Research Experience
2025 – Present
Postdoctoral Fellow
Addiction Sciences Division, Department of Psychiatry, Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC)
Primary Investigator: Lindsay Squeglia, Ph.D.
- Postdoctoral training focuses on gaining expertise in multi-modal neuroimaging, big data methodology, advanced quantitative/statistical methods, and clinical trial methodology.
2024 – 2025
Predoctoral Psychology Intern Researcher
Addiction Sciences Division, Department of Psychiatry, MUSC
Primary Investigator: Lindsay Squeglia, Ph.D.
- Investigated adolescent development of neurometabolites linked to neural plasticity, and how alcohol use affects these processes.
- Expanded expertise in youth alcohol/substance use disorders and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS).
2018 – 2024
Graduate Student Researcher
Laboratory of Neurocognitive Development, University of Pittsburgh
Primary Investigator: Beatriz Luna, Ph.D.
- Studied adolescent neurodevelopment, focusing on neurometabolites related to plasticity, cognitive development, and environmental influences.
- Developed a novel analytic/statistical pipeline for 7T MRSI data (R01 MH067924).
- Gained expertise in neuroimaging, R programming, longitudinal analysis, and mixed-effects modeling.
2016 – 2018
Postbaccalaureate Intramural Research Training Award (IRTA) Fellow
Systems Neuroscience Imaging Resource, National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Primary Investigator: Theodore Usdin, M.D., Ph.D.
- Created a high-throughput imaging pipeline to quantify c-Fos-labeled neural activity in mice.
- Acquired hands-on experience with mouse models, histology, CLARITY, microscopy, and perfusion techniques.
2013 – 2016
Research Assistant
Neurobiology of Cognition Laboratory, New York University
Primary Investigator: Andre Fenton, Ph.D.
- Examined altered neural plasticity in a rodent model of schizophrenia across adolescence to adulthood, and its impact on cognitive control.
- Trained in rodent behavioral tasks, histology, and microscopy.