{"id":225,"date":"2024-05-07T15:47:46","date_gmt":"2024-05-07T19:47:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/dkertes\/?page_id=225"},"modified":"2026-03-19T08:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T12:38:10","slug":"people","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/dkertes\/people\/","title":{"rendered":"People"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
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People<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/u><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Principal Investigator:<\/u><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Darlene Kertes, PhD, <\/strong>research program focuses on risk and protective factors in the social environment and how they shape behavioral, neurobiological, and epigenetic outcomes from prenatal life through early adulthood. Dr. Kertes is the Principal Investigator of the lab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Graduate Students:<\/u><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Niti Contractor <\/strong>is interested in the effects of maternal stress and trauma and children\u2019s health, with a special focus on health disparities. Her research centers on the role of maltreatment in infancy and early childhood and its impact on behavioral development and delay, hair cortisol concentrations, and telomere length. \u00a0Niti is enrolled in the PhD program in Developmental Psychology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Liz Amelia Karolina Martinez Margolles<\/strong> is interested in developmental neuroscience and the impact of environmental factors on development. Her research centers on the role of risk and protective factors in schools and neighborhoods with externalizing behavioral problems and telomere length. Liz is enrolled in the PhD program in Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Ao Tang<\/strong> focuses on the role epigenetics in mental health, with a particular interest on how DNA methylation profiles and is associated with longitudinal trajectories of depression in adolescence and young adulthood. Ao is enrolled in the PhD program in Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Current Undergraduate Research Assistants:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Lauren Silcock<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Anna Meltsaivia<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former Graduate Students<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Former graduate students have gone on to both academic and industry positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

John Leri, PhD. Post-doctoral Fellow, University of Texas at Austin<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Daniel Fisher, PhD. Assistant Professor, Gulf Coast State College<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Ke Duan, M.S. Researcher, Kingsoft<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Shubam Sharma, PhD. Assistant Professor, Kennesaw State University<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Jingwen Liu, PhD. Research Associate, TD1Exchange<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Hayley Kamin, PhD. Science Writer, National Institute of Mental Health<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Natalie Hadad, PhD. Associate Professor, Sante Fe University<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former Undergraduate Research Assistants Students:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Kertes has mentored 90+ undergraduate research assistants who have gone on to pursue medical school, graduate school, and industry positions. Examples of where former Kertes Lab members have advanced to include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Emory University Medical School<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

University of Columbia Medical School<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

University of Puerto Rico Medical School<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

University of Minnesota PhD program in Counseling Psychology<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

SUNY Stony Brook PhD Program in Clinical Psychology<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

University of Iowa PhD Program in Clinical Neuropsychology<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Washington & Lee University School of Law<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Vanderbilt University School of Law<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

University of Florida Masters in Public Health – Epidemiology<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

University of Florida Masters of Education<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Federal Bureau of Investigations<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

VISTA Center for Leadership and Service<\/p>\n\n\n\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":738,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"featured_post":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-225","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/dkertes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/dkertes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/dkertes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/dkertes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/738"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/dkertes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/dkertes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":298,"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/dkertes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/225\/revisions\/298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/dkertes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}