Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior

Isabella Wright earned a B.S. in psychology and an M.S. in clinical psychology from Brigham Young University and completed her doctoral training there under Kara Duraccio, Ph.D. Her research focuses on pediatric sleep, examining links between sleep quality and quantity and athletic performance, with emphasis on intervention development and implementation science. She defended her dissertation at the end of her third year and contributed to cross-sectional, experimental, and randomized controlled trials across diverse pediatric populations, using multimethod sleep assessment approaches. During graduate training, she received the Ella Carter Jensen Scholarship to support her dissertation and was honored with the Excellence in Research Award by BYU faculty. She also served as a student representative on her program’s admissions committee and on the Society of Pediatric Psychology Sleep SIG leadership committee. Isabella matched as one of two pediatric psychology residents in the clinical psychology pre-doctoral internship at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, a goal set in her first year of graduate school. At Brown, she collaborated with Jared Saletin, Ph.D., and Mary Carskadon, Ph.D., examining attention and hyperactivity in youth with ADHD and performance on the PVT during experimental sleep restriction. Bella published four manuscripts during internship. She will begin a competitive T32 fellowship in Child Behavior and Nutrition at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, working with Dean Beebe, Ph.D., and Stephen Becker, Ph.D., while providing clinical care in specialized sleep clinics. Isabella is deeply grateful to her husband, Matt, her parents, and Kara Duraccio, Ph.D., for their support.