Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior

Emma PeConga graduated from Dartmouth College in 2016 with a B.A. in psychology and women and gender studies. After graduation, Emma worked as a postbaccalaureate research coordinator at New York University. In 2017, she received a Fullbright Research Scholarship to study refugee mental health in Copenhagen at the Danish Institute Against Torture.  She then pursued her doctoral training in clinical psychology at the University of Washington under the mentorship of Dr. Lori Zoellner studying the etiology and treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Emma’s graduate research centered on cognitive mechanisms (i.e., autobiographical, working memory) that may contribute to the maintenance of PTSD, particularly following sexual assault. During graduate school, she also received extensive training in Dialectical Behavior Therapy and taught multiple undergraduate courses on PTSD and other anxiety disorders. Her work has been supported by numerous funding sources, including the American Psychological Association Division 56 (Trauma Psychology), the American Psychological Foundation, and the University of Washington Royalty Research Fund. Her work has also been reported on by the press, including in a feature by Psychology Today and The Seattle Times. Emma is completing her clinical psychology pre-doctoral internship in the Adult Track at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. While on internship, she has worked under the research mentorship of Drs. Christy Capone and Erica Eaton, examining MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD and co-occurring alcohol use disorder. After completing internship, Emma will join the Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety at University of Pennsylvania as a postdoctoral fellow.