About Me

I am postdoctoral associate at the University of Pittsburgh studying bioengineering with a focus on using neuroimaging to study adolescent development. I received my Bachelor of Science in Bioengineering, a minor in Neuroscience, and a certificate in Conceptual Foundations of Medicine from the University of Pittsburgh, graduating in Spring 2019. During this time I was an active member of the co-ed engineering fraternity, Theta Tau, becoming vice regent in my senior year, as well as the Bio Medical Engineering Society (BMES).

View my CV

Eduation

Doctor of Philosophy, Bioengineering, NRSA F31 Fellow
University of Pittsburgh, Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (CNBC), August 2019 - August 2024
Advisor: Beatriz Luna, PhD
Dissertation: McKeon, Shane (2024) Underlying Brain Mechanisms of the PFC Excitatory Inhibitory Balance through Adolescent Cognitive Maturation. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh. The full dissertation can be found here.

Bachelor of Science, Bioengineering; Minor, Neuroscience
University of Pittsburgh, 2015 - 2019
Certificate: Conceptual Foundations of Medicine
Cumulative GPA: 3.126

Work Experience

Postdoctoral Associate
The University of Pittsburgh, Laboratory of Neurocognitive Development
Advisor: Dr. Beatriz Luna
September 2024 – Present

• Processed and extracted insights on neural timeseries information content (Multiscale entropy) from raw biological data

  

PhD Candidate, NRSA F31 Fellow
The University of Pittsburgh, Laboratory of Neurocognitive Development
Advisor: Dr. Beatriz Luna
August 2019 – August 2024

• Developed a MATLAB pipeline to assess trial level transient events of EEG activity to investigate the neural underpinnings of improved executive function during our memory guided saccade working memory task, resulting in two conference presentations and a publication in NeuroImage.
• Implemented a python pipeline to assess aperiodic resting state EEG activity to investigate EEG-derived measures of the excitatory/inhibitory balance, their associations with 7-Tesla spectroscopy measures of GABA and glutamate, and working memory, resulting in three conference presentations and a publication under review.
• Built a MATLAB protocol to calculate the evoked and spontaneous power of derived from EEG activity during an auditory steady state stimuli to assess cortical signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) as an indirect measure of the excitatory/inhibitory balance, resulting in two conference presentations and a publication in prep.
• Developing a MATLAB pipeline to assess entropy in stereoelectroencephalography (sEEG)

  

Undergraduate Research Assistant

The University of Pittsburgh, Geriatric Psychiatry Neuroimaging Lab
May 2017 – August 2019
Advisor: Howard Aizenstein, MD, PhD

• Created a nonlinear registration method to align postmortem histology samples to in-vivo T1 and T2 weighted MRIs and ex-vivo T1 weighted MRI using MATLAB and FSL to correlate in-vivo white matter hyperintensities with post-mortem histology resulting in four conference presentations.
• Developed a protocol to evaluate the segmentation performance of 3-Tesla and 7-Tesla T1-weighted images using FreeSurfer and SPM, resulting in a conference presentation.

  

The University of Pittsburgh, Clinical Applications of Neuroscience Lab
January 2018 – May 2019
Advisor: Rebecca Price, PhD

• Developed a MATLAB script that analyzed eye tracking data and reported the number of times the participant blinked, the average duration of a blink, the number of fixations, and the average time of a fixation.
• Assisted in patient recruitment for a compulsive behavior study and a depression treatment clinical trial

  

Milcarek Lab
The University of Pittsburgh
January 2016 – May 2016
Advisor: Christine Milcarek, PhD

• Hypothesized that the transition in expression of ELL3 to ELL2 is important in the development of B cells into antibody secreting plasma cells (ASCs)
• Responsible for gel electrophoresis, western blotting, and data analysis
• Used chemiluminescence to prove which cell lines contained ELL3 and/or ELL2

  

Undergraduate Research Intern
The Biomedical Institute of NJ
Cedar Knolls NJ
May 2016 – August 2016
Project: Perinatal antibiotics and their impact on the microbiome

• Responsible for gel electrophoresis, western blots, PCR and data analysis
• Participated in H&E Staining, DNA extraction and behavioral tests through a radial arm

  

Fellowships

NIH National Research Service Award (NRSA) / F31 Predoctoral Fellowship
National Institute of Mental Health
Project entitled “Brain Mechanisms Underlying Changes in Neural Oscillations through Adolescent Cognitive Maturation” (1F31MH132246-01A1)
National Institute of Mental Health
April 2023 – Present

• Three-year fellowship with $27,000 per year stipend with $16,000 per year cost of education allowance

Bioengineering in Psychiatry T32
National Institute of Mental Health
Bioengineering in Psychiatry Training Program (5T32MH119168-04)
April 2022 – Present

• One-year fellowship with $25,836/ year stipend

Awards

1. Flux Soceity Ambassador Award . Flux Society Annual Meeting. Paris, France. September, 2022.
2. Third Place Poster Award . Women in STEM Conference. Pittsburgh, PA. February 2018.
3. Swanson Undergraduate Research Internship Stipend . University of Pittsburgh. April 2017.
4. Best Undergraduate Research Paper . Freshman Engineering Conference. Pittsburgh, PA. April 2016.

Peer Reviews

1. Reviewer. Brain and Cognition. 2023
2. Ad hoc reviewer. Epilepsia. 2022
3. Ad hoc reviewer. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. 2020

Leadership and Service

Communication Committee Chair, Apr 2023 - Present
Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University and University of Pittsburgh

• Founding member of the communications committee, aimed at increasing inter organization communication and recognizing its members achievements
• Co-Editor of the inaugural CNBC newsletter recognizing new faculty members, recent publications, and awards

Social Committee Chair, Aug 2022 - Present
Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University and University of Pittsburgh

• Organized bi-monthly social events for the graduate and postdoc members of the CNBC, including starting the first CNBC book club, to bolster interpersonal relationships between the center’s members across universities
• Managed committee budget

Undergraduate Researcher Mentor, Aug 2022 – Present
Laboratory of Neurocognitive Development, University of Pittsburgh

• Mentored an undergraduate research assistant on EEG analysis using MATLAB, R Studio, and applying for a summer research stipend
• Co-run an undergraduate journal club to help the undergraduate research assistants in their science communication skills

MindHive Mentor, Jan 2021 – Apr 2021
MindHive

• Mentored high school students who were split into groups and asked to design a simple study to answer a scientific question via zoom 2-4/ week for 4-5 weeks

NICU Volunteer, October 2019 – March 2020
Magee Women’s Hospital UPMC Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

• Assist in stocking linens throughout the NICU, answer phones at reception, and helping the patient care technician in any way

Vice Regent, August 2018 – April 2019
Theta Tau Engineering Fraternity (Nu Delta Chapter), University of Pittsburgh

• Supervised all committee chair positions, assisted in event planning in meeting all national requirements and day to day operations
• Attended the 2019 National Convention as the Nu Delta Chapter representative

Teaching

Graduate Teaching Assistant, Bioinstrumentation, Spring 2019 – Fall 2020 University of Pittsburgh

• Responsible for the laboratory, writing and grading all assignments, and exams

Undergraduate Teaching Assistant, Bioinstrumentation, Spring 2018 University of Pittsburgh

• Laboratory instructor for 10 three-hour labs on circuit development

Affiliations

1. Flux Society. Spring 2020 – Present
2. Society for Psychophysiological Research. Fall 2022 - Present
3. Theta Tau Engineering Fraternity. Fall 2016 – Present
4. Biomedical Engineering Society. Fall 2015 – Fall 2019
5. Society for Neuroscience (SfN). Fall 2019 - Fall 2020

Skills

• Research Techniques: Electroencephalography (EEG), stereoelectroencephalography (sEEG), data analysis and statistics, multimodal imaging, signal processing, technical writing, scientific communication, data visualization, scripting and automation
• Programming: MATLAB, R, Python
• Software: FieldTrip, EEGLAB, Brainstorm
• Project Management: collaboration and communication, attention to detail, organization, team management, documentation, Wiki management, version control (GitHub), study participant data management (REDCap), grant writing, conference presentations