Postdoctoral Fellows

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Wenjing Bao, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar, wenjingb@uoregon.edu

Wenjing Bao, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Prevention Science Institute. She received her PhD and MS in Special Education from the University of Oregon. Her research focuses on assessment and intervention for children with special needs, caregiver-mediated intervention and family support, and implementation science. Her work aims to optimize the accessibility and effectiveness of support programs for children and families from diverse backgrounds.

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Chelsea Mayo, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar, chelmayo@uoregon.edu
 
Chelsea Mayo, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Prevention Science Institute. She earned her doctorate in Child Clinical Psychology with a minor in Developmental Psychology from Penn State University. She completed her clinical internship at the University of New Mexico with a Traumatic Stress Specialization, and she is a licensed psychologist in Oregon. Chelsea’s research has focused on stress and coping in marginalized pre-adolescents and the development of trauma-informed, community-engaged interventions. In her current role, she is postdoctoral fellow for an NIH R01 designed to adapt and evaluate a substance use prevention program for youth in foster care. She is particularly interested in advancing strengths-based, culturally responsive prevention initiatives, and centering youth perspectives through mixed-methods and community-based participatory research
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Tracy Zehner, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar, tzehner@uoregon.edu
 
Tracy Zehner, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Special Education and Clinical Sciences in the College of Education. She received her doctorate in Prevention Science from the University of Oregon in 2026 with a certificate in Quantitative Research Methods. Her research uses longitudinal data to examine how children’s early experiences in the home and in early learning centers contribute to their school readiness, self-regulation, and social-emotional competence. She is committed to research focused on establishing equitable practices and systems in PK-12 classrooms and use racially and socioeconomically diverse samples in her independent research. Guided by sociocultural and bioecological frameworks, her research focuses on how microsystem influences shape children’s academic success, self-regulation, and social-emotional competence and the implementation of early childhood interventions that support cognitive, self-regulatory, and social-emotional development.
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Xinwei Zhang, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar, xinzhang@uoregon.edu
 
Xinwei Zhang is a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Prevention Science Institute. Xinwei obtained her Ph.D. in Comparative and International Education from Lehigh University and her master's degree in Psychology from New York University. She worked as a Postdoctoral Associate in the Child Study Center at Yale University and as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Counseling Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University prior to joining the University of Oregon. She is committed to advancing education, mental health, and racial justice among Asian immigrant and Asian American communities. Her research interests encompass understanding cultural values, experiences of racial discrimination, academic achievement, and psychological well-being among Asian immigrant and Asian American youth and families. She also actively works towards advancing education, immigration, and mental health services at non-profit organizations like the Chinese-American Planning Council and International Rescue Committee.
Kate Hails, PhD
Kate Hails, PhD
Research Associate, khails@uoregon.edu

Kate Hails, PhD earned her doctorate in clinical and developmental psychology from the University of Pittsburgh in 2021, after completing her clinical internship at Oregon Health & Science University with a focus on supporting children with special health needs. Kate’s research program has two prongs, one focused on understanding parenting and family management in the context of depression, poverty-related stressors, and other ecological influences on child development and wellbeing, and the other on investigating how parents engage with a brief, evidence-based parenting intervention, the Family Check-Up. Her overarching career goal is to expand families’ access to evidence-based behavioral supports, particularly for families who have historically faced barriers to accessing services, in settings such as pediatric primary care and early childhood education.

Veronica Oro, PhD
Veronica Oro, PhD

Research Associate, voro@uoregon.edu

Veronica completed her doctorate in developmental psychology at Arizona State University where she was trained in both quantitative and molecular genetic methods. She leverages these approaches to examine genetic and environmental mechanisms underlying parent-offspring transmission of physical and mental health. Moreover, Veronica's research focuses on the role of sociocultural factors in the manifestation of symptomology. Her passion lies in applying these findings to ultimately mitigate health disparities incurred by historically marginalized populations.

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Nicholas J. Parr, PhD, MPS
Research Assistant Professor, nparr2@uoregon.edu

Nicholas J. Parr, PhD, MPH is an Associate Director and Research Scientist within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Evidence Synthesis Program, a longstanding and highly regarded national research synthesis program. His research to date has focused on advancing research synthesis and analysis methods to better characterize sources of variation in intervention effects, and on investigating risk factors for substance misuse and suicidality experienced by minority, underserved, and hard-to-reach populations.

Jennifer L. Shipley
Jennifer L Shipley, PhD, MPH
Postdoctoral Scholar, shipleyj@uoregon.edu

Jennifer L. Shipley, PhD, MPH received her doctorate from Old Dominion University in Psychology, with a concentration in Health Psychology, in 2024, and her MPH, with a concentration in Health Behavior Health Promotion, from the University of Arizona in 2016. Her research interests include examining high-risk substance use among emerging adult college students, especially behaviors related to simultaneous use of alcohol and cannabis. Jennifer is also interested in developing and evaluating measures that assess behaviors related to simultaneous use of alcohol and cannabis and conducting advanced statistical analyses, such as longitudinal and multilevel data analyses