People

Denis Sukhodolsky is Professor in the Yale Child Study Center. His research concerns the efficacy and biomarkers of behavioral interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder, Tourette Syndrome, irritability, and related neurodevelopmental disorders. This work has been supported by grants from NIMH, NICHD, DoD CDMRP, and Simons Foundation. Currently, he is a principal investigator of clinical trials of behavior therapy for anxiety in school-age children with autism and another clinical trial of behavior therapy for irritability and aggressive behavior in adolescents with autism. He is also a Yale site PI of the ACE network study of gender differences and neural signatures of optimal outcomes in ASD during adolescence and young adulthood. In addition to his research, Dr. Sukhodolsky is a licensed and board-certified clinical psychologist working with children and their families at the Yale Child Study Center.

Karim Ibrahim is an Assistant Professor at the Yale Child Study Center. His translational neuroscience research focuses on brain networks associated with emotion regulation impairments in childhood-onset psychiatric disorders. Dr. Karim Ibrahim’s research is interdisciplinary and integrates multimodal imaging methods including functional and structural MRI, machine learning, and network neuroscience/connectomics approaches to identify biomarkers relevant to child psychopathology. His recent interests lie in using and developing tools predictive modeling/machine learning approaches that leverage large-scale neuroimaging datasets, including data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, for identifying robust brain-based biomarkers. Among other things in this area, his research also investigates dynamics of the human functional connectome and large-scale networks, how brain connectivity is altered in mental health disorders (such as a disruptive behavior disorders, anxiety disorders, and autism spectrum disorder) and the neural response to treatment in youths. As a licensed clinical child psychologist, he also has extensive experience in developmental psychopathology, including assessments and cognitive-behavioral interventions for autism spectrum disorder, mood, anxiety, and disruptive behavior. Karim completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Yale Child Study Center T32 research program in Translational Developmental Neuroscience and through an award from the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation multidisciplinary research training program.

Born and raised in NYC, Robert acquired his general Psychiatry residency training at Columbia University, College of Physicians & Surgeons on site at Harlem Hospital where he was the recipient of the “2019 Outstanding Research Award.” He currently serves as a SAMHSA Minority Fellow for the American Psychiatric Association and Fellow on its Council of Psychiatry and Law. Prior to residency, Robert studied medicine at Michigan State University, College of Human Medicine. During medical school, Robert was given the “Wright Family Endowed Scholarship” by his medical school, highlighting his interest and passion for Psychiatry. While in medical school he was awarded the Eli Lilly Endowment “Sustaining Pastoral Excellence Grant” that he used to co-organize the conference entitled:  “Healing From a Broken Place: Supporting Trauma Survivors through Collaboration of Ministry and Mental Health Providers.” Robert’s commitment to Spirituality & Health has its roots in his prior theological training. He earned a Master of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary and was a co-moderator for its Association of Latino/a, Hispanic American Seminarians. While pursuing his theological education, Robert completed a Clinical Pastoral Experience summer course working as a student chaplain at Yale New Haven Hospital. Right before going to seminary, he spent several exciting weeks in South Africa conducting wholistic health workshops for children and adolescents. Robert completed his undergraduate degree at SUNY at Buffalo majoring in philosophy while conducting research in molecular biology as a Ronald McNair Scholar. His interests include trauma, forensics, health disparities, and collaborations between faith and health professionals to improve the well-being for faith leaders and their communities. He has published in medical, social science, and theological journals; and has presented at regional and national conferences. In his free time, Robert enjoys having fun with his children, playing video games, and watching Star Wars!

Jordan Linde graduated from Colgate University in 2020 with high honors, receiving a B.A. in Psychological Sciences. While at Colgate, Jordan completed a yearlong honors thesis examining the bidirectional relationship between parenting and child self-regulatory processes. Jordan was involved in various clinical experiences in the local community, including working at a pre-school as an aid for a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). After graduating, Jordan spent two years as a laboratory manager for The Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab at Georgetown University under Dr. Chandan Vaidya. Her lab used a transdiagnostic approach to look at executive function dysregulation across a variety of pediatric psychiatric disorders. Jordan was responsible for fMRI data collection, working primarily with children and adolescents with ASD, ADHD, learning disabilities, and anxiety. While in DC, Jordan also worked as a personal care attendant for a 13-year-old with ASD, irritability, and other cognitive impairments. She is currently a doctoral student in clinical psychology at University of Hartford, with hopes of pursuing a career as a pediatric neuropsychologist. Outside of school, Jordan enjoys baking, ice-skating, and reading a good psychological thriller curled up on the couch with her two cats.

Megan Rutten (she/her) completed her Bachelor of Science at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in May 2022. She studied Developmental Psychology with minors in Integrative Neuroscience and Family Social Science. She is passionate about early social and brain development and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Specifically, she is interested in sex-differences related to ASD. While attending the University of Minnesota, Megan worked as a research assistant and recruitment coordinator for the Infant Brain Imaging Study (IBIS) in the E-lab with Dr. Jed Elison and Dr. Casey Burrows. In the Sukhodolsky Lab, Megan is coordinating a study evaluating gender differences in adolescents with autism. After her time in the Sukhodolsky lab, Megan hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology. Outside of the lab, she enjoys cooking, reading, yoga, theater, and dancing.

Joshua Snyder graduated Summa Cum Laude from Rutgers University in 2021 with a B.A. in Psychology. While at Rutgers, Josh was a research assistant for the Regulation, Action, and Motivated Perception (RAMP) lab for 2 years. He worked with the RAMP team to support their research regarding the social, cognitive, and perceptual processes that predict and promote effective goal pursuit. Additionally, Josh was a research assistant for the Rutgers Center for Adult Autism Services during his senior year. There, he conducted research in the field of Applied Behavior Analysis and assisted with a social skills-based research assessment. Most recently, Josh has worked as a Direct Support Professional for Bancroft NeuroRehab to assist individuals with traumatic brain injuries in achieving a greater level of independence. Josh is currently earning his Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (PsyD) at the University of Hartford. Outside of work, Josh enjoys playing sports, performing magic, and juggling.

Michael H. Bloch, M.D., M.S. graduated from Yale School of Medicine and completed his child and adult psychiatry training at Yale. His research interests focus on studying Tourette syndrome (TS), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and trichotillomania (TTM) across the lifespan and developing better pharmacological treatments for children with depression, anxiety and ADHD.  His research focuses on developing better treatments for children and adults with these conditions particularly through clinical trials and meta-analysis.Dr. Bloch is also the associate training director of the Child Study Center's innovative psychiatry residency program. The Solnit Integrated Program provides psychiatrists-in-training with the opportunity to integrate general, child and research psychiatry across all stages of their career and will be a major pathway by which the next generation of academic leaders in child psychiatry are developed

Michael J. Crowley, Ph.D. is a child psychologist whose work focuses on key questions in social and affective neuroscience. Dr. Crowley earned his doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2004, where he studied under Nathan Fox. At Maryland, Dr. Crowley’s training focused on child internalizing and externalizing disorders. He completed a child-focused clinical internship through the Brown University Clinical Psychology Training Consortium. Dr. Crowley’s post-doctoral fellowship occurred though the Yale Child Study Center Training Program in Child Neuropsychiatric Disorders under the mentorship of Linda Mayes, M.D. Dr. Crowley joined the Yale School of Medicine faculty as an Associate Research Scientist in 2008. Clinically, Dr. Crowley is interested in child anxiety and how working with parents enhances outcomes. Dr. Crowley’s work in child anxiety focuses on the neural substrates of avoidance, threat detection and worry. He is interested in treatment might lead to brain changes for these basic factors in child anxiety and how biofeedback can be used to supplement more traditional approaches. He uses dense array electroencephalography, peripheral physiology and functional imaging in his work with children and adolescents. Dr. Crowley is the recipient of a NARSAD Young Investigator award. His previous and current work occurs though support from the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

James Duncan, the Ebenezer K. Hunt Professor of Biomedical Engineering, has focused his research and teaching in the areas of biomedical image processing and analysis.Duncan, who holds joint appointments in diagnostic radiology and electrical engineering, is the associate chair and director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Biomedical Engineering as well as the vice-chair for bioimaging sciences research in diagnostic radiology. He is particularly interested in the use of model-based mathematical strategies for the analysis of biomedical images. He helped pioneer the use of geometrical models for segmenting deformable (typically anatomical) objects of approximately known shape and for tracking certain forms of non-rigid object motion, and later soft tissue deformation, most notably that of the heart.Duncan and his research team performed seminal work starting in 1987 on the use of parameterized global shape models to incorporate a notion of known prior object shape into the segmentation process using a Bayesian reasoning strategy, helping lead the way towards the use of strategies for automatically finding certain known anatomical structure from any of a variety of medical (e.g. computer tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ultrasound) and biological (e.g. confocal microscopy) images. The strategies he developed have resulted in major advances in bioimaging. He and his research collaborators have applied these strategies to locate the cortical gray matter layer and a variety of co-localized subcortical gray matter structures in the brain as well as to locate the structure near the prostate gland. More recently, Duncan’s team has begun to show that these same techniques will be useful for estimating gray matter-constrained activations from functional MRI data and could help guide the recovery of quantitative biochemical information from MR spectroscopy.Beginning in the late 1980s, Duncan also pioneered using shape features on the inner and outer surfaces of the heart wall as material tags for tracking left ventricular motion. This technique was successfully applied to other non-rigid tracking problems in cell biology and became the basis for a variety of efforts internationally. Duncan and his research team used this strategy for more sophisticated analysis in echocardiography. The team’s approach is now recognized in the medical-image-analysis community as among the first to incorporate true physical models into image analysis strategies and has helped develop a more general area of physical/biomechanical model-based re covery of both structural and functional information from biomedical images. Duncan’s laboratory has also developed initial forms of these techniques to estimate brain shift during epilepsy neurosurgery and guide fractionated prostate radiotherapy, among other uses. His work has resulted in three U.S. patents.Duncan is the principal investigator of major research funded by the National Institutes of Health. Before coming to Yale in 1983, he worked for Hughes Aircraft Company. He holds a B.S.E.E. from Lafayette College, an M.S. from the University of California at Los Angeles and a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California.Duncan is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. He is president of the International Society for Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention and is a member of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence and the I.E.E.E. Computer Society, among other professional organizations.

Jim is a Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at YMS. As a biostatistician at Yale since 2002 he has co-authored over 200 peer-reviewed articles with a diverse group of Yale investigators. Dr. Dziura also serves as the Deputy Director of both the Yale Center for Analytical Sciences (YCAS) and the Yale Data Coordinating Center (YDCC) in the Yale School of Public Health. He has been active in training young investigators, both individually (as a mentor and statistical resource for K-awardees, post-doctoral fellows, residents and Master’s students) and in the classroom (where he has developed a graduate-level course and several workshops on biostatistics in clinical research). His primary research interests are in the coordination of multicenter clinical trials. Over the past ten years he has overseen data coordinating and biostatistical efforts for several trials. Notably, he served as the PI of the data coordinating center for the RUPP Autism Network study of Guanfacine for the treatment of hyperactivity. He is the Director of the Data Coordinating Center for the Autism Biomarkers Consortium for Clinical Trials (ABC-CT), a multicenter longitudinal study developing reproducible experimental biomarkers (e.g. from EEG, eye tracking) for use as stratification factors and outcomes in clinical trials.He is a senior biostatistician (and unblinded statistician for the DSMB) for the Data Coordinating Center of a large pragmatic cluster-randomized trial for the prevention of serious fall injuries (STRIDE) in 6,000 older persons from 86 health care practices.

Heidi Grantz is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker at the Yale Child Study Center, where she has served as the Clinical Director of the Tic/OC/Anxiety Specialty Clinics since August of 2009. Ms. Grantz is a therapist with experience in cognitive behavioral therapies for children with OCD and other anxiety disorders. Additionally, she is trained in Habit Reversal Therapy, a specialized behavioral therapy used in the treatment of Tic disorders and Trichotillomania. In addition to her role as Clinical Director, Ms. Grantz has served as research coordinator in the Tic/OC Specialty program since 1997. Ms. Grantz has worked on the development of the Yale Children's Global Stress Index (YCGSI) and its application in Children and adolescents with Tourette Syndrome and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Ms. Grantz has been particularly interested in the impact of psychosocial stress on children’s symptom severity. She has been listed as an author on several publications in the area of psychosocial stress and future symptom severities in children and adolescents with Tourette syndrome and/or obsessive-compulsive disorder. She has served as a clinical liaison to the Tourette Syndrome Association.

David Grodberg, MD, MS is board certified in both adult psychiatry and child and adolescent psychiatry.  He has extensive experience as both a clinician and a clinical researcher. He currently serves as an attending physician in the Developmental Disabilities Clinic at the Yale Child Study Center. Dr. Grodberg is the founder of MindNest Health, a digital health startup that has partnered with Yale Office of Cooperative Research to use technology to deliver evidence-based parent mediated interventions at scale. Before he returned to Yale as Medical Director of the Child Study Center Outpatient Clinic, Dr. Grodberg received grant funding through the faculty scholars program at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai where he developed the Autism Mental Status Exam (AMSE), which is a brief and free diagnostic assessment for Autism Spectrum Disorder. The AMSE has been translated into many languages and was featured on Medscape (http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/805223).

After completing an undergraduate degree in Computing Science at the University of Alberta, Dr. Hampson did her graduate work in Boston University's Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems, a department focused on computational neural network models of brain systems. She came to Yale as a postdoc to pursue her interests in human functional neuroimaging. During her postdoc, Dr. Hampson conducted some of the earliest studies of resting-state functional connectivity, validating the technique and relating resting-state functional connectivity measures to behavioral variables. Later, she turned her focus to using real-time fMRI neurofeedback for training people to control their brain activity patterns. She is interested in novel functional neuroimaging techniques and psychiatric applications of these techniques.

Dr. Landeros-Weisenberger graduated medicine from La Salle University in Mexico City, Mexico; and did her training in Psychiatry at the Hospital Espanol and the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) in the same city. After graduating, she came to Yale University through the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Minority Training grant (PMRTP) to do her research fellowship under the mentorship of Dr. James F. Leckman at the Yale Child Study Center; focusing on novel evidence-based psychotherapeutic interventions for mental disorders cross the lifespan. She has expertise in assessment of mood disorders, Tourette syndrome, obsessive compulsive disorder, trichotillomania and anxiety disorders, among others. She also has expertise conducting and implementing clinical trials in these same conditions both with industry and NIH. She enjoys teaching medical students in these disorders and training them in evidence-based techniques. She currently serves as a Co-chair of the Pediatric Protocol Review Committee (PPRC) and is a member of the executive committee for the dean's Faculty Advisory Council (FAC)and is a member of the Associate Research Scientist (ARS) and DEI subcommittees. She is a member of the Yale Human Investigation Committee 4-B. She is a mother of three and is constantly searching for the ever-elusive work-life balance.

James F. Leckman, M.D. is the Neison Harris Professor of Child Psychiatry, Psychiatry, Psychology and Pediatrics at Yale. Dr. Leckman is a well-known child psychiatrist and patient-oriented clinical investigator. For more than 20, years he served as the Director of Research for the Yale Child Study Center.   His peers have regularly selected him as one of the Best Doctors in America. Dr. Leckman is the author or co-author of over 430 original articles published in peer-reviewed journals, twelve books, and 140 book chapters. Dr. Leckman has a longstanding interest in Tourette syndrome and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). His research on these disorders is multifaceted from phenomenology and natural history, to neurobiology to genetics, to risk factor research and treatment studies. One area of active research interest concerns the role of the immune system in the pathobiology of Tourette syndrome and other neuropsychiatric disorders.

Dr. Nikolov serves as the Medical Director and Chief of Psychiatry for Albert J Solnit Children's Center, Connecticut's state facility for youth in need of psychiatric care and treatment. He joined the staff of the Solnit Center in January of 2016. He trained in adolescent psychiatry at Solnit (at the time Riverview Hospital for Children and Youth) 1998-2000. He trained in psychiatry at Saint Vincent's Hospital and Medical Center/New York Medical College in New York City 1995-1998. For the past 20 years Dr. Nikolov has taught and supervised CAP fellows, psychiatry residents and medical students as a clinical faculty member of the Yale Child Study Center, SUNY Downstate College of Medicine, NYU Child Study Center and St. George University in Grenada. His clinical and research interests include psychiatric postgraduate training and supervision, LEAN performance improvement methods in behavioral health, administrative psychiatry, autism and disruptive behavior, evidence supported practices in public psychiatry.

Dr. Wendy Silverman is the Alfred A. Messer Professor of Child Psychiatry and Director of the Yale Child Study Center Anxiety and Mood Disorders Program, and Professor of Psychology. Dr. Silverman’s research focuses on the development/maintenance of anxiety and mood disorders and developing/testing treatments to alleviate them.  She has published widely in the field and has served as principal investigator/co-investigator of many National Institute of Health research grants.  She has contributed to the profession by serving as Chairperson and member of federal grant review panels, and as Associate Editor and Editor of major scientific journals in clinical psychology. Dr. Silverman has been recognized for her mentoring including being a past recipient of a NIMH midcareer research-mentoring award.

Dr. Wan-Ling Tseng is an Assistant Professor at the Yale Child Study Center. She received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota and completed her postdoctoral fellowship in the Section on Mood Dysregulation and Neuroscience at the National Institute of Mental Health. Her research focuses on understanding the brain mechanisms mediating abnormal psychological processes associated with irritability and aggression in children and adolescents and how these behaviors and symptoms change over time. Dr. Tseng's current work, funded by her NIH Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00), uses machine learning, a data-driven computational approach, to investigate the neural mechanisms of childhood irritability. Her goal is to understand individual differences in how children process frustrating events, how frustration affects the neural mechanisms underlying attention and other cognitive function, and how these processes are associated with irritability symptoms. She studies irritability using multiple levels of analysis (e.g., brain, behavior, social/experiential factors, environment) in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the etiology and development of irritability. In addition to her recent K99/R00 Award, Dr. Tseng’s work has been recognized by other prestigious awards and organizations including the Society of Biological Psychiatry Travel Award (2015), Career Development Institute for Bipolar Disorder (2015), NIH Fellows Award for Research Excellence (2015), NIMH OFT Trainee Travel Award (2016), American College of Neuropsychopharmacology Travel Award (2021), Doris Duke Fund to Retain Clinical Scientists (2021), and Charles H. Hood Foundation Child Health Research Award (2022).Dr. Tseng is an active member of the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) Action Group at the Yale Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine. She believes that diversity fosters creativity, enriches research, and is crucial for scientific progress and discovery. Dr. Tseng is fully committed to efforts toward a more inclusive, equitable, and diverse working space and environment. She has been training and mentoring (and will continue to train and mentor) a diverse body of students entering the field of developmental psychopathology and translational clinical neuroscience.

Fred R. Volkmar, M.D. is Irving B. Harris Professor of Child Psychiatry, Pediatrics, and Psychology at the Yale University Child Study Center, School of Medicine. A graduate of the University of Illinois where he received in undergraduate degree in psychology in 1972 and of Stanford University where he received his M.D. and a master’s degree in psychology in 1976 Dr. Volkmar was the primary author of the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-IV autism and pervasive developmental disorders section. He is the author of several hundred scientific papers and chapters as well as a number of books including Asperger’s Syndrome (Guilford Press), Health Care for Children on the Autism Spectrum (Woodbine Publishing), the Handbook of Autism (Wiley Publishing), and A Practical Guide to Autism: What Every Parent, Teacher and Family Members Needs to Know (Wiley Publishing) with another three books in varying stages of production. He has served as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and the American Journal of Psychiatry. He currently serves as Editor of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. He has served as co-chairperson of the autism/intellectual disabilities committee of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. In addition to having directed the internationally known autism clinic he also served as director of autism research at Yale before becoming chairperson of the Department. Dr. Volkmar has been the principal investigator of three program project grants including a CPEA (Collaborative Program of Excellent in Autism) grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and a STAART (Studies to Advance Autism Research and Treatment) Autism Center Grant from the National Institute of Mental Health.

Dr. Julie Wolf is a licensed clinical psychologist at the Yale Child Study Center in New Haven, CT. She received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Connecticut in 2005, where she studied facial recognition in autism under the mentorship of Dr. Deborah Fein. She completed her clinical internship, including a rotation in autism spectrum disorders, at the University of Chicago, and her post-doctoral fellowship at the Yale Child Study Center under the mentorship of Dr. Robert Schultz. Presently, she serves as the Associate Director of the Developmental Disabilities Clinic at the Yale Child Study Center, conducting clinical evaluations, social skills groups, and sibling support groups. She also provides clinical characterization for a number of federally-funded studies of autism.

Jasmine Hinton graduated from the University of Warwick in 2020 with a Bachelor of Science (with Honours) in Psychology. While at Warwick she represented the Psychology department as a student ambassador. Upon graduating, Jasmine worked as an assistant at Furze Down school, a specialist setting for children with complex educational needs under the supervision of Dr. Robert Beadel. In 2021 she began a dual degree Mres at University College London (UCL) and Yale University, in Developmental Neuroscience and Psychopathology. While at the Sukholdsky lab she is investigating restrictive repetitive behaviors and anxiety in Autism. In the future, Jasmine hopes to pursue a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology in the UK.

Kevin Wee Choon San graduated with a B.S.c honors from University College London. While at University College London, Kevin worked as a research assistant at the Causal Pathway Mapping lab, where he conducted his honors thesis. His honor’s thesis investigated psychopathological co-morbidities in childhood and adolescence using cross-sectional network analysis methods. After graduating, he continued his work with the Causal Pathway Mapping lab, investigating the comorbidity in symptom networks of ADHD and internalizing disorders in a sample of children from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). His work leverages longitudinal network modelling methods to identify comorbid symptoms that ‘bridge’ comorbid disorders across development. Kevin is currently a Master’s Student on the Developmental Neuroscience and Psychopathology program between University College London and Yale University. His current research interests focus on Machine Learning, neuroimaging and transdiagnostic brain networks underpinning emotion regulation in autism spectrum disorder.