Postdoctoral Fellows

 

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

 

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.

 

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.