Donna Dierker

Increasingly, my interests are turning to helping people prevent and overcome addiction. My work with MM has increased my confidence that social connection can help prevent bad habits from turning into addiction. Since my volunteer work with MM began in January 2009, my involvement has steadily increased, and connections with the social network there have tightened and increased. Making a difference feels really good. At the same time, I have been working in neuroimaging for 16 years, and I love it. The people I work with are brilliant, fun, and warm. I want to keep working with them! In particular, I enjoy working on studies involving pediatric subjects -- feeling like I am making a difference in kids' lives. Disorders like autism are very interesting to me, so I would love to remain engaged in that line of work. I enjoy working with cutting edge tools like PALM, which offers nonparametric statistics for the general linear model and models family structure. The best of both worlds would be to keep doing both things. Helping people understand the importance of rotating treats (sweets, alcohol, TV, etc.) may help people prevent a substance or activity from dominating their reward circuit.