Amanda Lea

Amanda (she/her) is the lab PI. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences.
Contact her at: amanda.j.lea@vanderbilt.edu

Rachel Petersen

Rachel (she/her) is an NSF SBE Postdoctoral Fellow in the Lea lab. Rachel’s research centers around how genetic and epigenetic variation influences aspects of reproduction, using non-human primates as a model for human evolution. Her dissertation research explored how genotype is associated with pre- and post-copulatory mate preference in the olive baboon. In the Lab lab, her research focuses on how early life environments are related to gene regulation using a multi-tissue dataset from the rhesus macaques of Cayo Santiago.
Contact her at: rachel.m.petersen@vanderbilt.edu

Marina Watowich

Marina Watowich (she/her) is an NIH NRSA Postdoctoral Fellow in the Lea Lab. Marina’s research investigates how environmental and social adversities affect long-term health and immune system aging in humans and non-human primates. Her work also seeks to understand the factors that contribute to resilience in the face of adversity, as well as basic mechanisms of gene regulation. In the Lea Lab, Marina works primarily with the Turkana and Tsimane populations.
Contact her at: marina.watowich@vanderbilt.edu

Audrey Arner

Audrey (she/her) is an NSF Graduate Research Fellow in the Lea lab. She is interested in understanding human adaptation to diverse and changing ecological and cultural environments, as well as the underlying molecular mechanisms causally connecting genotype to phenotype. She is also passionate about community engagement and is committed to engaging in respectful, mutually beneficial partnerships with participant communities.​ Audrey's work focuses on the Orang Asli of Peninsular Malaysia.
Contact her at: audrey.m.arner@vanderbilt.edu

Amy Longtin

Amy (she/her) is an NSF Graduate Research Fellow in the Lea Lab. She is interested in how early life adversity impacts later life outcomes, particularly health outcomes, in human and nonhuman primate populations. By studying these connections, she hopes to identify the genomic and epigenomic mechanisms that embed lived experiences into lifelong physiology.
Contact her at: amy.l.longtin@vanderbilt.edu

Layla Brassington

​Layla (she/her) is a graduate student in the Lea Lab. She is interested in the way that environmental factors moderate the link between genotypes and key organismal phenotypes, such as health or life history-related traits. She is also interested in understanding the molecular intermediaries that are key players in creating these gene-by-environment interactions in diverse human populations.
Contact her at: layla.brassington@vanderbilt.edu

Rebecca Cheng

Rebecca is a Research Assistant in the Lea lab. She ensures that research in the wet lab runs smoothly. She assists in the development, troubleshooting, and implementation of a wide range of genomic and molecular protocols.
Contact her at: churong.cheng@Vanderbilt.Edu

Undergraduate students

Rebecca Wilson (2025-present)
Vivian Dong (2025-present)
​Diane Song (2025-present)
Ian Mathews (2025-present)
Faith Franklin (2026-present)

Lab alumni

 Rob Tennyson - 2024-2025 - postdoctoral researcher (now lecturer at University of Washington)
Grace Rodenberg - 2023-2025 - research assistant (now PhD student at University of Colorado Anschutz)
​​Nicholas Ryan - 2022-2026 - research assistant
Sai Han Presley - 2021-2022 - lab manager

​Peyton Coleman - 2023 - IGP graduate student (rotation)​
Jay Pardo - 2022 - BSCI graduate student (rotation)
Catherine Green - 2022 - IGP graduate student (rotation)
Luis Martinez - 2022 - BSCI graduate student (rotation)

Jonathan Lorenz - 2025-2026 - undergraduate student
Lisa Yang - 2023-2026 - undergraduate student
​Selina Wang - 2023-2026 - undergraduate student
Sabina Thabit-Yousef - 2023-2024 - high school student
​Ryan Rossow - 2022-2023 - undergraduate student (now MD/MBA student at University of Miami)
Maggie Zhou - 2022 - undergraduate student