Our Team

Crystal Schiller, Ph.D., SWAN Lab Director, Clinical Psychologist, Associate Professor

Crystal Schiller is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry in the UNC School of Medicine and a licensed clinical psychologist with expertise in reproductive-related mood disorders. Dr. Schiller also serves as Associate Director of the UNC Center for Women’s Mood Disorders and Director of the UNC School of Medicine Psychology Internship Program. Her NIH-funded program of research focuses on the use of experimental models to determine the effects of reproductive hormones on brain function, neurochemistry, and mood symptoms in women. Her secondary line of research is focused on improving access to high-quality mental healthcare for perinatal women. 

Dr. Schiller provides training in assessment and evidence-based treatments for reproductive-related mood disorders, with a focus on third wave behavior therapies (e.g., Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Behavioral Activation Therapy). She also provides training and supervision of clinical research assessments, including the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5 (SCID-5), Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI), Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI), and Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (CSSRS).

Dr. Schiller also provides behavior therapy to women with perinatal mood and anxiety disorders and those transitioning to menopause. In addition, she provides evidence-based therapy focused on improving wellbeing to healthcare workers at UNC Health.

Margo Nathan, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor

Dr. Nathan is a faculty member in the UNC Center for Women’s Mood Disorders Program and is a physician researcher.  She completed medical school at the University of Maryland, psychiatry residency and chief year at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, and fellowship in women’s mental health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Clinically, she directs the Midlife Mood Disorder Clinic, is an outpatient psychiatrist in the Center for Women’s Mood Disorders and is a consulting psychiatrist for NC Maternal Mental Health Matters (NC MATTERS). Her research interests are focused on characterizing affective disorders and distress in midlife women, and the impact of these conditions on adverse medical outcomes.

Danielle A. Swales, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow

Danielle Swales is a postdoctoral fellow in the Reproductive Mood Disorders T32 program in the Center for Women’s Mood Disorders at UNC. She received her Ph.D. in Clinical Child Psychology from the University of Denver and completed her internship at Children’s Hospital Colorado. Danielle is passionate about perinatal mental health and using science to discover new ways to support the wellbeing of women and children. In her free time, she enjoys being outdoors, playing frisbee, and spending time with her pup Benji.

Julianna Prim, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow

Julianna’s research investigates the physiological, neural, and behavioral contributions to development of depressive symptoms and working to develop new early identification and prevention paradigms. She is interested in clinical translation of objective physiological measures and assessments to monitor affective state and implement targeted remote interventions to improve feasibility and sustainability. Her research has focused in several clinical populations including chronic pain, traumatic brain injury, and depression using neuroimaging and heart rate variability measures to understand, assess, and design interventions. Julianna is also investigating the role of reproductive steroid hormones in time of hormone variability (perinatal and perimenopausal) in depression development and underlying neural mechanisms.  

Melissa Walsh, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow

Melissa is a postdoctoral fellow in the Psychiatry Department’s T32 postdoctoral training program in Reproductive Mood Disorders. She is interested in understanding and developing interventions to improve mood and cognition in women at risk for reproductive-related psychiatric and neurological disorders. In particular, she is interested in potential linkages between menopause and risk for Alzheimer’s Disease and ways to intervene or reduce risk for women entering the transition to menopause. Outside of research, she is a dedicated mama to two beautiful little girls as well as a student and teacher of yoga.

Erin Bondy, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow

Erin is a postdoctoral fellow in the UNC Center for Women’s Mood Disorders who works on the PEEPS study. She received her PhD from the Clinical Science program at Washington University in St. Louis with a certificate in quantitative data analysis. She completed in her clinical internship at UNC Chapel Hill in the Affective Neuroscience track. Erin’s research has focused on how inflammation and immune-related processes impact reward processing deficits associated with depression and anhedonia. She is interested in understanding how hormonal and immune-related interactions during reproductive transitions influence neural pathways implicated in psychiatric disorders. In her free time, Erin enjoys running, hiking, and attempting to train her two dogs, Zephyr and Denver.

Kate Gibson, BS, Research Coordinator and Project Manager

Kate is a clinical research coordinator in the UNC Center for Women’s Mood Disorders. She graduated with her bachelor’s degree in Psychology with a minor in Neuroscience at UNC Chapel Hill, where she began working as a research assistant in a neuroimaging based lab as an undergraduate. Her research interests are focused in understanding the underlying neural mechanisms behind mood disorders as well as supporting women’s mental health. Outside of research, Kate enjoys traveling, hiking, baking, and spending time with her cat, Dexter.

Samantha Hellberg, MA, PhD Candidate in Clinical Psychology, Graduate Research Assistant 

Samantha is a 5^th year graduate student at UNC Chapel Hill. She graduated with a BA in Psychology from Wesleyan University and served as the Program Coordinator for the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Disorder, before beginning her PhD in Clinical Psychology at UNC. Her research interests center on reproductive mental health, with a focus the perinatal period. She is particularly interested in emotion distress and dysregulation, and traumatic stress. Samantha aims to use technology and person-centered methods to improve our ability to predict, prevent, and treat perinatal mental health concerns. Long-term, she hopes her research can inform the development of personalized, smartphone-based interventions that can increase access to high-quality support during pregnancy, postpartum, and the transition to parenthood. Outside of research, she enjoys making fresh pasta, baking, hiking with her dog Hazelnut, and teaching yoga.

Lis Bernhardt, RN

Before entering the doctoral program at UNC School of Nursing, Lis received a Bachelor’s Degree in Neuroscience from Mount Holyoke College and was working as a Registered Nurse in the Neuroscience Department at Duke Medical Center. Her prior research experience started at Columbia University and eventually brought her to the Raleigh-Durham area. Lis’ lab focused on the efficacy and safety of brain stimulation interventions for depression and mood disorders. This work inspired her interest in self-regulation and mood, and what role hormones might play in this picture. As a Royster fellow and member of the Swan Lab, Lis’ dissertation research examines maternal symptoms of depression and anxiety during the perinatal period, characterizing how sex hormones affect mood, self-regulation and mother-child interaction patterns. In her free time she loves being around the water – whether in a pool, lake, or at the beach, swimming allows her to recharge. She is passionate about doing research that will improve our mental health system – allowing us to better recognize early symptoms of depression so we can offer equitable support to those most vulnerable.

Reese Gray, Undergraduate Research Assistant

Reese is a fourth-year undergraduate student pursuing a bachelor’s in Psychology as well as minors in Philosophy and Spanish. As a career, she is interested in exploring effective intervention methods early in development for at-risk youth. Her goal through doing this is to reduce the number of individuals likely to serve prison time or have other negative outcomes due to untreated mental illness.  In the SWAN Lab, Reese currently works on the PEEPS study as an undergraduate research assistant. Outside of classes and research, Reese enjoys taking part in several extracurricular activities, including marching band, dance, boxing, and volunteering.