Katherine A. Duggan, PhD

PATHS Lab Director

Kat is an Assistant Professor and the director of the Personality And Trajectories to Health and Sleep (PATHS) Lab in the Department of Psychology at North Dakota State University. You can read more about her here.

Michael Price, MA

PHD PSYCHOLOGY & Gerontology, 2024 - PRESENT

Michael joined the PATHS Lab as a graduate student in the Psychology Ph.D. program in 2024. As of Fall 2026, he is also pursuing a Ph.D. in Gerontology. He earned his B.A. in both Psychology and History from the University of Texas at Austin in 2020 and his M.A. in Psychological Research from Texas State University in 2023. Michael’s research interests include sleep, dreams, personality, and how these relate to various cognitive processes (e.g., memory, creativity, mind-wandering) across the lifespan. His long-term goal is to obtain a tenure-track faculty position and continue to conduct research and teach in the psychology of sleep.

Clarice Shanks, MS

PhD Psychology, 2024 - present

Clarice joined the PATHS Lab as a graduate student in the Psychology Ph.D. program at North Dakota State University in 2024. She is originally from Rosemount, MN, but moved to Wisconsin to work on her undergraduate degree. In 2021, she received her B.S. in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire. After finishing her bachelor’s, she decided to pursue a Master’s of Science in Experimental Psychology at Augusta University in Augusta, GA and graduated in the spring of 2024. During Clarice’s time at Augusta University, she was a graduate research assistant in the Psycho-oncology department at the Georgia Cancer Center. It was this role that helped her realize her passion for understanding how and why different social phenomenon occur generally speaking as well as in the context of illness. Her long-term goal is to obtain a tenure-track position at a university with a graduate program in psychology, so she can teach at both the undergraduate and graduate level and continue her research.

Hieu Le, BS

PhD Psychology, 2026 - Present

Hieu (pronounced Hugh) says hi to everyone! He is excited to have joined the PATHS Lab as a graduate student in 2026. Hieu earned his B.A. in Psychology in 2025 at North Dakota State University and conducted scholarly research in the same lab from 2023 to 2026, so he is eager to pick up where he left off! He is broadly interested in studying the underlying mechanisms that mediate the association between personality and various life outcomes. He is currently working on a multi-part integrative review of personality processes (behaviors, thoughts, and feelings) that includes qualitative coding of review papers, meta-analysis, empirical studies, and sleep narratives. The study's results are hoped to create a codebook and methods to allow researchers from various disciplines to adopt a more mechanistic approach to studying personality. Another main research interest is examining "undesirable" traits (i.e., Neuroticism) and how they are adaptive across a variety of life domains and situations. He hopes to rise to a position where he can continue to create research and translate them into meaningful public policies. In his free time, he like to weightlift, join his friends in Zumba, and try out plant-based foods around the Fargo-Moorhead area. 

Check out Hieu’s CV here.

Odalis García, PhD

PhD Psychology, 2021-2026; nsf grfp fELLOW 2023-2026

Odalis G. Garcia joined the PATHS Lab as a graduate student in the Psychology Ph.D. program in 2021. She is originally from the Houston, TX area and had come from the University of North Texas where she earned a B.A. in Psychology (2021). During her time at the University of North Texas, she became a McNair Scholar and conducted undergraduate research in topics such as “The Effects of Alcohol Consumption and Work Stress on Insomnia Symptoms in Nurses” and “Bidirectional association between daily stress and nightmares”. As a graduate student, her program of research focused on how sleep, dreams, and nightmares are impacted by stress across development. Her master’s thesis was titled “Applying a Modern Situational Measure to Improve the Reliability, Validity, and Outcome Predictability of Dream Assessment.” Her dissertation was titled “Investigating the Relationship Between Sleep, Dreams, and Emotional Autobiographical Memory Processes.” Dr. Garcia’s long-term goal is to obtain a tenure-track faculty position and continue to do research in behavioral sleep medicine.

Anita Adams-Dickinson, PhD

PhD Clinical Psychology 2025, University of Kentucky; affiliated PATHS Lab graduate student and external advisee, 2022-2025

Anita Adams obtained her clinical psychology doctorate from the University of Kentucky in 2025 with her clinical psychology doctoral internship at the University of Arizona. She is an Air Force “brat” and moved around a bit as a child, but eventually settled in North Carolina where she earned her B.A. in Psychology and English-Creative Writing from North Carolina State University. During her undergraduate research career, she studied the impact of culture and parental emotion socialization in children’s emotion understanding and development. She also studied emotion regulation, personality, and sleep behaviors in undergraduate student populations. During her post-baccalaureate experience, her research shifted to a more clinical focus, and she worked with older and middle adult and child populations with diagnoses such as dementia, hormonally-impacted depression (specifically perimenopausal depression), and autism.

Her current research is centered on the relationship between trait responses to emotion (e.g., how one’s consistent style of coping develops into a personality trait) and adverse childhood experiences. More specifically, she is interested in how one’s early life experiences can impact one’s later emotional and physical health into adulthood. She is also interested in how trait responses to emotion may serve as transdiagnostic mechanisms for psychopathology. If we can identify these transdiagnostic mechanisms, we can leverage them to improve psychosocial and physical health outcomes for minoritized populations. Dr. Adams’s dissertation was titled “Development of the Trait Response to Emotion Dimensional Measure for Use in Minoritized Populations.”

Joelle Hannam, BS

POSTBAC TRAINEE; BS Psychology & Sociology 2025; Obama-Chesky Voyager Scholar; NIH INBRE Scholar; thesis student; in the lab since 2022

Joelle joined the lab in 2022 while she was an undergraduate student at NDSU. She was a thesis student working on independent research focused on sleep-related beliefs and behaviors in low-income communities using quantitative and qualitative methods. She is currently working as a Research Intake Coordinator at Sanford Health.

Ashley Lee

BS Psychology & Economics 2028; in the lab since 2025

Ashley is currently an undergraduate Psychology and Economics double major. After she completes her undergraduate degree, she hopes to go to graduate school so that one day she can be a college professor. She hopes to make students feel supported in their academic journey by recognizing the realities students face that impact academic success such as health, financial circumstances, and other competing responsibilities. In her spare time, Ashley enjoys playing board games, creative writing, worldbuilding, drawing, and spending time with friends.

Janice Overby

BS Psychology 2027; in the lab since 2026

Janice is majoring in Psychology, but spent her first three years of college double majoring in Nursing and Psychology up until having two major arm surgeries last semester. She loves music and art. She has 2 French bulldogs named Salty and Sakie. After school, Janice plans on getting her master's degree. She currently works in detox/psych at Sanford, and is very passionate about addiction treatment which is likely the field she will work in in the future. 

Ava Lee

BS Biological sciences 2030; in the lab since 2026

Ava’s major is biology, on the pre-medicine track. With this degree, she hopes to become a neurologist who specializes in ALS (amyotrophy lateral sclerosis). She hopes to end up working in a big city on the east cost of the United States. She is participating in this research to be a part of the change that she hopes to make someday around sleep patterns, personality, physical health, and mental health. Ava is also a loud advocate for mental health and trying to end the stigma that mental illnesses are not real. With this, she hopes to be able to contribute research in mental health that goes along with personality and physical health. In her free time, she loves to read, play with dogs, bake, and embroider.    

Maria Hinnenkamp

BS Microbiology & Animal Sciences 2029; in the lab since 2026

Maria is a Microbiology and Animal Science major with a minor in Chemistry on a pre-vet track. She plans to graduate in the spring of 2029 and hopes to pursue a career as a veterinarian. She joined the PATHS Lab to gain research experience and learn more about how research can help us better understand behavior, health and individual differences. Outside of school, Maria enjoys working out, running, and working on her family’s dairy farm.

Ethan Gerhart

BS Biochemistry & Moleculary biology 2029; in the lab since 2026

Ethan is an undergraduate student studying Biochemistry and Molecular Biology with aspirations of pursuing medical school and a career in medicine. He is passionate about science, healthcare, and continuous learning, while also maintaining an active lifestyle. Outside of academics, Ethan enjoys playing sports, strength training, hiking, and spending time outdoors.

Jacob Logan

BS Biological Sciences 2028; in the lab since 2026

Jacob is originally from Bismarck, ND. He graduated from a legacy high school while at the same time getting his associates degree from BSC. He is a pre-med major and plans to go to med-school immediately after graduation from NDSU. Jacob wants to be a part of research because he find sleep very interesting and it’s very important to him. He also wants to gain some lab experience and get to work with some new people!

Ashley Kautz

BS Nursing 2027; in the lab since 2026

Ashley is a fourth-year nursing major with a minor in biology planning to graduate in 2027. She is planning to gain clinical experience after she graduates then go to medical school. She is originally from Bismarck, ND and has 2 chickens, Bear and Hank. Ashley wants to participate in research to further her experience in research and learn more about how sleep can affect health outcomes, specifically to the geriatric population. Outside of school, she enjoys reading, working out, and cooking.

Paige Wiegandt

BS Biological sciences 2028; in the lab since 2026

Paige is an undergraduate majoring in Biology (Biomedical emphasis), with minors in Psychology and Neuroscience. After graduating from NDSU, she hopes to pursue a PhD in developmental neuroanatomy, with a focus on researching the causes and potential treatments for complex neural developmental defects. Outside of her studies, she spends much of her time watching YouTube, exercising, solving puzzles, and playing video games.