Dr. Natasha (Tasha) Wade is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UC San Diego and licensed clinical Psychologist. She received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis in Neuropsychology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She completed her clinical internship at VA Puget Sound American Lake and her postdoctoral fellowship at UC San Diego. Dr. Wade has over a decade of experience researching the relationship between substance use and brain-behavior relationships. She is also interested in mechanisms underlying neurodevelopmental changes related to substance use, screen/phone use, improving measurement methods, and toxicology. She actively mentors individuals at all training levels, from undergrads through post-docs, including within the SDSU-UCSD Clinical Psychology Joint Doctoral Program (https://psychology.sdsu.edu/doctoral/clinical/) and the NIAAA-funded SDSU T32 (https://niaaa-t32.sdsu.edu/).

Personal Interests: time with family, Great British Bake Off, tasty food, and naps

Email address: nwade at health dot ucsd dot edu

Dr. Alexander (Alex) Wallace is a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Psychiatry. He completed his undergraduate work at the University of Iowa where he worked in research labs focusing on Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Adolescent/Young Adult (AYA) substance use. He received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis in Neuropsychology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and completed his clinical internship in the neuropsychology track at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Dr. Wallace's research focus is on the effects of cannabis use on neurodevelopment in AYA populations and comorbid factors that moderate the effects of cannabis consumption. This work has led Dr. Wallace to research how health behaviors, subclinical ADHD symptoms, and periods of cannabis abstinence affect cognition, brain morphometry, and fMRI activation. More recently, Dr. Wallace has focused on looking at how toxicology markers of alcohol may play a role in cognition while on the SDSU/UCSD National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism T32 training grant.

Personal Interests: Running, video games, museums, the beach, and frequent naps

Email address: alwallace at health dot ucsd dot edu

Veronica graduated with a B.S. in Psychology from Loyola University Chicago in 2018 and with her M.S. in Psychology from the University of Amsterdam in 2021. After she graduated, she worked as a Clinical Research Coordinator at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in an addiction psychiatry lab researching alcohol and opioid use disorders.

Veronica is currently a PhD student in the joint doctoral program at San Diego State University and UC San Diego and is working on the ABCD study in the Neuro D-Tox lab. Her research interests include the heterogeneity of individual trajectories of substance use disorders. She is also interested in the risk and resilience factors associated with substance use, as well as their effects on neurodevelopment and cognitive functioning in adolescents and young adults. Veronica intends to use a multi-method approach and utilize statistical modeling in her research.

Personal Interests: exploring San Diego, traveling, hiking, and practicing ballet 

Lindsey Sofia Aguilar (she/her; Sofia) recently obtained her M.A. in Psychology from San Diego State University, where her research focused on examining neurodevelopmental outcomes in individuals with prenatal alcohol exposure across various age populations (e.g., adolescence, early adulthood, late adulthood) utilizing human neuroimaging methodology. During her time as researcher and coordinator for the Center for Behavioral Teratology, she also investigated cognitive and behavioral deficits (e.g., internalizing/externalizing problems) associated with prenatal substance exposure in children and adolescents.

Currently, her research in the Neuro D-tox lab focuses on examining potential predictors of substance use among adolescents while leveraging the ABCD study data set. More broadly, her interests also include examining how substance use impacts other aspects of neurodevelopment and subsequent neurobehavioral outcomes. Moreover, she is interested in how biological, psychosocial, and environmental factors predispose youth to risk-taking behaviors, like alcohol and drug use, especially in diverse and underserved communities. Ultimately, her research aims to incorporate multiple units of analysis, including various behavioral, neuropsychological, and diagnostic measures to create a comprehensive understanding to better inform identification and treatment for psychiatric conditions among children and adolescents.

Personal Interests: watching soccer, listening to all types of music, collecting vinyl records, attending concerts, exploring breweries + restaurants in san diego, gardening tropical plants, and spending time with my cat named Maple :) 

I completed my Bachelor of Science in Clinical Psychology at UC San Diego in 2018. Following graduation, I worked as a research assistant and coordinator on various projects under Drs. Susan Tapert and Joanna Jacobus investigating the neurodevelopmental and cognitive effects of substance use, including the landmark ABCD Study. I am currently working with Dr. Wade on a study exploring cannabinoid concentrations in blood and hair samples as predictors of neurocognitive outcomes.

I am interested in further understanding the endocannabinoid system and its interactions with cognitive and emotional processes, particularly in adults using cannabis. More broadly, my interests span investigating the neurobiological changes across multiple substances, including cannabis, alcohol, and nicotine/tobacco products. Over the next year (2024-2025), I will launch a clinical trial under Drs. Kelly Courtney and Joanna Jacobus aimed to closely examine the effects of acute nicotine exposure in adults aged 18 or 19.