Debra received her BA (Honours) in psychology from York University, Toronto in 2005, and is presently pursuing her MA in Developmental Psychology at the University of Manitoba under Dr. Warren Eaton’s supervision. She is an international student from Guyana, South America – the home of the beautiful Kaieteur Falls. Before coming to Canada to pursue studies in psychology, she worked in the banking and airline business sectors in Georgetown, Guyana. Immediately after completing her undergraduate degree, she commenced training as a mediator at York University, and in 2006, earned a Certificate in Dispute Resolution.
Her developmental research interest is in social understanding from birth and onwards, and her MA thesis will examine the relationship between the onset of sustained walking in infants, and the onset of pointing behaviours which are argued to demonstrate infants emerging understanding of the attentional focus of others.
Debra has a single sibling – a precious brother who arrived when she was already five years old, and who has played a prominent role in stimulating her interests in the development of babies and children – she is still trying to understand why he was always pulling her pigtails.
Asides, she enjoys traveling, and her most memorable journey was an over-land trip from the city of Georgetown, through rainforests, across rivers, and then to Brazil where she witnessed “the meeting of the waters” and finally, the mysterious Amazon River.