Alana Anderson (she/her) | Senior Research Manager | aanderson@omni.org

Alana is a Senior Research Manager at OMNI. She provides leadership and support for projects related to Behavioral Health, Community Health, and Children & Families. Currently she provides analytic support across all areas of the Virginia State Opioid Response Grant and leads cross-team collaboration to build a greater understanding of the current needs and achievements of the communities and individuals involved in the grant.

Prior to her work at OMNI Alana researched self-regulation and the role that self-regulation plays in the development of behavioral and mental health problems at Washington University in St. Louis, Washington State University, and the University of Minnesota Institute of Child Development. Much of her recent work focused on the association between self-regulation and boredom and the individual and contextual factors associated with regulating boredom in healthy ways. Alana has also gained invaluable hands-on experience working in early childhood mental and behavioral health settings.

Alana enjoys being outside and exploring new city streets and hiking trails with her dog. She also enjoys cooking and baking new and challenging dishes. 

“I was motivated to become a researcher after seeing many opportunities to make the world better using science – with the collaboration of our clients and their communities, we get to do that here at OMNI.”

CONTENT EXPERTISE

Children and Families

Community and Behavioral Health

EDUCATION

Washington State University
Ph.D. Prevention Science
M.S. Prevention Science

St. Olaf College
B.A. in Psychology and Music

+ Certifications & Training

  • Community & Equity Certificate, Washington State University
  • Learn Inspire Foster Transform (L.I.F.T.) Fellow, Washington State University Transformational Change Initiative
  • Fostering Innovation & Active Participation Among Team Members Across Distances Webinar, Liberating Structures

+ Memberships

  • Member of the Society for Prevention Research, International Society for Developmental Psychobiology, and the Society for Research in Child Development

+ Selected Presentations

  1. Anderson, A.J. & Perone, S. (2022, June). Mom, I’m bored! A mixed methods exploration into boredom in early childhood and links to self-regulation. In Anderson, A.J. (Chair), Forever Bored: Boredom as a Risk Factor Across the Lifespan. Talk presented at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the Society for Prevention Research, Seattle, WA.
  2. Anderson, A.J., Perone, S., Weybright, E.H. (2020, October). More bored than before: Contextual influences on neurophysiological correlates of boredom regulation during easy and optimal conditions. Poster presented at 2020 Meeting of International Society for Developmental Psychobiology Research Meeting (Virtual due to Covid-19).
  3. Anderson, A.J., Weybright, E.H., Perone, S., (2019, May). Boredom Regulation and Brain Waves: Neurophysiological Correlates of Emotion Regulation during a Boring Task. Poster presented at 2019 meeting of Society for Prevention Research, San Francisco, CA.

How do you pronounce GIF?
Like “gift” but without the T.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
An animal behaviorist (basically a dog psychologist)

Early bird or night owl?
Early bird!