PEOPLE

Kelly Lambert

Dr. Kelly Lambert

Dr. Lambert, a first-generation college student, received her undergraduate degree from Samford University in Birmingham AL (majoring in psychology and biology) in 1984 and her M.S. and Ph.D. in the field of Biopsychology from the University of Georgia in 1988. After spending 28 years at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland VA where she served as the Macon and Joan Brock Professor and Chair of the Psychology Department (for 17 years!), Co-Director of Undergraduate Research, and Director of the Behavioral Neuroscience Major, she joined the faculty at the University of Richmond as Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience in 2017. She enjoys teaching courses such as Behavioral Neuroscience, Clinical Neuroscience, Comparative Animal Behavior, Neuroplasticity, and Psychobiology of Stress. Dr. Lambert has won several teaching awards including the 2023 Society of Neuroscience Science Educator Award and the Virginia Professor of the Year for 2008.

Scientific Publications

Dr. Lambert has published (along with her students and colleagues) over 80 articles in journals such as Nature, Stress, Neuroscience, Physiology and Behavior and Brain Research and has made approximately 200 conference presentations at national and international conferences. She served as President of the International Behavioral Neuroscience Society from 2009-2011. Dr. Lambert has received funding from the NIH and NSF to support her research investigating the neurobiology of emotional resilience and parental responses and, recently, has incorporated naturalistic observations of various primates at the DuMond Conservancy in Miami, FL and wild raccoons and rats into her lab’s neurobiological explorations. Learn more about her publications.

Lambert Lab in the Media

Focusing on mainstream audiences, she has written articles about her research for publications such as Scientific American Mind, The New York Post, The New York Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Management Today, and the Richmond-Times Dispatch. Articles with descriptions of her research have been published in several news and entertainment sources including the Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Ladies Home Journal, , The Boston Globe, The Times of India, The Royal Society of Arts (RSA), and Salon magazine. She has been interviewed on many radio shows and podcasts including the National Geographic Radio Show, the Martha Stewart Radio Show, Public Radio’s To the Best of our Knowledge, and WIRED. She has also appeared on CBS Sunday Morning. The driving rat research has been covered in over 1,500 media stories. Learn more about her media coverage.

Dr. Lambert's Books

Dr. Lambert has written three mainstream books Lifting Depression: A neuroscientist’s hands on approach to activating your brain’s healing power (Basic Books, 2008), The Lab Rat Chronicles: A neuroscientist reveals life lessons from the planet’s most successful mammals (Perigee, 2011), and Well-Grounded: The neurobiology of rational decisions (Yale Univ Press, 2018). Along with her long-time colleague, Craig Kinsley (University of Richmond), she published the undergraduate text Clinical Neuroscience: The neurobiological foundations of mental health (first edition, Worth Publishers, 2005 and 2nd edition Oxford University Press, 2010). Her most recent text, Biological Psychology (Oxford University Press) was published 2017. Learn more about her books.

View Dr. Kelly Lambert's CV (Sept. 2023)

When she’s not in the lab or classroom, Dr. Lambert enjoys spending time with her husband, Gary Lambert, an Industrial/Organizational Psychologist, and her two daughters Lara (a graduate from Elon University with a business degree currently working in Atlanta) and Skylar, a graduate from Furman University and a current medical student in South Carolina.

CURRENT RESEARCH TEAM

Dr. Sarah “Kitty” Tryon

Dr. Sarah “Kitty” Tryon is a Trawick Postdoctoral Scholar in the Lambert Lab and teaches Neurobiology of Movement and Exercise (PSYC299). She graduated from Furman University with a B.S. in Neuroscience and German Studies (‘12), was a Fulbright Student Grant Recipient to Germany (’12-’13) and received her PhD from the University of South Carolina (’19) after which she received postdoctoral training in neurobiology of stress and fear-related behaviors at the UofSC School of Medicine. In the Lambert Lab, Dr. Tryon’s work focuses on how positive experiences can shape plasticity of emotional circuits and improve stress resiliency. Passionate about improving treatments and cures for brain diseases through neuroscience research, education and outreach, Dr. Tryon has been involved with and led multiple neuroscience outreach initiatives at the local, state, national and international level and currently serves as co-chair of the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience’s Public Policy Committee.

Olivia Harding, B.A.

Olivia Harding is the Manager of Labs for UR’s Psychology Department. A Richmond, Virginia native, she graduated from Midlothian High School in 2011 and briefly attended SCAD in Atlanta for photography. After working full-time for a couple years, then part-time while attending classes in the Richmond area, Olivia transferred to the University of Richmond, where she earned a B.A. in Psychology in 2019. As a student, she was at the forefront of the rodent driving research, and she is grateful to be able to continue this work while managing the rodent portion of the research animal lab. In the Lambert Lab, she assists with research development and coordination, and she helps students with conducting animal research, analyzing data and interpreting results, and various lab duties. During her involvement with the lab, Olivia has been fortunate to be able to combine her love for animals with opportunities to enhance research animal well-being, in turn hoping to improve how rodent research is conducted to investigate psychological and neurological diseases. She has also enjoyed having the chance to utilize her creative side with some of Dr. Lambert’s outreach work, such as “The Brain Chronicles” video lecture series.

PAST RESEARCH TEAM

Dr. Joanna “Jacy” Jacob

Dr. Jacob is the Trawick Postdoctoral Scholar in Behavioral Neuroscience currently assisting Dr. Lambert. She graduated from Virginia Tech with a B.S. in Animal and Poultry Science (’09), received an M.S. in Pharmacology and Toxicology in 2013 from VCU, and in 2017 received her Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Toxicology from VCU.

Emily Ploppert, B.S.

Emily graduated from Randolph-Macon in 2019, majoring in Behavioral Neuroscience and minoring in the fields of Psychology and Biology. As Dr. Lambert’s post-bac research assistant, she works on the current NIMH grant exploring emotional resilience and also provides assistance to research students.

Dr. Molly Kent

Former Post-doctoral Fellow, Dr. Molly Kent---currently Assistant Professor of Biology, Virginia Military Institute.