Current Members
Kimberly Noble, MD, PhD - Principal Investigator
Kimberly Noble, MD, PhD, is the Virginia and Leonard Marx Professor of Child and Parent Development and Education and Professor of Neuroscience & Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. As a neuroscientist and board-certified pediatrician, she directs the Neurocognition, Early Experience and Development (NEED) lab, where she and her team study how socioeconomic inequality relates to children's cognitive, emotional, and brain development. Her work examines socioeconomic disparities in cognitive development, as well as brain structure and function, across infancy, childhood and adolescence. She is particularly interested in understanding how early in infancy or toddlerhood such disparities develop; the modifiable environmental differences that account for these disparities; and the ways we might harness this research to inform the design of interventions. She has funding from NIH and numerous foundations, and she is one of the principal investigators of Baby's First Years, the first clinical trial of poverty reduction to assess the causal impact of income on children’s cognitive, emotional and brain development in the first three years of life. Dr. Noble received her undergraduate, graduate and medical degrees at the University of Pennsylvania, and completed her residency in pediatrics at Columbia University Medical Center. She was awarded the 2017 Association for Psychological Science Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions, and the 2021 American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest. Dr. Noble is an elected Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. Her TED talk has more than 2 million views to date, and her work has received worldwide attention in the popular press.
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Dayanara Sanchez-Bravo, MA Candidate - Lab Manager
Dayanara graduated from Rutgers University-Newark in 2022 with a BA in Psychology and a minor in Writing. She cultivated her interest in Developmental Psychology as a research assistant at the Child Study Center of Rutgers University, and is particularly interested in the impact of socioeconomic adversity on parent-child interactions and the links to cognitive development. Dayanara is pursuing a masters degree in Elementary Inclusive Education at Teachers College, and hopes to provide positive learning outcomes for underserved children.
Lauren Meyer, MA – National Project Director, Baby's First Years
Lauren Meyer is the National Project Director of the Baby’s First Years research, a groundbreaking random assignment study happening in four cities to assess the link between family income and children’s cognitive, emotional, and brain development in the first three years of life. She has a particular interest in data driven reform in the early childhood care and education landscape, and advancing policies to support young children and their families. Lauren comes to the NEED lab with experience overseeing and developing systems for large-scale data collection for early childhood initiatives, and experience working with young children and their families at the pre-K level. Lauren received her undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin and holds a graduate degree from Columbia University Teachers College.
Luciane Da Rosa Piccolo, PhD – Research Scientist, Baby's First Years
Luciane is a psychologist with a PhD in developmental psychology and extensive experience in interdisciplinary and international research. Currently, she works as a research scientist at the NEED Lab, where she oversees the execution of the Baby’s First Years project, a multisite study investigating associations between poverty reduction and early childhood brain development. Her work integrates developmental psychology and cognitive neuroscience and focuses on investigating the disparities in child development associated with socioeconomic status and early experiences. She is particularly interested in studying long-lasting solutions that can positively impact children’s development in high-poverty contexts.
Ana Beatriz Vizcaíno, MA – NY Site Coordinator, Baby's First Years
Ana Beatriz Vizcaino is a Psychologist with a Master’s Degree in Education and a specialization in Child Development from Universidad de Monterrey (UDEM). Her graduate work earned her the “Cum Laude” award and she completed her thesis and dissertation with honors, focused on “Playful Learning Experiences for Children’s Development”. She has worked for 9 years in Early Childhood Education, as an educator and coordinator, creating intersectional projects between families and schools to benefit children’s experiences and development. Ana Beatriz is interested in understanding how early experiences affect children’s cognitive, emotional and brain development, and translate these scientific findings into practices.
Mindy Rosengarten, MA - PhD Student
Mindy Rosengarten received her BA in Psychological and Brain Sciences from Washington University in St. Louis in 2018 and her masters in Child Study and Human Development from Tufts University in 2020. She then worked at Boston Children’s Hospital’s Brazelton Touchpoints Center as a Research Coordinator, supporting evaluations of early education programs and grants targeting child and family wellness. Mindy is interested in the role of the home environment, parenting, and early education in long-term child outcomes. She is moreover interested in understanding the potential of poverty alleviation policies (including early education programs) to support positive executive functioning and economic outcomes for young children and their families.
Casey Moran, MA – PhD Student
Casey is a PhD student in Developmental Psychology working with Drs. Kim Noble and Tyler Watts. She centers her work around understanding how systems and settings support or hinder children's early learning and development, and what interventions can be implemented to more equitably address the needs of all children. Holding a Masters degree in Human Development and Social Intervention from New York University, she has previously conducted intervention research in international settings, including the evaluation of an educational media program targeting young children's social-emotional learning in the Syria response region.
Haleigh Brown - PhD Student
Haleigh is a first-year PhD student in the Developmental Psychology program working under Dr. Sonya Troller-Renfree and Dr. Kimberly Noble. Haleigh received her Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience and Psychology with a concentration in Neurodevelopment and Neurodevelopmental Disorders. She is interested in studying how early-life adversity becomes biologically embedded in the developing brain, influencing behavioral and cognitive outcomes. She is excited to gain proficiency in EEG analysis and have the opportunity to work with diverse global populations. Her additional interests include adversity-related inflammatory markers, fetal programming, and mother-child synchronicity.
Nicole Cisneros Gonzalez - Research Assistant, BFY
Nicole is a junior at Barnard College majoring in Neuroscience and Behavior. She is currently a member of Bellevue's Reach Out & Read, a nonprofit that gives young children a foundation for success by incorporating books into pediatric care and encouraging families to read aloud together. She loves working with kids and she spent the summer of 2023 reading books aloud to them, forging meaningful connections. Her interests include neurocognition and its profound impact on child development, as well as the complexities of the human mind including neurological disorders. In the future, she aspires to go to PA school to become a pediatric physician assistant, fostering the well-being and development of children, especially those from low-income communities.
Alejandra Perez Botero - Research Assistant, BFY
Alejandra graduated from Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia, with a BA in Literature and later specialized in Public Policy and Development, focusing on the impact of literature in early childhood education. With over four years of experience in elementary education, she is passionate about fostering a love of reading and curiosity in young learners. Alejandra is currently pursuing a Master’s in Neuroscience and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she aims to integrate research-based strategies into her practice to enhance learning outcomes for all students, particularly those from underserved communities.
Yelisbeth Garcia - Research Assistant, BFY
Yelisbeth is a junior at Barnard College majoring in Neuroscience and Behavior. She is a current member of Project Sunshine, a non-profit organization that allows you to volunteer in hospital settings for pediatric patients and their families. She is also the 2026 class representative of QuestBridge, an organization that aims to make college accessible for low income, first generation college students. Her interests include learning about how growing up in low income communities affects early childhood development, as well as the ways in which certain neurological disorders affect functions such as language and memory. Her future goals are to go to medical school to become a pediatrician and make an impact on the lives of children and their families in disadvantaged communities.
Carson Heward - Graduate Research Assistant, BUDDY
Carson is pursuing a Masters degree in Developmental Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University. She graduated from Tulane University in 2023 with a BS in Public Health and a minor in Psychology. She has previously worked as an ABA Therapist, Patient Care Representative, and an RA for the Learning and Brain Development Lab at Tulane, gaining hands-on clinical and research experience working with children of all ages. After graduation, Carson spent a year continuing to work for the LBD Lab as a research technician and ran participant sessions for a longitudinal study looking at how infants’ relationships with their caregivers change over the first year of life. Her passion for working with children coupled with her interest in researching and understanding the psychological impacts of adverse childhood experience (ACEs) and their effects on development led her to join Dr Noble’s NEED Lab. Carson has years of experience working with children in various settings, and in the future hopes to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology.
Simranjeet Dhillon, Research Assistant, BFY
Simranjeet is a freshman at Barnard College, where she is pursuing a prospective major in neuroscience and behavior while following the pre-med track. In her free time, she works with middle school students at a local public school in New York and helps them understand the math concepts they are learning in class. Additionally, she is involved in a clinical setting with the Bhagat Puran Singh Health Initiative that provides healthcare to underserved populations. Simranjeet is deeply interested in understanding the challenges faced by disadvantaged populations and how these challenges impact child development, particularly in relation to neurological and mental disorders. In the future, she hopes to become a pediatric psychiatrist or work in another subspecialty of pediatrics.