Moriah Thomason is the Barakett Associate Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Population Health in the New York University School of Medicine. She formerly served as Director of the Perinatal Neural Connectivity Unit within the intramural Perinatology Research Branch of NICHD/NIH, where she established a pregnancy cohort of more than 300 culturally and racially diverse women and their children and developed methodology for examining human brain functional circuitry before birth. Her current NIH projects examine developmental disease origins and environmental programming of early human brain development. In particular, her projects are focused on the effects of stress and trauma, socioeconomic risk, and chemical exposures on child neurobehavioral development and health.

I am originally from Bogotá, Colombia, and I am the first in my family to pursue higher education in the United States. As an aspiring advocate and researcher, I aim to tackle national and global health disparities through dissemination and diplomacy efforts. Additionally, my research interests relate to how health policy shapes different social determinants of health and how these influence health behavior, predisposing populations to chronic diseases, particularly from stress and nutrition. Moreover, I engaged in multidisciplinary training activities, ranging from clinical to leadership roles, to advance my understanding of functional medicine and disease prevention, exploring evidence-based mechanisms to uplift individuals and promote healthier systems.

Sofia graduated from Smith College in 2021, majoring in Neuroscience. She worked in New York as an au pair for a year before joining the SCAN lab. Sofia wants to earn a master’s degree in computer science before pursuing a career in computational neuroscience.

I am an Irish native who moved to New York City. I completed a Bachelor of Biomedical Science degree at the University of Galway and following this, a Master of Neuroscience degree at Trinity College Dublin. My research interests range from neurodevelopment and autism spectrum disorders to inflammation, stress and neurodegenerative diseases. Through my work, I hope to achieve a significant impact in the field of neuroscience, increasing our understanding of human brain development and the pathogenesis of neurological disorders, ultimately contributing to the development of treatments for those who need it most.

Sarah Bennett is a Senior Project Coordinator for the HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) Study in Dr. Thomason's Social Cognitive Affective Neurodevelopment (SCAN) Lab. She graduated from Teachers College, Columbia University with an M.S. in Neuroscience & Education in May 2023. Sarah has prior research experience at Columbia University in developmental cognitive neuroscience, and is particularly interested in the the long-term neuropsychological effects of stress and trauma in children and adolescents. She hopes to pursue a doctoral degree in clinical psychology.

Anushka Gupta recently graduated from New York University where she studied Psychology and minored in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Studies (CAMS) on the pre-med track. She is passionate about understanding child development from a holistic perspective through integrating psychology, biology, and neuroscience. As a former research assistant at the SCAN lab, Anushka conducted her own undergraduate research project in which she analyzed the role of perceived mother-infant attachment in mediating maternal stress levels at the prenatal and postnatal timepoints. In the future, Anushka plans to attend medical school and specialize in child psychiatry!

Maya Sacasa graduated from New York University in 2021 with a B.A. in Psychology and Comparative Literature. 

Christi-Ann graduated from New York University in May 2025 with a B.A. in Science and Technology Studies, an interdisciplinary degree that examines science through historical, cultural, and social contexts, and a minor in Childhood and Adolescent Mental Health Studies. During her undergraduate years, she was a research assistant in three labs, with one of them being the SCAN Lab, and her research interests lie in investigating the relationship between maternal experiences and fetal epigenetic and neurodevelopmental changes. She hopes to ultimately pursue a PhD to further explore these questions! 

Gabriella Radice is a research associate for the HBCD Study who graduated from NYU in 2025 with a major in Spanish and Portuguese on the Pre-Med track. Her previous research was focused on maternal mental and physical health conditions on infant and early childhood brain-behavioral development with the RESILIENT Lab at NYU. She hopes to one day attend medical school and become a pediatrician!