Hello! I’m Katy (Siciliano) Goldey and I graduated from SU with a degree in Animal Behavior in 2008. As an SU student I conducted research with Dr. Guarraci on the neurobiology of mate choice in female rats, and I was also a teaching assistant for Dr. Guarraci’s research methods in psychology class. These experiences sparked my interest in research, and especially in teaching others about the research process. During the first few months after graduation, I volunteered in a sexual psychophysiology lab at the University of Texas, where I helped with a project on the effects of nicotine on women’s physiological and psychological sexual arousal. Since 2009, I’ve been a Ph.D. student in Biopsychology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. My research focuses on the effects of social behaviors on physiology in humans – specifically on how sexual stimuli and behaviors affect testosterone. My research projects include examining the effects of sexual thoughts on testosterone in women and men, conducting focus groups to gather data on how women define sexual pleasure, and investigating how different stimulus modalities (e.g., visual erotica, fantasy) affect hormones and psychological arousal. I’m also currently teaching a first-year seminar course on popular science writing, and working with first-year college students has been one of my most fun and rewarding grad school experiences so far. My goal is to become a professor of psychology at a university – ideally, I’d love to work at a liberal arts college like Southwestern where there’s lots of individual interaction between professors and students!