Graduate Student
Clinical Psychology

Gabrielle MacNaughton is a third year graduate student in the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program at UCLA. She graduated in 2018 from New York University with her B.S. in Applied Psychology. As an undergraduate, Gabrielle worked in Dr. Anil Chacko’s FACES lab where she studied neurocognitive interventions for youth with ADHD. After graduating, Gabrielle worked with Dr. Susan Faja at Boston Children’s Hospital in the Labs of Cognitive Neuroscience where she expanded her knowledge on executive functioning among neurodiverse youth. Following, she joined Dr. Shafali Jeste’s lab at UCLA Semel Institute where she studied brain-based autism biomarkers among infants. Gabrielle’s master’s thesis at UCLA examined the prediction of adolescent psychopathology from interactive associations between childhood disposition and executive function. Her current research interests include studying how family dynamics (e.g., parenting behaviors) and cognitive processes (e.g., parental and child executive functioning) impact the development of child socioemotional functioning. She also works closely with Dr. Jan Blacher at UC Riverside and Dr. Abbey Eisenhower at UMass Boston studying the effectiveness of a professional development program aimed to foster positive relationships between general education teachers and their students on the autism spectrum.