, Ph.D. Proposed and conducted original research studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with children with ASD, and utilized infrared eye tracking in infants at risk of neurodevelopmental disorders. Defended May 2009

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Graduate Student Researcher, Center for Autism Research and Treatment (CART) and UCLA Department of Psychology. Faculty Advisor: Marian Sigman, Ph.D. Duties: Designed, structured and implemented original research, and conducted data analyses, conference presentations, and publication of results. Conducted assessments and in-lab visit sessions for children with ASD and typically-developing children, eye tracking in infants at increased risk of developing autism, training for administration and scoring of the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R), Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS), Wechsler scales, and other standardized clinical and neuropsychological instruments. Apr 2004 – Jun 2009

 

Cognitive Assessments Trainer, HIV Nutrition Research Project (Gl-CRSP), Eldoret, Kenya. Duties: Trained local clinicians to conduct culturally appropriate developmental and cognitive assessments in children 0 – 8 years of age as part of a study of health and development in HIV positive mothers and their children. Longitudinal nutrition research project in conjunction with UCLA Department of Public Health, Moi University and Indiana University Medical School. Dec 2007 – Dec 2008

Graduate Student Fellow, John Merck Fund, Summer Training Institute at Princeton: Neurobiology of Developmental Disorders (org. B.J. Casey, Ph.D.). Summer 2005

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Master’s Thesis Research, UCLA Department of Psychology and UCLA Brain Mapping Center. Advisors: Marian Sigman, Ph.D., Mirella Dapretto, Ph.D., Marco Iacoboni, M.D., Ph.D., and Susan Bookheimer, Ph.D. FMRI study in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), aged 7-16 years. Assisted with study design, conducted data collection, image processing and statistical data analysis, and prepared findings for peer-reviewed publication. 2004 – 2006

 

Graduate Student Researcher, UCLA Department of Psychology. Faculty advisor: Patricia Greenfield, Ph.D. Duties: Analysis of player data and journals in developmental study of 1st-person socially interactive online video gaming. Coauthored two resulting book chapters. Jan 2004 – May 2004

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Research Associate, UCLA Department of Communication Studies. Advisor: Assistant Professor Francis Steen, Ph.D. Duties: Collection and analysis of preschool and kindergarten playground activity data, and paper preparation on children’s play and cognitive development.  2002 – 2003

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Volunteer Research Assistant, UCLA, with Assistant Professor Martie Haselton, Ph.D. and Postdoc Gian Gonzaga, Ph.D., Social Psychology Laboratory. Duties: Assisted behavioral research. Served as pre-conference coordinator for meeting for the Society of Personality & Social Psychology conference, February 2003.  May 2002 – Feb 2003

Research Assistant, UCLA Department of Public Health. Advisor: Gian Gonzaga, Ph.D.. Assisted with research study on psychology, nutrition and health in low-income families. Summer 2002

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Clinical Research Coordinator, Genzyme Corporation, Clinical Research department. Duties: Coordinated site visits to participating hospitals, aided in administration duties, interim report writing and presentation of findings, data analysis editing, and correspondence with physicians and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for phase III clinical trial. Nov 2000 – Feb 2002

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Parent and Child Research Intern, Alfred P. Sloan Center, University of Chicago and National Opinion Research Center (NORC). Conducted in-person parent and teen semi-structured interviews, coded interview data of 500-family, nationwide study of balancing work and family demands. Summer 2000

 

Senior Undergraduate Honors Research Project. The University of Chicago, Department of Psychology. Short-term Memory for Scenes with Affective Content (Published, Journal of Vision, 2005). With advisor Vera Maljkovic, Ph.D. Oct 1999 – Oct 2000

Research Assistant, University of Chicago Hospitals, Psychomotor Research lab. Faculty Advisor: David Zacny, M.D. Duties: Collection and scoring of psychomotor assessment data in randomized treatments with morphine sulfate, hydromorphone hydrochloride, or placebo. 1999