top of page
This site was designed with the
.com
website builder. Create your website today.Start Now
Meet the Research Team

Lab Director - Heather Fuller, Ph.D.

Heather Fuller

Dr. Heather Fuller is an assistant professor of human development and family science at North Dakota State University. She received her doctoral degree in Developmental Psychology from the University of Michigan in 2009. Her research broadly focuses on the influence of social relationships and cultural context on development across the lifespan, including a specific focus on intergenerational and family relationships in late-life.

 

Contact: heather.fuller@ndsu.edu

Sara Raap

Current Graduate Students

Alison Brennan

Brooke Kranzler

Lab Manager - Brooke Kranzler is in her second year of the Developmental Science Ph.D. program at NDSU. She completed her B.S. in psychology and her M.A. in sociology at UND. Her past research has included the study of:

- Breadwinnning mothers

- Single mothers

- Work-family conflict and psychological distress

 

Current research interests include:

- Parenting (and parenting education)

- Parent-child outcomes, focusing on high risk parents

-Relationships and well-being across the lifetime

 

She is currently a research assistant with Dr. Fuller in the Linked Lives Lab.

Masahiro Toyama

Masahiro Toyama is currently in his first year of the Developmental Science Ph.D. program. He completed his Bachelor of Economics at Kyoto University in Japan and his M.A. in psychology at Montclair State University. In his master’s studies, he focused on examining relationships between psychological traits and subjective well-being among different age groups of American and Japanese adults.


His current research interests include:
- Adult development and aging
- Well-being throughout adulthood
- Psychosocial and cultural factors affecting aging and well-being

​

He is currently a research assistant with Dr. Fuller in the Linked Lives Lab.

Current Undergraduate Students

Linked Lives Lab is currently accepting applications for undergraduate research assistants.

Linked Lives Alumni

Alison Brennan

Simone Dorsey

Sara Raap

Samjhana Rajbhandari

Morgan Wangler

Alison Brennan is currently in her final year of the Developmental Science Ph.D. program. Her major areas of interest are parenting and socioemotional development in children and adolescents. To date, her research has included: 

 

  • effects of parent training in the Nurtured Heart Approach,

  • attitudinal outcomes of family-based programming to prevent child maltreatment,

  • intervention programming for children with aggressive or disruptive problems,

  • and rural adolescent health.

In the Linked Lives Lab, she and Dr. Fuller are examining ethnic differences in parenting attitudes and experiences using data from the ECLS-B, a national longitudinal study of child development conducted by the U.S. Department of Education. 

Simone Dorsey was a master's student in the Couple and Family Therapy program in the department of Human Development and Family Science. Her current research focuses on women's friendships and their implications for well-being in later life.

Former Lab Manager 2013-2015 - Sara Raap is in her final year of the Couple and Family Therapy master's program in the department of Human Development and Family Science. She is currently interning at the NDSU Family Therapy Center and Head Start as a family therapist and plans to apply for jobs in the Fargo-Moorhead area upon graduation in December 2015. 

 

Sara has been working for Dr. Fuller for two years and serves as the Linked Lives Lab Manager. She has helped with the recruitment of participants and gathering data for Dr. Fuller's Rural Aging and Social Integration studies, in addition to providing assistance with grading papers and preparing syllabi for some of the various classes that Dr. Fuller teaches.

Samjhana Rajbhandari graduated from the Linked Lives Lab when she received her Masters of Science in Human Development and Family Science in 2013. The title of Samjhana's thesis was: Social Integration among Older adults: Socio-demographic and Health Characteristics. Samjhana is now working as a geriatric nurse in Pittsburgh. 

Morgan Wangler was an undergraduate student majoring in Psychology and minoring in both Human Development Family Science and Gerontology. Among the tasks Morgan helped with, she assisted with the recruitment of participants and gathering of data for the current Step-Grandparenting Study.

Morgan graduated in May 2016.

bottom of page