Postdoctoral Fellow
She/Her
Dr. Victoria (Tori) Riesgo is a first-year postdoctoral researcher in the Forty Lab. She graduated from California State University, San Marcos with a B.A. in Psychology where she studied the influence of neuropeptides on rodent maternal behavior in Dr. Kimberly D’Anna-Hernandez’s lab. Upon joining the lab of Dr. Jari Willing at Bowling Green State University in 2019, she began work investigating the effects of two common environmental factors, phthalates and maternal infection, on neurodevelopment. Her master’s thesis identified that each of these factors introduced perinatally can produce sex-specific reductions in neuron number within the adult rat prefrontal cortex. Tori’s PhD research focused on pubertal hormones and their role in shaping the development of the dopaminergic rat midbrain, identifying that pubertal onset shapes perineuronal net formation in the ventral tegmental area. She is passionate about student mentorship and as a Chicana first-generation academic, she is dedicated to guiding similarly under-represented learners through the landscape of higher education and neuroscience with the goals of increasing retention and academic success.
When she’s not in the lab, Tori loves reading, watching live music, going on walks, and trying new restaurants.