Our Team.
Courtney Beard, PhD
Director
Dr. Courtney Beard (she/her) is a clinical psychologist with expertise in anxiety disorders and cognitive behavioral therapy. She is an Associate Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and at McLean Hospital serves as Director of the Cognition and Affect Research and Education (CARE) Laboratory, Co-Director of the Behavioral Health Partial Hospital Clinical Research Program, and Co-Director of the McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School Psychology Internship Program.
Sierra Carter, PhD
Consultant
Dr. Sierra Carter (she/her) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, Adjunct Faculty member in Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at Emory University, and a Faculty Fellow at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS at Yale University. Dr. Carter’s research focuses on racial health disparities and investigates how psychosocial and contextual stressors can affect both mental and physical health outcomes for underrepresented populations. She has had a long-standing interest in the ways that health disparities in African American populations arise and are maintained by psychological, physiological, and contextual processes.
Margarita Alegria, PhD
Consultant
Margarita Alegría, PhD (she/her) is the Chief of the Disparities Research Unit at the Massachusetts General Hospital and The Mongan Institute, the Harry G. Lehnert, Jr. and Lucille F. Cyr Lehnert Endowed MGH Research Institute Chair and a Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Alegría has published over 290 peer-reviewed papers, and several book chapters, on topics such as improvement of health care services delivery for diverse racial and ethnic populations, conceptual and methodological issues with multicultural populations and ways to bring the community’s perspective into the design and implementation of health services.
Grace George, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. George (she/her) is a postdoctoral fellow at McLean Hospital and in the CARE Lab, where she is jointly mentored by Dr. Beard and Dr. Kerry Ressler. She focuses on the brain-behavioral consequences of parent-child interactions in psychopathology. She also has an interest in family health policy and creating accessible therapy to help marginalized families recover from mental illness. Dr. George completed her PhD in Neuroscience and Master's of Public Affairs from University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she focused on using computational neuroscience to understand how parent mental health affected youth neurodevelopment.
IreLee Ferguson
Program Coordinator
IreLee (she/her) graduated from Union College in 2021 with a B.S. in Neuroscience and joined the CARE Lab in June of 2022. Previously, she worked as a coordinator on a NIA-funded clinical trial looking at the effectiveness of a digital neuro-exergaming tool for ameliorating symptoms of early-onset Alzheimer's Disease and related dementias. IreLee hopes to pursue a doctorate in clinical psychology. Her research interests surround maintenance factors of anxiety and the development of more accessible interventions.
Frances Grace Hart
Website and Social Media Manager
Grace (she/her) is an undergraduate student at Boston College majoring in psychology and research assistant in the CARE Lab. She hopes to pursue a doctorate in clinical psychology and is interested in studying death anxiety, suicidality, and meaning-making. Outside of work, Grace enjoys yoga, painting, and reading.
Kevin Narine
Research Assistant
Kevin (he/him) graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2018. He is a 2nd year clinical psychology doctoral student at William James College. He is interested in culturally sensitive evidenced-based treatments for anxiety and trauma-related disorders. Outside of work, Kevin enjoys writing, hiking, and playing with his cat.
Zelda McGhee
Research Assistant
Zelda (she/her) started out with as a member of the pilot group for the MENTOR program between McLean and Bridgewater State University in 2022 and joined the CARE lab early 2023. She anticipates graduating with her bachelors in psychology from BSU in May of 2023 and is looking forward to applying and working as a research assistant after graduation. Zelda plans on applying for her Master’s in Public Administration or Policy in the future. While some of her interest include having and buying everything in the color pink, going to museums, and watching Disney movies, her life passions are reading and being a life time learner.
Former team members who contributed to the development of HabitWorks:
Research Assistants and Students
Ramya Ramadurai
Erin Beckham
Lara Rifkin
Allie Silverman
Kirsten Christensen
Emily Bowers
Heather Martin
Yas Salon
Liz Daskalakis
Harris Bajwa
Jenna Sandler
Sara Brown
Arielle Solomon
Kyleigh Watson
Megan Gonsalves
Dan Johnson
Postdoctoral Fellows
Melanie Hom
Andrew Peckham
Ivar Snorrason
Collaborators & Consultants
Thröstur Björgvinsson
Kate McHugh
Nader Amir
Bethany Teachman
John Torous
Risa B. Weisberg
McLean Hospital Behavioral Health Partial Hospital
Research Program Patient Advisory Board