Hi there! My name is Elena Vidrascu. I am a wife and mother to two fur children, Maple and Ella, and a baby boy. I currently work as a Data Scient at the Winston Center in Chapel Hill.
The knowledge from all of my education, combined with personal experiences with myself and others who have lived experience with addiction, has helped me understand how alcohol and substances affect our body and brain in a multitude of ways. I have primarily studied the effects of binge drinking alcohol during adolescence on flexible behavior in adulthood, and what factors play a role in how rigid or flexible our behavior is. In addition to sharing some of these findings with you, I hope to more generally share research findings on goal-directed versus habitual behavior. Habits (like routine behavior) can be beneficial, but they can also be maladaptive if inflexible, leading to behaviors that we don’t realize we are doing more automatically, or involuntarily. Inflexible behavior is not only the root of many disorders, such as obesity and addiction, but can also prevent anyone from achieving healthy goals.
Through my own and other’s research, I hope to share insight into how mindfulness, exercise, nutrition, sleep, and other healthy behaviors can support goal-directed behavior.
My ultimate life goal? Develop an intervention for preventing alcohol & substance use among youth.
Education:
PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Psychology & Neuroscience)
MS, Wake Forest University (Physiology/Pharmacology)
BS, Bucknell University (Neuroscience)
Certifications:
Mindfulness Meditation Instructor (certified through the Mindfulness Institute for Emerging Adults)
Family:
tuneinjuntos.com 