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Lab Members

  • Karim Ibrahim, PsyD

    Assistant Professor in the Child Study Center

    Karim Ibrahim is an Assistant Professor at the Yale Child Study Center. His translational neuroscience research focuses on the impact of early life stress, environmental factors, and problematic digital media use on neurodevelopment and youth mental health. His work also examines emotion regulation in youth mental health through brain imaging approaches. Dr. Karim Ibrahim’s research is interdisciplinary and integrates multimodal imaging including functional and structural MRI, machine learning, and network neuroscience approaches to identify robust brain biomarkers relevant to child mental health with clinical applications. His research also investigates dynamics of the functional connectome and the neural response to treatment in youth. His recent interests lie in leveraging computational neuroscience methods to understand the impact of social media use and content on executive functioning and emotion regulation in youth, and the link to mental health conditions in children and adolescents. As a licensed clinical child psychologist, he also has extensive experience in developmental psychopathology, including assessments and cognitive-behavioral interventions for autism spectrum disorder, mood, anxiety, and disruptive behavior . He is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, Development and Psychopathology, and Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience.
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  • Ai (Riley) Nghi Diep
    Riley, a member of Yale's Class of 2028 in Trumbull College, is passionate about exploring the neural mechanisms of emotion regulation in children and adolescents. As a member of the Ibrahim Lab, Riley focuses on clinical and neuroimaging research aimed at supporting youth with emotion regulation difficulties, especially those diagnosed with autism and other developmental disorders. Riley’s commitment to youth extends beyond the lab. She has taught English to students in rural China through global organizations, such as Stepping Stones, and has been involved in research projects investigating cross-cultural relational challenges in children. Riley also volunteers with Yale Demos, making science both accessible and enjoyable for young learners. In her free time, Riley enjoys binge-watching TV shows, learning new languages, and attending concerts.
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  • Zeying Du
    Zeying Du is an MPH student in the Social and Behavioral Sciences Department at Yale School of Public Health (Class of 2027). She graduated from the University of California San Diego in 2024 with dual B.S. degrees in Cognitive Science (specialization in Neuroscience) and Psychology. In the Ibrahim Lab, she uses advanced statistical models and machine learning to investigate developmental trajectories of externalizing and related psychopathology in youth. Her research interests lie at the intersection of computational and developmental neuroscience, child psychopathology, cognitive science, and public mental health. Zeying is also interested in merging approaches that span brain development and emotion processing to better understand social determinants of child mental health. Before joining the Ibrahim Lab, Zeying worked in the Pelham Lab, the Center for Research on Experiential Evolutionary Psychology (CREEP), and the Dissemination and Implementation Science Center (DISC) at UC San Diego. She gained additional clinical experience working with autistic youth at The Family Guidance & Therapy Center of Southern California, as well as biostatistics and pharmaceutical experience as an intern at Heze Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. Zeying hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in the future and conduct translational research that bridges brain-based biomarkers with child mental health services to inform earlier identification, prevention, and intervention for neurodivergent youth.
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  • Ilenia Gori
    lenia Gori, MD is a doctoral candidate at Ramon Llull University (Barcelona) and her research focuses on the application of the modified mentalization-based treatment in children (MBT-C) technique in children with ASD and on the theoretical and neurobiological foundations (neuro-biomarkers) of dyadic social learning. She joined both the Ibrahim Lab and Sukhodolsky Lab in 2024 (co-mentors) to conduct her doctoral research. She earned her medical degree in child and adolescent neuropsychiatry at Meyer Children's Hospital, Florence, and has received specialized training in diagnosis, assessment, and intervention in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and in perinatal, early intervention, and child abuse. Gori is also a psychotherapist with a psychodynamic and psychoanalytic orientation focused on the treatment of children, adolescents, and their families. She is trained in SandPlay Therapy (Rome) and Mentalized treatment for children (MBT-C), adolescents, and families from Anna Freud Center (London). She is certified as an MBT-C practitioner. This drove her interest in the neuroscience of inter-brain synchrony related to the study of brain networks associated with emotion regulation. She is also interested in psychodynamic psychopharmacology. She participates in national and international scientific and academic activities, with her own publications and papers, and currently works in private practice (Imagina Center) and in the public system.
  • Goeun Lee

    Postgraduate Associate

    Goeun is a Yale College Class of 2025 graduate in Berkeley, majoring in B.S. Psychology with a certificate in Global Health Studies. During her undergraduate studies, she was a part of the Ibrahim Lab (Emotion Regulation and Systems Neuroscience Lab) at the Yale Child Study Center. Upon graduation, she now works as a Postgraduate Associate at Dr. Marc Potenza's lab on addiction research. On Saturdays, she volunteers as the Co-Director for HAVEN Free Clinic's Behavioral Health Department. Goeun hopes to pursue a graduate degree in Clinical Psychology following her gap year.
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  • Jordan Linde
    Jordan Linde graduated from Colgate University in 2020 with high honors, receiving a B.A. in Psychological Sciences. While at Colgate, Jordan completed a yearlong honors thesis examining the bidirectional relationship between parenting and child self-regulatory processes. Jordan was involved in various clinical experiences in the local community, including working at a pre-school as an aid for a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). After graduating, Jordan spent two years as a laboratory manager for The Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab at Georgetown University under Dr. Chandan Vaidya. Her lab used a transdiagnostic approach to look at executive function dysregulation across a variety of pediatric psychiatric disorders. Jordan was responsible for fMRI data collection, working primarily with children and adolescents with ASD, ADHD, learning disabilities, and anxiety. While in DC, Jordan also worked as a personal care attendant for a 13-year-old with ASD, irritability, and other cognitive impairments. She is currently a doctoral student in clinical psychology at University of Hartford, with hopes of pursuing a career as a pediatric neuropsychologist. Outside of school, Jordan enjoys baking, ice-skating, and reading a good psychological thriller curled up on the couch with her two cats.
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  • Zhiyuan Zack Liu

    Graduate Research Assistant, Child Study Center; Study Coordinator, Department of Psychology

    Zhiyuan is a Horstmann Scholar and an M.P.H. graduate in the Social and Behavioral Sciences Department at Yale. His research interests include using psychophysiological and eye-tracking methods to study emotional responses, and applying computational approaches to understand brain–behavior links in children with disruptive behaviors.
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  • Kaiting Mai

    Postgraduate Fellow in the Child Study Center

    Kaiting Mai graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a BSc in Psychology and is currently pursuing a Master of Research in the University College London-Yale program in Developmental Neuroscience and Psychopathology. Kaiting’s research interests focus on the neural mechanisms of emotion regulation, particularly how brain networks interact to support adaptive and maladaptive strategies. In the Ibrahim Lab, Kaiting is eager to deepen her understanding of the relationship between emotion regulation networks and child psychopathology. She is also interested in the parent-child dyadic interaction and intergenerational transmission of maladaptive emotion regulation patterns, examining how parental influences may affect the development of regulatory networks. Her background includes training and experience across both research and clinical settings. She has contributed to research evaluating parenting interventions for children with ADHD, mother-child cross-brain associations during emotion processing in children with Non-Suicidal Self-Injury, and assessing cognitive control and statistical learning in children. Her honors thesis examined social cognition across neurotypical and neurodevelopmental conditions, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and ADHD. Kaiting has clinical experience as an intern in a local mental health hospital in Guangdong, China, where she worked with individuals who have schizophrenia. She has also produced science communication pieces about depression, mental health issues in children and adolescents, and parent-infant interaction.
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  • Chanelle J. Norman
    Chanelle J. Norman is a dual-enrolled advanced doctoral student (Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, Fielding Graduate University; M.S. in Clinical Psychopharmacology, The Chicago School) whose work focuses on the interface of translational neuroscience and stress psychophysiology. Through her work with the Ibrahim Lab, Chanelle seeks to deepen her understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying adaptive and maladaptive affective processing in youth, and comprehensive psychodiagnostic assessment. Building on a decade of clinical experience as a licensed physical therapist (DPT, University of St. Augustine, 2014) and earlier training in human biology (B.S., University of Indianapolis, 2007), Chanelle’s current research examines how emotional abuse affects neuroception and interoception, neural mechanisms thought to monitor and shape autonomic states. She seeks to clarify how these pathways may mediate allostatic load and chronic health risk within the broader domains of stress physiology and metabolism. By mapping these relational-biological mechanisms, her research looks to bridge affective neuroscience with clinical primary-care models that integrate psychodynamic psychotherapy, psychopharmacology, and behavioral medicine for survivors of domestically violent environments across the lifespan.
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  • Sasha Santini-Bishop
    Sasha is a 2026.5 Yale College senior in Berkeley pursuing a B.S. in Psychology, and has been a lab member since her second year. Her interests lie in studying adverse childhood experiences, parent-child dyadic relationships, and risk and protective factors as they relate to emotion regulation, the onset of childhood mental health symptoms, and neurodevelopmental trajectories. Sasha aspires to attend graduate school for Clinical Psychology and work with children and families. She has worked closely with children on a wide spectrum of neurodivergence and across settings, including as a mental health worker in a clinical respite day program to support social and emotional regulation skills and as a research team member at the University of New Mexico’s site for the national HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) study. Her love for children extends beyond research, and she is also a student teacher for preschoolers at the Creating Kids Childcare Center in New Haven. This year, Sasha has been appointed to serve as a senior mentor for the undergraduate department of Psychology and is thrilled to help fellow psychology students navigate Yale. In the lab this year, she conducts visits and helps manage our pilot fNIRS study. She's also working toward her senior thesis on functional connectivity correlations with internalizing vs. externalizing symptoms and adverse experiences in childhood. Though she calls New Mexico home, Sasha is happy to spend her time in New Haven expanding her passion and knowledge to better inform her long-term work in child advocacy, research, and care.
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Collaborators at Yale

Collaborators at Other Institutions

Alumni

Graduate Students

Eleni Christofilea, MRes | UCL-Yale Developmental Neuroscience and Psychopathology Master of Research Program, 2024-2025 | Currently: Doctoral student at the UCL-Yale Doctoral Training Programme in Developmental Neuroscience and Mental Health | Awards: Distinction for graduate thesis (2025)

Zhiyuan (Zack) Liu, MPH | Yale School of Public Health, 2024-2025 | Currently: Doctoral student at University of Oxford Department of Experimental Psychology | Awards: University of Oxford Clarendon Scholar Award; Horstmann Scholarship, Yale School of Public Health

Kavari Hercules, MPH | Yale School of Public Health, 2024-2025 | Currently: Master's candidate in Public Health Modeling and Social and Behavioral Sciences | Awards: Horstmann Scholarship, Yale School of Public Health

Jia Wei, MPH | Yale School of Public Health, 2023-2024 | Currently: Security Strategy Engineer at Didi Global

Olivia Cuevas Geiger, MRes | UCL-Yale Developmental Neuroscience and Psychopathology Program, 2023-2024 | Currently: Chief of Staff at BIOBank

Danai Ioakeimidou, MRes | UCL-Yale Developmental Neuroscience and Psychopathology Master of Research Program, 2023-2024 | Currently: Assistant Psychologist, Berkshire NHS Trust

Iciar Iturmendi-Sabater, MRes | UCL-Yale Developmental Neuroscience and Psychopathology Master of Research Program, 2020-2021 | Currently: Doctoral candidate at University of Toronto | Awards: Distinction for graduate thesis (2021); International Society for Autism Research (INSAR) Student and Trainee Award

Maya Vasishth, MRes | UCL-Yale Developmental Neuroscience and Psychopathology Master of Research Program, 2020-2021 | Currently: Doctoral candidate at UC San Diego Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program

Clinical Psychology Doctoral Externs

Verenice Torres, BS | Clinical Psychology Doctoral Extern, 2024-2025 | Currently: Doctoral student in Clinical Psychology at University of Hartford

Undergraduate Students

Goeun Lee, BS | Yale undergraduate, 2023-2025 | Currently: Postgraduate Associate in the Potenza Lab at Yale School of Medicine | Awards: Fulbright International Award (2025)

Alice Dyer, BS | Yale undergraduate, 2023-2024 | Currently: Mental Health Specialist at McLean Hospital and pre-med/post-bacc student at Harvard Extension School

Delaney Vu, BS | Yale undergraduate, 2022-2024 | Currently: Paralegal at Manhattan District Attorney's Office

Summer Research Students

Emily Drucker | NSF BP ENDURE Summer Fellow, 2025 | Currently: Undergraduate at Hunter College | Awards: NSF BP ENDURE Fellowship

Valentino Cheek | Yale Child Study Center Developmental Science Summer Internship, 2025 | Currently: Undergraduate at University of the South, Sewanee

Paula Enriquez | Research Experience for Veteran Undergraduates (REVU) Program, 2025 | Currently: Undergraduate at Columbia University

Olivia Ciocca | Yale Child Study Center Developmental Science Summer Internship, 2024 | Currently: Associate teacher, The School at Columbia, New York, NY

MariaRose Guardavaccaro | Science Research Program Mentee, 2020-2021 | Currently: Undergraduate at University of Scranton | Awards: Regeneron Science Competition Finalist

Ibrahim Lab Research Studies

To learn more about our research studies or to schedule an appointment, please email or call our team at