Meet Our Team Here at RAYS!

Meet the RAYS Lab Managers

Image Description: This is a Bitmoji of Dr. Spirito. He has short black hair, brown eyes, tan skin, and is wearing a blue collared shirt.

Dr. Spirito (He/Him) is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior co-leading this project. He received his PhD in clinical psychology and completed his clinical training at Boston Children’s Hospital. He has been conducting research to better understand how to help depressed, suicidal, and substance-using adolescents for over 30 years. He enjoys skiing, sailing and golf.

Image Description: This is a Bitmoji of Dr. Jackson. She has red hair in a high ponytail, green eyes, white skin, and is wearing a pink fluffy jacket over a white shirt.

Kristina Jackson (She/Her) is a Professor co-leading the project. She received her PhD in social psychology from Arizona State University where she developed her interests in studying young adult health behavior. She studies the initiation and progression of alcohol use in adolescents, the influence of context on substance use (including both social and media influences), and the use of fine-grained and longitudinal data to understand causes and consequences of alcohol and marijuana use.

Kristina enjoys spending time with her husband and two daughters. They do a lot of traveling, including skiing in the winter months and visiting amusement parks in search of the best roller coasters in the summer. She also enjoys swimming, running, reading, and binge-watching TV during pandemics.

Image Description: This is a Bitmoji of Dr. Sheinkopf. He has light brown hair, brown eyes, white skin, and is wearing a greyish-blue collard shirt and glasses.

Stephen Sheinkopf (He/Him) is a Professor co-leading the project. He received his PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Miami. He studies a range of issues related to autism, including seeking to understand differences in developmental changes and outcomes for autistic individuals, and characteristics of infants that may predict autism outcomes. During his time in Providence and at Brown, Dr. Sheinkopf founded and directed the Rhode Island Consortium for Autism Research & Treatment (RI-CART). He recently moved to Columbia, MO where he is a Professor of Child Health at the University of Missouri and is the director of the Thompson Center for Autism & Neurodevelopmental Disorders. Despite the distance and through the miracle of Zoom (and some plane trips), Dr. Sheinkopf continues to help lead the RAYS project with Dr. Jackson, Dr. Spirito, and Dr. Cragin.

Steve is an avid kayaker and is now seeking out places to paddle in the Midwest. He and his wife, Jen, love a good meal and spend a lot of time cooking and experimenting with new recipes. Books abound their home, including more than a few cookbooks! Steve, Jen and Ginger (the dog) try to keep tabs on their three grown children.

Image Description: This is a Bitmoji of Dr. Cragin. She has short brown hair, green eyes, white skin, and is wearing a green shirt and tortoise shell glasses.

Casey Cragin (She/Her) is a clinical psychologist co-leading RAYS. Casey earned her doctorate in clinical psychology at Antioch University New England in Keene, NH where she developed an interest in psychiatric comorbidity, especially in the development of safe and effective interventions for young people who have historically been excluded from psychological research due to having co-occurring developmental and/or psychological diagnoses. Casey enjoys working with young people and their families, spending time with her own family, reading, listening to music, doing yoga, and walking on the beach.

Kelli Bradley (She/Her) is a Project Coordinator at Brown University. Kelli earned her master’s from the University of Montana in Anthropology focusing on health views, dietary supplement use and substance use. Prior to joining the team, she spent several years working in Brown University’s School of Public Health – Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies. When not working, Kelli can usually be found outdoors with her family (especially with her Aussiedoodle puppy – Gordo) or working in her ever growing garden. In the winter you can usually find her on a ski-slope enjoying the New England weather or by the fire enjoying a good book.

Image Description: This is a Bitmoji of Shaina. She has long brown hair, light brown eyes, white skin, and is wearing a blue blazer with a grey shirt underneath.

Shaina Brady (She/Her) is a Project Coordinator collaborating on RAYS. Her background is in developmental neuroscience of adversity and developmental disability research and advocacy. Prior to joining the team, she spent several years working on various developmental studies primarily at Columbia University, and earned an MS in Neuroscience from Columbia University, Teachers College. Shaina plans to pursue doctoral studies in developmental cognitive neuroscience. Outside of the office, she can be found working on community organizing efforts, playing the violin, and learning about astrology.

Meet the RAYS Research Assistants

Image Description: This is a Bitmoji character of Anjali Gottipaty. They have black hair, brown eyes, brown skin, gold dangling earrings, and is wearing a black tank top and black round frame glasses.

Anjali (She/They) is a research assistant at Brown University on the RAYS and CHIMES projects. They graduated from RIT in Spring 2020 in psychology, and Anjali is currently working toward their Ph.D. in clinical psychology! She has worked as a research assistant for many years now and even created and conducted her own two-year long study during her junior and senior years of undergrad.

Anjali enjoys anything to do with plants and food. She would consider her favorite type of tourism to be food tourism and is trying to work her way through all the restaurants Providence has to offer.