Kelsey Baller, a post-baccalaureate research associate at the Health, Brain & Cognition Lab for the past three years, moved to St. Louis in August to begin a PhD program in Clinical Psychology at Washington University.
She is excited to join the lab of Dr. Denise Head to continue her research as a graduate student. Professor Head, associate chair in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences and associate professor in radiology at Washington University, studies age-related cognitive changes and their relations with brain structure. Kelsey, whose own research interest is modifiable lifestyle factors that can slow or prevent cognitive decline, was already familiar with Dr. Head’s work, having modified a cognitive computer task her lab designed for the HBC Lab’s BIKE Extend study.
“I knew it well from having administered and scored it many times,” she says.
Referencing that experience helped make her application to Wash U’s graduate psychology program stand out, Kelsey says. She anticipates the prior connection will help her fit in quickly in her new research position. “It will be perfect,” she says. “Dr. Head does very similar things to our lab.”
HBC Lab Director Dr. Michelle Voss has high praise for Kelsey and is thrilled to see her join Dr. Head’s lab. “Over the past three years Kelsey has immersed herself in our research, learning all the steps from developing a project, running sessions with participants, data analysis, and sharing her work in posters and papers,” says Michelle. “She's been a core team member and mentor in our projects. Although we'll miss her dearly, I couldn't be more excited for her to join Dr. Denise Head's lab, who is a great mentor and leading lab in our field.”
An experience last fall also helped steer Kelsey’s choice of graduate programs. Spurred by her interest in social determinants of health, she attended a conference, titled “Enhancing Participation by Minoritized Groups in Alzheimer Disease and Related Dementia Research,” sponsored by the Knight Alzheimer Disease Research Center at Wash U last October.
“It’s a very pretty campus. I didn’t know St. Louis was so gorgeous,” she says of her first impression. “I thought I could see myself living there and I decided to look into the program.”
As for the conference, “It gave me ideas on how we can better understand why we aren’t reaching certain communities.”
The event inspired Kelsey and fellow post-bacc research associate Megan Hilliard, who also attended, to develop a community survey to identify reasons minoritized populations, including people who identify as Black and/or Hispanic, are underrepresented in HBC Lab studies. Lab team members will take the survey into the community at farmers markets and other events in coming months.
As she looks back on her HBC lab tenure, Kelsey counts attending conferences, polishing her writing and coding skills, and working directly with research study participants as some of her most important takeaways.
What will she miss?
“So many things,” she says. “One of my favorite parts has been seeing the different people come and go from the lab. I have seen grad students defend their dissertations. Seeing them achieve their goals has been awesome. It gives me a sense of what’s next, something to look forward to when I do that.”
She’ll also miss “some of newer things we started doing” such as helping teach the “Outlive” book club class at the Iowa City Senior Center classes. “I loved participating in those.”
Leaving Iowa City also pulls at her heartstrings. “I’ve been here for a good chunk of my life. I did my undergrad here as well (BS in psychology with a minor in Spanish). I love being able to walk around and have everything at my fingertips. I will miss the close-knit feel within the slightly larger place.”
Kelsey’s sights are set on a career in neuropsychology. “My dream job is working at an academic medical center in a hospital setting, with older adults, a neuropsych clinical position with the opportunity to help out in a research lab.”
She’ll carry with her the example of HBC Lab Director Michelle Voss, her mentor of the past three years. “She can answer any question no matter how poorly phrased. She finds a way to answer without making you feel bad. She’s always really great at making people feel good. It’s a strong skill I hope I can take with me.”
“If you come to her with a goal, she will exhaust all the resources she can find and help you find a way. That’s ultimately what she ended up doing with me. I’m going to grad school!”
Dr. Voss says she was glad to advise, but ultimately “Kelsey's persistence was key to pushing forward from these conversations into action and progress.”
— Emery Styron