Dr. Megan Aguilera is from Thousand Oaks, CA, and is the oldest of five siblings. She is the proud daughter of Mexican immigrants. Hearing her parents' stories of sacrifice motivated her to make the most of her educational opportunities. A first-generation college graduate, she attended Stanford University and majored in Human Biology with a self-designed concentration in Social and Biological Determinants of Health. After college, she worked at Stanford Children’s Hospital in Care Coordination with patients from under-resourced and predominantly immigrant populations. She helped families navigate the health system and served as their primary point of contact before, during, and after hospital stays. For medical school, she attended the University of Colorado. There, the Latino Medical Student Association (LMSA) played a central role in her journey. On a personal level, it allowed her to connect with classmates from backgrounds like hers and highlighted the importance of community and representation in medicine. She served as the Chief Development Officer for the Southwest Regional Board. In this role, she established three new LMSA and LMSA+ chapters at medical schools and undergraduate campuses. She found it meaningful to create spaces for URM students to take on leadership roles and receive increased access to mentorship. Her interests within psychiatry include working with Spanish-speaking patients, child and adolescent psychiatry, cultural psychiatry, and psychotherapy. In medical school, her research included studying mental health and trauma experiences among Latinx immigrants. She also worked on a podcast where she hosted an episode titled, “Culture-Bound Syndromes of Latinx Culture,” which also discussed best practices for working with Latinx patients. During her free time, she enjoys running, Latin dancing, being outdoors, reading, and spending time with friends, family, and dog.
Current Residents
Organizations on this page
First Year Residents (PGY-1)
- Samuel Dienel (Sam), MD, PhD, is a psychiatry resident in Yale’s Neuroscience Research Training Program. He completed his bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh, with minors in Chemistry and Applied Statistics. After completing his undergraduate training, he began working as a Research Assistant in the lab of Dr. David Lewis, working with the Brain Tissue Donation Program. He then matriculated to Pitt’s Medical Scientist Training Program, where he continued his work in Dr. Lewis’ lab. His thesis focused on the postmortem alterations to a group of cortical inhibitory neurons called somatostatin neurons in people with schizophrenia, using novel approaches to label target transcripts in sections of the postmortem human prefrontal cortex. Going forward at Yale, he hopes to apply his training in molecular neuroscience to address questions about the developmental patterning of prefrontal cortical circuits and how alterations in those developmental trajectories can give rise to psychiatric disorders with impaired cognitive function, such as schizophrenia and autism.
- Dr. Friligkou is a post-doctoral research associate in psychiatric genetics, working in Dr. Polimanti's lab. She mainly focuses on the genetic structures shared by different psychiatric pathologies and the genetic mechanisms that foster heterogeneity within specific disorders. Using a range of computational tools, she examines large volumes of genomic data, electronic health records, and other patient-related information to find answers to these questions. After graduating from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki with a Medical Degree, Dr. Friligkou worked as a rural doctor and psychiatry intern at Leros General Hospital for two years. She later obtained an MSc in Health Data Analysis from the same university. She intends to pursue a Psychiatry Residency in the United States to further her interests in clinical practice and research. I completed my medical training at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece at the height of the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean. Fascinated by transcultural psychiatry, I spent two years as a resident and rural doctor serving on the Greek island of Leros and the island's refugee reception center. The clinical practice sparked my interest in how healthcare information can be employed to refine psychiatric phenotypes, so I pursued a Master’s in Health Data Analysis at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, where I delved into psychiatric genetics. During my post-doctoral fellowship at Yale, I used electronic health records, wearable device data, and multi-omic information to understand the underlying causes of anxiety disorders in diverse populations and to explore the shared and distinct genetic factors across various psychiatric conditions. As a resident in the Yale Neuroscience Research Track, I will focus on using multidimensional patient-related information to improve clinical prediction, emphasizing enhancing representation in healthcare data.
- Dr. Shanté (SHAHN-tay ) Jackson-Barnes comes to medicine as a first-generation college graduate and medical student from a military family background. She has a commitment to increasing diversity within the medical community and advocating for improving access to psychiatric services in the black and POC community. In 2015, Dr. Jackson-Barnes graduated from Florida State University with a B.S. in psychology with a minor in chemistry and a B.S. in criminology with a minor in biology. After graduation, she spent three years working at Coastal State Prison in Savannah, GA as a correctional officer before being promoted to correctional sergeant. Dr. J-B used this pathway to save up for the cost of medical school applications while also gaining a deep understanding of the ways in which minority peoples are impacted by America's carceral system. In 2019, she matriculated to VCU School of Medicine where she continued to champion her diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives by serving as an ambassador for the Student Council for Inclusive Excellence (SCIE), as well as the president of VCU’s Chapter of the Student National Medical Association (SNMA). A crowning achievement of her time at VCU was the collaboration with SNMA to create Noir Network, a mentoring database aimed at connecting the members with physicians of color for mentorship, shadowing, research, as well as her induction into the Gold Humanism Honor Society. Dr. J-B intends to pursue specialization in child and adolescent psychiatry. Her aim is to work primarily with adolescent-aged populations to be an advocate focused on addressing black mental health disparities, highlighting the importance of early intervention, and providing trauma-informed psychiatric care for adolescents within systems - such as the juvenile justice and foster care systems. Dr. J-B has a strong interest in first break psychosis and trauma-related disorders. She believes in a slow approach to medication management with a focus on psychological and social interventions as first defense. Outside of medicine, Dr. J-B is often found snuggled next to her Union Electrician husband and/or kitty, catching up on her anime watch list, reading the latest fantasy book, or enjoying some good eats.
- Hi! I am Noa. I was born and raised in Haifa, Israel, a beautiful harbor city by the Mediterranean Sea. My passion for medicine started when I was visiting my mother at the surgical floor, where she had been working as an anesthesiologist. I was especially curious about how the brain works, and what makes us think and behave the way we do. I completed my undergraduate studies in Biomedical Engineering at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, and earned my medical degree from Sackler School of Medicine at Tel-Aviv University. I fell in love with Psychiatry during my psych rotations in medical school and went on to complete an adult psychiatry residency program at the Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, which gave me an amazing opportunity to treat patients from all walks of Israeli society and grow as a psychiatrist. I was especially drawn to women’s mental health, and worked for a year at the Women’s Mental Health Service at the Division on Psychiatry in Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical center, where I was honored to give mental care for women who experienced mental distress in association with women's unique needs and life transitions (such as fertility and pregnancy related issues, traumatic labor, negative obstetric outcome such as still birth and disorders associated with the puerperium). Alongside my passion for clinical psychiatry, I seek answers for the many unanswered questions in the field through psychiatry research and focus on the genetic intersection with clinical manifestations of severe psychiatric mental disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Upon completion of residency, I was awarded a spot as a Basic Science Training Program (BSTP) Post-Doctoral Fellow and joined the Yale Mood Disorders Research Program (MDRP), directed by Dr. Hilary Blumberg, whom I was lucky to have as mentor. My research has been focusing on elucidation of the neurobiological and genetic mechanisms underlying the risk for suicidal behaviour in bipolar disorder, and the identification of brain and behavioural targets to reduce suicide-risk. Outside of psychiatry, I am a proud mother of three, and enjoys exercising and playing the piano.
- I am interested in neural control of innate behavioral drives, with a focus on acute hunger, satiety, and energy homeostasis. Clinically, this pertains most directly to eating disorders, and more broadly to aberrant reward perception and ultimately entrenchment of counter-survival behaviors. My interest stemmed from a background as a track athlete and later an amateur physique athlete. Come and lift heavy with me in the gym! I came to the U.S. from China at the age of 18 to pursue my undergraduate education. I got my first biomedical research experience at Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute, where I studied retina development and degeneration in Dr. Valeria Canto-Soler’s lab. After college, I spent two years in Durban, South Africa and conducted research on bacterial molecular genetics and DNA topology. I lived in a hostel and shared happiness and sorrow with vibrant local university students, hardworking Zulu women who came into the city for better job opportunities, and an adorable landlord gentleman of Dutch descent. I then returned to the U.S. for the MD PhD training. I completed my PhD in Dr. Scott Sternson’s lab at HHMI Janelia Research Campus. We were interested in coding of need states and need-fulfilling processes by subregions of the hypothalamus. My colleague Dr. Shengjin Xu and I developed a new research platform that allowed all the sufficiently refined cell types and all behaviors of interest to be studied in the same animal. We were thereby able to make discoveries unattainable by previously existing methods. At Yale, I have joined Dr. Ruslan Medzhitov’s lab. My project focuses on the gut-brain sensing of essential nutrients that we humans do not seem to report specific “craving” for. The imbalance and rebalance of these nutrients track the trajectory of anorexia illness and recovery. I am passionate about connecting this work to clinical care and making eating disorder care at all acuity levels more accessible to patients of all ages and background.
Second Year Residents (PGY-2)
- As an undergraduate at Columbia University, I majored in Biomedical Engineering. My formative experience working in the Biomaterials and Interface Tissue Engineering Lab paired with my passion to help patients motivated me to become a physician-scientist. I joined the MD/PhD program at Columbia’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and completed my thesis work in Dr. Kam Leong’s lab onhow dual-purpose nanomaterials that can deliver chemotherapy and bind to inflammatory damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) thereby mitigating the metastatic spread of breast cancer. My research was funded by an NIH F31 Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award in April 2021. As my desire to become a psychiatrist grew, I developed a novel research plan to test the influence of DAMP-scavenging nanoparticles on chemobrain side effects, particularly anxiety. My thesis work was awarded the Miriam Berkman Spotnitz Award in Oncology at Columbia’s medical school graduation in 2023. Going forward, I would like to conduct clinical research aimed at better understanding or improving treatments of women’s mental health and it’s incredible to have the opportunity to pursue this research at Yale.
- Amy was born and raised on Long Island, New York and graduated from Stony Brook University where she completed an honors thesis on taste processing in the gustatory cortex. She finished her MD/PhD at UMass Chan Medical School where her thesis work on understanding the role of the synaptic protein neurexin in serotonin signaling was supported by an F30 fellowship through the National Institute of Mental Health. Amy co-founded UMass MIND’s Community Intervention Program to work alongside community members with serious mental illness, local mental health organizations, and academic institutions. She co-developed the Food4Thought nutrition program and promoted creative expression for those living with serious mental illness and/or substance use disorders through arts-based programs. As a second-year psychiatry resident at Yale, Amy continues her passion for public psychiatry, community-based participatory efforts, mentorship, and stigma reduction. She currently leads the Public Psychiatry Interest Group and plans to continue her work in lifestyle psychiatry to advocate for a healthier New Haven. She serves as one of the resident representatives of the Medical Student Education Committee on the Psychiatry Residents’ Association. Outside of work, Amy enjoys all things food, staying active, and spending time with friends and family.
- Lala L. Forrest was born on the ancestral land of the Hewisedawi people, in Alturas, California. She is a citizen of the Pit River Nation in Northern California and a descendant of the Modoc and Wintu people. Lala was the first in her family to graduate from a university and obtained a Bachelor of Science in Physiology and Neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego. During this time she was an active member of the California Native American Research Center for Health program, where she nurtured her passions for healing and discovery by exploring the intersections of medicine and research. With an interest in health equity, Lala pursued the Postbac Enrichment Program at the National Institutes of Health after graduating college. With the hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp technique, she studied insulin sensitivity and resistance to explain the physiological basis for health disparities in Asian and African American communities. After participating in the Post Baccalaureate Program at the University of California, San Francisco, and working as an emergency medical technician in New Haven, Connecticut, Lala matriculated into medical school at the Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University where she was awarded the Netter scholarship. While in medical school, Lala co-founded the Perspectives on Equity Advancement: Research and Learning Symposium where students receive grant funding to pursue DEI initiatives programs alongside a supportive mentorship team placement. With an interest in medical education, Lala served as the Assistant Editor for Trainee Engagement for the journal, Academic Medicine. She worked with Drs. Charles Odonkor and Erik Brodt to publish, "Representation of American Indian and Alaska Native Individuals in Academic Medical Training" in JAMA Network Open. In 2023, Lala received her Doctor of Medicine degree with a concentration in medical education and was a recipient of the "Excellence in Clerkship for Psychiatry." Currently, Lala is a We Are Healers Fellow and an active member of the Association of American Indian Physicians. She is interested in Indigenous mental health, the influence of structural racism on mental inequities, addiction medicine, child and adolescent psychiatry, and psychotherapy. Lala is also an athlete at Branford CrossFit, enjoys live music, attending the Yale Repertory Theatre, and playing with her dog, Tilly.
- Simone graduated from Harvard College in 2016, where she received an A.B. in integrative biology. Her undergraduate thesis, which used diffusion tensor imaging to examine relationships between social functioning and white matter microstructural variation in typically developing children, was advised by Dr. Charles Nelson of Boston Children's Hospital and received the Thomas T. Hoopes prize. She now works on the Autism Biomarkers Consortium for Clinical Trials' Data Analytics and Acquisition Core analyzing EEG and eye-tracking data.
- Henry Kietzman, MD, PhD, is a resident in Yale’s Neuroscience Research Training Program. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Swarthmore College with a B.A. in Neuroscience. He then enrolled in the Medical Scientist Training Program at Emory University. During medical school, he organized a resilience initiative to promote social connection and decrease burnout among medical students. He then transitioned to his dissertation work in the lab of Dr. Shannon Gourley, where he performed circuit-level analyses to understand how connectivity between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala allow social experiences to shape behavior in rodents. At Yale, he aims to continue using rodent models to understand the neural building blocks of social cognition, while developing new pharmacological and psychological interventions for those with mental illness focused on improving social connectedness. This dovetails with a vested interest in understanding new patient-centered treatments to decrease mental illness burden in LGBTQ+ individuals.
- Songjun William (Will) Li, MD, PhD, is a psychiatry resident in Yale’s Neuroscience Research Training Program. He graduated from Emory University with a bachelors degree double majoring in music performance as well as neuroscience and behavioral biology. There, he studied the neurobiological basis of relational memory formation in the Rhesus macaque model under the guidance of Dr. Beth Buffalo. After college, he joined Dr. Leslie Ungerleider’s lab at the NIMH to investigate facial processing using as a post-bacc fellow. Will then moved to Boston, where he continued his studies at the Boston University School of Medicine, and completed his PhD dissertation with Dr. Ziv Williams at Mass General Hospital evaluating single-neuronal responses during complex social decision making in mice. His research has, thus far, revealed a putative executive mechanism in the prefrontal cortical network that allows animals to evaluate social information about others that can adaptively influence pro-social decisions, competitive effort, and sociability. Will's current research interests aim to build upon our understanding of how the brain processes and encodes socially motivated behaviors, uncovering the mechanisms that go awry in psychosocial disorders using rodent models, and exploring novel treatment options – such as neuromodulation and psychedelics – to restore behavioral function. He is also interested in optimizing digital tools and wearable technologies to detect and track psychiatric disorders such as depression, anxiety, OCD, and PTSD.
- Jada McMahon is a current psychiatry intern at Yale. She was born in Coney Island, NY and attended undergraduate and medical school in upstate New York. She currently serves on the Psychiatry Residents' Association as the PGY-1 representative on the Graduate Medical Education Committee (GMEC) and the co-PGY-1 representative on the Graduate Educational Committee (GEC). Jada is passionate about criminal-legal system reform, reproductive justice, and other forms of legislative advocacy particularly as it pertains to BIPOC youth.
- Alyssa Nielsen is a psychiatry resident at Yale. She grew up in Florida and attended Tulane University where she studied neuroscience and dance. As a part of a 7-year combined B.S.-M.D. program, she transferred to the University of Florida. In medical school, Alyssa was elected to serve as a student representative on the curriculum committee and was heavily involved with a free, student-run clinic network (Equal Access Clinic Network). She directed a weekly primary care site specializing in gender affirming therapy and established a monthly psychiatry clinic. At Yale, Alyssa serves on the Psychiatry Residents' Association as its Co-President and a member of the Medical Student Education Committee. She is passionate about community psychiatry, medical education, and investigating patients' and caregivers' perspectives of mental health care.
- Abiba Salahou is a resident physician in the Department of Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine. She is currently a 2024-2025 APA SAMHSA Minority Fellow and a member of the national Gold Humanism Honor Society. Her clinical interests include childhood trauma, racial socialization, race-based trauma (RBT), acculturation stress, and immigrant mental health. She has a strong interest in narrative medicine and served as a 2022-2023 Doximity Op-Med Writing Fellow. She is also interested in medical education and serves as a mentor to premedical and medical students. She is passionate about community organizing, antiracism, restorative social justice work, and de-stigmatizing mental illness. She has presented her work at national conferences including the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP). She plans to serve diverse communities as a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist. Abiba is currently enrolled in the Yale Young Physicians' Leadership Curriculum, is a mentor in the Yale Post Graduate Association MAP program, and is actively involved in the Yale Psychiatry Residents' Association (PRA) through leadership roles on the Social and Orientation Committees.
Third Year Residents (PGY-3)
- As an undergraduate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, I majored in Chemistry and minored in Biology and Political Science. At MIT, I worked in Ed Boyden’s lab and used optogenetics approaches to silence epileptic seizures. I then joined the MD/PhD program at NYU, completing my thesis in Gord Fishell’s lab using single-cell genomics and lineage tracing approaches to study cortical interneuron development. Going forward, I hope to apply basic neuroscience research tools to better understand and treat neuropsychiatric illnesses. I am particularly interested in disorders with a developmental origin, including autism and schizophrenia. I am very excited to join the NRTP at Yale for residency, where I plan to continue my research on fetal brain development.
- Daniel (Dan) F. Camacho, MD, PhD, is a Yale Psychiatry resident in the Neuroscience Research Training Program. He attended the University of Michigan, where he received a BS in Chemistry, with distinction, and an MS in Biomedical Engineering. He earned his MD and PhD degrees from the University of Chicago’s Medical Scientist Training Program with a specialization in immunology. Dan’s professional interests include patient care, research, science communication, and science outreach. His previous research has advanced our understanding of how allergic responses are triggered and how communication between cells of the body can allow cancer cells to grow unchecked. His current research aims to help us understand how interactions between immune cells and the nervous system contribute to mental health and psychiatric illness.
- Joe Luchsinger, MD, PhD, is a resident in Yale’s Neuroscience Research Training Program. He completed a BS in neuroscience and psychology and BA in physics at Baldwin Wallace University. During that time, he worked in the Mickley lab studying PTSD and unofficially broke the world record for the world’s longest handshake. Joe then moved to Vanderbilt University for his MD-PhD. While there, he was the president of his medical school class and the medical school wine club. Towards the end of medical school, his peers elected him into the honor society Alpha Omega Alpha. He also spent much time on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, and locally advocating for increased federal investment in biomedical research. He completed his PhD in the Winder, where he had an NIH fellowship to use preclinical models to study the neurobiology of stress and its relationship to addiction. He aims to continue to use preclinical models to better our understanding of psychiatric illness and improve its treatment.
- I am a Psychiatry Resident at Yale University, with clinical experiences in Brazil and the U.S. After medical school, I completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Stanford University Center for Clinical Research, where I studied shared decision-making and disparities. There, I was awarded for achievements in clinical trial equity, diversity, and inclusion. Now at Yale, my interests lie at the intersection of addiction psychiatry and chronic pain. I am a part of the Pain and Addiction Interaction Neurosciences (PAIN) Laboratory, where we research pharmacological treatments for patients with chronic pain and substance use disorders. I am particularly interested in how health-care disparities affect pain management for persons living with addiction disorders. For my work, I received awards from the National Institute on Drug and Alcohol and the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry. Most recently, I was selected for the Leadership Fellowship of the American Psychiatric Association Foundation. I have an additional passion for medical education and mentoring, and I was awarded the departmental Resident Teaching Award in 2023. Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=HmVy8lwAAAAJ&hl=en
Fourth Year Residents (PGY-4)
- I am a physician-economist interested in the neurobiological underpinnings (“neuro-microfoundations”) of economic and health inequality. My PhD dissertation, guided by David Cutler, Nathan Nunn and David Laibson, examined the impact of post-discharge surgical prescribing on long-term opioid use through an instrumental variables technique. I have served on faculty of Harvard Medical School, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, and the Harvard Department of Economics, where I teach The Economics of Development and Global Health. Clinically, I am interested in severe mood disorders and suicidality, as well as in traumatic and psychotic pathologies and their links to chronic homelessness. I completed an intern year in General Surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital before moving to Psychiatry Residency. My work has been published in the Journal of Economic Literature, the New England Journal of Medicine, and the Journal of Orthopedic Trauma. I previously served as a Consultant to the President of the World Bank under Jim Kim, as a Fulbright fellow in Malawi, and a co-editor of the textbook “Reimagining Global Health” (University of California Press, 2013) with Paul Farmer, Jim Kim and Arthur Kleinman.
- Shivani Bhatt is an MD-PhD candidate investigating the neural stress and immune systems in Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) using Positron Emission Tomography in the laboratory of Dr. Kelly Cosgrove. Shivani's research projects reflect her clinical interests in stress-related psychiatric disorders including PTSD and addiction, and their intersections with chronic medical illness in the primary care setting. Both have been informed by her experience working as a student provider with underserved populations in Wednesday Evening Clinic, HAVEN Free Clinic, and Yale Refugee Clinic for 3 years. Additionally, Shivani has been involved in shaping medical school curriculum around early professional identification, structural determinants of health, and mental health and burnout in medicine, and is part of current leadership efforts in the Yale MD-PhD Program's Committee on Diversity and Inclusion.Fun Fact: Shivani is a singer in an MD and MD-PhD student Jazz Band, the Railboys.
- For the past fifteen years, I have worked as a pediatrician, researcher, educator, and public health practitioner focused on designing, delivering & evaluating interventions to improve outcomes for children and families affected by HIV in Malawi. I am the Co-Founding Director of Tingathe (meaning "together we can" in the local Chichewa language), a program which has been supporting HIV and psychosocial programming and implementation research at >120 health facilities in Malawi. In this role, I secured funding for and managed a portfolio of clinical and research programming (KO1, RO1), as well as a research fellowship program that sought to support and develop young scientists in Malawi. I led some of the first studies in Malawi examining adolescent depression, healthcare worker burnout, intimate partner violence, adverse childhood events, and the impact of a tele-mental health support program. I also served for the past six years as the Research and Implementation Director for the USAID funded Technical Support program, which sought to apply best practices and lessons learned from our programming in Malawi to improve policy and HIV care and treatment implementation in nine other Sub-Saharan African countries. Now, with further clinical and research training in psychiatry, I hope to build on this foundation to explore novel interventions in psychiatry and further promote access to critical mental health services in resource limited settings around the globe.
- Dr. Yang Jae Lee graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude double majoring in International Area Studies: Development and Biology from Washington University in St. Louis. In 2015, he developed a deep interest in the Busoga region of Uganda, where he conducted a research project on traditional medicines. Concurrently, he authored a journalism project for which he was awarded the Mark of Excellence Award from the Society of Professional Journalists for producing the best journalism nationally among students in his category. He continued engaging with the Busoga region, initiating several collaborative projects with academicians, local government, and community members on various public health interventions and development initiatives. In 2018, he founded the 501(c)3 organization Empower Through Health, where he serves as the Executive Director and Chairperson. Empower Through Health is a non-profit organization that provides medical care to a catchment area of 70,000 people and psychiatric care to a catchment area of over 400,000 people. Alongside their medical and research endeavors, they created equitable educational opportunities for both Ugandan and American pre-doctoral students, while also aspiring to establish a leading global mental health hub. Since arriving at Yale, he has concentrated on two primary research objectives: diminishing the stigma associated with mental illness; and, cultivating robust systems of care through working with existing community structures to provide effective mental healthcare in rural areas of low-income countries. Through addressing these crucial issues, he aims to make a meaningful contribution towards enhancing the overall well-being of marginalized communities.
- Marcos Antonio Moreno, MD, was born and raised in a small community in southern Arizona known as the Pascua Yaqui Reservation and is an enrolled member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe. He received his Bachelor of Science degrees from Cornell University where he studied Neuroscience and Human Development and earned his Doctor of Medicine degree from UND- School of Medicine & Health Sciences. Dr. Moreno has published work in academic journals on a variety of topics including substance abuse, social media addiction, neuropsychiatry, Covid-19 health policy, and environmental health policy. He has an interest in public health and medicine for underserved populations and has been involved in medical mission trips to Africa and Latin America with the Global Medical Brigades and has assisted in health needs assessments and health quality improvement projects for Native American communities. He currently serves as a board member for the University of Arizona’s Wassaja Moctezuma Center for Native American Health, where he and others work to assist in improving community healthcare, policy, education and wellness programs for Native Americans. Dr. Moreno has written extensively about the challenges faced by Native American communities, including a chapter for the United Nations-sponsored book Global Indigenous Youth and another chapter on modern day Indigenous disparities titled “Bridging the Gap” in the book American Indian Health Disparities in the 21st Century. His work has been recognized with several awards including the National Udall Healthcare Award, Cornell’s Henry Ricciuti Award, and the Solomon Cook Award for Engaged Research and Scholarship. During his time at Yale, he has been selected as recipient of several national fellowships including the Ginsburg Fellowship through the Group for Advancement of Psychiatry, the Climate & Health Equity Fellowship through the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health, and the American Psychiatric Association Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Fellowship.
Child and Adult Integrated Residents
- Dr. Laelia Benoit is a Clinical Fellow (PGY-2) in the Solnit Integrated Training Program in Child, Adolescent, and Adult Psychiatry at the Yale Child Study Center. She is a French and Brazilian Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist (fully trained in France) and came to the U.S. in 2021 to work as a Fulbright Visiting Research Scholar at the Yale Child Study Center. Dr. Benoit maintains her affiliation with the French NIH (Inserm, CESP, Centre de Recherche en Epidémiologie et Santé des Populations). Dr. Benoit is the co-director of QUALab, Qualitative and Mixed Methods Lab, a collaboration between the Yale Child Study Center (Dr. Andrés Martin), and the CESP (Dr. Bruno Falissard). Dr. Benoit's previous research focused on early intervention in psychosis, anxious school refusal, and access to care for minorities. Her current project assesses the impact of climate change on the mental health of children and adolescents in three countries (the US, Brazil, and France). Laelia Benoit favors citizen research approaches involving adolescents, their parents, professionals, and family support groups. Her teaching (Yale University, Universidade de São Paolo, University of Paris) focuses on qualitative methods for researchers and psychological and social science skills for caregivers and school professionals to help them support children's health and reduce inequities in health care. Professional honors: Yale International Physician-Scientist Resident and Fellow Research Award (2023), Fulbright (2021), Monahan Foundation (2021), Inserm Award (2016), Paris Public Hospital AP-HP Award (2016). Methods: Qualitative (Grounded theory), Social Science, Mixed-methods, Transcultural Keywords: Youth mental health, Climate Change, Access to care, School refusal, Migration, Early Intervention (Autism, Psychosis), Adoption. Books : "L'adolescent fragile, peut-on prédire en psychiatrie? (2016), "Phobie scolaire, retrouver le plaisir d'apprendre" (2020), "Infantisme" (2023). All publications. Researchgate
- Rachel completed her MD/PhD training at Yale School of Medicine and Yale School of Public Health in May 2024. Her dissertation focused on the implementation of evidence-based tuberculosis care in Uganda in Dr. Luke Davis' lab. Rachel also led research studies in Dr. Sarah Lowe's Trauma and Mental Health Lab to study the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and various forms of discrimination on healthcare workers. She aims to continue studying the implementation of evidence-based interventions using mixed methods throughout her time in the Integrated Child, Adolescent, and Adult Psychiatry Program at Yale.
- Max Rolison, MD is a clinical fellow in the Albert J. Solnit Integrated Child, Adolescent, and Adult Psychiatry program. He received his B.S. with distinction in Psychology (Neuroscience) from Yale University and his M.D. Cum Laude from Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Rolison previously worked as a Sara S. Sparrow Fellow in Clinical Neuroscience in the McPartland Lab and Developmental Disabilities Clinic at the Yale Child Study Center. Since a young age, he has been interested in the care of children and teens with autism spectrum disorder. He has worked for many years with children with autism and other neurodevelopment disorders and their families. Dr. Rolison's research has focused on understanding the neurobiological bases of autism spectrum disorder through electroencephalogram, eye-tracking, and functional magnetic resonance imaging. He aims to apply our knowledge of biomarkers in autism to develop better treatments and best individualize treatment interventions.