Lab Members

Director

Daniel Fulford, PhD
Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Fulford is Associate Professor of Rehabilitation Sciences, Occupational Therapy, and Psychological & Brain Sciences, and is affiliated with Mental Health Counseling & Behavioral Medicine, Behavioral Neuroscience, and the Graduate Program in Neuroscience at BU. He holds a PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Miami and a BA in psychology from UCLA. Dr. Fulford joined BU following a career development award through the UCSF Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute, where he focused on mental health informatics research. Currently, he and his team conduct lab-based and ambulatory studies to better understand dysregulated motivation and emotion in psychopathology, using smartphones as tools for experience sampling and behavioral sensing (i.e., continuous, unobtrusive measurement from smartphone sensors). A particular focus of this work is on the prediction of momentary states, including of social isolation and loneliness. Dr. Fulford is PI on grant-funded projects focused on human motivation and social dynamics using mobile assessment and intervention. He serves as grant reviewer at the NIH and NSF. Dr. Fulford is also a consulting editor for the Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology, American Psychologist, and Psychological Bulletin, and is Associate Editor for Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science. Outside of his academic identity, he enjoys ‘dadding’ and other occupations with high effort, high reward payouts.

Faculty

Jasmine Mote, PhD
Curriculum Vitae

Website

Dr. Mote is a Research Assistant Professor in Occupational Therapy at Boston University. She received her BA in Psychology from Oberlin College and her MA in Psychology and PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley. Formerly, she was an AMP Lab postdoctoral associate and an Assistant Professor in Occupational Therapy and Psychology at Tufts University. She is interested in understanding the mechanisms of loneliness and the relationship between our emotions and social experiences, with a focus on understanding these processes in people with serious mental illness. She uses a combination of behavioral, qualitative, psychophysiological, and mobile methods in her work. Recent projects include examining how heart health may be related to loneliness in people with serious mental illness; the relationship between specific positive and negative emotions and social motivation in people with schizophrenia; and whether pet dog ownership can help address loneliness in young adults with social anxiety. She is also interested in addressing racial disparities in the assessment and treatment of people with mental health concerns, including in women with a history of postpartum psychosis. She is an active member of the Society for Affective Science (SAS) and Society for Research in Psychopathology (SRP). She is a consulting editor for the Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science and Emotion. She is also a practicing psychologist in MA. In her free time you might find her binge-watching movies and TV shows, baking, writing in popular press outlets like Scientific American or in her Substack Mental Healthy, or chasing after her cat, dog, or children (possibly in that order).

PhD Students

Renata Botello, MA
Curriculum Vitae

Renata is a Clinical Psychology PhD student currently completing her internship at UCLA. She is passionate about understanding what predicts meaningful social interactions and loneliness in individuals across the psychosis spectrum using experience sampling methods. Her research also focuses on how experiences of social adversity may be associated with difficulties in social effort and loneliness. Her previous research at the UC Davis Early Psychosis Program examined the intersection of psychosis and trauma experiences. As an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, she acquired research experience on emotion dysregulation and emotional expressivity in individuals with schizophrenia. Renata has also trained in diverse clinical placements, including the Psychosis Division at McLean Hospital, McLean’s Behavioral Health Partial Hospital Program, and The Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders. Renata enjoys running, comedy, and sourdough baking.

Joseph Maimone, MA
Curriculum Vitae

Joe is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the Clinical Psychology program at BU. His research uses ecologically valid, real-time data collection methods to understand individual patterns of social functioning and psychopathology among patients with serious mental illness. Over the course of his Ph.D. studies, he aims to employ idiographic (person-specific) modeling techniques to closely examine heterogeneity in experiences of loneliness. Previously, Joe was a research assistant at the Nock Lab at Harvard University and a senior clinical research coordinator at Massachusetts General Hospital where he led recruitment for two real-time studies of suicidal thoughts and behaviors among psychiatric inpatients. In his free time, Joe enjoys boardgames, snowboarding, and cuddles with his corgi, Cooper.

Gili Grunfeld, MSc, MA Gili is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Clinical Psychology program at BU. She is interested in the phenomenology of psychosis, especially meaning making. Gili is currently investigating the ways in which loneliness interacts with the onset, course, and subjective experience of psychosis. Her prior work at the Prevention and Early Intervention Program for Psychosis-Montréal (PEPP-Montréal) and the Douglas Mental Health University Institute focused on the content of delusion themes. She has an MSc from the Transcultural Psychiatry Division of McGill University and is passionate about interdisciplinary research. Gili enjoys being outside and reading.

Molly Patapoff, BA

Molly is a first-year Ph.D. student in the Clinical Psychology program at BU. Her research focuses on understanding loneliness, symptomatology, and real-time recovery processes among individuals with serious mental illness. She is particularly interested in using experience sampling methods to inform digital, scalable interventions. Before joining the AMP Lab, Molly was a research coordinator in the Department of Psychiatry at UC San Diego, managing various studies on loneliness and aging in schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Molly enjoys playing volleyball, skiing, and exploring with her dog, Joey.

Research Staff

Robert Sawdey, BS

Curriculum Vitae

Robert is a Clinical Research Coordinator in the lab. He graduated with a degree in psychology and worked in three social psychology research labs during his time at Tufts University. After graduation, he worked as a Mental Health Specialist in McLean Hospital’s Dissociative Disorders & Trauma Inpatient Unit. He is interested in social determinants (e.g., trauma, discrimination, structural inequities), social and cognitive dysfunction, and negative symptomatology in serious mental illness. He hopes to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology to become a clinical scientist focused on psychotic disorders. Robert enjoys the outdoors, photography, music, and speed chess.

Undergraduate Research Assistants

Maham Siddiqui

Isabel Sachs

Theresa Majewski