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Casara Jean Ferretti
Casara Jean Ferretti, MS is a doctoral student in Dr. Zemon's lab and is beginning her internship year at Astor Services for Children & Families. Her research is focused on recognizing the ASD advantage using strengths in visual processing abilities, in addition to identifying electrophysiological and immunological biomarkers and endophenotypes. Ms. Ferretti was a psychometrician at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and Spectrum Neuroscience and Treatment Institute. She is also an established grant writer, and has helped to secure multiple federal and foundation grants to further the study of novel therapeutics for those with ASD. Ms. Ferretti has multiple publications, book chapters and presentations on ASD and related fields, including a chapter in the 2015 World Psychiatric Association’s Immunology and Psychiatry textbook, and one in the 2018 APPI book Autism Spectrum Disorders. She is also an abstract reviewer for the International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR) and a peer reviewer for Autism Research.
Chloe Ifrah
Chloe is a fifth year student in Dr. Zemon’s lab. Chloe’s research interests involve exploring electrophysiological biomarkers for at risk schizophrenia patients through the use of VEPS. Under the direction of Dr. Zemon and Dr. Molholm in the Cognitive Neurophysiology Lab at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, her current pre-doctoral masters thesis looked at 22q11.2 deletion syndrome patients who are at risk for schizophrenia and comparing them to typically developing adults using basic visual processing paradigms. Her dissertation project, under the direction of Dr. Zemon and Dr. Herrera at Mount Sinai, involves comparing contrast sensitivity among those at chronic high risk for psychosis, those with schizophrenia and neurotypical controls. Chloe is also currently a clinical and cognitive rater for a schizophrenia study at Mount Sinai which focuses on exercise and cognition. Additionally, Chloe was Dr. Zemon's Lab TA from 2019 to Spring 2021.
Sarah Mandelbaum
Sarah is a fifth year student in Dr. Zemon’s lab. Sarah’s research interests involve visual assessment and contrast sensitivity in brain-injured children through the use of VEPs. Under the direction of Dr. Zemon and Dr. Glen Prusky in the Laboratory for Visual Disease and Therapy at Burke Neurological Institute, her current pre-doc project is validating and clarifying the mechanisms involved in a contrast sensitivity eye-tracking paradigm being developed by Dr. Prusky and his team.
Benjamin Langstein
Ben Langstein is a fifth year student in Dr. Zemon's lab. Ben's research focuses on the intersection between religion and psychology. Under the direction of Dr. Zemon and Dr. Ronis-Tobin, his pre-doctoral project examines the relationship between religious attendance and engagement in risky behaviors such as substance use and aggression in a statewide sample of grade school students.
Nurit Benrey-Grinberg
Nurit is a fourth-year graduate student in the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. Health Emphasis Program at Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology. She is studying visual perception in autism, under the direction of Dr. Zemon and Paige Siper, Ph.D. at the Seaver Autism Center at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai for her predoctoral thesis project. She is interested in studying the underlying neurobiology of developmental disorders, with a specific emphasis on Autism.
Maroo Shin
Maroo is a third-year graduate student in the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. Health Emphasis Program at Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology. He is studying transmission along the optic nerve pathways in Multiple Sclerosis, under the direction of Dr. Zemon and Dr. Foley at Holy Name Medical Center. He hopes to further develop and identify early signals associated with development of MS using VEP. He is also interested in studying how much of an important role VEP has in monitoring disease progression in MS patients, independent of the onset history.
Audrey Rouhandeh
Audrey is a second year student in the Clinical Psychology PhD Health Emphasis Program at Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, and will be conducting her predoctoral thesis project under the direction of Dr. Zemon and Dr. Paige Siper at the Seaver Autism Center at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Audrey’s primary research interests include improving early identification of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and related disorders in young children, including through the study of electrophysiological biomarkers. Audrey is also interested in the study of early interventions for children with autism and anxiety disorders, including examining the utility of electrophysiological biomarkers as an outcome measure in intervention studies. In addition, Audrey is Dr. Zemon's lab TA.
Zachary Bergson
Zachary Bergson is a second year student in the Systems Neuroscience lab. He is primarily interested in the neural correlates of Schizophrenia and Traumatic Brain Injury. He is also interested in advanced statistical modeling, data visualization, and machine learning. Prior to joining the lab he worked at the Wall Street Journal, where he was responsible for developing a charting application that helped journalists create data visualizations for the web and in print.
Naomi Uy
Naomi is a second year in the Systems Neuroscience Lab. Her research interests lie within the field of sensory perception and the neural correlates within sensory integration and processing. While involved in the Clinical Psychology PhD Health Emphasis Program at Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, she performs research under the guidance of Dr. Zemon and Dr. Mahoney at the Albert Einstein Department of Neurology regarding the integration of visual and somatosensory stimuli. This study focuses on these perceptual pathways within older individuals at risk for dementia and delves into the correlation between the ability to integrate the target modalities and fall risk.
Carolina Frankini
Carolina is a second year student in the Clinical Psychology PhD Health Emphasis Program at the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology currently externing at Brooklyn College Personal Counseling. She is currently performing research under Dr. Vance Zemon and Dr. Jeannette Mahoney at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine to study how the brain processes and integrates sensory, motor, and cognitive information in individuals at risk for Alzheimer’s Disease compared to healthy older adults. The study includes a multitude of techniques to identify structural and neural correlates of visual-somatosensory integration and examine how these correlates are related to health outcomes, including fall risk and mobility. Carolina’s research interests include improvement in intervention and functional needs in patients with neurodegenerative and neurological disorders.
Shreya Vaidya
Shreya Vaidya is a second-year student in the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. Health Emphasis Program at Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology in the Systems Neuroscience lab, currently externing at the Rose F. Kennedy Children's Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center/ Fisher Landau Center for the Treatment of Learning Disabilities. Shreya’s broader research interests include evidence-based interventions utilizing psychoeducational methods and neuropsychological evaluation to understand the biological and behavioral basis of neuropsychiatric, neurodevelopmental, and neurodegenerative disorders. Her scientific/clinical endeavors are aimed at encouraging early intervention to improve patient prognosis for the aforementioned disorders. Additionally, Shreya is conducting research on her pre-doctoral thesis under the direction of Dr. Zemon and Dr. Herrera in the CUE (Coping with Unique Experiences) program at Mount Sinai Icahn School of Medicine, with individuals who are at a clinical high risk for psychosis and those diagnosed with schizophrenia.
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