People

Dr. Leonard is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at University of Colorado Denver. As an undergraduate, she attended Rutgers University, with a double-major in Psychology and Economics, and a minor in Cognitive Science. She then received a Ph.D. in Psychological and Brain Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University, and conducted postdoctoral work at the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain. She arrived at CU Denver in...

Dr. Ringer is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Psychology at the University of Colorado Denver. He completed his undergraduate (B.S.) and graduate (M.S., Ph.D.) degrees in Psychological Sciences at Kansas State University with Dr. Lester Loschky. Most recently, Dr. Ringer worked as a postdoctoral fellow in Human Factors at Wichita State University with Dr. Rui Ni, as part of the CNAP (Center for Neurobiological Approaches to Plasticity), an...

Melanie Edwards is a graduate from Texas State University with a BA in Psychology and is currently studying, researching, and working at CU Denver before applying to graduate programs. Mel has always had a love of the brain and has academic interest in neuropsychology and cognitive processing programs. While working in the lab, Mel has enjoyed getting to learn more about applying statistical research within lab experiments and has participated...

Briauna Fritz is a senior psychology major who will be graduating in May 2025 with her BA in Psychology and a minor in Cognitive Behavioral Neuroscience. After graduation, she plans to attend graduate school and pursue her interests in neuroscience research. When Briauna isn’t occupied with schoolwork, you can find her spending time with her family and fostering neonatal kittens

My name is Rayan Haloul and I’m a Psychology major with a Business minor who’s currently in her fourth year of college. I first got into research last semester helping run trials for Dr. Jason Watson’s attention and cognition lab as I specifically was interested in the topic of attention. Most of my work involved leading participants through the trials that they encountered in the study that I helped run...

My name is Kyusik Hyun, but I introduce myself as "Kay" to make my name easier to pronounce for others. I am an international student from the Republic of Korea, majoring in psychology and recording arts with a minor in physics. I studied music production and audio engineering for 7 years (starting from 2018) in diverse environments, including as my major in college, as a soldier in a South Korean...

Kelly Karagias is a graduate student in the CU Denver School of Education’s Clinical Mental Health Counseling program. Once she is a licensed professional counselor, she hopes to become certified to administer psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. During her undergrad, under the mentorship of Dr. Leonard, she completed a thesis on left-right differences and the presence of pseudoneglect during a useful field of view (UFOV) task. In her free time, Kelly enjoys spending...

Christiana Smith is an undergraduate student pursuing her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Criminal Justice. Christiana is passionate about education and devotes much of her time to the pursuit of knowledge, student organizations, research, and advocating for stigmatized communities. After completing her undergraduate degree, she plans to attend graduate school. In her free time, Christiana enjoys writing poetry, watching horror films, and playing with her pets. As a research...

Bradley Stewart grew up in Columbia, South Carolina and moved to Denver in 2021 to pursue a dual degree in Psychology and Biology here at CU Denver. He works wtih Dr. Leonard's Lab for Integrative Vision. Bradley intends on pursuing a career in teaching and would like to conduct his own research one day. He enjoys hiking, biking, cooking, going outdoors, and meeting new people.