Ava graduated from the University of Virginia (UVA) with highest distinction in 2026, earning a B.S. in Behavioral Neuroscience. At UVA, she worked as a research assistant in the Program for Anxiety, Cognition, and Treatment (PACT) Lab under Dr. Bethany Teachman, where she completed a two-phase qualitative honors thesis exploring youth preferences for digital mental health interventions to support healthier social media use. She has also conducted independent research under Dr. Sarah Kucenas, investigating the role of glial cell function in neurodevelopmental pathways relevant to mental health disorders. Her broad research interests include personalizing and scaling digital mental health interventions and examining their acceptability across different populations. After her time at CORD, Ava intends to pursue a Ph.D. in clinical psychology.

Savannah graduated summa cum laude from Vanderbilt University in 2026 with a B.A. in Psychology and Spanish. At Vanderbilt, she worked in the Emotion and Anxiety Research Laboratory under Dr. Bunmi Olatunji and Allie Adamis, M.S., coordinating and running various studies related to anxiety disorders, including social anxiety disorder and spider phobia. She also conducted an independent study in the form of a randomized clinical trial for contamination-related OCD, which investigated the efficacy of a text-message reminder intervention for fading safety behavior use. At CORD, Savannah works under Dr. Ryan Jacoby, coordinating projects that investigate the efficacy of AI-based tools for OCD treatment and how neural activity may inform current mechanistic models of ERP for OCD. She is broadly interested in the various mechanisms underlying OCD and anxiety disorders and hopes to increase the availability of expert-powered mental health tools via novel delivery techniques (e.g., digital). After her time at MGH, Savannah intends to pursue a Ph.D. in clinical psychology.

Gienn graduated from Tufts University in 2026 with a B.A. in Clinical Psychology and English. He previously worked as an undergraduate intern at CORD, where he contributed to research projects examining the mechanisms of OCD and its assessment to inform the development of novel treatments. During his time at CORD, he also completed an independent study investigating the influence of intolerance of uncertainty on outcomes in emotion regulation therapy. In addition, Gienn worked at the Psychopathology, Affective Neuroscience & Decision Making Laboratory at the University of Hong Kong under Professor Frances Jingwen Jin, investigating and elucidating the mechanisms underlying threat-related decision-making and the role of anxiety in these processes. Gienn is passionate about advancing understanding of the experiences and challenges faced by individuals with OCD and other internalizing mental health disorders and using technology to improve the accessibility and quality of mental health treatments. After CORD, he plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology.