People
The Etkin Lab
Summer 2012
Lab Director
Amit Etkin
Postdoctoral Fellows and Research Associates
Mylea Charvat* Director of Clinical Training
Ashley Chen
Madeleine Goodkind
Anett Gyurak
Naho Ichikawa
Lisa McTeague
Desmond Oathes
Brian Patenaude
Shefali Srivastava
Jill Waring
Elizabeth Weiss
Research Assistants
Irene Akingbade
Roshan Burns
Larry Chan
Eric De Mund
Javier Galindo
Jurema Gobena* Lab Manager
Louise Guatney
Rita Hitching
Ratna Jalisatgi
Laura Jones
Travis McGee
Brissa Ortega
Maryam Taghdimi
Stephanie Tam Rosas
Reut Shani
Melinda Wong
Practicum Students and Trainees
Stephanie Crockett
Elizabeth Goodman
Louise Guatney
Hannah Holt
Travis McGee
Uri Kugel
Venus Mahmoodi
Jessica Schienle
Laurel Shiba
Stephanie Tam Rosas
Zlatena Theodore
Taryn Weinkam
Rachel Wooten
Other Graduate Students
David Carreon
Ying Jiang
Laura Jones
Brissa Ortega
Russell Toll
Undergraduate Students
Brenda Ascencio
Nicole Dalal
Poorwa Godbole
Erika Roach
Yevgeniya (Jane) Zaiko
Affiliates
Aikisha Harley
Megan Kelly
Bret Schneider
Allison Thompson
Miriam Walter
Sanno Zack
Alumni
Lizette Aguirre
Ian Ballard
Laurel Brown
Shawndell Clay
Sandra DiVitale
Haddas Elisha
Sahar Esfahani
Nadeem Hasan
Noriko Ishisoko
Christine Karamagi
Jennie Lambert
Susan Lauer
Ann Leibovitz
Christine Liu
Dominique Lyew
Adam Miner
Peter Moon
Deborah Nazarian
Natasha Parikh
Kathy Peng
Kaycee Rashid
Laura Rose
Meena Saleh
Sarah Sullivan
Lotte Veenstra
Kenny Wong
Zhengwei Zhou
Lab Photos
Fall 2011
Amit Etkin is Assistant Professor in the Department of
Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Stanford University School of
Medicine and an Investigator in the VA Sierra-Pacific Mental Illness
Research Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC) at the Palo Alto VA.
Dr. Etkin received his BS in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology in 1997, and his MD and PhD with distinction from
Columbia University. His PhD work was done in the laboratory of Nobel
laureate Dr. Eric Kandel, and focused on the molecular and cellular
basis of learning and memory in mice. Simultaneous with this work, Dr.
Etkin pursued functional MRI neuroimaging research.
As a student he published several papers on the neural circuitry
involved in emotional processing and regulation in healthy subjects,
with a particular focus on processes going on outside of awareness.
Upon moving to Stanford for his psychiatry residency, Dr. Etkin
extended these neuroimaging paradigms to patient populations,
investigated in greater depth the basic mechanisms of implicit
(non-conscious) emotion regulation, and has developed several methods for understanding and manipulating neural circuit dynamics in humans, including with concurrent neuroimaging and non-invasive brain stimulation with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), as well as approaches to computerized training of emotion regulatory brain systems. He joined the faculty at Stanford in 2009, while also a PGY4 psychiatry resident. Dr. Etkin has recently been awarded the prestigious BRAINS (Biobehavioral Research Award for Innovative New Scientists) R01 Award from the National Institute of Mental Health and a Dana Neuroscience Scholar Award from the Dana Foundation.
Email Contact: amitetkin@stanford.edu
Elizabeth Weiss is a Life Sciences Research Scientist in the Etkin Lab and coordinates Dr. Etkin’s recent BRAINS R01 Award from the National Institute of Mental Health. The goal of this research is to apply functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to elucidate the brain circuitry underlying improvement in response to prolonged exposure (PE) psychotherapy for PTSD and to leverage this knowledge to develop a novel, personalized, neurocircuitry-targeting treatment using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).
Dr. Weiss completed her PsyD in Clinical Psychology with a focus on trauma and resilience through the PGSP-Stanford PsyD Consortium at Palo Alto University. At her internship at Napa State Hospital, she became fascinated by the interplay between trauma and psychotic spectrum sequelae. She furthered her clinical and research experience helping individuals who cope with severe mental illness and histories of trauma reclaim more active lives at her Postdoctoral Fellowship in Psychosocial Rehabilitation at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center (SFVAMC).
Prior to becoming a psychologist, Dr. Weiss ran Meredith Productions, an academic technology management company, and worked as a manager at Oracle Corporation.
Email Contact: melweiss@stanford.edu
Mylea Charvat completed her bachelor’s degree in Psychology at the University of Kansas and her Ph.D. in clinical health psychology at Palo Alto University. During graduate school she studied the impact of trauma and post-traumatic stress on women’s health during and after pregnancy. She completed her psychology internship at Napa State Hospital. Prior to her graduate studies Dr. Charvat worked in management consulting for over eight years; including several years as the staff development manager at Travelocity.com. She has served on several boards of directors including the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS) and Conard House in San Francisco.
As a postdoctoal fellow in the Etkin Lab, Mylea is working on the iSPOT Depression study. She is interested in the interplay between emotion regulation and cognitive function; in particular the underlying neural aspects of decision processes. When she is not in the lab she can be found at the beach with her two dogs.
Ashley Chen is a postdoctoral fellow in the Etkin lab, starting
April 2010. Ashley completed her Bachelor’s degree in Life
Sciences from National Tsing-Hua University in Taiwan, and earned her
Master’s and Doctoral degree in Neuroscience from University of
Michigan in Ann Arbor. Using both behavioral and neuroimaging
methods, her previous work focused on network interactions of the
brain’s large-scale neural systems during social cognition.
Ashley has strong interests in better understanding the mechanisms
under which various neural-circuits contribute to brain functions as a
whole. She is currently working with several other brilliants
minds to develop concurrent TMS/fMRI protocols, which ultimately have
implications to better help clinical populations.
Email Contact: ashley.chen@stanford.edu
Madeleine Goodkind received her PhD in clinical psychology from UC-Berkeley. During graduate school, she studied changes in emotional functioning associated in diverse neurological conditions. In particular, this research focused on empathy and emotion regulation among patients with frontotemporal dementia and frontal lobe injuries.
Madeleine completed her clinical internship at the VA-Northern California. As a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Etkin's lab, she is working on the BRAINS project, studying neural circuitry underlying exposure-based psychotherapy for PTSD. She is interested in the interplay between emotion regulation, treatment response, and neural networks. She is a fellow with the Mental Illness Research and Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC) at the Palo Alto VA.
Email Contact: mgoodkin@stanford.edu
Anett Gyurak has a PhD in psychology from UC Berkeley. As a
Hungarian native, she completed her undergraduate studies in psychology
at Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest. Anett's research interests are
focused on emotion regulation, its neurological, physiological and
behavioral concomitants.
She studies this question using a variety of methods such as autonomic
nervous system physiology, fMRI, neuropsyhological tests, and
self-report measures. With these converging techniques she tries to
answer several important questions about the origins and active
ingredients of emotion regulatory ability, and ultimately hopes to
design intervention techniques aimed to cultivate them. Anett was
awarded the Dean's Postdoctoral Fellowship for her first year of
postdoctoral research training in the Stanford University School of
Medicine.
Email Contact: agyurak@stanford.edu
Naho Ichikawa, MA, Ph.D. candidate
Naho Ichikawa is interested in the human cognition-emotion interaction, including behavioral (conflict/error) monitoring, emotion regulation, motivation, learning, and decision-making. As she is interested in those brain mechanisms and the utilization of biological markers, she has used neurophysiological indices (fMRI, EEG/ERP, eyeblink/EOG, eye-movements, pupil dilation, ECG/HR/HRV, SCR/SCL, facial EMG, etc.) in her previous work. She has also applied computational modeling methods to her research. Naho has studied and worked at Nagoya University, University of Pittsburgh, and the National Institute for Physiological Sciences (NIPS). She is in the process of submitting her dissertation to the Department of Psychology at Nagoya University, Japan.
As a new addition to the Etkin Lab (as of December 2010), she is focusing her research on exploring how implicit-explicit emotion regulation may improve cognitive task performance. She is specifically looking at the growing geriatric population, with and without affective disorders (e.g. GAD, MDD, and PTSD).
Email Contact: ichikawa@stanford.edu
Desmond has a PhD in Clinical Psychology with a Psychophysiology
minor from Penn State University. He has studied anxiety and
depression using a variety of methods including functional MRI,
transcranial magnetic stimulation, diffusion tensor imaging, genetics,
peripheral psychophysiology, behavior, memory, and many others.
In Dr. Etkin's lab, Desmond will be working on the combined TMS/fMRI
project and will be analyzing emotional processing data from a variety
of clinical populations. Desmond is a War Related Illness and
Injury Study Center (WRIISC) fellow. He also plans to complete
psychologist licensure requirements for California in the near future.
Email Contact: oathes@stanford.edu
My current work involves the development of a multivariate discriminant toolbox, with a particular focus on neuroimaging. My research interests are in segmentation, registration, multivariate discriminant analysis, visualization/computer graphics and GPU computing. My doctorate work was performed at FMRIB, University of Oxford where I received my D.Phil. My major contribution during my time at Oxford was the development of a model-based subcortical segmentation tool (FIRST) which is now included in FSL.
Email Contact: brianp3@stanford.edu
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Jill Waring received her PhD in psychology from Boston College, with a focus upon cognitive, affective, and behavioral neuroscience. Her graduate dissertation research applied behavioral and fMRI neuroimaging techniques to examine the effects of emotion on attention and memory interactions in healthy aging adults and those with Mild Cognitive Impairment.
Jill’s research interests are in identifying neural markers that may influence or precede age-related cognitive decline and early stages of Alzheimer's disease.
Her current research underway in the Etkin Lab uses fMRI to investigate how clinical depression and anxiety disorders impact emotional reactivity and brain structure in older adults.
Email Contact: waringj@stanford.edu
Irene Akingbade is a research assistant with the Etkin lab. She is a 2010 graduate of Yale University with a BA in Psychology (Neuroscience Concentration). At Yale, Irene was a student research assistant in the Shafe Lab and studied fear memory consolidation in the amygdala. After graduating, she worked as the research coordinator for the Brown Lab at Northwestern University, studying the neuroscience of lower-limb rehabilitation in people who have had a stroke.
Irene is currently involved in several projects in the Etkin lab that use TMS stimulation, EEG, and fMRI scanning to map out the neural circuits involved in emotional regulation and whether we can use this information to make better therapies/interventions. Irene hopes to get her PhD studying related questions.
While at the University of California, Los Angeles, Roshan was instantly attracted to the field of psychiatry. Particularly intrigued by psychosis, she worked with both Dr. Cannon's clinical neuroscience team and Dr. Bearden's psychiatry lab to study the predictors of conversion to schizophrenia in prodromal adolescents. Roshan is continually interested in the balance between pharmaceutical medications, psychotherapy and other exciting treatments like ECT and TMS. Thus, she is very fascinated by the range of therapies under study at the Etkin Lab, After graduating from UCLA with a BS in Psychobiology, Roshan returned to the Etkin Lab as a research assistant. Currently, Roshan's main focus is examining the efficacy of targeted rTMS treatment on depression. She's also looking forward to working closely with patients with a range of psychiatric conditions from PTSD to MDD.
Roshan hopes to pursue a career in medicine, and joined the Etkin Lab to get a better understanding of the relationship between clinical research and medical treatment. She hopes to eventually implement many of the fascinating treatments she's worked with at the Etkin Lab in her future practice as a psychiatrist.
Reut is a psychology undergraduate research assistant at the Etkin lab. She is primarily interested in Neuropsychology, particularly in related assessment and rehabilitation methods. She has experience using psychological and cognitive assessments to evaluate individual fitness for specific organizational roles. She has also done work involving data analysis, data management, and HTML programming.
In the lab she helps Anett Gyurak in a translational neuroscience study, looking at the effectiveness of computerized exercises on symptoms of psychopathology. Reut will be focusing on Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and hopes to achieve a better understanding of the disorder neural mechanisms. She is looking forward to developing her clinical and research qualifications, while looking for ways to help veterans with PTSD.
Travis is a research assistant at the Etkin Lab and a doctoral student in clinical psychology at Palo Alto University. He obtained his BA in psychology from the University of California, Irvine and his MA in psychology from Pepperdine University. Prior to entering his doctoral program, he worked as a consultant at a company that provided behavioral services for autistic and developmentally delayed children in Orange County. He also assisted with research that focused on the empathic attunement of convicted sex offenders as compared to the general population.
Currently, his research interests focus on the neuropsychology of psychological disorders and substance use. Specifically, the self-medicating behaviors in individuals with anxiety and depressive symptoms. He hopes to work as both a clinician and researcher in this area, helping to improve the treatment afforded to these individuals.
Stephanie is a research assistant with the Etkin Lab and a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the PGSP-Stanford Psy.D. Consortium. She earned her B.A. in psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. At that time she gained experience in the field as a crisis counselor and research assistant in a cognitive psychology lab. Prior to entering her doctoral program, Stephanie worked as a mental health counselor and case manager for clients with severe mental illnesses.
Stephanie’s clinical and research interests include treatments for depression, anxiety and severe mental illness. She is also interested in studying emotion regulation and the ways mindfulness and meditation can improve mental wellbeing.
Laurel has dabbled in careers from copyediting to publicity, but feels she has finally found a permanent home field in psychology. She hasn't yet decided on specific areas of research interest, but she very much enjoys her position at the lab, which involves coordinating and conducting initial phone interviews. She also assists with running fMRI scans. She is applying to a PhD program in clinical psychology and hopes to start in the fall of 2012.
Zlatena is a research assistant with the Etkin lab and is a doctoral student in clinical psychology at PGSP-Stanford PsyD Consortium. She earned a B.A. in Psychology at Grinnell College in Grinnell, IA. Her past research experience includes investigating the influence of implicit processes on implicit and explicit memory tasks with Dr. Janet Gibson, PhD at Grinnell College.
She looks forward to developing her clinical and assessment skills in the lab and working more closely with individuals with PTSD and Anxiety.
Taryn is a PhD student in Clinical Psychology at the Pacific Graduate School of Psychology at Palo Alto University. Taryn has clinical and research interests in the underlying mechanisms of emotion regulation in posttraumatic stress disorder and substance abuse. Taryn is also a student clinician at two community mental health clinics that serve highly traumatized and co-morbid populations.
Taryn received her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Irvine where she worked on a study that assessed heart rate variability in association with trait hostility and aggression. In 2007, she joined Stanford as a laboratory manager for Dr. Ruth O'Hara's longitudinal study on cognitive impairment and sleep apnea in older adults. In 2009, she earned a Registered Polysomnographic Technologist (RPSGT) credential to advance her knowledge in sleep disorders. Taryn also enjoys studying the interaction between sleep disturbance and psychopathology.
David is a medical student at Stanford. He has long wanted to heal, doing global health work in Mexico and Kenya. Having a love of numbers, a passion for efficiency, and a desire to understand water issues for his global work, he studied Civil Engineering at UCLA.
He came to see that much of the world's burden was psychological and so began pursuing Psychiatry. He believes that progress in the field is limited by the present understanding of neurobiology. To that end, David will be looking at the immediate effects of TMS both on autonomic process and on brain waves (EEG), ultimately attempting to better understand neural networks, so important to mental health.
Larry Chan
Yevgeniya (Jane) Zaiko is a research assistant with the Etkin Lab. She graduated in 2012 with a double major in Fine Arts and Psychology from San Jose State University. Learning and practicing art from a young age, Jane was excited to find a second subject she was just as fascinated by. Attracted to topics such as psychosis, psychopharmacology and abnormal psychology, Jane hopes to enter into a doctorate program for clinical psychology after gaining some research experience with talented staff of the Etkin Lab. She hopes to incorporate art therapy methods to her future studies as a student and individual in the field of psychology. Currently, Jane is assisting in exciting research studies using EEG and rTMS treatments to treat anxiety and major depression.
Poorwa Godbole is a research assistant at the Etkin lab and is currently a freshman at Stanford University. She has experience working in the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Cytogenetics Department. Poorwa has been interested in pursuing an M.D. from a young age and is currently studying pre-medicinal sciences and economics. At the Etkin lab she is involved in projects using TMS stimulation and EEGs.
Erika is an undergraduate research assistant at the Etkin lab. She is a pre-med senior at Stanford University, where she majors in human biology and psychology. Her research interests lie in the interdependence of mental and physical health so, naturally, she was drawn to the psychophysiology and affective neuroscience research of the Etkin lab. Erika is currently involved with Naho’s project pertaining to emotion conflict adaptation, which gives her the opportunity to work with EEG and TMS stimulation. She is so excited to be a part of the Etkin lab and its fascinating projects!
Rachel Tegano Wooten, MA
Rachel is interested in how habitual patterns condition human evolution and their effect on the development of neural circuitry. Her interest include recent findings in the field of trauma response and recovery and their clinical applicability. She has a Master's degree in clinical counseling and is a graduate of The Hakomi Institute, specializing in somatic psychology. She is dedicated to further supporting the attunement between psychology and psychiatry.
Russell Toll, MS
Russ is a research assistant in the Etkin lab and the Palo Alto Veterans Hospital’s War Related Illness and Injury Study Center, as well as a doctoral student in Bioengineering at Stanford University. He is also a National Science Foundation GRFP Fellow and Army combat veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom. His research interests include developing novel diagnostics and interventions for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury through multiple imaging and assessment modalities (fMRI, DTI, rTMS, eye tracking).
Russ commissioned as an officer and distinguished graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point with a BS in Systems Engineering. He commanded an armored cavalry platoon (tanks and infantry) for fourteen months in Iraq’s Diyala River Valley wherein he and the Soldiers of his battalion received the Valorous Unit citation for extraordinary heroism in intense combat. After his tour, Russ served as an executive officer, detachment commander and casualty officer.
After five years on active duty, Russ’ military and personal experiences (having been hit by several roadside bombs himself) strongly motivated him to transfer to the Army Reserve and attend Stanford University to better understand PTSD and TBI, seeking to improve assessment and treatment capabilities for his fellow veterans. He received his MS in Bioengineering in 2012 and is blessed with a beautiful wife and wonderful son, Heidi and Nicholas.
Jessica Schienle, BA
Jessica is currently a doctoral student in the PGSP-Stanford Psy.D. Consortium program. She received her B.A. in Psychology at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA. Prior to beginning the doctoral program, Jessica worked as a research volunteer with the New York State Psychiatric Institute at Columbia University. Her work included qualitative and quantitative research with a prodromal population of adolescents and young adults at risk of developing psychosis.
She is looking forward to learning more about the underlying neuroscience of symptom clusters present in psychological disorders as well as corresponding individualized treatment approaches.
Louise is currently a research assistant in the Etkin Lab. Louise is also a clinical psychology doctoral student, with an emphasis in neuropsychology, at Pacific Graduate School of Psychology at Palo Alto University. Louise received her bachelor's degree in neuroscience from Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA. While at WWU, Louise was involved in a cognitive neuroscience EEG lab. Research in the lab investigated the neural circuitry involved in complex behavioral dynamics.
Louise's main research interests involve neurobiology of emotion regulation, especially in older adults and geriatric populations. She is interested in the changes that take place within the brain as we age and specific disorders related to old age, such as Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. Louise is also very interested in neuroimaging techniques such as fMRI.
Elizabeth is a doctoral student studying clinical psychology in the PGSP-Stanford Psy.D. Consortium. She completed her B.A. in history and Mandarin at Brown University in Providence, RI. She is interested in developing behavioral and psychosocial interventions that are based on an understanding of the neural pathways associated with psychopathology and treatment. Elizabeth's clinical focus is in health psychology and pain management, and she is currently researching how contemplative practices like meditation can benefit health care workers who suffer from stress and burnout.
Ratna is a research assistant to Anett and Jill in the Etkin lab. She is also a Clinical Trial Assistant to Dr. Amit Rajguru and Associates at Scientific Partners.
Besides that, she is working on her thesis ‘Orthogonal Defect Classification and Predictive Analysis in Quality Assurance of Clinical trial design’ applied towards her Master’s degree at California State University. She looks forward to assisting and learning about the development and execution of clinical research studies involving the neuroscience of emotional regulation in healthy individuals and in those with psychiatric disorders.
Uri Kugel
Hannah Holt
Affiliates
Bret Schneider is Consulting Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Neurosurgery at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and specializes in neuromodulation technologies for interventional psychiatry, neurology and regenerative medicine. He earned a BA cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis, an MD degree from Rush University in Chicago, and graduated a clinical residency in Psychiatry at UCLA. He subsequently completed a post-doctoral fellowship in neurosurgical stereotactic radiosurgery and a post-doctoral MIRECC fellowship in Advanced Psychiatry, both at Stanford University. He subsequently served as Staff Scientist in the laboratory of Karl Deisseroth, where he developed new technologies and techniques to enable precise and focal control of brain circuits. Bret is an active medical device developer and has designed and prototyped more than one hundred medical instruments, from computerized surgical navigation systems to implantable devices and biologics. Presently, Bret is Founder and Chief Medical Officer of Cervel Neurotech Inc.; a venture capital-backed company built around technologies that he developed for selective, non-invasive control of deep-brain circuits. As a board-certified psychiatrist in clinical private practice, he focuses on the treatment of pain and mood disorders.
Email contact: bret@cervel.com
Alumni
Lizette is currently a research assistant at the Etkin Lab and a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the PGSP-Stanford PsyD Consortium. She obtained her BA in Psychology at UCLA and while an undergraduate, assisted in research investigating the relationship of stress and self-harming behaviors in the undergraduate population at UCLA. Lizette has also served as a research assistant at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in the department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, as well as USC's Keck School of Medicine, in the department of Neurology. Her current research interests include studying the etiology and neurobiology behind emotion regulation, psychopathology and mood disorders in order to create more effective methods of intervention.
Ian received his B.S. in Theoretical Neuroscience from Duke University. As an undergraduate, he worked in the laboratory of Dr. Alison Adcock studying questions related to the mesolimbic dopaminergic system, the hippocampus, motivation, and novelty processing. He is now a first-year PhD student in the neurosciences program at Stanford.
Ian is interested in emotional (dys)regulation because he believes that, through a combination of neuroimaging and intervention techniques, it should be possible to develop novel and testable computational models of this system. Such models could be useful for both understanding and contextualizing existing experimental results as well as for generating novel experimental questions. Additionally, formal models of emotional dysregulation could prove useful for designing and evaluating treatment of related disorders such as depression and PTSD.
Laurel Brown was a research assistant with the Etkin lab. She graduated from University of California, Berkeley with a BA in Psychology and Mathematics. At UC Berkeley, Laurel was a research assistant with the Shimamura Lab studying memory, and with the Berkeley Psychophysiology Lab studying the emotional aspect of neurodegenerative diseases. Laurel worked on several projects in the Etkin lab, including the neural basis of emotion regulation, and the functional difference of emotional activity in depression, generalized anxiety disorder, and PTSD.
Shawndell Clay was a Clinical Research Assistant in the Etkin Lab and is a doctoral student in Clinical Psychology at the PGSP-Stanford Psy.D. Consortium. Shawndell earned a B.A. in Psychology from Clark Atlanta University as well as an M.A. in Community and School Counseling and has worked as a Clinical Case Manager with acute, inpatient populations. Her primary interests relate to neuropsychology as well as the expression of depression and anxiety in ethnic minorities. In addition to her work in the Etkin Lab, Shawndell is also a Student Therapist at the Gronowski Center and has enjoyed learning evidence-based treatments for affective disorders.
Sandy DiVitale, Ed.S., MS, NCC
Sandy is a Ph.D. student in clinical psychology at Palo Alto University where she majors in health psychology, cognitive behavioral therapy, and mindfulness in psychotherapy. She hails originally from the Atlanta VA Medical Center and Emory University’s Clinical Neuroscience Research Unit (ENCRU) where she was a Mind and Life Research Fellow. Her Francesco Varela Grant award from the Mind and Life Institute co-funded ENCRU’s study on “The Neural Correlates of PTSD Prevention with Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) in Returning Iraq Veterans” with Drs. Jon Kabat-Zinn and Amishi Jha as research co-partners. Her career aspirations are to continue on in the VA Health Care System as a clinician in co-occurring disorders as PTSD and substance use disorders (SUD’s) or as a health psychologist in an integrated primary care unit.
Haddas Elisha was a research assistant at the Etkin lab. Her primary areas of interest are the nature and treatment of anxiety and mood disorders. Haddas received a B.S. in Neuroscience with a minor in Psychology from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). As a student at UCSD, Haddas worked as a clinical research assistant at the Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Disorders Research Program studying the efficacy of a computer based treatment for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. Haddas greatly enjoys her position at the Etkin lab where she is working on several projects including a TMS study aimed at achieving a better understanding of the neural basis of anxiety and fear.
Haddas plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and looks forward to a career in psychotherapy and research.
Sahar Esfahani, MA
Sahar Esfahani is a Clinical Research Assistant with the Etkin Lab. She is currently a Ph.D. student at the Pacific Graduate School of Psychology at Palo Alto University. Her clinical interests are in evidence-based early intervention treatments for recently traumatized adults, including those with complex bereavement. She has provided onsite clinical support to recently traumatized individuals via an employee assistance program and hopes to continue working with trauma survivors. She currently provides treatment for a variety of substance use disorders for the Veteran population and has a special interest in Veteran healthcare. She hopes to continue her clinical work with trauma/substance use disorders in a variety of settings while further establishing her research interests.
Nadeem was a research assistant with the Etkin lab, and currently a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the PGSP-Stanford PsyD Consortium. Prior to joining the lab, Nadeem worked at The Study of Adult Development at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Clinically, Nadeem has served as a member of an in-patient community reintegration team at McLean Hospital and is currently working with veterans at the Menlo Park VA.
His clinical and research interests converge in the study and implementation of mindfulness and meditative practices in the service of enhancing emotion regulation and preventing relapse.
Megan is a research assistant with the Etkin lab and is a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the PGSP-Stanford PsyD Consortium. She earned a B.A. in Anthropology at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY. Her past research experience includes studying procedures for handling incidental findings on fMRI scans, with Dr. Judith Illes, PhD, at the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics.
She looks forward to developing her clinical and research skills in the lab, and better understanding the impact of trauma on emotion regulation and mental health.
Susan Lauer, BS Psychology Candidate
Susan is an undergraduate research assistant at Etkin Lab and is currently completing her senior year at Palo Alto University, Psychology and Social Action Program. She will graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree in June of 2012. Susan looks forward to developing her clinical skills and learning about novel interventions currently being studied by the lab related to depression, anxiety and trauma in addition to the neural mechanisms that underpin these disorders.
Prior to her interest in Psychology, Susan worked in Business Development and Investor Relations in the CATV and Telecommunications industry.
Annie was a research assistant with the Etkin lab, and currently a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the PGSP-Stanford PsyD Consortium. She earned a B.A. in Psychological & Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College. Prior to pursuing her PsyD, Annie worked in the business field as a Marketing Planner for Williams-Sonoma, Inc.
She has a strong research interest in anxiety disorders, health psychology, and the neurobiological implications of psychotherapy interventions.
Adam Miner, BA
Adam was a research assistant with the Etkin lab, and currently a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the PGSP-Stanford PsyD Consortium. Prior to joining the lab, Adam worked as a Process Specialist at the VA Great Lakes Health Care System where he developed operational workflows and tools to enhance clinical decision making and increase managerial transparency. Previously, he was a Project Manager with Epic where he worked with large healthcare organizations in their transition from paper based charts to electronic medical records. As an undergraduate, Adam worked with Dr. Beth Haines at Lawrence University on the development and testing of the CASI (Children's Attributional Style Interview).
He has a strong interest in neuroscience, neuropsychology and the treatment of veterans.
Peter Moon is an undergraduate research assistant at the Etkin Lab who studies at Stanford University. He is interested in studying psychopathology and psychiatry. He always had interest in these areas, but the interest became more defined after taking his first psychology class at Stanford, taught by Professor James Gross. To explore his interests, he started working with the Etkin Lab in February of 2012, and worked under Anett Gyurak, running the IGNITE-I studies aimed at improving the emotion regulatory abilities of anxious and depressed patients. As of now, Peter is interested in pursuing an M.D. in psychiatry, and is wanting to treat patients while working with health policy with a NGO such as the WHO. Through his lab work, he sees the merits of clinical research, and he hopes to work in health policy to rectify many of the dysfunctional regulations for research funding and direction, treatment of patients and access to treatment that still exist in the psychiatry and many other medical fields today.
Deborah Nazarian is a licensed clinical psychologist and postdoctoral fellow with the Mental Illness Research and Education Clinical Center (MIRECC) at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System and Stanford University School of Medicine. She received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Syracuse University and completed her predoctoral internship at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, with an emphasis in behavioral medicine. Deborah’s research interests focus on examining the psychological and physical health consequences of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). She is also interested in the development and evaluation of clinical interventions that reduce the negative sequelae of PTSD.
Natasha Parikh is an undergraduate majoring in Mathematical and Computational Biology at Harvey Mudd College. She chose to focus her major in neuroscience and is particularly interested in emotion regulation. During the school year, she works as a research assistant and the lead analyst in Dr. Catherine L. Reed's Cognitive Neuroscience Lab at Claremont McKenna College to record and process simultaneous EEG data for interpersonal tactile tasks. After receiving the Neuroscience Summer Fellowship through Pitzer College in 2012, Natasha joined the Etkin Lab where she mainly helps Brian Patenaude create his discriminant analysis toolbox. In the future, Natasha is interested in pursuing a Ph.D. in cognitive or computational neuroscience and hopes to further explore the relationship between brain activity, emotion, and associated disorders.
Meena Saleh, MS, PhD Candidate
Meena Saleh is a PhD candidate of Clinical Psychology at Pacific Graduate School of Psychology at Palo Alto University. Combined emphases are in health and rehabilitation neuropsychology. Ms. Saleh has had out-patient and in-patient practicum trainings at both Palo Alto and Martinez VA Medical Centers, as well as multiple supplemental practica at Stanford and at UCSF. Research interests of cognitive neuroscience and behavioral psychiatry stemmed from her BA studies in Psychology and neurobiology at UC Irvine's Department of Cognitive Science. Long-term plans include primarily clinical work, with an active involvement in research.
Miriam is a research assistant with the Etkin lab and is a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the PGSP-Stanford PsyD Consortium. She earned a B.A. in Neuroscience and Behavior at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY. Her past research experience was in addressing barriers to participation in cancer clinical trails and medical decision making at Kaiser Permanente’s Division of Research in Oakland.
She has a strong interest in exploring the neural and behavioral aspects of emotional processing and individual decision making.
