{"id":2223,"date":"2015-05-11T18:18:29","date_gmt":"2015-05-11T22:18:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/med.sites.unc.edu\/psych\/oasis\/research\/research-staff-1\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T13:48:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T18:48:20","slug":"staff","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/psych\/oasis\/research\/staff\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the PRIME Staff!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Current Staff<\/h2>\n

Diana Perkins, MPH, MD<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Principal Investigator<\/em><\/p>\n

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\"Staff<\/span>For the past 20 years, Dr. Perkins has been funded by the NIMH to research psychosis risk prediction and early intervention, as well as investigations of the genetic basis of schizophrenia. She is currently the site Principal Investigator for ProNET, part of the AMP-SCZ program. She is the director for the ProNET project’s genetics and biospecimen core, overseeing the sample collection and biobanking at 28 different research sites. Learn more about ProNET<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dr. Perkins continues to have a strong interest in developing a genetics research program. She is UNC site investigator on a multi-site NIH grant headed by Carlos Pato that will collect DNA from 10,000 schizophrenia and 10,000 unaffected subjects. In addition to contributing blood samples to the NIMH, a UNC biospecimen repository was established to store DNA, total blood RNA, plasma, and cryopreserving white blood cells. Dr. Perkins has discovered a method of culturing small pluripotent stem cells from peripheral blood. The plan is to transdifferentiate these cell lines to neuronal stem cells with the aim of studying the genetics of neurodevelopment in schizophrenia. Dr. Perkins continues to work with developing protocols to study neuronal stem cells from the olfactory epithelium and investigating microRNAs in schizophrenia. Learn more about PRIME’s research affiliates<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In addition to her research, Dr. Perkins is also the Director of the Early Psychosis Intervention Advisors of North Carolina. Learn more about EPI-NC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Jennifer M. Nieri, MSW, LCSW<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Research Faculty & Lead Clinician<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"Ms. Nieri received her B.A. in Sociology in May of 1991 from Washington College, Chesterfield, MD and her MSW in Clinical Mental Heath in May of 1996 from the University of Maryland at Baltimore. Her extensive Social Work training includes the Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital in Towson, MD, and the University of MD Community Psychiatry in Baltimore. Ms. Nieri worked as a Taylor Manor Hospital Clinician from 1996-98 in Ellicott City, MD, after which she joined <\/span>University of North Carolina’s Department of Psychiatry Staff. <\/span>As a Clinical Social Worker, Ms. Nieri served with distinction as a key member of the Schizophrenia Treatment and Evaluation Program (STEP) from 1998-2001, when she then accepted her current rank as Faculty. <\/span>Ms. Nieri is an active clinician and researcher, with a current focus on the prodromal phase of schizophrenia. She has functioned as the assistant director of the Clinical and Functional Outcomes Assessment Unit of the NIMH funded CATIE Project, responsible for clinician rater training at the 54 participating sites involved in this multicenter project. She has also helped develop educational and cognitive behavioral therapy materials for patients with psychotic disorders and their family members. Her interests involve first episode and early intervention treatments and community education and awareness of psychotic disorders. She is a member of the International Early Psychosis Association. She has several publications to her credit including a chapter in the textbook <\/span>Comprehensive Care of Schizophrenia.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Currently, Ms. Nieri serves as the lead clinician for the PRIME program, overseeing the majority of recruitment and clinical data collection for all current studies.<\/p>\n

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Rachel Bleggi, B.S.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Research Program Manager<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"Rachel received her B.S. in Psychology with a Neuroscience minor from UNC Chapel Hill. After spending the majority of her undergraduate career working in the UNC Department of Psychiatry’s NIRL Lab as a research assistant, she developed a passion for early psychosis research. During her time with NIRL, she assisted with data collection for the NAPLS 3 and CogNIT projects. She joined PRIME in early 2021 as a Research Assistant where she helped in the site startup for ProNET and acted as the Administrative Coordinator for EPI-NC. Rachel is currently the Research Program Manager for PRIME, overseeing the participant coordination, study visits, and new staff training. She is also one of the lead contacts for the ProCAN Biospecimen core, assisting with the training and coordination of sample collection and biobanking. Rachel supervises PRIME\u2019s undergraduate work study students during the academic year. Learn more about the PRIME’s Undergraduate Work Study Program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Calli Holshouser-McDaniel, B.A.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Clinical Research Participant Coordinator<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"Calli was born and raised in Cornelius, North Carolina. She first attended University of North Carolina at Charlotte then transferred to Western Carolina University her junior year of college. Calli graduated with a B.S. in Psychology with a minor in Criminal Justice. While she was in undergrad, Calli was a research assistant in the Psychology department and worked directly with Dr. Alvin Malesky and Dr. Cathy Grist studying the correlation between academic integrity and personality types. Calli joined the PRIME lab at UNC Chapel Hill in February 2023 as a clinical research assistant. Currently, she works alongside Jennifer Nieri managing recruitment, screening, and clinical assessments for all current studies.<\/p>\n

Calli plans to pursue her Master\u2019s in Publish Health or Women\u2019s Health and make research her full-time career. After struggling with Endometriosis and PCOS for many years, Calli would like to dedicate her career to researching the correlation between Endometriosis and mental health.<\/p>\n

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Karen Ecsedy, MSc<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator<\/em><\/p>\n

Karen received her B.S. in Performance Arts Studies and a minor in Psychology from Lees-McRae College. She then went on to get her MSc. in Research Methods in Psychology from Swansea University. During her time at Swansea, she worked with Dr. John Towler in his phonoagoisa lab and with Dr. Simon Dymond\u2019s Fear lab, where she did her dissertation on fear distinction and extinction training. Karen comes to UNC after five years as a data collector and then project supervisor for Dr. Doug Teti\u2019s SIESTA Family Foundations project at Penn State. While working there, she was able to co-author \u201c \u2018Ultimately we\u2019re together\u2019: Understanding New Parents\u2019 Experiences of Co-parenting\u201d which will be published in PACM HCI in 2024. While she has worked in various fields, Karen would like to delve more deeply into her passion of agnosia research and is excited to be back working in quantitative research. Currently, Karen is the lead coordinator for the Long-term Follow-up Project and works closely with participants on ProNET. She also supervises work study students during the academic year.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Looking for a former team member? Click here!<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Current Staff Diana Perkins, MPH, MD Principal Investigator For the past 20 years, Dr. Perkins has been funded by the NIMH to research psychosis risk prediction and early intervention, as well as investigations of the genetic basis of schizophrenia. She is currently the site Principal Investigator for ProNET, part of the AMP-SCZ program. She is … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99519,"featured_media":0,"parent":2217,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-2223","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","odd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMeet the PRIME Staff! - OASIS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/psych\/oasis\/research\/staff\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meet the PRIME Staff! - OASIS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Current Staff Diana Perkins, MPH, MD Principal Investigator For the past 20 years, Dr. Perkins has been funded by the NIMH to research psychosis risk prediction and early intervention, as well as investigations of the genetic basis of schizophrenia. 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