Apollonia E. Lysandrou is a student in the Clinical Psychology doctoral training program at UCF. Under the mentorship of Dr. Lidia Meshesha and Dr. Daniel Paulson, she is interested in applying a lifespan approach to better understand the needs of those impacted by substance use disorders (SUDs) and improve treatment outcomes. Specifically, Apollonia hopes to leverage longitudinal methods to identify vulnerabilities and/or comorbidities contributing to increased risk in older versus younger populations, and improve interventions that better serve the needs of individuals throughout the lifespan. After receiving her B.S. in Biology from the University of Florida in 2021, Apollonia worked as a Clinical Research Assistant at the UF Health Florida Recovery Center laboratory with Dr. Ben Lewis and Dr. Lisa Merlo’s laboratory in the UF Department of Psychiatry.