Meet Our Team!
THE MORAL MINDS LAB WILL BE ACCEPTING GRADUATE STUDENTS!​
Lab Director:
Dr. Meltem Yucel (she/her/hers) is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Michigan State University. She completed her NIH-funded (NRSA; F32) postdoctoral research at Duke University's Department of Psychology and Neuroscience. She received her Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Virginia in 2021.

Dr. Yucel is interested in the development of social cognition and morality. Using behavioral, eye-tracking, pupillometry, and social network analysis methods, she investigates how people, both young and old, make sense of different norms and those who violate them.​
Lab/Recruitment Coordinator
Abigail Brooke
Abigail Brooke is the lab manager/recruitment coordinator for the Moral Minds Lab. She is a psychology major with minors in cognitive science and human behavior & social services. Her research interest is in the intersection of severe mental illnesses and race, class, and gender. After undergrad, she plans to pursue a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. 
Postbaccalaureate Research Assistants:
Sema Merve Balçık
Merve is a virtual research assistant in the Moral Minds Lab. She has completed an M.A. in Developmental Psychology. Her research interests center on understanding how children develop social-cognitive skills, particularly in relation to fairness, cooperation, and moral decision-making, and how these processes are shaped by cultural and contextual factors. She is especially interested in exploring these processes from a cross-cultural perspective, examining how children’s moral reasoning and prosocial behavior are influenced by norms across different cultural contexts. She is planning to pursue a Ph.D. in the near future.​
Emily Foltz​ (MSU 2025)
Emily is a postbacc Research Assistant in the Moral Minds Lab. She is interested in exploring child cognition and perception development. Specifically, she is fascinated by the influence of cultural identity, beliefs, and norms on children's attitudes towards their surroundings. She is excited to utilize her understanding of child development in her future career as a pediatric occupational therapist.
Undergraduate Research Assistants:
Haley Butkovich​
Haley is an undergraduate Research Assistant in the Moral Minds Lab. ​She is majoring in psychology with a minor in health promotion. She plans to pursue the fields of clinical and health psychology. Using the skills and knowledge she has gained from the lab and her undergrad, she plans to continue her education after receiving a B.S. in Psychology.​
Kennedy Kaliszewski
​Kennedy is an undergraduate Research Assistant in the Moral Minds Lab. As a senior majoring in Psychology and Criminal Justice, she is passionate about combining the two fields to better understand the development of morality. She intends to continue her education after graduation, studying Occupational Therapy and working with juveniles.
Mia Nunez
Mia is an undergraduate Research Assistant in the Moral Minds Lab. She has always been passionate about learning how children learn, behave, and feel.  Continuing with her studies, she is striving towards becoming a clinical child psychologist where she will support and treat the behavioral and emotional issues of children.
Avery Shippe
Avery is an undergraduate Research Assistant in the Moral Minds Lab. Alongside studying psychology, Avery has a great interest in how children's minds work. Always having had an interest in how the brain works, she aims to use the skills learned from her education further in her post-grad studies.
Teagan Carty
Teagan is an undergraduate Research Assistant within the Moral Minds Lab. She is currently studying psychology at Michigan State. Social cognition, decision making and the development of moral thinking are her particular areas of intrigue. She plans to gain valuable insight from research and her classes in order to pursue higher education in the field following graduation.
Aayla Qureshi
Aayla is an undergraduate Research Assistant in the Moral Minds Lab. She is majoring in Psychology with a minor in Law, Justice, and Public Policy. She has great interest in Child Development Psychology, and what drives the behaviors and decisions of children. Additionally, she is passionate about the brain mechanisms behind mental disorders and strives to improve mental health outcomes through her work. She hopes to use the skills gained from her undergrad and research experience to further her studies to one day become a Clinical Child Psychologist.


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