Kayla earned her Master of Social Work (MSW) degree from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She worked as a mental health therapist at Saint Louis Behavioral Medicine Institute (SLBMI), an affiliate of Saint Louis University Health Sciences Center, after she completed postgraduate and advanced postgraduate fellowships with their Center for OCD and Anxiety-Related Disorders. Kayla researched the dissemination & implementation (D&I) of Exposure & Response Prevention (ERP), patient and clinician telehealth preferences, and the augmentation of ERP with peer-led OCD support groups.

Prior to earning her MSW, Kayla worked as a clinical research coordinator on diabetes clinical trials in addition to fundraising and grassroots advocacy for both the American Diabetes Association and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Communication Studies from Nebraska Wesleyan University. Kayla is interested in D&I research, especially with mental health services, to help close the research to practice gap.

Peter holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from The University of Michigan, an MPH from George Washington University, an MSW from WashU, and a Master of Arts in philosophy and cultural studies from The University of Chicago. His research explores why individuals exposed to early childhood adversity often follow divergent substance use disorder trajectories across the life course. By integrating systems science, psychiatric genomics, and transdiagnostic perspectives, he seeks to better understand how gene–environment interactions contribute to heterogeneity in relapse–remission outcomes. 

Prior to pursuing doctoral work, Peter spent 15+ years working in educational technology, software development, and film and broadcast media production. He aims to combine quantitative methods with an interdisciplinary understanding of the imbricated social, structural, and developmental factors that shape health outcomes long-term. He is a NIH/NIDA T32 TranSTAR Predoctoral Fellowship recipient.

Portia holds a Bachelor of Social Work from the University of Ghana, a Masters in Social Work and a Masters in Social Policy from Washington University in St. Louis. She is currently a Study Coordinator with the International Center for Child Health and Development (ICHAD) at the Brown School, where she coordinates two NIH-funded studies in Uganda and Ghana. Her research interests are aimed at designing, adapting and testing evidence-based culturally-responsive interventions that address the multilevel factors including poverty and gender norms that undermine the socioeconomic well-being of adolescent girls and women in low-resourced communities globally.