Larissa Del Piero is a doctoral candidate in the Clinical Science area of the University of Southern California Psychology Ph.D. program. Larissa’s research explores the impact of violence exposure on cognitive processes and emotion regulation. Before coming to USC, Larissa worked at the UCLA Brain Mapping Center studying social and emotional development during early adolescence using neuropsychological assessment, hormone analysis, and neuroimaging. Her masters project examined the relationship between exposure to community violence, psychological distress, and academic performance during middle and high school. In 2010, she received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to study the relationship between violence exposure, cortisol reactivity, and performance on standardized tests of fluid intelligence. She is currently working on her dissertation, which uses functional magnetic resonance imaging and a novel experimental paradigm to explore cognitive control of emotions in youth who have been exposed to family violence. Clinically, Larissa has an extensive background in neuropsychological assessment and is interested in integrating mindfulness and family systems approaches into the treatment of both pediatric and adult populations with cognitive difficulties.