Deanna Durben

Bio

Deanna Durben (she/her) is a Developmental Psychology Ph.D. student working with Dr. Desiree Jones in the SHINE Lab. She graduated from Hamilton College in 2025 with a B.A. in Psychology and Sociology, then worked as a lab manager/project coordinator in the Social Learning and Decisions lab at UMD.

She is interested in how autistic people utilize masking and other stigma management strategies in social interactions across contexts and relationships, and wants to examine the factors impacting stigma against autistic labels and traits. Broadly, she hopes to conduct research that is informative to autistic people and beneficial to quality of life. She also loves cats, reading, crochet, jigsaw puzzles, museums, and board games!