Scholars: 2020-2010

Jason earned his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at The City College of New York, City University of New York in 2015. His dissertation focused on the validation and improvement of quantitative PET of atherosclerotic plaque metabolic activity using novel simultaneous PET/MR systems. Jason is currently using PET imaging to investigate mechanisms of disease and receptor/enzyme pharmacology in metabolic diseases, such as diabetes and obesity. Current projects include using PET to image dopamine in the pancreas both in type 1 and type 2 diabetes; whole-body distribution of the cortisol activating enzyme (11beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1); and method development (image reconstruction, attenuation and scatter correction) for whole-body kinetic modeling of novel PET radioligands in clinical and preclinical studies.

Kamil Faridi is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Section of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine and an Investigator at the Yale Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation. He received his medical degree from the Duke University School of Medicine and went on to complete his residency training in Internal Medicine at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and fellowship in Cardiovascular Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. As a cardiology fellow, he also completed a research fellowship at the BIDMC Smith Center for Outcomes Research in Cardiology and received a Master of Science Degree in Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He is board certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular medicine, and echocardiography, and is a general cardiologist and echocardiographer at Yale New Haven Hospital. He is a member of the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, and the American Society of Echocardiography.   Dr. Faridi’s research interests include primary and secondary prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and stroke, utilization of cardiovascular medications and echocardiography in clinical practice, and effective use of real-world evidence to enhance cardiovascular care. He has recently been awarded the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation (YCCI) Junior Faculty Scholar Award to pursue outcomes research in cardiology.

Dr. Fineberg holds an MD PhD from the University of Iowa, where she studied the molecular mechanisms that control early fate decisions for neural stem cells in mouse brain.  She initially became interested in science as an undergraduate student at Oberlin College in physiology classes, where mechanism came alive in narratives about the evolutionary and individual history of the organism. She came to Yale in 2010 to pursue clinical and research training in psychiatry.  Her current research engages  both stories and brain-based mechanisms of mental illness, asking questions about how patient social experiences relate to neural circuits and learning mechanisms.Dr. Fineberg has been awarded young investigator grants from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention to pursue studies about social learning in Borderline Personality Disorder.

Dr. Angela Haeny is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and leads the Racial Equity and Addiction Lab (REAL) at Yale School of Medicine. She is a licensed Clinical Psychologist with specialty in substance use disorders. Dr. Haeny is committed to eliminating racial disparities and enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion, which cuts across all aspects of her work. Her research investigates effective alcohol and drug treatments among individuals underrepresented in substance use research with a focus on Black adults. Her research also involves identifying understudied risk factors for substance use and problems especially salient to Black people. Currently, Dr. Haeny’s research is considering how to target racial stress and trauma and other relevant constructs in drug and alcohol treatment to improve treatment outcomes, retention, and satisfaction among Black adults. This work is funded by a 5-year career development award from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Lorig Kachadourian completed a B.A. in Psychology and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. She currently is a research psychologist at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System and an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine. Her primary research interests concern anger and aggression and associated risk factors including trauma exposure, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and substance use. She also is interested in developing and testing alternative treatments for anger and aggression, including mindfulness-based interventions.

Undergraduate School: Amherst College Undergraduate Major: Chemistry and Neuroscience Medical School: Yale University School of Medicine Research Fellowship: Immunobiology, Yale University School of Medicine Internship: Yale-New Haven Hospital Internal Medicine  Alicia Little, MD, PhD, is a dermatologist with expertise in women’s skin health and autoimmunity. She is the director of the Vulvar Dermatology Clinic, which is dedicated to compassionate, interdisciplinary management of vulvar skin diseases. Dr. Little specializes in skin disease of pregnancy and vulvar skin diseases; autoimmune skin diseases including cutaneous lupus, dermatomyositis, morphea, lichen sclerosus, and lichen planus; and inflammatory skin diseases including psoriasis, atopic dermatitis (eczema), and rosacea. She also handles general dermatology, acne, and skin cancer screening. “I enjoy meeting new patients and developing lasting relationships with them,” Dr. Little says. “I love looking at my schedule and recognizing patients who I have helped with uncomfortable rashes, acne, or skin cancers, and continuing to support them over the years with any new or chronic skin conditions.” Dermatology, she says, allows her to see patients of all ages and to use her background in immunology since many skin diseases and rashes are caused by an overactive immune system.  “As dermatologists, we have the wonderful privilege of seeing our patients get better quite literally, since their symptoms are often also visible to us on the skin,” she says. When not caring for her patients, Dr. Little, who is an assistant professor of dermatology at Yale School of Medicine, conducts research on the immune cells responsible for autoimmune skin disease. “By studying what is going wrong to cause the body to attack itself, I hope that we can identify targets for future treatments to improve patients’ lives,” she says.