Mentor: Carla Mazefsky, PhD
Dr. Ligia Antezana is a clinical psychologist by training. She completed her undergraduate studies at Temple University, and earned her Master of Science and Doctorate in Psychology from Virginia Tech. She completed her pre-doctoral clinical psychology internship at University of Pittsburgh/UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital. As a Post-doctoral fellow in the IMPACT T32 program, Dr. Antezana is working under the mentorship of Dr. Carla Mazefsky to continue her research focus in autistic people. She is specifically interested in how salient information is processed via underlying neural mechanisms of cognitive control and emotion regulation. Additionally, Dr. Antezana is interested in how these mechanisms are linked to co-occurring symptoms, self-injurious thoughts and behaviors, and how they relate to treatment outcomes.