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The Graduate Division and Career Services are excited to welcome a new Career Peer Advisor, Kasie Mays. Kasie is currently pursuing her PhD in Psychological & Brain Sciences with a focus on neuroscience and behavior. Read on to find out more about Kasie!
The Graduate Student Resource Center and Career Services are excited to welcome our new Career Peer Advisor, Kasie Mays. Kasie is currently pursuing her PhD in Psychological & Brain Sciences with a focus on neuroscience and behavior. Read on to find out more about Kasie!
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HER STORYHello UCSB Community! My name is Kasie (KC) and I am absolutely thrilled to be your new Graduate Career Peer! My background story is that I come from the midwest, being born and raised in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Shortly after graduating high school and thinking I had my future figured out, life showed me otherwise when my son was born 3 months premature and spent 108 days in the NICU. I decided to set my dreams aside and moved into my own home and started working full-time to support him. A few years later, with the support of friends and family, I was able to start pursuing my dreams again and obtained my BS in Psychology and Biology from the University of South Dakota. Right before I graduated, I was elated to learn that I had been accepted into the Neuroscience and Behavior PhD program at UCSB and could finally leave the cold and snow behind! Being a single mother and first-generation college student has made this one of the most challenging experiences of my life. Sometimes you have to want it and work harder than anyone else to achieve the same thing. Overall, the work ethic and discipline that I have learned to develop helps me appreciate life in a new way each day. I am now in my 5th year at UCSB and am so happy to be able to share my knowledge with you as the new Graduate Career Peer! I have an open-door policy so please do not hesitate to come talk to me. I look forward to working with you! |
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HER RESEARCHMy PhD is in the psychology and brain sciences department and in the area of neuroscience and behavior. My research looks at the brain serotonin system from an anatomical perspective. Serotonin is an incredibly diverse molecule and plays a role in many functions in both the brain and the body including psychological disorders such as depression, anxiety and autism spectrum disorder along with roles in the body such as digestion, blood clotting sexual behavior, nausea, mood, sleep, and many more. Using a transgenic mouse line, I look at the behavior of single serotonin axons (fibers) and how this behavior can influence the overall amount or density of fibers in a given region.
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FUN FACTSI have a passion for creative expression-it's truly my happy place! I was taught how to crochet when I was just 10 years old and have been creating ever since! I also started dancing when I was 3 and still dance today as a certified BollyX instructor! To add to the fun that my now 10 and 11 year old boys bring to the house, we also have three kitties and a leopard gecko! |
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HER ROLE AS A PEER
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