Dr. MacNeill graduated from Penn State in 2019 with a doctorate in Developmental Psychology, after which she completed a T32 NRSA postdoctoral fellowship with the Carolina Consortium on Human Development at UNC-Chapel Hill. As a developmental psychologist, Dr. MacNeill integrates family systems and biological perspectives to investigate young children’s self-regulation and social-emotional development across multiple levels of analysis. Specifically, she studies how factors extrinsic (e.g., family, adversity) and intrinsic (e.g., temperament, biology) to the child contribute to their development of self-regulation over time, as well as how these regulatory trajectories can place children at risk for mental health problems. The methods she uses to study these processes include autonomic physiology, EEG, eye-tracking, daily diaries, and observations of family interactions. Her research is also rooted in a translational approach to generate questions and tools that advance early identification of mental health problems. She is especially interested in adopting a strengths-based perspective for understanding children and their families, striving to elucidate resilience-promoting pathways toward healthy functioning for all children.

Born and raised in Massachusetts, she is an avid Red Sox and Patriots fan. You can find her chasing around her toddler, curled up with her cat and a good book, playing board games, baking, or playing Pathfinder.