Trainee Committee

Niamh MacSweeney is a postdoctoral research fellow at the PROMENTA Research Center, University of Oslo, and Diakonhjemmet Hospital. She works with Christian K. Tamnes and studies how structural and functional brain development relate to depression risk during adolescence with a particular focus on puberty and co-produced research methods. Fun fact: Niamh loves cold water swimming and swims year round in the sea, a hobby that has become much chillier since moving to Norway!

Phoebe Thomson is a postdoctoral fellow in the Autism Center at the Child Mind Institute, New York, USA. She works under Adriana Di Martino, MD, and studies brain development in toddlers, children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Fun fact: She has a niche obsession with highland cows.

Simone Dobbelaar, PhD (she/her) is a postdoctoral researcher at Leiden University, The Netherlands, working with prof. dr. Berna Güroğlu. Her research focuses on the role of peer experiences in children’s and adolescents’ social and neural development, with a specific focus on behaviors such as aggression regulation, prosocial behavior and reward processing. Fun fact: During her PhD she studied twins, and she has a twin sister herself!

Courtney Gilchrist is a postdoctoral researcher in the Victorian Infant Brain Studies Group at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia. Courtney is interested in how perinatal factors shape the course of brain development, with a particular focus on preterm birth, fetal growth restriction and prenatal alcohol exposure. Her current work characterizes structural brain development in children born moderate/late preterm and how this relates to cognition, behavior, and mental health.  Fun Fact:  She enjoys staying active and has recently climbed all 7300 steps in Australia’s largest Stadium for charity.

Yara Toenders, PhD (she/her/hers) is a Healthy Start Fellow at Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Yara studies mental wellbeing of adolescents, and biological factors associated with mental wellbeing. She is specifically interested in how sleep and brain development affect mood in youth. Fun fact: She secretly enjoys assembling Ikea furniture.

Plamina Dimanova is a postdoctoral researcher, working with Prof. Nora Raschle at the Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. During her PhD, Plamina studied the structure of the corticolimbic circuitry and its association with emotion regulation and well-being outcomes with a special focus on intergenerational transmission effects. In her current projects, she continues the investigation of the developmental trajectories of the corticolimbic tract and is interested in multi-brain studies in broader context. Fun fact: Plamina used to have various pets, including a parrot, dogs, fish, a guinea pig, and a snail.

Amanda Boyes is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Thompson Institute, University of the Sunshine Coast. She works across the Youth Mental Health program under the leadership of Professor Daniel Hermens. Her research looks at associations between brain structure, wellbeing, and subclinical mental ill-health in adolescence using data collected as part of the Longitudinal Adolescent Brain Study (LABS) on the Sunshine Coast, Australia. Fun fact: Amanda was violinist in a folk-pop band during her undergrad years!

Damion Demeter is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California San Diego working with Dr. Deanna Greene. His primary research uses Precision Functional Mapping to investigate the functional organization of brain networks during development in both typically developing and clinical populations. Fun fact: Damion enjoys medium format photography and hunting down vintage twin-lens cameras.

Boglarka Zsofia Kovacs (she/her), is a doctoral student in the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychology Department at Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, under Prof. Dr. Neeltje van Haren. Her research within the FAMILY consortium focuses on intergenerational transmission of risk and resilience through brain development. Boglarka is passionate about studying the fetal and neonatal origins of health and disease, particularly how early environment influences brain developmental trajectories and psychiatric outcomes. Her current projects explore prenatal parental psychosocial impacts on neonatal brain structure; intracranial volume as a neurodevelopment biomarker; and neuroimaging differences in children of parents with severe mental illnesses. Fun fact: She loves challenging herself with new adventures, from ice plunges to silent retreats.

Ellyn Butler is pursuing a PhD in Clinical Psychology and an MS in Applied Statistics at Northwestern University as part of the Affective & Clinical Neuroscience Lab, working under the supervision of Professor Robin Nusslock. Ellyn studies how various dimensions of threat impact the brain to lead to mental illness during adolescence. Specifically, she has studied how violence impacts neuroimmune functioning to lead to internalizing symptoms, and salience network expansion and connectivity as mechanisms connecting violence with depression differentially across the sexes. Ellyn is also very interested in developing and validating personalized brain network methods, and improving the use of causal inference approaches in developmental psychopathology and human neuroscience. Fun fact: Ellyn started to apply her training as a classical flutist towards learning how to dance salsa during graduate school!

Da-Yea Song is a PhD student at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she works under the mentorship of Drs. Heather Volk and Calliope Holingue. Her research focuses on unraveling the complexities of brain development in autism and its developmental trajectories by integrating genetic, neuroimaging, and behavioral data. She is also passionate about examining the interplay between mental and physical health to promote well-being in individuals and families affected by neurodevelopmental disorders. Fun fact: Da-Yea loves discovering new hobbies and is currently learning to play the drums.

Shannon Cahalan is a PhD candidate at George Washington University under the mentorship of Dr. Gabriela Rosenblau. Shannon studies the behavioral and neural mechanisms underpinning social learning differences in autism spectrum disorder. She is also interested in the cognitive mechanisms underlying sex/gender differences and variability in adaptive outcomes in ASD. Fun fact: Shannon is a former collegiate swimmer and now runs half and full marathons.

Sylvia Lin is a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne, under the supervision of Prof Sarah Whittle. Her research investigates the impact of parenting and family environment on adolescent brain development and mental health. Sylvia aims to contribute to the development of neuroscience-informed interventions to promote better mental health outcomes in young people. Fun fact: Sylvia studied in four countries during her undergrad!

Nim Tottenham, PhD is a Professor of Psychology at Columbia University and Director of the Developmental Affective Neuroscience Laboratory. Her research examines brain development underlying emotional behavior in humans. In particular, her laboratory investigates the interplay between brain development and the special caregiving experienced by humans. Her research has highlighted fundamental changes in brain circuitry across development and the powerful role that early experiences, such as caregiving and stress, have on the construction of these circuits. She has authored over 125 journal articles and book chapters. She is a frequent lecturer both nationally and internationally on human brain and emotional development. She is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and of the Society for Experimental Psychologists, and her scientific contributions have been recognized by the National Institute of Mental Health BRAINS Award, the American Psychological Association’s Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology, most recently by the National Academy of Sciences Troland Research Award.