About Our Lab

    Our lab is committed to fostering a diverse and positive learning environment. To this end, we aim to:

    • provide a safe, equitable, and inclusive environment through deliberate actions.
    • celebrate our differences and use them better our science.
    • respect individual needs, styles, and career goals and mentor accordingly.

    We demonstrate this by:

    Acknowledging that medicine and medical research has a history of bias, inequity, neglect, direct harm against marginalized groups of people. Race has no genetic basis.

    Rejecting all forms of prejudice and discrimination, including those based on age, color, ability, gender, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, health, and veteran status.

    Confronting prejudice or bias when we see it. Taking responsibility to help eliminate bias and discrimination and for increasing our own understanding of these issues through education, training, and interaction with others.

    Affirming the right of each person to express thoughts and opinions freely and safely, and be heard.

    Encouraging open expression within a climate of civility, sensitivity, and mutual respect. Solutions to difficult problems require different perspectives and backgrounds, we strive to continuously intentionally cultivate culturally diverse and multidisciplinary voices for this lab.

    Respecting the community that we are surrounded by, including the FBRI, VTC and Carilion Clinic and the region in which we work.

    Seeking, through our work in human factors and healthcare, ways to further understand and acknowledge the inherent bias that we have, and identifying active ways to address these biases.

    OUR TEAM

    Dr. Sarah Parker is the Chair of Health Systems and Implementation Science at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. She has over 15 years of experience applying human factors and industrial/organizational psychology principles to healthcare. Sarah Parker received her BA in psychology from Wittenberg University in Springfield, OH and her MA in human factors and applied cognition from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. Prior to pursuing her PhD, she worked at Mayo Clinic applying human factors principles to various inpatient quality and safety challenges. She then pursued her PhD at University of Aberdeen in Scotland. Sarah was a Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Fellow, focusing on team coordination during trauma resuscitation in the National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare at MedStar Health. Her research has been funded by the NIH, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, CDC, NSF and many other local and national foundations. Lastly, Sarah and her husband Michael are the parents of three great kids, Layla, Jack and Miles.

    Franklin Edwards

    PhD candidate in the Translational Biology Medicine and Health program, Virginia Tech

    Frankie’s research interest revolves around the study of implementation practices and rural health. His current project involves developing simulation scenarios relevant to opioid overdose emergencies and creating a measurement tool for the assessment of healthcare professionals and laypersons in opioid overdose resuscitation. Franklin enjoys hiking, tennis, and traveling.

    Vivian Zagarese, PhD

    PhD, Virginia Tech

    Vivian is a post-doc in the Parker Lab. Her research interests revolve around the study of leadership and teamwork in high stress environments. She received her PhD in Industrial and Organizational Psychology at Virginia Tech in December 2022. Her dissertation examined shared leadership, psychological safety, and trust in the cardiac operating room and team interactions during the surgical time out. Vivian lived in Italy, France, and Spain, and likes to travel.

    Merly Konathapally

    Virginia Tech Carilion Medical student, University of Virginia

    Merly is interested in public health and human factors research. She is currently working with Dr. Parker on interventions to improve linkage-to-care in patients with Hepatitis C. Merly is originally from Virginia Beach, and enjoy traveling to beaches, painting, and cooking.

    Allison Straus

    Medical Student, Virginia Tech

    Allison is currently a part of the Factors in Opioid Overdose Response: Simulation and Evaluation (FORSE) research team, aimed at developing opioid overdose simulation scenarios and creating an assessment tool to measure the efficacy of rescuer performance. Allison is a California native, hailing from the Bay Area, and enjoys the beach, physical fitness of all types, and a great cup of coffee.

    Adam Jacobowitz

    Medical Student, B.S., Biomedical Engineering, Ohio State University

    Adam is currently working on sepsis detection and treatment.

    Whitney DeLong

    Program Manager, Department of Health Systems and Implementation Science, Virginia Tech

    Whitney holds a BA in Psychology and supports Dr. Parker in in her different roles along with her lab. Whitney enjoys being a mom to her three children and 3 dogs.

    Nate Jones

    Director of Business Strategy, Human Factors and Center for Simulation, Research and Patient Safety, Carilion Clinic

    Nate has his MHA and is a certified project manager. In his free time, Nate enjoys spending time with his family and playing volleyball.

    Laurie Wolf, PhD

    Director of Human Factors Implementation, Carilion Clinic

    Laurie is a Certified Professional Ergonomist with a PhD in Human Factors & Ergonomics. Laurie enjoys spending time with her son, hiking, and traveling.

    Yuhao Peng

    Human Factors Specialist, Carilion Clinic

    Yuhao received his M.S. in Industrial Engineering, with a specialization in Human Factors and Statistics. In his free time, you can find Yuhao either hiking, traveling, or drinking bubble tea.

    Harsh Sanghavi

    Human Factors Consultant, Carilion Clinic

    Harsh received his M.S. in Industrial and Systems Engineering with a focus on Human Factors Engineering and Ergonomics. Outside of work, Harsh enjoys playing tennis, cooking, and watching football.

    Faculty Affiliates

    Dr. Francis C. (Frank) Dane is a social psychologist (Ph.D., University of Kansas, 1979) whose research encompasses group dynamics, mindfulness, mathematical models of medical outcomes, and environmental determinants of learning through simulation. One specific focus of his research are the dynamics of ad hoc performance ensembles or temporary, recurring teams whose members come together for a specific task, such as in-hospital resuscitation or surgery, and then disband until needed again. He is also highly interested in Psychological Fidelity, the perception of how a simulation experience compares to the actual experience as well as developing statistical models of medical outcomes. In addition to being Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Radford University, he holds secondary faculty appointments at Mercer University School of Medicine (Macon, GA) and Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine (Roanoke, VA). Dr. Dane is a member of the Board of Directors of the Mindfulness Institute of the Roanoke Valley and the Board of Directors of the Virginia State Simulation Alliance. In addition to charter memberships in the Association for Psychological Science and the Virginia State Simulation Alliance, he is a member of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Honor Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Society for Simulation in Healthcare, and is a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society. He also serves on the Editorial Boards of Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, Critical Care, and Simulation in Healthcare.
    Dr. Lauren Kennedy-Metz is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Roanoke College.  She is an alum of Roanoke College, graduating in 2014 with a BS in Psychology, minor in Creative Writing, and concentration in Neuroscience.  From there, she joined the Translational Biology, Medicine, and Health PhD program at Virginia Tech and completed her PhD with a concentration in Neuroscience under the mentorship of Dr. Sarah Henrickson Parker in 2018.  She went on to complete a postdoc with Dr. Marco Zenati at Harvard Medical School and the VA Boston, until joining the faculty at Roanoke College in the summer of 2022.
     At Roanoke, Lauren teaches psychology and neuroscience undergraduate courses and directs her lab focused on psychophysiological measurement, assessment, and intervention related to how various populations experience and cope with stressors in their environment.  Examples of student-led projects to date include literature reviews (e.g., summarizing lab-based stress-inducing tasks common in psychological research and investigating the stressors faced by first responders in the line of duty) and experimental approaches (e.g., psychophysiological responses to a popular horror video game comparing PC vs. VR delivery, frontal hemodynamic responses to nicotine-related cues, cardiovascular responses to stressors representing varying difficulties, and time to coherence using heart rate variability biofeedback methodology).  Broader interests involve leveraging psychophysiological sensors to characterize and optimize stress responses in various domains, including but not limited to police force, school settings, healthcare, and others.