Katherine E. Finegold

Kate Finegold is a doctoral student in the School and Clinical Child Psychology (SCCP) program at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto, supervised by Dr. Mark Wade. Kate also holds an MA from the SCCP program and a master’s degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University. Before beginning her doctoral studies, Kate worked as a research coordinator at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School in Dr. Kerry Ressler’s Neurobiology of Fear laboratory.

Before embarking on a clinical research career, Kate worked as a special education teacher through the teacher-leadership corps, Teach for America, in Memphis, Tennessee. As an educator, Kate experienced first-hand how many students, especially those from equity-deserving groups, do not have access to high quality, evidence-based mental health resources. These experiences are what motivated her to pursue a graduate degree in child clinical psychology.

Her current research interests include uncovering the mechanisms that link exposure to early life adversity with worse cognitive and mental health outcomes. She is interested in elucidating the ecological and biological factors that promote resilience after exposure to early life adversity.

In her spare time, Kate enjoys reading and doing pilates.