Alumnae Spotlight

Maria Misiura graduated from Agnes Scott in 2014 with a major in Psychology and a minor in Sustainability. Although she was originally from Pennsylvania, she grew up in the Metro Atlanta area. She currently is a graduate student at Georgia State University and is pursuing a PhD in Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience in Jess Turner’s Imaging Genetics and Informatics Lab. For her Master’s she analyzed fMRI task-related data in a prodromal Huntington’s disease population. She currently collaborates with the Hu Biomarker lab at Emory University to study the biological mechanisms underpinning racial disparities in Alzheimer’s Disease. She enjoys learning about novel statistical approaches that can improve the analysis and interpretation of imaging data. While at Agnes Scott, Maria conducted research in Dr. Hopkins’ lab all four years and worked for the Sustainability program. She believes that Agnes Scott provided her with valuable research and professional experience, and a complete educational foundation to pursue both psychology and neuroscience in graduate school. Beyond academia, Agnes Scott instilled within her a sense of empowerment and self-efficacy. She wrote: “it is such a comfort to know that my previous Agnes Scott professors are just an email away, ready to offer guidance when I need it.” Maria’s photo was taken at Georgia State.