People

Director

Yoona Kang, PhD

Yoona Kang is the Director of the Compassion and Well-being Lab and an Assistant Professor of Psychology and Prevention Science at Rutgers University-Camden. Her research focuses on understanding the nature and consequences of compassion. She develops theory-driven, evidence-based compassion interventions designed to optimally grow and spread compassion through social networks. Her recent work explores mobile apps and digital tools for compassion-based intervention, using a microdosing approach to support scalable improvements in well-being. Dr. Kang takes a multimethod approach that integrates experimental and behavioral paradigms, computational neuroimaging, ecological momentary assessment, social network analysis, and natural language processing. She applies these methods to interconnected dimensions of wellness, including physical activity, sleep, alcohol use, social connection, and loneliness. She received a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from Yale University and served as a postdoctoral fellow and research director at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication.

Postdoctoral Researcher

Elizabeth Baik

Elizabeth Baik is a media and communication researcher who focuses on the dynamic co-construction of communal resilience through storytelling and everyday conversations among individuals. Elizabeth received her bachelor’s degree from New York University, Master of Social Work degree from University of Southern California, and Ph.D. in Media and Communication from Temple University. For her dissertation research, she examined various psychological and physiological processes that lead to emerging behaviors of supportive communication in response to another’s self-disclosure of sexual assault. As the postdoctoral research associate of the Compassion and Well-Being Lab, Elizabeth assists the lab director in developing and implementing an app-based intervention to investigate the effects of kindness and compassion on health and well-being.

Graduate Researchers

Isabelle Surielow

Isabelle’s research interests center around how values such as compassion may vary across different social and economic statuses and potential implications of such differences. She is intrigued by the spread of compassion and how compassion relates to upward mobility in children and young adults.

Morenike Alugo

Morenike Alugo is a Ph.D. student in Prevention Science at Rutgers University. Her research focuses on leveraging technology to enhance psychological well-being, with a particular emphasis on child and adolescent mental health in the digital age. She is passionate about exploring the impact of social media, digital interactions, and technology on youth development and learning. Her work also emphasizes promoting positive youth development, civic engagement, and fostering character strengths.

Undergraduate Researchers

Nasur Lambert

Nasur Lambert is an undergraduate student majoring in Psychology with a minor in Biology. His research interest focuses on the nature of conceptual thought and the ways in which self-control processes shape human social cognition. Nasur plans to pursue a PhD in Cognitive Psychology.

Diya Ramesh

Diya Ramesh is an undergraduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is studying Business Administration and Psychology (B.S.), and her interests are in Industrial-Organizational Psychology. She is passionate about how leadership, structure, and legalities within a workplace can shape both employee experience and motivation.