Lana Ruvolo Grasser (she/her/hers) recently obtained her Ph.D. in Translational Neuroscience from Wayne State University. Under the mentorship of Drs. Arash Javanbakht and Tanja Jovanovic, her NIMH-funded dissertation project, “Biomarkers of Risk and Resilience to Trauma in Syrian Refugee Youth”, identified skin conductance response to trauma interview and fear potentiated startle as candidate biomarkers of trauma-related psychopathology in youth exposed to civilian war trauma and forced migration.

Dr. Grasser has extended this work to query efficacy and underlying mechanisms of creative arts and movement therapies to address trauma-related psychopathology in families resettled as refugees of Syria, Iraq, the Congo, and Afghanistan. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she led efforts to expand these programs to the virtual space, to reach schoolchildren in the Pontiac and Waterford school districts.

She is also passionate about science policy and advocacy, and is a member of the National Science Policy Network as well as the local branch SciPol Detroit. In the fall, Dr. Grasser will begin a postdoctoral fellowship within the Emotion and Development Branch at the National Institute of Mental Health. Outside of the lab, Lana enjoys scuba diving with her dad, being a triathlete, and practicing yoga.

Keep up to date with Lana by following her Twitter, @ScientificRuvvy