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Joey Ka-Yee Essoe

Joey Ka-Yee Essoe (劉家宜) received her Ph.D. in Psychology from UCLA (major: cognitive neuroscience; minor: quantitative psychology), with expertise in learning and memory enhancement using tools such as virtual reality and neuroimaging. She has nearly 10 years of experience developing and using VR in research with young human participants. 

Dr. Essoe’s research at the Center for OCD, Anxiety, and Related Disorders for Children (COACH), at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, focuses on enhancing therapeutic learning in behavior therapy for youth with neuropsychiatric conditions, using tools such as gameful learning, virtual reality, mobile apps, and neurophysiology. 

She is also a first-generation immigrant and university student, is devoted to cultivating the next generation of scientists, and is a strong believer in living a full life in addition to one’s scientific work—she is an active member, teacher, and vocalist at her church, adoring wife to an editor of sci-fi/fantasy novels, aspiring godmother to at least three infants/toddlers, and she enjoys cooking and writing novels. 

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