Faculty & Staff

Research Scientists & Faculty

Managerial & Professional Staff

Fellows

Research Assistants & Other Support Staff

Research Scientists & Faculty

Ami Klin, Ph.D. is the Harris Associate Professor of Child Psychology and Psychiatry at the Yale Child Study Center. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of London, and completed clinical and research post-doctoral fellowships at the Yale Child Study Center. He directs the Autism Program at Yale, which is one of the National Institutes of Health Autism Centers of Excellence. This program includes a broad range of diagnostic and treatment services, and an interdisciplinary program of research that includes behavioral, brain, and genetics investigations. The program also provides training in a broad range of disciplines, and is strongly committed to advocacy at the local, national and international levels. Dr. Klin's primary research activities focus on the social mind and the social brain, and on aspects of autism from infancy through adulthood. These studies include novel techniques such as the eye-tracking laboratories co-directed with Warren Jones, which allow researchers to see the world through the eyes of individuals with autism. These techniques are now being applied in the screening of babies at risk for autism in the Simons Laboratory of Social Neuroscience in Infancy. He is the author of over 150 publications in the field of autism and related conditions. He is also the co-editor of a textbook on Asperger Syndrome published by Guilford Press (soon to be released in its second edition), the third edition of the Handbook of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders published by Wiley, and several special issues of professional journals focused on autism and related disorders.
[Curriculum Vitae] [Publications]

 

Fred R. Volkmar, M.D. is a child psychiatrist who trained at Stanford University and at Yale. He has a long standing interest in the assessment and classification of autism and related disorders. He was the coordinator of the International Field Trial for autism and related disorders, which developed the definition of autism used in DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association, Fourth Edition,1994). He is also an Associate editor of Psychoses and Pervasive Developmental Disorders in Childhood and Adolescence and, along with Drs. Paul, Klin & Cohen, of the Handbook of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders, Third Edition.

 

Rhea Paul, Ph.D., Prof. and Director of the Communication Disorders section of the Yale Child Study Center's Autism Research Group, received her B.A. from Brandeis University, her Ed.M. from Harvard Graduate School of Education, and her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Dr. Paul has published over 70 papers in referred journals, 30 book chapters and and has written seven books on children's language development and disorders. She has been the recipient of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association's New Investigator Award, the Millar Award for Faculty Excellence, the Faculty Scholar Award from SCSU, and the Editor's Award from the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. She is a Fellow of the American Speech-Language Hearing Association. Dr. Paul's research concerns the acquisition of spoken language in young children with ASD, pragmatics and prosody in high-functioning children with ASD, and the treatment of communication disorders, in both spoken and written language, in children with autism and related disabilities.

 

George Anderson, Ph.D., directs a research neurochemistry laboratory in the Child Study Center and is the Director of the Core Resource Laboratory of the Yale Inter-Disciplinary Research Consortium on Stress, Self-Control and Addiction. Dr. Anderson has a record of extensive collaboration with investigators at Yale University, a large number of national and international collaborations, and has authored or co-authored of over 250 publications in the fields of biological psychiatry, psychopharmacology and analytical chemistry. His research includes studies on the neurobiology of childhood neuropsychiatric disorders including autism, Tourette syndrome and ADHD, as well as adult depression, PTSD and addiction. He has special interests in stress response systems, serotonin neurochemistry and psychopharmacology, and early biomarkers. He has served on the scientific advisory boards of Cure Autism Now and Autism Speaks, and presently serves on the editorial boards of Autism Research and the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

 

Katarzyna (Kasia) Chawarska, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor at the Yale Child Study Center with expertise in experimental developmental psychology and developmental disorders. She earned her graduate degree at the Yale Department of Psychology and completed her post-graduate training at the Yale Autism Program. She is a licensed clinical psychologist and the Director of Toddler Developmental Disabilities at the CSC. Dr. Chawarska's research has been focused on abnormalities in action monitoring, gaze perception, and face recognition in toddles with developmental disorders as well as in infants at risk for ASD. She leads the Yale Early Social Cognition Lab. She is an author of a number of articles on early syndrome expression and diagnosis of ASD. Recently, she co-edited a book on ASD in infants and toddlers focused on issues associated with assessment, diagnosis, and treatment. To learn more about Dr. Chawarska's work, visit the Yale Early Social Cognition Lab.

 

Domenic V. Cicchetti, Ph.D., is a graduate of the University of Connecticut, with a Ph.D. in Social Psychology (1965) and a minor in Statistics. He currently holds three academic positions in the Yale University School of Medicine. He is a Senior Research Scientist, Senior Research Psychologist and Senior Biostatistician, with a primary appointment at the Child Study Center. He holds joint appointments in Psychiatry, and in Biometry, in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health. He also holds an international academic appointment as Professor at the College of Science, Technology, and Medicine, Department of Mental and Public Health in London, U.K.; and a second appointment as Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Windsor, in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

 

Michele Goyette-Ewing, Ph.D., is an Associate Research Scientist and the Director of the Psychology Training program at the Yale Child Study Center. She received her doctoral degree in Child Clinical Psychology from Yale University under the mentorship of Dr. Edward Zigler and completed her clinical internship and research postdoctoral fellowship at the Yale Child Study Center. Dr. Goyette-Ewing's interests include longitudinal sequelae of autism, parenting and autism, clinical training, development of professional competence, and supervision. She has conducted research in the areas of child care quality, parenting interventions, and mental health consultation in early care and education settings. Dr. Goyette-Ewing has developed and implemented information and support programs for parents and teachers of young children. Her current research involvement focuses on evaluating the longitudinal sequelae of developmental disabilities and family functioning.

 

Warren Jones, Ph.D. is a Research Associate at the Yale Child Study Center. He received his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Yale University. His research is focused on the use of eye-tracking technologies to characterize and quantify the social phenotype in autism, Asperger's Syndrome, and related conditions. The aim of the research is to better understand the perspectives and struggles of individuals with social disabilities, to quantify phenotypic variation in the manifestation of such disabilities, to improve efforts at early diagnosis, and to develop future strategies for intervention.

 

Suzanne Macari, Ph.D., is an Associate Research Scientist at the Yale Child Study Center. She earned her doctoral degree in Developmental Psychology from the University of Virginia and completed post-doctoral fellowships in autism research at the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute with Dr. Sally Rogers and Dr. Sally Ozonoff, and at the Yale Child Study Center Toddler Developmental Disabilities Clinic under the supervision of Dr. Chawarska. Currently, she is part of the assessment team for studies involving infants and toddlers. Her research focuses on visual attention and perception in infants and toddlers with autism, early behavioral markers of autism, and developmental changes in the phenotypic expression of autism over the first three years of life.

 

James McPartland, Ph.D. is an Associate Research Scientist at the Child Study Center . He obtained his doctoral degree in Child Clinical Psychology from the University of Washington, where he studied autism spectrum disorders under the guidance of Dr. Geraldine Dawson. He completed an autism-focused post-doctoral fellowship at the Yale Child Study Center, mentored by Drs. Klin, Schultz, Volkmar, and Chawarska. Dr. McPartland currently evaluates children through the Yale Autism Resource Program and the Infant and Toddler Clinic. His research uses electrophysiological methods to investigate brain function in individuals with autism, with particular focus on visual perception of social information. Dr. McPartland is also co-author of the book, A Parent's Guide to Asperger Syndrome and High-Functioning Autism: How to Meet the Challenges and Help Your Child Thrive, published by Guilford Press. To learn more about Dr. McPartland's work, visit the Yale Developmental Electrophysiology Laboratory.

 

Kevin Pelphrey, Ph.D. is a cognitive neuroscientist who completed his doctoral studies in Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2001. He then undertook postdoctoral training in Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke University. Work in Dr. Pelphrey's laboratory focuses on discovering brain mechanisms underlying the development of different aspects of social cognition. This work employs cognitive neuroscience methods including functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging, imaging genetics, visual scanpath recordings, and virtual reality techniques. The laboratory conducts studies focused on fundamental questions regarding the typical and atypical development of social cognition in children with and without autism. Dr. Pelphrey has received a Scientist Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health, a John Merck Scholars Award for his work on the biology of developmental disorders, and the American Psychological Association's Boyd McCandless Award for distinguished early career theoretical contributions to Developmental Psychology. His research program is funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Simons Foundation, Autism Speaks, and the National Science Foundation.

 

Gordon Ramsay, Ph.D. is an Associate Research Scientist at the Yale Child Study Center, and also holds an appointment as Senior Scientist at Haskins Laboratories, an independent non-profit research institution dedicated to the study of spoken and written language. Gordon graduated from Cambridge University in England with a B.A./M.A. in Electrical and Information Sciences and an M.Phil. in Computer Speech and Language Processing, and went on to complete a Ph.D. in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Southampton. He has also studied and worked at the École Nationale Supérieure des élécommunications in Paris, France, the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, the Institut de la Communication Parlée in Grenoble, France, and the Universite Libre de Bruxelles in Brussels, Belgium, and has ongoing collaborations with the Department of Linguistics at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia and MARCS Auditory Laboratories at the University of Western Sydney in Australia. Trained as a speech scientist and electronic engineer, his research has centred on understanding the biological foundations of spoken language by building computationally-explicit models of speech production and speech perception, and applying these to speech synthesis and recognition. In collaboration with Ami Klin, Warren Jones, and David Lin, he has recently begun developing new statistical tools and novel experimental paradigms for investigating the development of audiovisual perception in infants with autism. In his spare time, he is writing a prehistory of mechanical speaking machines.

 

Celine Saulnier, Ph.D., is an Associate Research Scientist at the Child Study Center and the Training Director for the Autism Program. She received her doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology from the University of Connecticut, where she concentrated in neuropsychology with Dr. Deborah Fein. Celine completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship funded by the National Alliance for Autism Research under the mentorship of Drs. Klin, Volkmar, and Chawarska. Presently, Celine conducts and supervises diagnostic assessments for both clinical and research evaluations from infancy through young adulthood. Her current research focuses on adaptive behavior deficits in autism, specifically on the discrepancy between cognitive potential and functional independence, particularly in higher-functioning individuals.

 

Sara S. Sparrow, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus and Senior Research Scientist at Yale University's Child Study Center and Department of Psychology. She received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology and neuropsychology at the University of Florida. Dr. Sparrow is the author of over 100 articles and chapters in the fields of psychological assessment and developmental disabilities. She is the senior author of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales and is actively engaged in the Revision of the Vineland, Vineland II. She is also co-editor (along with Drs. Ami Klin and Fred Volkmar) of a recent book on Asperger Syndrome. Her main research interests involve the assessment of adaptive behavior, autism spectrum disorders, mental retardation, child neuropsychology, and other developmental disabilities. Dr. Sparrow recently served on National Research Council, (National Academy of Sciences) Committee on Disability Determination for Mental Retardation. She was cofounder of the Journal of Child Neuropsychology and served as co-editor for five years. She recently received the career Scientist award from the American Academy of Mental Retardation.

 

Katherine D. Tsatsanis, Ph.D. is an Associate Research Scientist at the Child Study Center. Dr. Tsatsanis obtained her Ph.D. in Clinical Neuropsychology in Canada and completed her clinical and research post-doctoral fellowships at the Yale Child Study Center. Her publications focus on assessment, neuropsychological profiles, and outcomes in ASD, in addition to several articles in the area of Nonverbal Learning Disabilities. Her primary research interests lie in phenotypic expression, developmental trajectories and outcome in ASD. Her current work assessing developmental trajectories, predictors of outcome, syndrome expression and co-morbidity in ASD is federally funded (NICHD). In addition to her research, Dr. Tsatsanis is committed to clinical endeavors and serves as the Clinical Director of the Developmental Disabilities Clinic.

 

Brent Vander Wyk, Ph.D. is an associate research scientist at the Yale Child Study Center. He earned his degree in Cognitive Neuroscience from Carnegie Mellon University and the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition. He is interested in the basic cognitive and brain mechanisms involved in social cognition and how those mechanisms relate to those involved in nominally non-social skills, such as number processing. The aim is to develop explicit models of neural functioning that offer a better understanding of typical and atypical development. Working in collaboration with Dr. Kevin Pelphrey, he has recently begun a longitudinal investigation of these issues in children using fMRI, eye-tracking, and behavioral assessments.

 

Pamela Ventola, Ph.D. is an associate research scientist at the Yale Child Study Center. She earned her doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology with a concentration in Neuropsychology from the University of Connecticut, where she worked under the mentorship of Dr. Deborah Fein. She completed autism-focused pre-doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships at the Yale Child Study Center under the supervision of Drs. Klin, Tsatsanis, Saulnier, and Chawarska. Currently, she conducts and supervises evaluations in the Developmental Disabilities Clinic. Her current research interests include the neuropsychological profiles, particularly executive functioning skills, in individuals with autism spectrum disorders. Other interests include the identification and diagnosis of autism in toddlers and preschool-aged children.

 

Alexander Westphal, received an M.D. from Brown Medical School, and is an Albert J. Solnit fellow in the integrated Child and Adult Psychiatry Program at the Yale Child Studies Center and a PhD student in the Investigative Medicine program at the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. His research focus is the Autism Spectrum Disorders, in particular Childhood Disintegrative Disorder. He is also interested in mechanisms by which people with Autism Spectrum Disorders process biological motion. His research is supervised by Fred Volkmar, M.D. and Kevin Pelphrey, Ph.D.

 

Julie Wolf, Ph.D. is an Associate Research Scientist at the Child Study Center. She received her doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology from the University of Connecticut, where she studied autism spectrum disorders (ASD) under the mentorship of Dr. Deborah Fein. She completed her clinical internship at the University of Chicago, including rotations in ASD and neuropsychology. She completed her post-doctoral fellowship at the Yale Child Study Center under the mentorship of Dr. Robert Schultz, during which time she was involved in a study investigating the effectiveness of a computer-based intervention (Let's Face It!) targeting face processing skills in children with ASD. Dr. Wolf currently conducts evaluations through the Developmental Disabilities Clinic as well as for various research projects. Her additional interests include social skills training and sibling support groups.

 

Managerial & Professional Staff

Tammy Babitz, M.A. is our Research Project Coordinator for the Family Study of the Yale Social Learning Disabilities Project. She received her M.A. in Psychology from Southern Connecticut State University.

 

 

 

Karyn Bailey received her master's degree in social work at the University of Kansas and completed post-graduate fellowships at Yale. As a member of the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Clinic research and assessment team, she provides clinical support for families, facilitates parent support groups, serves as a liason between families and the community, consults with schools, and provides counseling in the areas of advocacy and special education law.

 

Daniela Helen Blum, M.S.W., is a Clinical Social Worker in the Developmental Disabilities Clinic Infant and Toddler Program. She received her A.B. from Harvard College, where she studied both the studio arts and psychology. She went on to receive her Social Work Degree in Advanced Clinical Social Work Practice at Columbia University where her field of practice was Health, Mental Health and Disabilities. In April 2009 Daniela completed a post-graduate fellowship at the Yale Child Study Center's Autism Program. She has worked extensively with children with a wide variety of special needs in settings that include Wediko Children's Services (NH) and the Perkins School for the Blind (MA). She has also worked with medically fragile infants and their families, as the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit social worker at the Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital at New York Presbyterian Hospital. At the Yale Child Study Center she conducts structured interviews with parents, provides ongoing support and follow up to families, edits diagnostic reports and serves as a bridge between families and community providers.

 

Amy Carney is a Clinical Social Worker in the Developmental Disabilities Clinic for Infants and Toddlers. She received her B.S in Human Development and Family Relations from the University of Connecticut, and earned her Master's Degree in Social Work at Southern Connecticut State University. Previous experience includes work with children and adolescents with psychiatric disorders and behavioral and emotional challenges, as well as childcare for children on the autism spectrum. Currently, Amy provides clinical support to families, serves as a liason between families and the community, edits clinical reports, administers the Autism Diagnostic Interview, and conducts parent interviews regarding the developmental, medical and intervention histories of their children. Her current related interests include advocacy and special education law.

 

Dianna M. DePedro, B.A. is a Research Associate and the Project Coordinator for the Simons Simplex Collection Study. She received her Bachelor's degree from Southern Connecticut State University and is currently working on a Master's in Psychology and a Master's in Women's Studies. Dianna's areas of interest are Behavior Therapy and social skills training.

 

 

Diane Goudreau earned her Master's degree from Yale University. For over two decades she has carried out research in the fields of psychology and autism, with a focus on psychiatric and developmental disabilities. She specializes in autism spectrum disorders and adaptive behavior. Also an ordained minister, she has been appointed by the University Chaplain to the volunteer position of Interfaith Chaplain for the Center.

 

Stephanie Huckins, M.S.W. is a research associate and the coordinator for the Developmental Processes, Trajectories, and Predictors of Outcome in a Longitudinal Cohort study. She received a B.A. in Psychology from Saint Michael's College in Burlington, VT. She also received her Master's degree in Social Work from the University of Connecticut.

 

 

Caitlin Hudac is a research associate and the manager for the Child Neuroscience Laboratory (PI: Kevin Pelphrey). She received her B.A. in Human Development from the University of Chicago. She has previously worked as a milieu counselor at a residential facility for young children with a variety of emotional and psychiatric disorders. Her research interests involve brain development of infants and children with and without autism. Caitlin intends to pursue a doctoral degree in development psychology or cognitive neuroscience.

 

Kathleen Koenig, M.S. is an Associate Research Scientist working in clinical evaluation of children with developmental disabilities, as well as research in PDD and genetic forms of mental retardation, including Williams Syndrome and Prader-Willi Syndrome. Kathy received her master's degree from the Yale School of Nursing. She has published on assessment and psychopharmalogical intervention in pervasive developmental disorder. Kathy is currently invlolved in psychopharmacology trials and social skills intervention. Kathy's areas of interest are intervention in autism and PDD and understanding social development in developmental disorders, with particular focus on sex differences and the way in which these differences impact the developmental trajectory.

 

A native of Fairfield, CT, Peter Lewis obtained his bachelor's degree in manufacturing engineering management from Miami University (OH) in 2007. For the duration of his senior year, Peter was project manager for Miami Engineering's Baja program, which challenges a team of eight students to design, build, test, and race a single-passenger off-road vehicle, while simultaneously raising sufficient capital to fund the project. As a design engineer at Yale, he has worked with Warren Jones to develop novel techniques for collecting eye-tracking data from children as young as 1-month old. Recent work has involved the design and construction of an experimental environment in which eye-tracking data can be collected from a live, real-time interaction between a parent and his or her baby. In his free time, Peter enjoys skiing, water sports, and music.

 

Erin Loring, M.S. is a certified genetic counselor. She earned her Master's Degree in Genetic Counseling from Brandeis University in Waltham, MA in 1997. Currently she works in the area of research for autism spectrum conditions and Tourette's syndrome. Erin conducts parent interviews to collect prenatal, medical, and family histories and assists in the physical exams of children for the Baby Sibs, ACE and Simons Simplex studies. Before joining the Yale Child Study Center in Dec 2007, Erin worked at Yale in the Prenatal Genetics department for 10 years.

 

Amy Margolis is a Research Associate at the Yale Child Study Center, and the Project Coordinator of the Prospective Study of Infants at the Simons Laboratory of Social Neuroscience in Infancy ("Baby Sibs"). Amy manages and directs the day-to-day activities at the Simons Lab, as well as serving as the primary contact for families entering the research program. She received her Bachelor's Degree from Union College, and has done graduate work at UCONN and Southern Connecticut State University. She has more than 20 years of experience in Pediatric Research at Yale, coordinating various clinical studies both here and at associated research sites across the country. Previous areas of research include: efficacy studies of pediatric immunizations and social and educational investigation of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

 

Kristin Mills is the computer & information systems support specialist for the Developmental Disabilities Clinic and the various research projects at the Clinic. She is responsible for data management and she also maintains the website. Kristin received her B.S. in Computer and Information Systems from Towson University in Towson, Maryland and is pursuing a Master's degree at Quinnipiac University in Computer Information Systems.

 

 

Jose Luis Paredes attended the University of Houston, Texas from 1986-1990 where he graduated with a BS in Physics and a BS in Mathematics in 1990. He completed some graduate course work in physics by 1992. He worked as a Desktop Support Specialist and Lab Supervisor at the University of Houston from 1993-2000. Joined Yale as a Support Specialist from 2000-2004. He became the Systems Administrator for Yale University Calendaring System from 2004-2006. He joined the Child Study Center in 2006. His tasks range from desktop support to server administration, scripting and programming. Jose Luis is pursuing his MS in Computer Science from the University of New Haven.

 

Evelyn Pomichter is the Administrative Coordinator at the Developmental Disabilities Clinic for Infants and Toddlers. She provides a high level of administrative and clerical support with regard to all aspects of clinical and research functions. In addition, she is a central source of information to both families and members of the developmental disabilities clinical/research teams. She responds to patient concerns and requests ensuring smooth resolution. She is responsible for the management of clinical fees, including preparation of evaluation summary statements, provided to families upon request, for submission to their insurance provider for possible reimbursement. Ev has over 20 years experience working with families of children and adults with disabilities, having previously worked at the Yale Center for Children with Special Health Care Needs and the Easter Seals Rehabilitation Center.

 

Elizabeth Schoen, M.S. CCC-SLP is Speech-Language Pathologist in the Laboratory for Developmental Communication Disorders and for the Yale Autism Program. She received her M.S. from Southern Connecticut State University and completed her clinical fellowship under the supervision of Dr. Rhea Paul. Within the autism program, Elizabeth coordinates both the Pragmatics and Prosody Study and Speech Treatment Study. She also provides speech, language and communication evaluations for babies as part of the Simon's Baby-Siblings and ACE studies.

 

 

Sarah Shultz was a Donald J. Cohen Fellow in Developmental Social Neuroscience from 2006-2008. As an undergraduate, Sarah did research on infant development and received a BA in Psychology from McGill University. While a fellow, Sarah studied eye-blinking as an index of stimulus salience in toddlers with autism, and the role of context in face processing using ERP. Sarah is now working on her Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology with Ami Klin, Warren Jones, and Kevin Pelphrey at the Child Study Center and Greg McCarthy at the Psychology Department.

Fellows

Marilyn Ackerman, M.Arch., is currently the Simons Design Engineering Fellow and is researching new methods of measuring haptic intersubjectivity in children with ASD. A variety of anomalous sensitivities to touch have been described anecdotally in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. These behaviors include atypical reactions to social touch. Most of the existing reports have been qualitative, however, and there are few studies with direct quantitative measurement of touch sensitivities in children with ASD. Developing research platforms for the quantification of social touch is an important part of understanding atypical behavior in individuals with ASD. Marilyn's current work has focused on building prototype research equipment to measure selective sensitivity to contingent social touch in infants and school age children. Marilyn recieved her bachelors degree in studio art from Wesleyan University and received her Masters in Architecture from the Yale School of Architecture. She was president of a regional preservation firm working on private residential structures, National Register Houses, National Landmarks, and museum projects open to the public. Her work has been funded by the National Park Service, The National Trust for Historic Preservation and the State of Connecticut. She has served as faculty at the School of Engineering at the University of Hartford, Wesleyan University Graduate Liberal studies program, and the Middlesex Transition Academy at Wesleyan. She lives on a small farm in Durham.

 

Laura Edwards, originally from Kingston, Jamaica, graduated from Yale University with a B.S. in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology in 2008. As an undergraduate, she worked in a biochemistry laboratory, where she researched the molecular basis of Fragile X Syndrome. She is currently a Donald J. Cohen Fellow in Developmental Social Neuroscience and participates in eye-tracking research on infants, toddlers and adolescents with autism. Laura is interested in the neurological underpinnings of the differences in social cognition between autistic and typically developing children.

 

Roger Jou, M.D. is a postdoctoral fellow in the Albert J. Solnit Integrated Training Program at the Yale Child Study Center. Dr. Jou began his career in autism research as a medical student at the University of Pittsburgh where he used structural MRI to study differences brain morphology. As a resident in general psychiatry at Yale, he began working at the Child Study Center where he developed an interest in diffusion tensor imaging and functional MRI which ultimately led to his matriculation into Yale's Investigative Medicine PhD Program. Thesis co-advisors include Dr. Volkmar and James Duncan, Ph.D. (Diagnostic Radiology). Dr. Jou's research involves characterization of abnormal neural connectivity in autism using different MRI modalities. His research efforts will also be conducted under the guidance of Dr. Pelphrey and Gregory McCarthy, Ph.D. (Psychology). In addition to research, Dr. Jou regularly sees children through the Center's Developmental Disabilities Clinic.

 

A native of Oakland, CA, Jennifer Moriuchi received her B.A. in Neuroscience from Wellesley College in 2009. During her undergraduate years, she conducted research in a behavioral neuroscience laboratory using a mouse model of Rett Syndrome. She is currently a Donald J. Cohen Fellow in Developmental Social Neuroscience participating in eye-tracking studies of infants, toddlers, and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders. Her interests include the neurological basis of social behavior and interventions for developmental disorders. Following this fellowship, she plans to attend medical school.

 

Jessie Northrup graduated from the Cornell University in 2008, with her B.A. in Psychology and Anthropology. As an undergraduate, Jessie was involved in research exploring the social mechanisms that help infants and toddlers develop language. She is currently a Donald J. Cohen Fellow in Developmental Social Neuroscience and assists in eye-tracking studies of infants, toddlers, and adolescents with autism. Jessie is interested in applying her undergraduate research to investigate language development in infants with autism and how deficits in social interaction could affect language learning. Her current research investigates perception of audiovisual synchrony under varying degrees of social context in toddlers with autism. She hopes to pursue a doctorate in clinical psychology after completing her fellowship.

 

Naomi B. Pitskel is a Doris Duke Clinical Research Fellow working with Kevin Pelphrey on fMRI studies of social processing and emotion regulation in children and adults with autism. Naomi earned her BS in Neuroscience from Brandeis University, where she participated in research on infant visual development. Following graduation she was involved in research studies of cortical plasticity in response to visual deprivation in human adults. Naomi is currently matriculated as an MD candidate at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and hopes to pursue a clinical research career in child psychiatry.

 

Originally from Iowa City, IA, Katherine Rice received her B.A. in Psychology and Linguistics from the University of Michigan in 2009. She is currently a Donald J. Cohen Fellow in Developmental Social Neuroscience, assisting with eye-tracking studies of infants, toddlers and adolescents with autism. Katherine is interested in the early detection of autism spectrum disorders and in the relationship between social cognition and language development in both typically developing infants and in infants at risk for autism. After completing the fellowship, she hopes to pursue a doctorate in clinical psychology.

 

Ty Vernon, M.A. is a Postgraduate Psychology Fellow at the Child Study Center. He completed the requirements for his Ph.D. in Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. During his graduate years, he worked closely with advisors Drs. Robert and Lynn Koegel at the Koegel Autism Center, where he worked as a researcher, clinician, parent educator, inclusion program supervisor, and clinic supervisor. His current research interests include establishing effective methods to facilitate parent training and developing social interventions across the lifespan, with a particular interest in early social motivation and joint attention acquisition in young children with autism.

 

Jennings Xu graduated from Harvard University with a B.A. in Biological Sciences in 2008 and is the current Simons Fellow in Computational Neuroscience. Has has worked in various research fields, including molecular biology, genetics, physiology, and behavioral science. As an undergraduate, Jennings was published studying the sexual and group behaviors of mice ultrasound vocalizations in social interactions for his senior thesis. He is interested in identifying audiovisual signals that attract the attention of children with autism, as well as mapping early development characteristics that may help serve as clinically-relevant diagnostic indicators. Jennings plans to attend medical school after the fellowship, and enjoys running and composing music in his free time.

 

Research Assistants and Other Staff

Allison Berken assists in the study of autism in the Child Neuroscience Lab using fMRI under Dr. Kevin Pelphrey. She graduated from Johns Hopkins University, where she received a B.A. in Psychology and Brain Sciences with Honors and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

 

 

Lauren Berkovits assists with the study of Pragmatics and Prosody in Speakers with Autism for ages 9-17. She graduated summa cum laude from Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH, where she received a B.A. in Psychological and Brain Sciences. She intends to pursue a graduate degree in clinical psychology.

 

 

Jennifer Cochran is the Senior Administrative Assistant to Dr. Ami Klin at the Yale Child Study Center. She received her B.A. at Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, CT, where she majored in English and Communications. She provides a high level of administrative and clerical support to the families and staff in the autism program.

 

 

Marika Coffman is a research assistant for Dr. Chawarska in the Toddler Developmental Disabilities Clinic. She attended Vanderbilt University in her hometown of Nashville, Tennessee, where she received her BS in Child studies and Psychology, and a minor in English. She intends to pursue a degree in clinical child psychology.

 

 

Kerry DeBenedictis, M.A. is the Research Assistant for the Developmental Processes, Trajectories, and Predictors of Outcome in a Longitudinal Cohort study. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Human Development and Family Relations and a Master of Arts degree in Child and Developmental Psychology both from the University of Connecticut. She has worked as a preschool teacher with typically developing children, a university instructor in Human Development and Developmental Psychology, and has coordinated research projects concerning children with disabilities and women's health.

 

Molly Dillon graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in Cognitive Science and Art. Her research interests include visual perception, philosophy of mind, perception of number, algebra, and geometry, color perception, and individual differences among normally developing children, and among children with autism. She also enjoys playing tennis, and designing with 3D modeling software. Molly is a research assistant at the Child Neuroscience Laboratory.

 

Martha Dye is the Infant /Toddler Specialist Caregiver at the Yale Child Study Center Simons Baby-Sibs Project of Neuroscience in Infancy. Martha is a central resource in the Simons Foundation infants-at-risk project. Her many years of experience with infants and toddlers and their caregivers is a huge asset in helping to maintain a family-friendly environment. Her role is to establish a close relationship with the families and support them through the entire research process. Martha received her bachelor's degree from Albertus Magnus College and began her career in early childhood education under the auspices of the late Dr. Sally Provodence at the Child Development Unit at Yale Child Study Center.

 

Allison Lee assists with the Receptive and Expressive Prosody in Autism Study for ages 4-7. She graduated from the University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT where she received her B.A. in Communication Disorders with a minor in Linguistics.

 

 

Betty Litto is the Senior Intake Officer for the Autism Program at Yale. She has had extensive experience working in a clinical setting in the Psychology Department at Yale University where she worked with clients within a wide range of needs. She attended Temple University in Philadelphia, PA where her interests were in the fields of psychology, sociology, and behavioral disorders. Betty's personal interest in working with children with developmental disabilities brings her to our autism program.

 

Mairin Meltvedt assists with the Mechanisms of Social Engagement in Autism Spectrum Disorders and the Simons Baby-Sibs Project of Social Neuroscience in Infancy studies at the Developmental Disabilities Clinic for Infants and Toddlers. She graduated from University of California, Davis where she received a Bachelors of Science degree in Psychology in June 2009. She plans to attend graduate school in the future.

 

Kerry O'Loughlin, originally from Stow, MA, graduated cum laude from Amherst College with a B.A. in English and Psychology. As an undergraduate research assistant, she explored the role that in-group and out-group biases play in the formation of social identities. For her senior thesis, she sought to establish an animal model for the effects of prenatal hormone exposure on digit ratios, behavior, and the sexually dimorphic nucleus in rats. In addition, her research explored the long term behavioral effects of PCP in male and female rats. While working at the Harvard Lab for Developmental Studies, she explored the relationship between typically developing infants and novel social entities. Kerry is interested in both scientific and artistic representations of experience and plans to pursue a graduate degree in clinical psychology.

 

Benjamin Oakes, B.S., is a Research Assistant at the Yale Child Study Center. He earned his BS in Computer Science and his BA in Communication Disorders from the University of Iowa. Previously, he has worked on the University of Iowa Research Information System (UIRIS) under the Vice President for Research, glottal aerodynamics research using high-speed cameras under Dr. Fariborz Alipour, web development at the Iowa City Public Library, and word learning research at the Language and Memory Lab in the Department of Psychology. His research interests include computational approaches to eye-tracking and language development in autism.

 

Originally from Milwaukee, WI, Danielle Perszyk graduated from Williams College in 2009 with her B.A. in Biology, as well as concentrations in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science. As an undergraduate, she studied the neural mechanisms underlying birdsong in zebra finches and Bengalese finches. Now at the Yale Child Study Center, she is a Research Assistant for Dr. James McPartland, using EEG to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying face processing in children and adolescents with ASD. After the Research Assistantship, Danielle hopes to pursue either a degree in science writing and/or a doctorate in cognitive psychology.

 

Heidi Seib is the School-Age Recruitment Coordinator and Community Liaison for the Autism Program at the Yale Child Studies Center. Heidi is a native of Madison, Connecticut and earned a B.A. in Communications from Fordham University in New York City. She has a background in television news production and is responsible for the recruitment of participants for multiple research studies within the Yale Autism Program.

 

Amanda Smith is currently a research assistant on the Baby Siblings project at the Child Study Center. She graduated from the University Wisconsin, Oshkosh in May 2008 with a B.S. in Biology and Psychology and a minor in Neuroscience. During her undergraduate career, Amanda worked as an in-home behavioral therapist with multiple school-aged children, which compelled her to research autism. Her interests include early assessment and diagnosis, naturalistic behavioral interventions, and increasing parental awareness and involvement in treatment. Amanda plans to obtain her Ph.D. in clinical psychology after two years of working as an R.A.

 

Daniel Sugrue assists in the study of autism using fMRI in the Child Neuroscience Lab under Dr. Kevin Pelphrey. He graduated from Boston College where he received a B.A. in Psychology with Honors and a minor in Hispanic Studies. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

 

 

 

Avery Voos assists in the study of autism using fMRI in the Child Neuroscience Lab under Dr. Kevin Pelphrey. She graduated magna cum laude from Wake Forest University where she received a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Communication.

 

 

 

Andy Auerbach is our main data entry person and office assistant, and also assists the principal investigators. He studied liberal arts at Edward Williams College, and attended Chapel Haven's vocational program for four years. He is currently a member of Chapel Haven's outreach program.