News
Meet our first-year doctoral students
The ICD community is excited to welcome five new PhD students in 2025. Meet Regan Andringa-Seed, Elena Busick, Spencer Carter, Juliette Chartier, and Isabella Viducich!
Regan Andringa-Seed
Areas of interest: developmental neuroscience, early childhood, infancy, prenatal, stress and maltreatment, neuroimaging
Regan Andringa-Seed is a first-year PhD candidate in the developmental psychopathology and clinical science track. She is interested in studying events in the perinatal period such as congenital infection, early life stress, and preterm birth, and in using both neuropsychological and neuroimaging methods to explore their impacts on child development. At the University of Minnesota, she works with Dr. Kathleen Thomas. Andringa-Seed received her BA in neuroscience and Spanish from Northwestern University in 2023 and worked with Dr. Sarah Mulkey as a clinical research coordinator at Children's National Hospital, studying neurodevelopmental outcomes in childhood following in utero Zika virus exposure.
Elena Busick
Areas of interest: cognitive development, developmental neuroscience, early childhood, language development, learning
Elena Busick is a first-year doctoral candidate in the developmental science track. She received her BA in psychology with a concentration in neuroscience from Grinnell College in 2025. She works with Dr. Michèle Mazzocco to investigate children's early numerical development and cognition. Busick's research is broadly focused on how to best understand learning prior to formal schooling, particularly as it applies to children's early language and math skills. Previously, she worked with Dr. Ece Demir-Lira at the University of Iowa to study early language and math development using fNIRS, and with Dr. Ann Ellis at Grinnell College to study preschoolers’ scene knowledge.
Spencer Carter
Areas of interest: adolescents and youth, families and parenting, lifespan, prevention/intervention, relationships, resilience, social and emotional development
Spencer Carter is a first-year doctoral student in the developmental psychopathology and clinical science track. He received his BA in psychology from Harvard University in 2023. His research interests focus on how relationships and interpersonal processes shape children’s trajectories. He plans to examine how these factors relate to children’s emotion regulation skills, psychopathology risk, and overall adjustment as they grow up. Carter’s primary mentor is Dr. Glenn Roisman.
Juliette Chartier
Areas of interest: adolescents and youth, cognitive development, culture, cross-culture, children's belief formation, fantasy-reality distinction
Juliette Chartier is a first-year doctoral student in the developmental science track. She received her BA in psychology and rhetoric and writing from the University of Texas at Austin in 2023. Before starting graduate school, she worked with Dr. Jacqueline Woolley at UT Austin and was the research coordinator for Dr. Mike Tomasello. She is interested in researching children's belief formation and how belief interacts with action, particularly for superstitious, supernatural, or fantastical beliefs. She is also interested in how adult testimony influences belief formation and revision. Chartier is currently working with Melissa Koenig in the Early Language and Experience Lab.
Isabella Viducich
Areas of interest: autism spectrum disorder, early childhood, early childhood education, executive function, families and parenting, infancy, infant and early childhood mental health, special education
Isabella Viducich is a first-year PhD candidate in the developmental science track. She is interested in conducting research related to how interventions involving play, such as pretend and imaginative play, can help children persist on difficult tasks and reach other important developmental milestones. She is a member of the Developmental Social Cognitive Neuroscience Lab and is advised by Dr. Stephanie Carlson. Viducich holds an MA in social welfare from the University of California, Los Angeles which she received in 2021 and a BA in psychology and film from the University of Notre Dame which she received in 2018. Before beginning her work at ICD, Viducich worked with multiple researchers studying a variety of topics including the experiences of Black and Latinx individuals living with HIV, lapses in attention in high school students, and thin-ideal internalization in college-aged women. Most recently, she worked as an infant therapist and behaviorist for children experiencing developmental delays.
