Naomi Daniel, MA
Naomi (she/her) graduated from Cornell University in 2022 with a B.A. in Psychology, concentrating in Behavioral and Evolutionary Neuroscience, and a minor in Biological Sciences. During her undergraduate career, Naomi was a research assistant at Cornell’s Affect & Cognition Lab, working under the supervision of Dr. Eve De Rosa. Her research focused on social learning, how children share and utilize emotional information to shape their affiliative preferences, and empathy in children in relation to their perceptions of socioeconomic status. In addition, Naomi was a member of the Junior Researcher Programme (JRP), utilizing an intersectional framework to explore inequalities in fruit and vegetable consumption in the United Kingdom. She presented these research findings at the annual JRP conference at the University of Cambridge in 2022. Naomi aims to further investigate structural and systemic barriers influencing health practices to inform targeted intervention programs aimed at mitigating these disparities.
In 2023, Naomi received her M.A. with a concentration in Psychology from the University of Chicago. She served as a graduate research assistant in the Social Psychophysiology and Neuroendocrinology Lab to further examine the intersection of affect, cognition, and health. Under the mentorship of Dr. Greg Norman, Naomi’s thesis investigated associations between loneliness, empathy, early life stress, and physiological stress reactivity, aiming to better consider how social stressors influence psychological and physiological wellbeing. Naomi’s broader interests lie in elucidating how social stressors influence developmental trajectories for children and adolescents into adulthood.
In the future, Naomi hopes to pursue a Ph.D. to further explore how affordances within one’s social environment can influence both psychological and physiological outcomes for children and adolescents, particularly in historically marginalized populations. Outside of the lab, Naomi can be found running, visiting local bookstores, and having brunch with friends.