Principal Investigator

Lauren is the Lab Manager in Dr. Shuffrey's RESILIENT Lab. After graduating from the University of Richmond in 2019 with a double major in Psychology and Classics, Lauren completed postgraduate appointments as a Postgraduate Research Associate at the Yale Child Study Center and a Research Coordinator in Stanford University's Department of Psychology. Lauren’s current research interests broadly include biological and behavioral impacts of early childhood adverse events and intergenerational markers of stress and trauma. 

Julianna is a Research Associate in Dr. Shuffrey’s RESILIENT Lab. She graduated from Loyola University Chicago with a B.S. in Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience. During undergrad, she worked in Dr. Zoe Smith’s ACCTION Lab as a research assistant, where she focused on community-based assessments and intervention development for youth with ADHD and cognitive disengagement syndrome. Julianna is excited to research and learn more about the neurodevelopmental trajectories of infants who’ve experienced early childhood adverse events along with the influence of maternal’s health during pregnancy.

Anahid is a Research Associate in Dr. Shuffrey’s RESILIENT Lab. She graduated from Texas A&M University with a B.S. in Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience. During her time in undergrad, she developed an interest in utilizing EEG to mark cognitive control and the neurdevelopmental trajectory of children that had experienced early-life adversity.  Anahid is eager to further research the impacts of early-age trauma on the developing brain and psyche.

Erika graduated with a B.A. in Psychology from New York University in May 2024. She is currently pursuing a M.A. in Psychology with a focus in Clinical Psychology at NYU. As an undergrad student, she worked in a stem cell research lab, where she developed a passion for cutting-edge scientific research. Erika is excited to learn more about the interaction between maternal mental health and the development of infants.

Gabriella is a  senior at NYU, pursuing a Spanish major with minors in Psychology and Chemistry on the premed track. She has held various research positions, but her interest in maternal medicine sparked while working with a team at the IECS in Argentina to develop a core outcome set to measure maternal and perinatal health outcomes of mothers during pandemics. Gabriella is excited to join the team and hopes to learn a lot more about maternal mental health and infant development!

Emily is a  senior at NYU pursuing a major in psychology and minors in both chemistry and public health. Her interest in women’s health was cemented by her time volunteering with the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department at Maimonides Medical Center. She also loves working with children as she was both a youth swimming and running coach in high school. She is very excited to join the RESILIENT team as the lab combines her interests in obstetric and pediatric medicine perfectly!

Allie Berkowitz is a senior majoring in psychology with a focus on neuroscience, and she is minoring in child and adolescent mental health studies and communicative sciences and disorders. Her interest in developmental neuroscience was sparked by her brothers' diagnoses and experiences with PANDAS (pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorder associated with streptococcal infection) and her volunteer work with hospitalized infants with neurological conditions. Allie is thrilled to join the RESILIENT Lab and further explore fetal brain development. In her free time, Allie enjoys spending time with her nieces and nephews, playing tennis, and going to Six Flags.

Jessica received her B.A. in Neuroscience and Sociology from Barnard College in 2022, where she was part of the COVID-19 Mother Baby Outcome (COMBO) study with Dr. Dani Dumitriu and developed adaptations of infant developmental assessments to be conducted remotely. Now, she is a coordinator for the Autism Center of Excellence at Columbia university, where she coordinates and conducts studies of early neurobehavioral trajectories that predict subsequent autism diagnosis. She is a Masters student in Sociology at Columbia University, where she carries out research pertaining to the role of rare disease organizations in scientific knowledge production. Additionally, she is working with Dr. Shuffrey on an analysis of the effects of neighborhood deprivation on child behavior, to better understand the interplay between social factors and child development.

 Jennifer graduated from Seton Hall University in 2017 with her B.S. in Psychology and from Montclair State University in 2019 with her M.A. in Clinical Psychology. Currently, she is a 3rd-year doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology program at Montclair State University and the lab manager for Dr. Laura Lakusta's Cognitive and Language Development Lab. For her master’s thesis, Jennifer explored the effect of exposure to gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) on child language development and how other factors like maternal mental health and socioeconomic status may be implicated. Furthermore, Jennifer is working with Dr. Shuffrey exploring the effects of perinatal complications on child development, including psychopathology and language development.

 Yael Rayport is a researcher in Dr. Shuffrey’s RESILIENT Lab and a first-year medical student at SUNY Downstate. Yael graduated from Barnard College and the Jewish Theological Seminary, where she earned B.A.s in Psychology and Biblical Interpretation. Following graduation, Yael was a research assistant in the Fifer Laboratory at Columbia University, where she collaborated with Dr. Shuffrey on projects exploring impacts of gestational diabetes mellitus and maternal perinatal depression on child neurodevelopment. Through her research, Yael aims to uncover therapeutic interventions enabling children to reach their full potential.