People
Dr. Kelly Miller-Wallace grew up in Easton, Pennsylvania and earned her bachelor's degree in Biology at Cornell University with a minor in Music. At Cornell she researched prairie vole behavior in the lab of Dr. Alex Ophir. In 2020 she completed her PhD in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior at the University of Texas at Austin. Her dissertation explored social decision-making in fish, advised by Dr. Hans Hofmann & Dr. Mike Ryan. In 2021 she conducted postdoctoral research in the lab of Dr. Aubrey Kelly at Emory University with the funding of an NSF PRFB, where she investigated early life social development in the communal spiny mouse. In 2024 she joined the Amherst College Department of Biology & Program in Neuroscience. Please click here for Dr. Wallace's CV
When she's not staring at fish brains, you can find Dr. Wallace ice skating or growing ground cherries in her garden.
Dr. Elaine Aquino Vasquez is a research technician in the Wallace Lab. Dr. Aquino Vasquez completed her PhD at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her doctoral research on neural regeneration following brain injury assessed the effects of various therapeutic treatments on microglia morphology.
Amherst College undergraduate researchers in the Wallace Lab (former and current!):
Olivia Chima Anyanka (thesis student, 2026)
Evan Yang (thesis student, 2026)
Sunnie Noh (thesis student, 2025)
Sasha Heywood (thesis student, 2025)
Ayres Warren
Sura Zhang
Dominion Femi-Jegede
Temidayo Bambe
Former Lab Members:
Dr. Jeremy Spool conducted postdoctoral research in the Wallace Lab in 2025. His work explored how repeated territorial competitions influenced neurogenesis patterns in Betta fish. Prior to joining the Wallace Lab, Dr. Spool completed his PhD at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. His doctoral research studied how limited resources and hormones affect the brain and behavior in Eurpoean starlings and Common Loons. Dr. Spool then conducted postdoctoral research at UMass Amherst to understand how social auditory information reaches hormone-sensitive brain regions in Zebra finches. Dr. Spool is now a Lecturer in Neurobiology at University of Massachusetts Amherst.
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