Current Members
Kimberly Noble, MD, PhD - Principal Investigator
Kimberly Noble, MD, PhD, is a Professor of Neuroscience and 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, BA - Lab Manager
Dayanara graduated from Rutgers University-Newark in 2022 with a BA in Psychology and a minor in Writing. Dayanara cultivated her interest in Developmental Psychology as a research assistant at the Child Study Center of Rutgers University. She completed her honors thesis on the relationship between maternal verbal scaffolding behaviors and different age time points in infants. Dayanara is particularly interested in the impact of socioeconomic adversity on parent-child interactions and the links to cognitive development. She plans to pursue a graduate degree in Neuroscience and Education research, with an interest in creating interventions that promote positive learning outcomes for underserved children and families.
Aislinn Sandre, PhD – Postdoctoral Fellow
Aislinn is a postdoctoral fellow in the NEED lab. She received her BSc in Psychology from Queen’s University and her PhD in Clinical Psychology from McGill University. She completed her clinical internship at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton. Aislinn is interested in understanding whether exposure to early life stress increases vulnerability for depression and anxiety by influencing socio-emotional, cognitive, and neural development. Her research primarily uses electroencephalography (EEG) to measure brain activity during sensitive periods of neurodevelopment, such as infancy, childhood, and adolescence. Aislinn is also interested in examining the psychometric properties of neural correlates of socio-emotional and cognitive development and adapting EEG tasks to be more developmentally relevant to improve the collection and reliable measurement of infant EEG. In the NEED lab, Aislinn will primarily examine whether socioeconomic adversity and stress are associated with variation in cognitive and neural development across infancy and childhood. To learn more about Aislinn’s research, click here.
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 – 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 – NYC 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.
Angie Narvaez - Project Coordinator, Baby's First Years
Angie graduated from Skidmore College with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Education Studies. Before joining the NEED Lab she was an RA at the Social Cognition and Intergroup Dynamic Lab which focused on Social Psychology research and the ways in which stereotypes perpetuate inequities within institutions. She is planning on pursuing a PhD in Child Clinical Psychology and is interested in exploring the ways in which childhood adversities and intergenerational trauma affect child psychopathology, more specifically within BIPOC communities.
Melissa Giebler, M.Ed - PhD Student
Melissa completed her BA in Art History at UC Berkeley and received an M.Ed with a dual focus on educational technology and educational neuroscience from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. After finishing her master’s, she completed a research assistantship at MIT working on a project that investigated socioeconomic circumstances, academic achievement, and brain structure and function. As a developmental psychology PhD student, Melissa is interested in better understanding the underlying mechanisms that contribute to the relationship between socioeconomic circumstances and brain and cognitive development. She is additionally interested in investigating the protective factors that contribute to resilience against socioeconomic disadvantage. Her ultimate goal is for her research to inform the development of policies and interventions aimed supporting children’s development.
Emma Hart, BS - PhD Student
Emma is a Developmental Psychology PhD student and recipient of the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF GRFP). She graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2020 with a BS in Child Development and Public Policy. Her research focuses on structural inequity, the development of self-regulation and executive function skills in young children, and parenting. She investigates the ways in which structural pressures associated with social inequity, and structural supports created to combat these (e.g., universal pre-k), affect healthy, joyful child development and parenting. Her work questions the extent to which isolated programs and policies can have long-term effects on children and families without addressing more fundamental sources and consequences of oppression.
Jessica Sperber, BA - PhD Student
Jessica is a first year doctoral student under the mentorship of Drs. Kim Noble and Tyler Watts. After receiving her BA in Psychology at Muhlenberg College in 2017, Jessica worked under Dr. John Bates at Indiana University as a lab coordinator. There, she coordinated several research projects studying the effects of sleep on children's behavior. In 2018, Jess joined the Center for Early Childhood Health & Development (CEHD) at NYU Langone to support the research and implementation of ParentCorps, a multi-pronged early childhood intervention found in preschools across NYC. At the NEED lab, Jess is interested in studying early interventions that support cognitive and social-emotional learning for children in poverty.
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.
Melina Amarante, MS - BUDDY Study Coordinator
Melina received her BS in Elementary Education from Florida International University, in 2015. Upon graduating, Melina spent four years working for Miami-Dade County Public Schools as an elementary school teacher. More recently, Melina completed her MS in Neuroscience and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. She is interested in how exposure to different stressors influence brain development and cognition. Her role as the new BUDDY Study Coordinator is to ensure that the BUDDY Study continues to run smoothly, and to provide support to research assistants working for the study. In the future Melina hopes to pursue a PhD in Neurobiology and Behavior.
Benjamin Bravo- Research Assistant, BFY PCI CODING TEAM
Ben received his MS in Neuroscience and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University in 2021. At the NEED lab, he has been primarily involved in coding parent-child interactions videos, as well as helping establish the golden standard for coding using the Parenting Interactions with Children: Checklist of Observations Linked to Outcomes (PICCOLO) tool for the BFY study. Outside of the lab, Ben works as a Research Manager for Mount Sinai Million, managing a study that aims to sequence the DNA of 1 million patients to help improve knowledge of what health means at a genetic level. Ben also works at NYSPI-Columbia University in a Stress and Wellbeing study analyzing biological and psychological factors affecting adolescent wellbeing. Ben is interested in how stressful environments may exacerbate underlying genetic vulnerabilities that affect children’s development. Ben plans to pursue a MD/PhD in Developmental Psychology.
Precious Elam - Research Assistant, BFY PCI CODING TEAM
Precious is a Teachers College graduate, where she recently received her M.A. in Developmental Psychology. Prior to attending TC, Precious received her B.A. in Sociology from The University of California Los Angeles. Precious is passionate about children, families, policy, and education reform. Her research interests involve childhood adversity, trauma, socioeconomic disparities, and educational inequality. Precious is interested in pursuing a PhD to examine the effects of early childhood adversity, such as poverty and stress, on children's cognitive, behavioral, and emotional development, and academic achievement, to inform educational interventions and influence policies impacting children and families. Outside of academia, Precious is committed to serving minority and at-risk communities. She has worked in Trio, Upward Bound, The New York Urban League, and in the community to promote academic achievement, mentorship, and college readiness for low-income students.
Yelisbeth Garcia - Research Assistant, BFY PCI Coding Team
Yelisbeth is a freshman 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.
Krystal Vidal-Alvarenga, BS, Research Assistant, BFY PCI CODING TEAM
Krystal earned her BS in Psychology, with concentrations in Chemistry and Biology, at Stony Brook University. Krystal is currently pursuing her MS in Neuroscience and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Previously, she was an RA at the Social Competence & Treatment lab where she had the opportunity to research peer relations and deficits in social competency that emerge in childhood through adolescence. During her undergrad years, she worked closely with children, teens, and adults with ASD and provided ABA therapy, in which it was very fulfilling seeing the growth of each individual. Krystal is interested in pursuing research in gene therapy for neurodegenerative diseases.
Isabella Virtue – Research Assistant, BFY
Isabella is an undergraduate student at Barnard College majoring in Psychology. In the future, she is interested in pursuing an M.D. in Psychiatry. She worked the summer of 2021 and 2022 with Breakthrough Miami, an educational enrichment program, as a teaching fellow, teaching and developing curriculum for middle school English & Language Arts and French. She is interested in studying how various factors like education can be leveraged to support the development of children from diverse, low-income communities.
Nicole Cisneros Gonzalez - Research Assistant, BFY
Nicole is a sophomore 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.
Karina Jenkins - Research Assistant, BFY
Karina is a junior at Columbia College pursuing a double major in Psychology and Political Science. Her academic focus revolves around the fascinating intersection of neuroplasticity and the intricate interplay between genetics and environmental factors influencing human behavior. Karina has a profound passion for working with children, a sentiment she carried into her internship in the summer of 2023, where she worked at the National Children's Hospital in Costa Rica. This transformative experience not only deepened her understanding of her field but also awakened her commitment to collaborate with individuals from diverse backgrounds and beliefs.
Jazmin Garcia Tapia - Research Assistant, BFY
Jazmin is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Clinical Psychology at Teachers College. She graduated from Brooklyn College in 2020 with a BA in Psychology. She previously worked at a speech and language center and obtained hands-on clinical experience working with speech language pathologists. Jazmin has years of experience working with students with autism spectrum disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, intellectual developmental disability, childhood apraxia of speech, social communication disorder and selective mutism. She also has previous experience working as a research assistant at a private practice where she helped measure the effectiveness of various treatment programs using CBT and DBT models. At the NEED lab she aids with data management and participant visits. Jazmin is looking to further her education and obtain a PhD in Clinical Psychology. Her research interests revolve around language acquisition and selective mutism in lower income families.
Asusena Itule Ramos - Research Assistant, BFY
Asusena is a sophomore at Barnard College majoring in psychology on the pre med track with a minor in Spanish. 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. Her interests include learning about how SES affects early childhood development, as well as the ways in which neurological disorders affect social development. Her future goals are to go to medical school to become a development pediatrician and make an impact on the lives of children and families in third world countries.
Raquel Duré Hlavacek – Research Assistant, BUDDY
Raquel received a BA in English from the National University of Itapua (Paraguay) and worked as a Public Translator. Before moving to NYC, she also worked as a TESOL teacher in underserved schools of her country. She has always been aware that Paraguay is a harrowingly unequal country, and that this inequality prevents children from accessing educational opportunities and better prospects in the future. She is a first-year graduate student in the MS in Neuroscience and Education program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her main interest is studying language as an indicator of socioeconomic development and as the foundation for literacy, and the impact of poverty on the brain and on the learning process.
Alexa M. Andrade – Research Assistant, BUDDY
Alexa is a Masters student in the Cognitive Science in Education program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She graduated from the University of San Diego (USD) in 2022 with a Bachelors in Psychology. Upon completion of her Masters degree, Alexa hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology, focusing on the topics of learning and memory. Particularly, Alexa is interested in how adverse experiences affect one's memory and their ability to learn effectively.
Haley Herbert – Research Assistant, BUDDY
Haley is a junior at Barnard College majoring in psychology. She is interested in studying clinical psychology after Barnard. She loves working with kids and she spent the summer of 2022 as a camp counselor for children with emotional, learning, and behavioral challenges, where she achieved her level two care specialist certification. Her main research interests include exploring the impact of different experiences on child development, particularly as it relates to learning differences.
Lizzy Campbell – Research Assistant, BUDDY
Lizzy is a first year Masters student in the Psychology in Education (Clinical Psychology) program at Teacher’s College, Columbia University. She graduated magna cum laude from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2019 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology and Biology. Upon graduation, Lizzy worked as the Intake and Clinical Care Coordinator of a small private practice specializing in psychological and educational testing in Richmond, Virginia. She plans to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology and is specifically interested in studying how attachment styles work as a risk or protective factor in the development of various psychiatric disorders in adolescence and young adulthood, as well as the neural correlates that underlie this relation.
Jessica Aragon – Research Assistant, BUDDY
Jessica is an undergraduate student at Barnard College majoring in Neuroscience and Behavior. She has a passion for the intricate workings of the brain and aspires to attain an M.D. in Pediatrics. Beyond her academic pursuits, Jessica takes on the role of Co-Chapter Leader at Columbia University's Project Sunshine Chapter, a non-profit organization enriching the lives of pediatric patients and their families at Harlem Hospital. Her research interests extends to exploring the profound effects of childhood socioeconomic adversity on cognition and neurodevelopment to better understand the complexities of child development.
Maddie Scricco – Research Assistant, BUDDY
Maddie is a second year Masters student studying Developmental Psychology. After graduating from Vanderbilt with a BA in Clinical Psychology in 2013, Maddie pursued a career in medicine before transitioning to childcare. After working as a Nanny for 5+ years, she realized her love of children could be combined with a passion for academia and is excited to continue on to doctoral studies next fall. Her interest is in best practices in social emotional learning in early childhood education environments.
Montserrat Lopez Orozco - Research Assistant, BUDDY
Montse graduated from Universidad Panamericana (UP) in 2021 with a BA in Psychopedagogy. She nurtured her interest in child developmental outcomes as the research assistant of the Dean of Psychopedagogy School at UP. While working in a marginated preschool, she became interested in boosting learning in vulnerable children by understanding how the environment influences them. Her research protocol, “Parenting styles and children's cognitive and behavioral development,” received UP’s grant. Upon graduating, she promoted cognitive functions as a psychopedagogyst. Montse is passionate about art. She has designed and conducted creative art courses with a socio-emotional approach.
Alexandra Burgos Batista – Research Assistant, BUDDY
Alexandra is a sophomore at Baruch College with a major in Psychology, and a minor in communications. The summer before joining the NEED lab as an RA, she worked as a camp counselor with children under 5 and 6, conducting activities and helping in planned events. She is currently interested in research, and eventually would love to go into therapy and behavioral studies.
Patricia Acosta – Research Assistant, BUDDY
Patricia is a postbac student in Psychology at Columbia University. She holds a degree in Law and has spent two decades working within the Judicial System, including roles in family and juvenile courts. Recognizing that behaviors requiring judicial intervention often stem from social and psychological issues, she developed a growing interest in these subjects. Patricia has recently embarked on a career transition from Law to Psychology and is captivated by everything she is learning. She plans to pursue a PhD in the near future and is particularly interested in studying the impact of environmental factors on cognitive development.
Regina Sevilla – Research Assistant, BUDDY
Reginia is a junior at Columbia School of General Studies, majoring in Psychology. She plans to pursue a PhD to advance research on the effects of child abuse and neglect on cognitive development, and implement more accessible resources for children growing up in such circumstances. She is part of a project at CUIMC that investigates the obstacles that unaccompanied Latino migrant adolescents face when coming to the U.S. When she travels to her home country, she enjoys volunteering at SAGI, an organization that her brother is part of which offers resources and support to individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Melanie Esterine - Research Assistant, BUDDY
Melanie is a first year Masters student in the Clinical Psychology program at Teachers College. She graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.S in Biopsychology, Cognition, & Neuroscience in April of 2023. At Michigan, she partook in research which examined how children learn to speak and read, specifically how being exposed to more than one language at an early age impacts these abilities. She plans to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology after TC and is especially interested in studying how early childhood experiences and different sociocultural factors impact development. She has a passion for developmental psychology and hopes to work with kids in the future, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Fernanda Hernandez Badilla - Research Assistant, BUDDY
Fernanda received her BA in Early Childhood Education from Universidad Andrés Bello (Chile), and is currently in her second year of the Neuroscience and Education MSc program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She worked 7 years as a 3-6 years old teacher in bilingual schools, both in Chile and in New Jersey. She also worked as RA in the Neuroscience Lab from Universidad de Playa Ancha in a study about Universal Language Design. Fernanda is looking forward to developing a career that involves Education, Childhood and Neuroscience.