Cassandra Franke

Cassandra Franke graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2021 with a B.S. in Neuroscience and Behavior, a supplemental major in Italian, and a minor in the Glynn Family Honors Program. During her time as an undergraduate, she worked in a clinical psychology lab that focused on helping families exposed to trauma, particularly pregnant women and mothers who had experienced intimate partner violence. As part of her research, Cassandra completed an honors thesis on the relationship between financial and childcare changes related to the COVID-19 pandemic and self-rated depression among pregnant women and new mothers. Outside of the lab, she also worked with a community mental health center to develop staff training modules on the neuroscience of trauma-informed care and volunteered in a therapeutic preschool program for children experiencing social and emotional developmental delays. Cassandra is currently a first-year Sara S. Sparrow Fellow in Clinical Neuroscience in the McPartland Lab. In the future, she hopes to attend graduate school and pursue a career in clinical neuroscience research.