Kathryn (Katie) Jankowski is a 6th year psychology doctoral student studying developmental psychology. Katie is very interested in the neurodevelopmental correlates of social cognition, particularly self-processing, self-conscious emotions, Theory of Mind, and empathy, in neurotypical development and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Her master’s thesis investigated the neural correlates of direct and reflected self-evaluations during adolescence and adulthood. Her dissertation research explores self-conscious emotion processing in adolescents with ASD and neurotypical adolescents using neuropsychological, neuroimaging, and neuroendocrine techniques. She is particularly interested in better understanding the real-world social-emotional experiences of youths with ASD using more ecologically-valid measures, which she hopes will inform intervention design.

Katie received her BA in psychology from the University of Virginia, and then worked as a research assistant for three years at the Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders at Children’s National Medical Center (Drs. Lauren Kenworthy and Benjamin Yerys). There, she used fMRI to study executive functioning in children with ASD. In 2013-2014, Katie lived in Japan as an international research fellow at Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine (Drs. Hidehiko Takahashi and Shisei Tei). There, Katie designed and conducted a study investigating the neural correlates of self-conscious emotion processing in neurotypical adults. In her free time, Katie enjoys volunteering with children with ASD and serving as president of the UO Autism Interest Group. Katie has been generously supported by an Autism Speaks Weatherstone Predoctoral Fellowship, a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, and a Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science Strategic Research Fellowship.