Leyla Eghbalzad

Dr. Leyla Eghbalzad was born and raised in Tehran, Iran. In 2003, she moved to Atlanta, GA with her parents and her older sister. This life-changing experience as a teenager led to her interest in the field of Psychology. Specifically, she found people's ability to learn and adapt to new environments very fascinating and wondered about how these abilities develop over time. Following her passion for psychology, Dr. Eghbalzad earned her PhD in Developmental Psychology with a focus on Cognitive Neuroscience from Georgia State University. She completed her postdoctoral training at Emory University School of Medicine collaborating with the Grady Trauma Project. Across various studies published in academic journals such as PLOS ONE and Neuropsychopharmacology, Dr. Eghbalzad explored individual differences in learning in children and adults by employing various statistical and neuroimaging techniques such as functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Dr. Eghbalzad started as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Oxford College in 2022-2023 prior to her appointment as a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Psychology. Her research at Oxford broadly focuses on the impact of experience, as related to various indicators of socioeconomic adversity and trauma, on the neural mechanisms underlying early cognitive development.