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Stephanie Washburn
Stephanie Washburn (she/her) is the founder of ByteCraftEnterprise, whom Research Girl, Inc. recently partnered with to offer STEM education programming.
About
Languages: English, Spanish
Pronouns: she/her
Biographical Sketch:
Stephanie Washburn graduated cum laude from the University of Central Florida (UCF) with a BS in Neuropsychology with a minor in statistics. During her time at UCF, Stephanie conducted research in three labs. In Dr. Steven L. Berman’s lab, she explored identity, resilience, and intersectionality. In Dr. Nelson Roque’s lab, she delved into projects on cognition, personality, and aging. Additionally, she worked on visual search experiments in Dr. Joseph Schmidt’s lab. Outside of UCF, she also was a research assistant for a summer at the SoCal Lab at the University of California, San Diego, and the Saxe Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
As a result of her research, she presented over 20 times at local, national, and international levels. This led to a TEDx talk on her research on identity, called The Kaleidoscope of You. For her work, in 2024, she was recognized as a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. Further, during her time at UCF, she achieved more than $280,000 in awarded grants, scholarships, and fellowships. After graduation, during the summer of 2024, Stephanie got accepted to work for the Scientific Research Network on Decision Neuroscience and Aging under the mentorship of Dr. Natalie Ebner. During that summer she researched socioemotional factors that are associated with deception in aging.
Currently a psychology Ph.D. student at the University of Florida, Stephanie has contributed to clinical research on scam susceptibility, exploring how older adults react to AI scams and phishing emails. She is passionate about integrating research and clinical trials to help older adults age healthily. Outside of the lab, Stephanie is a dedicated mentor for the Pass the Plate Initiative, having founded ByteCraft to help the next generation of scientists. She is a trained classical pianist and enjoys playing tennis terribly.
Selected Awards and Honors:
National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (160k)
Ronald E McNair Graduate School Fellowship (70k)
Grinter Fellowship (10k)
Phi Eta Sigma Graduate Scholarships (13k) TEDx Talk: The Kaleidoscope of You
Selected Works:
The Influence of Intersectionality on Identity and Resilience
The Role of Identity in the Relationship between PTSD and Executive Functioning
Development of navigational affordance perception in infancy