Our Faculty
Core Neuroscience Faculty
Jennifer Legault Wittmeyer, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Neuroscience Director
Ph.D., Neuroscience, The Pennsylvania State University
wittmeyerj@etown.edu | 717-361-3595 | 260C Esbenshade
Dr. Legault Wittmeyer is a cognitive neuroscientist with expertise in learning and memory and second language acquisition. She received her Ph.D from Penn State University under the mentorship of Dr. Ping Li, where she focused on how brain structure changes when individuals learn a second language through virtual environments versus computer-based and classroom-based methodologies. Her primary research interests include examining individual differences across virtual reality versus additional learning contexts during second language, motor, and spatial learning tasks. Furthermore, she is interested in examining the relationships between brain structure, function, and behavior through the analysis of large-scale magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data provided by various data sharing platforms.
Anya Goldina, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Biology
Ph.D., Behavioral Endocrinology, Florida International University
goldinaa@etown.edu | 717-361-6418 | Lyet 242 |
Dr. Goldina is a behavioral endocrinologist who is interested in understanding the endocrine mechanisms and central processing pathways that contribute to species differences in social strategies and communication tactics. Ultimately, she would like to understand how social experience and environment at different stages of development affect future behavior by altering the social behavior network of the brain, an interconnected network of hormone-sensitive brain regions involved in social behavior. Dr. Goldina joined the faculty of ½ûÂþÌìÌà in 2013. She teaches Biological Concepts, Human Anatomy and Physiology, and Behavioral Endocrinology.
Jean Pretz, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology
Ph.D., Cognitive Psychology, Yale University, 2004
pretzj@etown.edu | 717-361-1267 | 260F Esbenshade |
Dr. Pretz is a cognitive psychologist with research interests in creativity, its relationship to academic achievement, and the relationship between intuition and expertise. Dr. Pretz received her Ph.D. from Yale University in 2004. There, she worked with Robert Sternberg on her dissertation on intuition in everyday problem solving. She received her B.A. from Wittenberg University, where she double-majored in psychology and music. After college, she spent a year as a Fulbright scholar studying psychology of religion in the former East Germany, living in Lutherstadt-Wittenberg and studying at Martin-Luther-Universitaet Halle-Wittenberg.
Michael M. Roy, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology
Ph.D., University of California, San Diego, 2003
roym@etown.edu | 717-361-1331 | 260E Esbenshade
The main focus of Dr. Roy’s research is on how people's perception of environmental statistics influence their judgments and decisions. His research has examined bias in memory for how long tasks have taken in the past and in prediction for how long they will take in the future. He also examined how people rate their own abilities on various tasks and how characteristics of those tasks influence their self-assessments.
Dr. Roy was part of an ½ûÂþÌìÌà group that established instrumental music programs at two schools in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. These visits led to a new line of research in the psychology of music. Specifically, he has been examining how differences in personality predict the role that music plays in people’s lives.
Affiliated Faculty
Diane Bridge, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology
Ph.D. in Biology - Yale University
bridged@etown.edu | 717-361-1177 | Lyet 247 |
Dr. Bridge joined the faculty of ½ûÂþÌìÌà in 2000. She teaches Principles of Ecology, Evolution, and Diversity of Life; Invertebrate Zoology; Developmental Biology and laboratory sections of Molecules, Cells, and Animal Systems.
Jane Cavender, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology
Ph.D. in Genetics - Penn State College of Medicine
cavender@etown.edu | 717-361-1448 | Lyet 244 |
Dr Cavender believes that research and discovery are at the heart of learning and scholarship. Dr. Jane Cavender joined the faculty of ½ûÂþÌìÌà in 1993. She teaches introductory biology courses Molecules, Cells and Animal Systems; Cell Biology, and Experimental Design in Cell Biology.
Elizabeth Dalton, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Psychology
Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
daltone@etown.edu | 717-361-1332 | Esbenshade 260D
Dr. Dalton is a clinical psychologist with research interests in stress, mood, and physical health behaviors and outcomes. Dr. Dalton completed her graduate training at UCLA, where she studied how stress and depression influence health behaviors like eating, sleeping, exercise, and substance use among young adults. As part of her clinical training, Dr. Dalton has worked in community mental health centers and hospitals, and completed her clinical internship year at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. Dr. Dalton is eager to involve students in research examining the effects of stress and mood on physical health.
Sharmin Maswood, Ph.D.
Psychology Adjunct
Ph.D., Molecular Biology, Texas Woman’s University, Denton TX. (Behavioral Neuroscience Specialization)
maswoods@etown.edu | 717-361-1383 | 260J Esbenshade
Michael David Silberstein, Ph.D.
Professor of Philosophy
Director and Advisor of the Cognitive Science Minor
Ph.D. University of Oklahoma, Philosophy
silbermd@etown.edu | 717-361-1253 |
Michael David Silberstein is Professor of Philosophy at ½ûÂþÌìÌÃ, Director of the Cognitive Science Minor at the College and Affiliated Faculty in the philosophy department at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he is also a faculty member in the Foundations of Physics Program and a Fellow on the Committee for Philosophy and the Sciences. He is an NEH Fellow. His primary research interests are foundations of physics and foundations of cognitive science, respectively. He is also interested in how these branches of philosophy and science bear on more general questions of reduction, emergence and explanation. His most recent book is Beyond the Dynamical Universe: Unifying Block Universe Physics and Time as Experienced (Oxford University Press, 2018). His next book project with Oxford is entitled Contextual Emergence (forthcoming).