Our Team

Leila Rezaei

Postdoctoral Fellow
PhD in Chemical Engineering, Dalhousie University
Project Title: Investigation of gut microbiome metabolism and host-microbe interactions in mental health, neurodevelopment, and health behaviors
leila.rezaei@ucalgary.ca

Leila earned her PhD from Dalhousie University, where she specialized in the reconstruction and validation of genome-scale metabolic models. Her research focused on applying these models to understand the complexity of cellular metabolism and biological systems.

Juan Vélez Ixta

Postdoctoral Fellow
PhD in Genetics and Molecular Biology, CINVESTAV
Project Title: Gut Microbiome-Brain Axis in Early Life: Developmental Windows for Socioemotional Resilience After Prenatal Stress
juan.velezixta@ucalgary.ca

Juan holds a PhD from the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute (CINVESTAV) in Mexico. His research explores the human microbiota through innovative data integration approaches, drawing on his expertise in microbiota, metabolomics, and bioinformatics. His past work focused on the metabolites and bacteria present in human milk. Juan is also committed to advancing scientific research through free and open-source software solutions.

Carla Benetti

Postdoctoral Fellow
PhD in Medicine - Child and Adolescent Health Program, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
Project Title: TBD
carla.dasilvabenetti@ucalgary.ca
 

Carla earned her PhD from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) in Brazil. She has experience working with experimental models. During her previous postdoctoral fellowship, her research focused on assessing whether high-intensity maternal care can attenuate or normalize maternal features associated with gestational undernutrition, including maternal caregiving behavior, lactational outcomes, and maternal physiology. Carla also has expertise in lactation consulting, supporting mother-infant dyads in achieving a positive and successful breastfeeding experience. 

carla.dasilvabenetti@ucalgary.ca

Dana Watts

PhD Student, Clinical Psychology
MSc in Experimental Psychology, University of Calgary
Project Title: Examining the association between prenatal stress and child executive function
dana.watts@ucalgary.ca

Dana graduated with MSc in Experimental Psychology and BA Honours in Psychology from the University of Calgary. She is completing her PhD in Clinical Psychology under the supervision of Dr. Giesbrecht in Fall 2023. Her past research focuses have included exploring the relationship between cannabis use during pregnancy and its association with childhood development, and exploration into how wearable technology can be used in psychobiological research.

Samarpreet Singh

Master's Student, Clinical Psychology
University of Calgary
Project Title: Prenatal Cortisol and Its Associations With Infant HPA-Axis Functioning and Neurodevelopment
samarpreet.singh@ucalgary.ca

My work investigates how prenatal cortisol shapes children’s early neurobiological development. Drawing on major theoretical perspectives in developmental psychobiology, I examine how early physiological reactivity interacts with postnatal environments to influence developmental pathways.

Huldah Bukasa

Honours Student
BA in Psychology
Project title: TBD

Huldah is in her final year of completing her BA in psychology and an embedded certificate in Mental Wellbeing and Resilience. She initially joined the lab as a volunteer to assist with the Pregnancy During the Covid-19 Pandemic study. As a summer student, she explored the role of Bifidobacterium in child neurodevelopment. She is currently working on her honors project, looking into relationships and child cortisol-stress reactivity.

Hind Messouar

Independent Study Student
BSc in Psychology
Project title: Investigating the relationship between the gut microbiome and Autism Spectrum Disorder

Hind is currently completing the final year of her BSc in Psychology. She originally joined the lab as a French-speaking volunteer helping with the Pregnancy during the Pandemic study and is now engaged as both a PSYC 499 and an independent study student under the supervision of Dr. Giesbrecht.

Melinda van Sloten

Research Program Manager
T. 403.441.8414
mmzwart@ucalgary.ca

Melinda graduated with distinction from UCalgary with a BA in Psychology. She has been with the team since April 2020 and has been the project coordinator for the Pregnancy during the Pandemic study since August 2021. 

Dr. Beatrice (Pui Yee) Lai

Data Manager
Beatrice graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong with a PhD in Psychology. She is interested in pregnancy stress and child mental health. She has joined the team to assist in managing the data.

Amnish Brar

Research Assistant

Amnish was born and raised in Calgary and recently completed her psychology degree at the University of Calgary. She also completed an honours project under the supervision of Dr. Giesbrecht titled, "The association between Mediterranean diet adherence and childhood internalizing problems". Her current research interest is understanding the role of nutrition as a predictor of childhood mental health outcomes.

Cleo Hendrickson

Research Assistant

Cleo graduated from the University of Calgary with a BSc in Psychology and is now pursuing her MSc in Neuroscience. She is currently working on designing a clinical trial for fecal microbial transplants in adolescents with ADHD. Her past research experience includes projects in paediatrics psychobiology and cellular/molecular neuroscience. She has been with the Pregnancy during the Pandemic study team as an RA since September 2022. 

Rogaya Khelif

Research Assistant

Rogaya graduated from the University of Calgary with a BSc in Psychology and is now working as a full-time research assistant. She initially joined the lab as a French volunteer to help with the Pregnancy during the Pandemic study and later completed a PSYC 499 course to finally land in her current position. 

Emily Ward

Research Assistant

Emily recently completed her Bachelor of Science in Psychology at the University of Calgary. She joined the Developmental Psychobiology lab to help with the Pregnancy during the Pandemic study. More recently, Emily has been completing an independent research project under the supervision of Dr. Giesbrecht. Emily’s project investigates the associations between objectively measured daily physical activity level and the HPA axis function during pregnancy.