Born in Bogota, Columbia, Nicolas Camacho moved to the United States at the age of 2, where he lived in Westchester, New York through high school. He completed his Bachelor’s degree at Columbia University where he studied engineering for two years before falling in love with Psychology during one of his Developmental Psychology classes and changing majors. During college, Nicolas spent time as an applied behavior analysis intern, and worked as a research assistant after graduation to gain hands on experience in the field before applying to graduate school at Duke.
Nicolas is now a 5th year graduate student working under the direction of Dr. Michael Gaffrey as well as working with Dr. Jill Howard in our Autism Center as a clinical practical student. He is very interested in understanding the underlying mechanisms of early childhood depression, such as emotion dysregulation and reward processing, and has received the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship award as a result of his outstanding work. In the future, Nicolas hopes to complete a clinical psychology internship before pursuing a post-doctoral research position to further his studies and prepare him for a long-term career in developmental psychology research.
Nicolas really enjoys his work here at the Autism Center and speaks very highly of the collaborative and inclusive team led by Dr. Howard. Outside of his work at the Autism Center, Nicolas has held several leadership positions in the Anti-Racism Community (ARC) within the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke where he spearheads projects that center on multicultural awareness and provide professional development opportunities for students and faculty within the department. He is also a skilled soccer player (goalkeeper) and plays in two leagues here in Durham. He lives in downtown Durham with his wife and high school sweetheart, Kit, his dog, Luna Lovegood, and cat, Ollivander Wood (he may or may not be into Harry Potter). So, if you happen to see him here in the center, or riding around town on his burnt orange Vespa (lovingly named Jepp), say hello and thank him for the wonderful contributions he makes here at the Center – Thank you Nicolas!