Taylor McCorkle, PhD

Taylor McCorkle is currently a second-year postdoctoral fellow at Temple University Department of Psychology and Neuroscience working under the mentorship of Dr. Ames Sutton Hickey. Dr. McCorkle studies the behavioral and neural mechanisms underlying maladaptive feeding behaviors that contribute to the development of obesity. Prior to this fellowship, she attended the University of Pennsylvania where she earned her BA in biology with a minor in psychology. She then went on to receive her MS and PhD in neuroscience at Drexel University College of Medicine, working in the lab of Dr. Ramesh Raghupathi. Dr. McCorkle’s thesis investigated sex-dependent mechanisms underlying cognitive deficits following repeated mild TBI in adolescent rats, focusing on the role of corticotrophin-releasing factor. Following her postdoctoral fellowship, she plans to establish her own research group, conducting translational research that investigates the neurobiological basis of how various environmental stressors influence the overconsumption of calorically-dense foods. She will further examine cognitive and affective behavioral impairments that emerge as by-products of stress-induced maladaptive feeding. Outside of her research, Dr. McCorkle is deeply committed to advancing diversity initiatives in the academic space and is involved in numerous efforts to make opportunities in STEM more accessible to students of systemically minoritized backgrounds.