Shirley graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 2025 with a B.A. in Psychology and Art History. As an undergraduate, she worked under Dr. Renee Thompson and Dr. Tammy English, assisting with studies aimed at examining how emotion regulation processes manifest in individuals with a history of major depressive disorder (MDD). Shirley also conducted an undergraduate honors thesis project investigating the relationships among trait social anxiety, emotion regulation motives, and emotion regulation strategy selection using an experimental design. She is broadly interested in how various mechanisms contribute to the onset and maintenance of affective dysfunction in depression. In the future, Shirley hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology.