Highlights

Erin Heaning is a Princeton University psychology graduate and Licensed Associate Counselor whose research and clinical interests centre on maternal mental health, early child development, and the de-stigmatisation of mental illness in medical settings.

At Princeton, she worked as a research assistant at the Baby Lab and completed a senior thesis examining the effects of maternal mental health on mother-infant interaction and its implications for cognitive and brain development. She also assisted Dr. Andrea DiGiorgio on conservation media research, contributing to a published study on orangutan rescue and rehabilitation YouTube videos in People and Nature (2021), and co-authored a pharmacovigilance paper on Delta-8 THC published in Drug, Healthcare and Patient Safety (2023).

After graduating, Erin worked as a Clinical Safety Strategist at Bristol Myers Squibb, monitoring adverse reactions at clinical trial sites, before transitioning to a counselling role. She is currently a Licensed Associate Counselor at Growth and Empowerment in New Jersey, working with clients using person-centred, non-judgmental approaches. She contributed to Simply Psychology as a writer between 2021 and 2022.

Professional Experience

• Licensed Associate Counselor, Growth and Empowerment (2025–present)
• Counseling Intern, Growth and Empowerment (2024–2025)
• Clinical Safety Strategist, Bristol Myers Squibb (2021–2024)
• Research Assistant, Princeton Baby Lab, Princeton University (2021–2023)
• Consultant, Physicians Research Center (2020–present)
• Teacher Aide, Princeton Child Development Institute (Summer 2022)
• Research Assistant, Dr. Andrea DiGiorgio, Princeton University (2020–2021)
• Contributing Writer, Simply Psychology (2021–2022)

Education

• BA Psychology (minors: Neuroscience, Cognitive Science), Princeton University (2023)

Publications

Publications

• Simon, T. A., Simon, J. H., Heaning, E. G., Gomez-Caminero, A., & Marcu, J. P. (2023). Delta-8, a cannabis-derived tetrahydrocannabinol isomer: evaluating case report data in the Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) database. Drug, Healthcare and Patient Safety, 25-38.
• Freund, C. A., Heaning, E. G., Mulrain, I. R., McCann, J. B., & DiGiorgio, A. L. (2021). Building better conservation media for primates and people: A case study of orangutan rescue and rehabilitation YouTube videos. People and Nature, 3(6), 1257-1271.