Adrienne Wood

Principal Investigator

I am an Associate Professor of Social Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Virginia. I earned my PhD in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin - Madison, where I studied the perception, social functions, and cultural shapers of nonverbal signals with my advisor, Paula Niedenthal. I did my postdoctoral work on social networks and collective behavior in Thalia Wheatley’s Social Systems Lab at Dartmouth College. My research is currently supported by an NSF CAREER Award and a Templeton Foundation grant. I have a toddler, two unruly hounds, and one ruly cat. I unwind from the chaos they create by doing improv, arts and crafts, and playing piano.

Contact me at adrienne.wood@virginia.edu, follow me on Bluesky, and/or look at my bad art!

Christopher Welker

Postdoctoral researcher

Chris joined the EB Lab as a postdoc in 2025 after earning his PhD with Thalia Wheatley in the Dartmouth Social Systems Lab. Prior to graduate school, he spent a year as a lab manager of the Social Systems Lab and received his BA from Cornell where he worked with Tom Gilovich. Chris leverages conversation-based studies, longitudinal designs, and social network analyses to better understand how the people around us shape our thoughts and behaviors. When he's not in the lab, Chris can usually be found trail running, gravel biking, or getting lost in a fantasy novel.

Kate Barnette

Research Assistant

Kate is an undergraduate student in the College of Arts and Sciences, majoring in Behavioral Neuroscience. At UVA, she tutors with Starr Hill Pathways and volunteers with Superstarters tennis and the Virginia Alzheimer’s Alliance. In her free time, Kate enjoys hiking, yoga, making art, reading, and exploring Charlottesville with friends. She hopes to pursue a career that combines medicine and neuroscience research.

Caroline Clippinger

Research Assistant

Caroline is an undergraduate student (Class of 2027) in the College of Arts and Sciences, pursuing a B.A. in Psychology, a B.A. in Sociology with a concentration in Crime, Law, and Power, and a minor in Data Science. After graduating, she plans to continue her education by pursuing a Master’s degree in Criminal Justice or Forensic Psychology. In the future, she is interested in working as a criminal investigator, special agent, policy analyst, or reform advocate at government agencies, research institutes, or non-profit advocacy groups. Outside of research and work as a Research Assistant at the EB Lab, Caroline is a BOD member of the Blue Ridge Mountain Rescue Group who enjoys spending her free time reading, watching documentaries, working out, and being with animals.

Grace Little

Research Assistant

Grace is an Echols Scholar in the College of Arts and Sciences. She plans to graduate May 2028 with majors in neuroscience and media studies. At UVA, she loves writing for The Cavalier Daily’s News desk, dancing for the Virginia Dance Company, and working as a cardiac monitor tech through UVA Health. In her free time, Grace enjoys running, exploring new coffee shops, and calling her mom and sisters.

Georgina Woodlock

Research Assistant

Georgina is an undergraduate student in the College of Arts and Sciences majoring in Behavioral Neuroscience with minors in Computer Science and Spanish, with plans to graduate in 2027. She is a member of the University Programs Council in the Cinema committee and works part time at Mincer's on the Corner. In her free time, she likes to go thrift shopping, hike, run, volunteer at her hometown animal shelter, and read. She is hoping to pursue a Ph. D. in neuroscience after she graduates.

Rachael Yuan

Research Assistant

Rachael is an Echols scholar in the College of Arts and Sciences, double majoring in psychology and computer science. She plans to graduate in May 2027. Rachael is an active volunteer at an anonymous hotline, is involved in Madison House, and is also the President of LumiLink at UVA. Besides academics, she is passionate about sports, basketball in particular, as well as working out. She also enjoys digital design and architecture, so she loves to play Minecraft in her free time. Rachael is especially fascinated by social neuroscience and looks forward to committing herself to research in a related area in the future.

Kyle barrentine

graduate student

Kyle Barrentine received his PhD in Social Psychology in 2026 from UVA. He earned a B.A. in Psychology from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, where he worked as a R.I.S.E Scholar under Adrienne Aiken Morgan studying depression within older African Americans. He was also a peer mentor for Notre Dame’s Computational Social Science REU, where he worked for David Hachen studying social networks, personality and depression. Kyle’s main research goals are understanding the limitations of social networks given a person’s race, gender, mental health, socioeconomic status, or personality. When he isn’t researching, Kyle enjoys watching anime, listening to vinyl records, writing in his journal, and drinking coffee or tea.

Sareena Chadha

Graduate student

Sareena received her PhD in social psychology with a certificate in quantitative psychology in 2026. She joined the EB Lab as an undergraduate research assistant at UVA, while she was majoring in psychology and cognitive science. Sareena is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Neukom Institute for Computational Science at Dartmouth, where she is conducting interdisciplinary research on conversation and social networks. When she isn’t thinking about friendship, she’s probably spending time with friends, meticulously making a new playlist, or reading food journalism.

Shelly Tsang

Graduate student

Shelly received her PhD in Social Psychology in 2025 and is currently a postdoctoral researcher at UCLA Anderson Business School in the Behavioral Decision Making Area. She received her BA from Cornell University in Psychology and Economics. She studies social judgment and decision making, specifically how people think about their time and whom they choose to spend it with.

Lola

Marmot supervisor

Lola graduated from Basic Obedience school in 2016 and is currently project manager on a longitudinal field study of large rodent movement patterns. When she’s not doing marmot research, she enjoys lying down in the middle of walks and eating broccoli.

Keebler

Derp Manager

Keebler oversees a lab-wide initiative to advance the science of derp. He loves reading about cars and why they are so scary. In his free time he can be found playing peek-a-boo with his humans and escaping out of the yard.

Mochi

nap coordinator

Mochi joined the team with the goal of teaching String Theory to the other non-human lab members. While his passion for string has not caught on, he has led several successful workshops on how to find sunny spots for naps.