Alumni Lab Members

Former Graduate Students of Dr. Bardone-Cone’s Lab at UNC

Alexandra (Ale) Miller, PhD

Ale Miller (she/her) received her PhD in clinical psychology from UNC-Chapel Hill under the mentorship of Dr. Anna Bardone-Cone. Prior to her graduate training, she grew up as a ballet dancer and completed her Bachelor of Science in Applied Psychology with a Minor in Spanish at New York University. She later worked as a prevention specialist at a rehabilitation center in Miami, Florida, working with adolescents in an arts peer education program. Ale’s master’s thesis explored the relationship between peer fat talk (i.e., talking negatively about one’s body among peers) and body dissatisfaction in both young and middle-aged women. Her dissertation examined an array of general and sport-specific risk factors (e.g., appearance pressures, social media use, and appearance comparison) related to disordered eating, body dissatisfaction, and mood among female aesthetic athletes by using a cross-sectional survey and a novel experimental paradigm. She completed her pre-doctoral clinical internship at the UCSD Eating Disorder Center for Treatment and Research and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University.

Emily Walsh, PhD

Emily Walsh (she/her) earned her PhD in clinical psychology from UNC in 2024. Prior to her graduate training, she completed her BA in psychology and studio art at Bard College. She then worked for five years as a clinical research assistant across partial hospital and inpatient psychiatry settings at Rhode Island Hospital and the Columbia Center for Eating Disorders. Emily’s graduate research examined the complex relationships between sexual experiences and body attitudes, with emphasis on how these relationships are situated within and influenced by structures of identity-based power and marginalization. Her dissertation investigated these relationships in a national sample of adults of diverse gender, racial, ethnic, and sexual orientation identities using a multi-method (quantitative and qualitative) and critical theory-driven approach. Emily completed her predoctoral internship at Maimonides Medical Center, a community mental health center in Brooklyn, New York, with a training focus on identity-affirming care through the center’s LGBTQIA+ clinic. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the Pratt Institute Counseling Center providing individual and group psychotherapy to art and design students. She is currently a licensed staff psychologist at a group practice in New York City, where she offers individual and couples therapy and supervises postdoctoral trainees.

Katie Thompson, PhD

Dr. Katie Thompson (she/her) is a research scientist and assistant professor in the Military Cardiovascular Outcomes Research (MiCOR) program at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. Her research focuses on understanding and treating disordered eating during the perinatal period and in active duty military Service members. She was recently awarded a K23 Career Development Research Grant by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to develop and test a cognitive-behavioral therapy-informed single-session intervention for loss of control over eating during pregnancy. She completed her pre-doctoral clinical internship at the UNC School of Medicine in the Women’s Mental Health track after finishing her PhD in clinical psychology in 2022 under the mentorship of Dr. Anna Bardone-Cone. Originally from Manhattan Beach, California, Dr. Thompson attended George Washington University for her undergraduate degree, where she received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and minors in Biological Anthropology and Art History in 2014.

Stacy Lin, PhD

Stacy is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine and also has a private practice. She specializes in culturally-responsive treatment for the intersection of trauma, identity, and behavioral dysregulation that interweaves principles from evidence-based practices with a decolonization lens. She works in the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) space in clinical, training, and professional settings and serves on her department’s Diversity Coalition as well as co-leading the department’s DEI seminar for psychology postdoctoral fellows and providing supervision to fellows. She is the director of psychotherapy for the Stanford SMHART Clinic, Stanford’s Asian mental health clinic. Additionally, she is an attending psychologist on the Adult Eating Disorders and Comprehensive Dialectical Behavior Therapy teams at Stanford. Her research has focused on cultural factors affecting disordered eating and body image in racial/ethnic minorities.

Ellen Fitzsimmons-Craft, PhD

Dr. Ellen Fitzsimmons-Craft (she/her) is a tenured Associate Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences and Psychiatry at Washington University in St. Louis, where she directs the ACCESS Lab (Advancing Clinical Care for Eating disorders with Scalable Solutions), serves as Director of Clinical Training in Psychological & Brain Sciences, and leads the mHealth Research Core. She is also a licensed psychologist. Dr. Fitzsimmons-Craft’s research focuses on expanding equitable access to evidence-based care for eating disorders and other mental health conditions. Her team develops, evaluates, and disseminates scalable approaches, including digital interventions, screening tools, and technology-supported training, to close treatment and research-to-practice gaps. She partners with industry, nonprofit, government, and community organizations to translate research into real-world settings. Dr. Fitzsimmons-Craft is a Fellow of the Academy for Eating Disorders and received a National Institute of Mental Health K08 Career Development Award.

Mary Kathleen (Katy) Higgins Neyland, PhD

Katy received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) in 2016. Katy’s dissertation centered on Latina women and their experiences of treatment and recovery from an eating disorder; she was supported in this work by a National Institute of Mental Health Diversity Supplement. Katy completed her predoctoral psychology internship in the Women’s Mental Health track at the UNC School of Medicine and her postdoctoral fellowship at the Uniformed Services University (USU) before joining the faculty as an Assistant Professor in the School of Medicine. In addition to serving as a faculty member, Katy currently works as a Clinical Scientist on the Military Cardiovascular Outcomes Research Program at USU, where she investigates the prevention of excess weight gain in vulnerable populations.

Meg Harney, PhD

Dr. Meg Harney (she/her) is the owner and founder of Harney & Associates, a group private practice in Richmond, VA. She and her colleagues specialize in the treatment of eating disorders, body image, anxiety disorders including OCD, infertility, and perinatal mental health. Prior to private practice Meg held a position as clinical assistant professor with the University of North Carolina Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders where she worked with clients on the inpatient, partial hospitalization, and outpatient units as well as provided clinical supervision for graduate students. Meg completed her predoctoral internship at the University of California San Diego Eating Disorders Center for Treatment and Research and completed her postdoctoral fellowship with the Virginia Commonwealth University psychology department.

Lisa Brownstone, PhD

Lisa Brownstone, PhD (she/they) is a Clinical Assistant Professor at University of Denver’s Department of Counseling Psychology. She is a scholar-clinician-educator-advocate, and a licensed clinical psychologist whose work focuses on centering the voices of individuals with lived experience of disordered eating and body distress, and envisioning new ways to facilitate healing. Her interests include disordered eating, body distress, gender affirming care, weight stigma, critical consciousness, and qualitative analysis. Outside of work, Dr. Brownstone enjoys playing fiddle and guitar, and spending time with her wife and fluffy dogs.

Former Post-Bac Research Coordinators of Dr. Bardone-Cone’s lab at UNC

Former Research Assistants of Dr. Bardone-Cone’s lab at UNC

Former Members of Dr. Bardone-Cone’s lab at the University of Missouri-Columbia