Graduate Students

Elizabeth (Ellie) Zambrano, M.A.

Ellie is in her third year of doctoral studies in Health Psychology. She is originally from Mexico, but is very excited to be exploring Canada. Her research interest are directed at healthy aging and how to improve quality of life for older adults. Specifically, she is interested in individual and partner factors (e.g., solitude or gratitude) that promote health behaviours (i.e., physical activity and nutrition) and well-being (i.e., daily affect).

Email: ezambrano@psych.ubc.ca

 

Juhyeong Lee (Jay), M.A.

Jay is in his first year of doctoral studies in Health Psychology. He aims to eliminate prevalent societal ageism and to identify older adults’ psychological resources that can enhance their health promotion behaviors and social participation despite ageism. He is interested in how adults shape their future time perspectives differently. He aspires to identify the social, cultural, and structural factors that can potentially impact the shaping of adults’ future time perspectives, which may influence their health during the aging process.

 

Sierra Birthelmer, M.A.

Sierra is a first-year master’s student in Health Psychology. Her research interests focus on improving the health and well-being of older adults. Specifically, she is interested in identifying social resources, as well as physical and cognitive activities that promote well-being and quality of life in this population. Additionally, she is interested in examining how partners influence these daily health behaviors.

 

 

Yoonseok Choi, M.A.

Yoonseok is in his fourth year of doctoral studies in Health Psychology. He completed his M.A. in Social Psychology at Sogang University, Korea, where he studied cross-cultural differences in the role of positive and negative affects in goal process. His current interests focus on 1) age differences in affect structure and its implication in emotional well-being; 2) sources of affect variability by looking into the role of both internal characteristics (e.g., personality, emotional ability, etc.) and external environments (e.g., different types of activity, social relationship, culture, etc.); and 3) diverse methods used to analyze intensive longitudinal data. Yoonseok received the Faculty of Arts Graduate Award for 2020.

Email: ychoi@psych.ubc.ca