Project Coordinators

Zia Bajwa | Project Coordinator

Contact: ziabajwa@berkeley.edu

Zia Bajwa is a Project Coordinator with the Golden Bear Sleep & Mood Research Clinic. Working primarily on the National Institute of Aging (NIA) study, her responsibilities include clinical assessment, data management, study coordination, recruitment, and supervision of undergraduate research assistants. Zia graduated from UC Berkeley in 2023 with a B.A. in Cognitive Science. During her undergraduate years, she researched the neural and inflammatory correlates of adolescent depression as a research assistant in the Stanford Neurodevelopment, Affect, & Psychopathology (SNAP) Lab and the UCSF Cognition, Affect, and Neurodevelopment in Youth (CANDY) Lab. She joined the Golden Bear Sleep & Mood Research Clinic in 2021 as a research assistant, where she wrote her honors thesis on the implementation outcomes of TranS-C for treating severe mental illness in community mental health centers. Before returning as a project coordinator, Zia spent a year as a research assistant at Columbia University studying adolescent depression and suicidality in the Translational Research on Affective Disorders and Suicide Lab with Dr. Randy Auerbach. In the future, Zia hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, and her research interests include treatment development, implementation science, adolescent mental health, and severe mental illness. In her free time, Zia enjoys reading, skateboarding, and traveling.

Zia will be applying to PhD programs in Clinical Psychology this cycle (Fall 2025).

Yimei Jiang | Project Coordinator

Contact: yimei@berkeley.edu

Yimei is a Project Coordinator with the Golden Bear Sleep and Mood Research Clinic. She works on the National Institute of Aging (NIA) study, and her primary responsibilities are twofold: 1) study coordination, recruitment, supporting clients and study personnel to facilitate study progress, and 2) data coding, training undergraduate research assistants, and providing support to therapists on study measures. Yimei graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2023 with a BS in Psychology, Actuarial Science, and a minor in Statistics. During her undergraduate, Yimei worked under the guidance of Dr. Jessie Chin to research people’s decision-making processes and learning behaviors. Yimei’s research interests include mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and treatment development. Outside of research, she enjoys dancing, cooking, and photography.

Yimei will be applying to PhD programs in Clinical Psychology this cycle (Fall 2025).

Kate Marcotullio | Project Coordinator

Contact: katemarcotullio@berkeley.edu

Kate Marcotullio is a Project Coordinator with the Golden Bear Sleep and Mood Research Clinic. She earned her B.A. in Cognitive Science with a minor in Data Science from UC Berkeley in 2024. Kate joined the GBSMRC in 2023 as a research assistant, where she primarily focused on screening and assessing research participants. During her undergraduate studies, Kate also worked with Allison Gopnik’s Cognitive Development and Learning Lab to research childrens’ preferences for stable vs unstable causal relationships as foundations for causal and explanatory generalizations. Kate completed her Honor’s Thesis under the mentorship of Dr. Celeste Kidd and Dr. Ny Vasil, exploring the role of stability in adolescents’ causal reasoning about socio-psychological phenomena. As a Project Coordinator, Kate is responsible for administering assessments, data cleaning, scheduling, training undergraduate research assistants, and coordinating ongoing studies. Her research interests include mindfulness, mind-body practices, and the development and dissemination of psychological treatments. Kate plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. Outside of the lab, she enjoys running, camping. sewing, and baking.