#StudentSpotlight: MacKinzie Smith is a fourth-year MD/Ph.D. student in the WVU Department of Neuroscience.⁠ ⁠ MacKinzie entered the foster care system at the age of 13, and she is now using her current research to explore how maternal deprivation in early life affects the brain's ability to be resilient to trauma later in life. She was named a 2023 West Virginia Wonder Woman for using her platform and research to help children in foster care.⁠ ⁠ "We live in a world where connections are incredibly important, and our family is where we first start making those connections and modeling our behaviors after our parents. What people experience in the foster care system changes their baseline and the resources they have access to. I knew I wanted to make things better for people affected by truly tragic circumstances who may not have had the love they need in their history to move past that kind of pain."⁠ ⁠ #WVUNeuro #WVUNeurology #WVURNI #Neurology #Neuroscience