Our Core Team
Saida Heshmati, PhD (Principal Investigator)
Assistant Professor of Psychology at Claremont Graduate University. Saida Heshmati is a positive developmental psychologist interested in how optimal development unfolds over time in diverse samples, especially in at-risk adults. Using her expertise in positive relationships and love, positive education, human development, and state-of-the-art analytical methods, she examines authentic or embedded assessments of large datasets related to individual and group characteristics that influence everyday well-being and positive development.
Zita Oravecz, PhD (Co-Principal Investigator)
Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Penn State University. Zita Oravecz brings her expertise in research methods and love itself to the team. She has developed frameworks and statistical tools for scientists to study emotions and cognition in daily life.
Jaymes Paolo Rombaoa, MA (Graduate Research Associate)
PhD student in Positive Developmental Psychology at Claremont Graduate University. He has broad research interests in topics such as well-being, emotions, emerging adulthood, and love; also, he loves learning and using unique research methods, such as experience sampling methods, bibliometric methods, and multilevel modeling
Lindy Williams, MS (Graduate Research Associate)
PhD Student in Human Development and Family Studies at Penn State University. Her research interests include measuring and modeling love using both cross-sectional and longitudinal data across romantic and non-romantic contexts.
Reina Alvarez (Project Coordinator)
MFA Student in the School of Arts and Humanities at Claremont Graduate University. Has had experience in project management within international business psychology consulting firms and coordinated events for global finance and nonprofit organizations.
Stewart I. Donaldson (Scientific Advisor)
Stewart I. Donaldson is a distinguished university professor, the executive director of the university’s Claremont Evaluation Center (CEC), and executive director of The Evaluators’ Institute (TEI). He is deeply committed to improving lives through research, evaluation, and education. As an immigrant born overseas and now a naturalized US citizen, Professor Donaldson has traveled extensively and especially enjoys working on cross-cultural and international topics with students who have diverse backgrounds and perspectives from all across the globe
Research Assistants
Saina Salamati (Undergraduate Research Assistant / Intern)
Saina is an undergraduate researcher at the University of California, Irvine, majoring in Psychological Science (B.A. 2024). She is finishing her bachelor’s and looking into applying to multiple graduate schools at the moment. She’s interested in clinical and positive psychology, and she loves love!
Catalina Oselio (Graduate Research Assistant)
PhD student in Positive Developmental Psychology at Claremont Graduate University. Her research interests surround love, resilience, and creativity. She plans to pursue a career in academia and working with people for people, not working with people on people–with a particular interest in understanding how love can be expressed both to oneself and to others.
Baohua Liu, MA (Graduate Research Assistant)
PhD student in Positive Developmental Psychology at Claremont Graduate University. Her research interests include close relationships, positive education, and resilience especially among adolescents and emerging adults. She firmly believes that love/positive social connections are the core strength and resilience of an individual, which may have a profound impact on one’s well-being across the lifespan.
Andrew Villamil, MA, MFT (Graduate Research Assistant)
PhD student in Positive Developmental Psychology at Claremont Graduate University. He completed his first Master's Degree in Clinical Psychology and training in Therapy. His research interests include well-being, emotions, technology, Identity, young adulthood, and love. He also has unique research experience in cross-cultural, mixed methods, and community-based participatory research.
Collaborators
Consultants
Love Science & Theory Consultant: Barbara Fredrickson, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Religion Sciences Consultant: Sonam Kachru, Yale University
Ethnography/Fieldwork Consultant: Martín Sánchez-Jankowski, University of California, Berkeley
CAQDA (Computational Qualitative Data Analysis) Consultant: Corey Abramson, Rice University
Local Research Partner Collaborators
Spain: Pandelis Perakakis, Associate Professor, Faculty of Psychology, Complutense University of Madrid
Japan: Kaori Uno, President of the Japan Positive Psychology Association
India: Nandita Babu, Professor, Delhi University
Brazil: Vicente Cassepp-Borges, Professor, Faculty of Psychology, Universidade Federal Fluminense
Saudi Arabia: Sarah Osailan, Faculty and Department Chair, Effat College of Business, Effat University
Kenya: Carolyne Chakua, Lecturer in Psychology at Moi University, Chair of Positive Psychology Association in Kenya
