Mirjana Domakonda, MD
Mirjana Domakonda, MD, is a clinical researcher and child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist at Hartford Hospital and an adjunct assistant professor at the Yale University School of Medicine. Dr. Domakonda worked with the Marsh Lab as a postdoctoral fellow from 2016 to January, 2018, pursuing translational research on the development of experimental therapeutics for childhood psychiatric disorders.
Jenna Patterson, BA
Jenna Patterson graduated from Barnard College of Columbia University in 2020 with a BA in psychology. As an undergraduate, she worked as a volunteer research assistant at the Center for OCD and Related Disorders, where she worked on a study using fMRI to assess neural circuits associated with OCD. At Dr. Marsh’s lab she was involved in coordinating pediatric fMRI studies and clinical trials that examine the neural underpinnings of OCD and anxiety. Jenna's research interests focus on better understanding the connection between brain abnormalities and the development of obsessive compulsive disorders. She is currently pursuing a Masters of Science in Counseling at Northeastern University.
Lana Khamash, BA
Lana Khamash graduated from Columbia University in 2018 with a BA in psychology. As an undergraduate, she worked as a research assistant in the Developmental Affective Neuroscience Lab, where she studied early life adversity and its relationship to neurodevelopment and psychopathology. Her previous role at Dr. Marsh’s lab involved coordinating pediatric fMRI studies and clinical trials that examine the neural underpinnings of OCD and anxiety. Lana was involved in the collection, processing, and analysis of both neuroimaging and clinical data, and she is interested in employing this understanding of the mechanisms behind psychiatric disorders to inform the development of early intervention strategies. In the future, she hopes to pursue a doctoral degree in clinical psychology.
Sophie Schiff, BA
Sophie Schiff graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2014 with a BA in cognitive science. As an undergraduate, Sophie worked as a research assistant in a psychology lab studying neuroeconomics. After two years at Horizon Media, Sophie joined Dr. Marsh’s lab where she coordinated pediatric and adult fMRI studies on OCD and was involved in the collection, processing, and analysis of neuroimaging data for Dr. Marsh's projects. Sophie is interested in utilizing fMRI to understand the mechanisms underlying anxiety and other disorders and to investigate the effect of current therapies on brain function. Sophie is currently pursuing a PhD in clinical psychology at CUNY’s Graduate Center at Queens College.
Mihaela Stefan, PhD
Mihaela received her BA in communication sciences from the University of Bucharest, followed by an MA from SNSPA Bucharest in communication sciences. After graduating from university, Mihaela joined a group that founded one of the first media monitoring agencies in Romania and developed expertise in content-analysis methods and research software (most of the social and psychological research had been previously discouraged due to the political context). She came to the USA in 2007 and began volunteering at NYSPI in 2010 and learning about neuroimaging research, specifically MRI data acquisition and processing. Mihaela began working with Dr. Marsh in 2012 and was the lab manager of the Cognitive Development and Neuroimaging Lab. She oversaw all MRI data acquisition, data storage, and anatomical image processing for the lab, contributing to the scientific research as well. She also trained and coordinated the activities for volunteers and other research assistants.
Emily Steinberg, BA
Emily graduated from the University of Michigan in 2015 with a BA in psychology. Emily first joined NYSPI as a volunteer at the Pediatric Anxiety and Mood Research Clinic (PAMRC), where she worked on a study exploring antibiotic augmentation to SRI medication for youth with treatment-resistant OCD. Emily spent two years as coordinator of Dr. Marsh's research studies, where she developed a particular interest in examining post-treatment changes in the neural circuits implicated in pediatric OCD, as well as family factors that may influence children's treatment trajectories. Emily is currently pursuing a PhD in clinical psychology at Fordham University.
Kate Terranova, BA
Kate graduated from George Washington University in 2012 with a BA in psychology. In our lab, Kate coordinated an NIMH multimodal imagining study of adolescents with bulimia nervosa. She is now a third-year graduate student at Fordham University's Counseling PhD Program. She has a continued interest in eating disorders and has chosen to focus her master's thesis research on women's recovery from bulimia.
Lauren Thomas, EdM, FCSP, PhD
Lauren is currently in the Combined School-Clinical Child Psychology PsyD program at Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology. She graduated from the George Washington University in 2012 with a BA in psychology and a secondary degree in business administration. As an undergraduate, Lauren was a research assistant in the Health Cognitions and Behavior Lab, and studied college students' thoughts and beliefs about health issues (e.g., skin cancer). Lauren went on to graduate from Teachers College in 2015 with an EdM in school psychology and a MA in educational psychology: schooling. She spent three years as a research assistant coordinating Dr. Amy Margolis's research studies, which investigate learning disabilities in children.