Resident Biographies

 Current PRP Residents

Name: Manan Arora, MD 
Pronouns: He/Him 
Hometown: Mumbai, India 
Current Year: PGY2
Undergraduate/Medical School: Seth GS Medical College and KEM Hospital, Mumbai

Postdoctoral Training Mentor: Mary L. Phillips, MD, MD (CANTAB)
Postdoctoral Training Topic: Neural Mechanisms Underlying Risk of Bipolar Disorder in Young Adults
Postdoctoral Training Techniques: fMRI preprocessing and neuroimaging data analyses
Interests outside of medicine: Reading and swimming

Selected publications:

• Arora M, Chase H, Bertocci MA, Skeba AS, Eckstrand K, Bebko G, Aslam HA, Raeder R, Graur S, Benjamin O, Wang Y, Stiffler RS & Phillips ML. (2025). Left ventrolateral prefrontal cortical activity during reward expectancy and mania risk. JAMA Psychiatry, 82(3), 274–284. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2024.4216
• Arora M, Bertocci MA, Schumer MC, Skeba AS, Bebko G, Stiffler R, Brady TJ, Afriyie-Agyemang Y, Aslam HA, Graur S, Benjamin O, Wang XG & Phillips ML. (2024). Sex differences in neural responses to emotional facial expressions are associated with lifetime depression and mania risk. Journal of Affective Disorders, 359, 33–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2024.05.042
• Santos JPL, Versace A, Arora M, Bertocci MA, Chase HW, Skeba A, Graur S, Bonar L, Maffei C, Yendiki A, Rasmussen SA, Haber SN & Phillips ML. (2024). Examining relationships among NODDI indices of white matter structure in prefrontal cortical–thalamic–striatal circuitry and OCD symptomatology. Translational Psychiatry, 14(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-024-03101-9

Name:  Geoffrey Carney-Knisely   
Pronouns:  He/Him/His
Hometown: South Burlington, VT
Current year:  PGY1
Undergraduate/Medical School: College of Wooster (BA); The Ohio State University College of Medicine/College of Public Health (MD, PhD)
 

Graduate School Mentor: Amy K. Ferketich, Parvati Singh
Graduate School Topic: Epidemiology of Tobacco Use in Response to COVID-19
Graduate School Techniques: Longitudinal Multilevel Modeling (GLMM, GEE), Time-series analysis, difference-in-difference analysis, logistic regression. Imputation approaches for missing data. Qualitative data analysis (In-depth semi-structured interviews, focus groups). 
Interests outside of medicine:  Running, hiking, baking, board games
 

Selected publications:
 

• Carney-Knisely G, Griffin M, Crawford A, Spates K, Singh P. Police killings of unarmed Black persons and suicides among Black youth in the US: A national time-series analysis. Annals of Epidemiology. 2024 Jun;94:91-99. DOI: 10.1016/j.annepidem.2024.04.012. PMID: 38710240.
   
• Carney-Knisely G, Pek J, Ferketich AK, Padamsee TJ, Gur T, et al. (2025) Depression and anxiety mediate the relationship between COVID-19 stay-at-home orders and tobacco and marijuana use. PLOS ONE 20(12): e0337996. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0337996
   
• Carney-Knisely GJ, Ferketich AK, Singh P, Gur TL, Padamsee TJ. Behavioral health providers' prioritization of tobacco and marijuana concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic: A grounded theory analysis. J Health Psychol. 2026 Jul 3:13591053261461883. doi: 10.1177/13591053261461883. PMID: 42397776.
   

Name: Grace Kim, MD, PhD
Pronouns: She/Her
Hometown: New York City, NY
Current Year: PGY2
Undergraduate: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Medical School: University of Illinois College of Medicine

Postdoctoral Training Mentor: Frances Wang, PhD
Postdoctoral Training Topic: Developmental expression of genetic liability for externalizing behavior and substance-use risk
Postdoctoral Training Techniques: polygenic scores, longitudinal data analyses, gene-environment analyses, mixed-effects modeling
Interests outside of medicine: Traveling, Korean dramas, exploring new foods, drinks, and emerging tech, glassblowing, hammocking, fencing

Selected publications: 

• Kim GS, Smith AK, Nievergelt CM, Uddin M. (2018). Neuroepigenetics of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Progress in Molecular Biology and Translational Science.
• Kim GS, Smith AK, Xue F, et al. (2019). Methylomic profiles reveal sex-specific differences in leukocyte composition associated with post-traumatic stress disorder. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity.
• Kim GS, Uddin M. (2020). Sex-specific and shared expression profiles of vulnerability and resilience to trauma in brain and blood. Biology of Sex Differences.

Name: Hannah Kline, MD, PhD
Pronouns: She/Her
Hometown: Charlotte, NC
Current Year: PGY3
Undergraduate: Indiana University, BS in Biology and BA in Classical Studies
Medical School: Indiana University School of Medicine
 

PRP Mentor: Sarah Pedersen, PhD
PRP Topic: Assessing Alcohol Drinking Motives in Young Adults
PRP Techniques: Surveying local samples to assess substance use history and motives, assessing and organizing data from ecological momentary assessments, multilevel modeling, and repeated measures data analysis
Interests outside of medicine: I enjoy fiber arts, particularly making toys from crochet and cross-stitching subversive phrases onto doilies while binge watching documentaries or reading. Otherwise, I love playing board games with my husband and our local gaming group while our dog Mozart and cats Einstein, DaVinci, and Pandora try to eat the pieces and generally wreak havoc. 

Selected publications: 

• Kline HL, and Yamamoto BK. The effects of alcohol drinking on subsequent methamphetamine self-administration and relapse in adolescent female rats. Behavioural Brain Research 422 (2022): 113771.
• Kline HL, and Yamamoto BK. Alcohol reinstatement after prolonged abstinence from alcohol drinking by female adolescent rats: Roles of cyclooxygenase-2 and the prostaglandin E2 receptor 1. Drug and Alcohol Dependence 236 (2022): 109491.
• Baek JJ, Kline H, Deveau CM, and Yamamoto BK. Roflumilast treatment during forced abstinence reduces relapse to methamphetamine seeking and taking. Addiction Biology 27.1 (2022): e13082.

Name: Elyse Mark, MA, MD
Pronouns: She/Her
Current Year: PGY2
Undergraduate: Penn State University, Schreyer Honors College
Medical School: University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

PRP Mentor: Heather Joseph, DO
PRP Project: Pregnancy BRAIN Study (Behavioral Research on Attention and Impulsivity in New moms)
PRP Techniques: longitudinal survey research, parent-child dyadic behavioral coding
Interests outside of medicine: Cooking, sewing, and podcast consumption

Selected publications: 

• Mark E, Molina BSG, Wilson MA, Zeanah CH, Joseph HM. Differential Impacts of Parental ADHD on Early Mother-to-Baby Attachment. JCPP Advances. 2025 June. doi:10.1002/jcv2.70029
• Mark E, Demirci J, Megli C, Martin J, Rick A-M. Vaccination Beliefs and Attitudes of Lactating People During the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic. Journal of Human Lactation. 2023. doi:10.1177/08903344231159640.
• Mark E, Golden WC, Gilmore MM, Sick-Samuels A, Curless MS, Nogee LM, Milstone A, Johnson J. Community-Onset Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infection in Young Infants: A Systematic Review. Journal of Pediatrics. 2021 Jan; 228:94-100.e3. doi:10.1016/j.jpeds.2020.09.008

Name: Wasif Osmani, MD, PhD
Pronouns: He/Him
Hometown: Chicago, IL
Current Year: PGY2
Undergraduate: BS, Loyola University of Chicago 
Medical School: MD, PhD, Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW)

Graduate School Mentor: Matthew R. Hodges, PhD
Graduate School Topic: Seizure-induced neuroinflammation in key sites of ventilatory control in the brainstem: insights into Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP)
Graduate School Techniques: Utilized a novel audiogenic-induced rodent seizure model to study the effects of repeated seizures on brainstem ventilatory control using whole body system plethysmography. Utilized single nuclear RNA sequencing and bioinformatic analyses to characterize crucial brainstem ventilatory control regions after repeated seizures. Performed imaging and protein analyses using chemokine arrays to assess inflammatory changes and utilized anti-inflammatory agents to prevent seizure induced death. 
Interests outside of medicine: Creative writing, reading fantasy and fiction novels, exploring new restaurants and cooking

 
Selected Publications: 

• Osmani WA, Gallo A, Tabor M, Eilbes M, Cook-Snyder DR, Hodges MR. Repeated seizure-induced brainstem neuroinflammation contributes to post-ictal ventilatory control dysfunction. Front Physiol. 2024;15:1413479. Published 2024 Aug 6. doi:10.3389/fphys.2024.1413479
• Eilbes M, Gallo A, Osmani WA, Bittencourt-Silva P, Manis AD, Hodges MR. Unique features of seizure-induced cardiorespiratory failure in SSKcnj16-/- rats: Implications for sudden unexpected death in epilepsy. Epilepsia. 2025;66(7):2578-2591. doi:10.1111/epi.18360
• Manis AD, Cook-Snyder DR, Duffy E, Osmani WA, et al. Repeated seizures lead to progressive ventilatory dysfunction in SSKcnj16-/- rats. J Appl Physiol (1985). 2023;135(4):872-885. doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00072.2023

Name: Alexandre Paim Diaz, MD, PhD
Pronouns: He/Him
Hometown: Goiania, Brazil
Current Year: PGY3
Undergraduate/Medical School: Federal University of Goias, Brazil
 

PRP Mentor: Rebecca Price, PhD
PRP Topic: Effectiveness of Ketamine following a medically serious suicide attempt
PRP Techniques: Design and analysis of randomized clinical trials in high-risk suicidal populations; research on rapid-acting interventions for suicide prevention; mechanistic approaches to understanding treatment effects; and longitudinal assessment of suicide-related outcomes.
Interests outside of medicine: Soccer, long walks, reading, and spending time in nature.

Selected publications: 

• Diaz AP, Pinto AB, Araújo MIC, Joaquim RM, Costa DS, Serpa ALO, Pisani AR, Conwell Y, Miranda DM, Malloy-Diniz LF, da Silva AG; Social support and suicidality during the COVID-19 pandemic among Brazilian healthcare workers: a longitudinal assessment of an online repeated cross-sectional survey. Braz J Psychiatry. 2024 Apr 8. doi: 10.47626/1516-4446-2023-3466. Online ahead of print.
• Zanao TA, Luethi MS, Goerigk S, Suen P, Diaz AP, Soares JC, Brunoni AR; White matter predicts tDCS antidepressant effects in a sham-controlled clinical trial study. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2023 Oct;273(7):1421-1431. 
• Diaz AP, Fernandes BS, Teixeira AL, Mwangi B, Hasan KM, Wu MJ, Selvaraj S, Suen P, Zanao TA, Brunoni AR, Sanches M, Soares JC. White matter microstructure associated with anhedonia among individuals with bipolar disorders and high-risk for bipolar disorders. J Affect Disord. 2022 Mar 1;300:91-98.

Name: Kalyan Tripathy, MD, PhD
Pronouns: He/Him
Hometown: Kolkata, India
Current year: PGY4
Undergraduate: BA, University of Pennsylvania
Medical School: MD, PhD, Washington University School of Medicine
Postdoctoral training mentor: Erika Forbes, PhD
Postdoctoral training topic: Multimodal neuroimaging, clinical characterization, and prediction of outcomes in youth with treatment-resistant anhedonic depression receiving novel neuromodulation interventions targeting reward circuitry
Postdoctoral training techniques: Advanced statistics and machine learning, functional magnetic resonance imaging, transcranial magnetic stimulation 

Interests outside of medicine: Music (singing, guitar, jamming with my co-residents), creative writing, fitness (running, lifting weights with my co-residents), outdoor activities (local hikes, national park trips)
 

Selected Publications:

• Tripathy K, Fogarty M, Svoboda AM, Schroeder ML, Rafferty SM, Richter EJ, Tracy C, Mansfield PK, Booth M, Fishell AK, Sherafati A, Markow ZE, Wheelock MD, Arbeláez AM, Schlaggar BL, Smyser CD, Eggebrecht AT, Culver JP. Mapping brain function in adults and young children during naturalistic viewing with high-density diffuse optical tomography. Hum Brain Mapp. 2024 May;45(7):e26684. doi: 10.1002/hbm.26684
• Tripathy K, Markow ZE, Fishell AK, Sherafati A, Burns-Yocum TM, Schroeder ML, Svoboda AM, Eggebrecht AT, Anastasio MA, Schlaggar BL, Culver JP. Decoding visual information from high-density diffuse optical tomography neuroimaging data. Neuroimage. 2021 Feb; 1;226:117516.
• Walker AK*, Tripathy K*, Restrepo CR, Ge G, Xu Y, Kwong LK, Trojanowski JQ, Lee VM. An insoluble frontotemporal lobar degeneration-associated TDP-43 C-terminal fragment causes neurodegeneration and hippocampus pathology in transgenic mice. Hum Mol Genet. 2015 December; 24(25):7241-54. *Co-first-author publication

Name: Hussein Zalzale, MD, MSc
Pronouns: He /Him
Hometown: Beirut, Lebanon
Current year: PGY3
Undergraduate/Medical School: American University of Beirut
 

Postdoctoral Training Mentor: Nadine Melhem, PhD
Postdoctoral Training Topic: Predicting suicidality in youth using biomarkers
Postdoctoral Training Techniques: Longitudinal modeling of suicide-related outcomes; biomarker analysis of stress and inflammatory pathways; latent class and trajectory modeling of suicidal ideation; and characterization of heterogeneity in suicidal ideation and symptom trajectories
Interests outside of medicine: reading, soccer, strategy RPGs, anime, exploring new cities on foot, and trying new cuisines
 

Selected Publications: 
 

• Zalzale H*, Saab S*, Rahal Z, Khalifeh Y, Sinjab A and Kadara H (2020) Insights Into Lung Cancer Immune-Based Biology, Prevention, and Treatment. Front. Immunol. 11:159. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.00159
• Bizri, M., Zalzale, H., Khalil, E. et al. Predicting missed delirium diagnosis in a tertiary care center: the Consultation-Liaison at the American University of Beirut (CLAUB) analysis. Middle East Curr Psychiatry 30, 67 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s43045-023-00339-9
• Schaffer Aguzzoli C, Ferreira PCL, Povala G, Ferrari-Souza JP, Bellaver B, Soares Katz C, Zalzale H, Lussier FZ, Rohden F, Abbas S, et al. Neuropsychiatric symptoms and microglial activation in patients with Alzheimer disease. JAMA Netw Open. 2023;6(11):e2345175. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.45175.

Name: Yi (Daniel) Zhou 
Pronouns: He/Him
Hometown: Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
Current year: PGY1
Undergraduate/Medical School: McGill University/Virginia Commonwealth University
Interests outside of medicine: Food, cats, music, improv, bugs, meditation, poetry, running, beast wars transformers.
 

Selected publications:
 

• Zhou Y, Neale MC. Adolescent suicide behaviors associate with accelerated reductions in cortical gray matter volume and slower decay of behavioral activation Fun-Seeking scores. Sci Rep. 2025 Sep 25;15(1):32886. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-16856-y. PMID: 40998931; PMCID: PMC12464210. 
• Zhou Y, Castro-de-Araujo LFS, Singh M, Neale MC. Causal Analyses of Associations Between Brain Structure and Suicide Attempt in Adulthood and Late Childhood. JAACAP Open. 2025 Mar 21;3(3):455-466. doi: 10.1016/j.jaacop.2025.02.005. PMID: 40922780; PMCID: PMC12414325.
  
  
   

PRP Graduates (Postdocs)

Angela Ianni, MD, DPhil, was a member of the PRP from 2020-2024, serving as PRP Chief Resident in 2023-2024. She trained under the mentorship of Alex Dombrovski, MD. Dr. Ianni’s PRP project focused on behavioral and neural markers of decision-making related to suicidal behavior in late-life depression, and she trained in techniques including computational modeling of explore-exploit decision-making, as well as functional MRI. Dr. Ianni was recognized in 2022 with a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Outstanding Resident Award. She is currently completing a clinical fellowship in geriatric psychiatry at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital.

Selected Publications: 

• Ianni AM, Eisenberg DP, Boorman ED, Constantino SM, Berman KF, Behrens TE. PET-Measured Human Dopamine Synthesis Capacity and Receptor Availability Predict Trading Rewards and Time-Costs During Foraging. Nature Communications. 2023 Sep;14(1):1-13.
• Jocham G, Brodersen KH, Constantinescu AO, Kahn MC, Ianni AM, Walton, ME, Rushworth MF, Behrens TE. Reward-Guided Learning with and without Causal Attribution. Neuron. 2016; 90(1): 177-90.
• Tsypes A, Hallquist MN, Ianni A, Kaurin A, Wright A, Dombrovski AY. Exploration-Exploitation and Suicidal Behavior in Borderline Personality Disorder and Depression. JAMA Psychiatry. 2024 Jul 10:e241796.
   

PRP Graduates (Faculty)

Shinnyi (Cindy) Chou, MD, PhD, participated in the PRP from 2017-2022 and was PRP Chief Resident from 2020-2021. Her research project focused on the endocannabinoid system's alterations in schizophrenia. Dr. Chou was mentored by Robert Sweet, MD, and learned techniques in postmortem human tissue processing, immunohistochemistry, rodent behavioral assays of auditory processing, postmortem proteomics, and advanced microscopy. She completed postdoctoral research training in the Training for Transformative Discovery in Psychiatry program, supervised by Dr. Sweet as both her individual mentor and T32 program director. During her T32 training, Dr. Chou expanded the work completed during her child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship into the investigation of the cannabinoid CB1 receptor’s role in schizophrenia via postmortem brain samples. Her research has been recognized with awards from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), Association of Directors of Medical Student Education in Psychiatry (ADMSEP), Association of Medicine and Psychiatry (AMP), American Psychiatric Association (APA), Pennsylvania Psychiatric Society (PaPS)-Pittsburgh Chapter, and Schizophrenia International Research Society (SIRS).

Selected Publications:

• Chou S, Rish KN, Lewis DA, Sweet RA. Terminal type-specific cannabinoid CB1 receptor alterations in patients with schizophrenia: A pilot study. Neurobiol Dis. 2023 Sep; 185:106262. 
• Chou S, Ranganath T, Fish KN, Lewis DA, Sweet RA. Cell type specific cannabinoid CB1 receptor distribution across the human and non-human primate cortex. Sci Rep. 2022 Jun 10;12(1):9605. 
• Chou S, Davis C, Li M. Maternal immune activation and repeated maternal separation alter offspring conditioned avoidance response learning and antipsychotic response in male rats. Behav Brain Res. 2021 Apr 9;403:113145.
   

Daniel Wonjae Chung, MD, PhD, trained under the mentorship of David Lewis, MD, and was a part of the PRP from 2018-2022. He then completed postdoctoral research training through the Training for Transformative Discovery in Psychiatry T32 program and is currently building his research program by combining biological studies of neural circuits with advanced techniques such as expansion microscopy and large-scale computational modeling. His research aims to investigate how schizophrenia affects cortical circuits across various levels of organization, ranging from the nanoscale arrangement of synaptic proteins to the broader dynamics of neural oscillations. By integrating these findings, Dr. Chung seeks to develop a comprehensive understanding of the cortical abnormalities underlying cognitive symptoms in schizophrenia.

Selected Publications:

• Chung Y, Dienel SJ, Belch MJ, Fish KN, Ermentrout GB, Lewis DA, Chung DW*. Altered Rbfox1-Vamp1 pathway and prefrontal cortical dysfunction in schizophrenia. Molecular psychiatry. 2024; 29(5): 1382-1391. *Corresponding author
• Chung DW*, Geramita MA, Lewis DA. Synaptic Variability and Cortical Gamma Oscillation Power in Schizophrenia. Am J Psychiatry. 2022;179:277-287. *Corresponding author
• Chung DW, Wills ZP, Fish KN, Lewis DA. Developmental pruning of excitatory synaptic inputs to parvalbumin interneurons in monkey prefrontal cortex. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 2017;114:E629-E637. 
• Chung DW, Fish KN, Lewis DA. Pathological Basis for Deficient Excitatory Drive to Cortical Parvalbumin Interneurons in Schizophrenia. Am J Psychiatry. 2016;173:1131-1139. 
   

Kristen Eckstrand, MD, PhD, worked under the co-mentorship of Mary Phillips, MD, and Erika Forbes, PhD, as a PRP resident. After holding a postdoctoral scholar appointment supported by the Innovative Methods in Pathogenesis and Child Treatment Training T32 program, she was appointed to the faculty in 2022. Her research, supported by a K23 award from the NIMH, focuses on the influence of trauma on the adolescent brain, and how trauma-associated changes relate to affective symptoms, with a focus on sexual minority youth. Her research has been recognized with awards from Society of Biological Psychiatry, American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Selected Publications:

• Eckstrand KL, Forbes EE, Bertocci MA, Chase HW, Greenberg T, Lockovich J, Stiffler R, Aslam HA, Graur S, Bebko G, Phillips ML. Trauma impacts prospective relationships between reward-related ventral striatal and amygdala activity and 1-year future hypo/mania trajectories. Biological Psychiatry. (2020) 89(9):868-877. 
• Eckstrand KL, Silk JS, Nance M, Wallace ML, Buckley N, Lindenmuth M, Flores L, Alarcón G, Quevedo K, Phillips ML, Lenniger CJ, McLean Sammon M, Brostowin A, Ryan N, Jones N, Forbes EE. Medial prefrontal cortex activity to reward outcome moderates the association between victimization due to sexual orientation and depression in youth. Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging. 2022 Dec;7(12):1289-97. PMID: 36064188.
• Eckstrand KL, Lenniger CJ, Forbes EE. Development of reward circuitry during adolescence: Depression, social context, and considerations for future research on disparities in sexual and gender diverse youth. Annual Review of Developmental Psychology. 2022;4:231-52. doi: 10.1146/annurev-devpsych-120920-040820.
   

Matthew Geramita, MD, PhD, served as Chief Resident of the PRP (2021-2022) and was mentored by Susanne Ahmari MD, PhD (Pitt), and Eric Yttri, PhD (CMU). While in the program, he studied the role of the striatum in avoidance and certainty using in in vivo calcium imaging and electrophysiology, computational modeling, and optogenetics. Dr. Geramita completed postdoctoral research training as part of the Department’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)-funded Training for Transformative Discovery in Psychiatry T32 training program. His research focuses on the neurobiological mechanisms underlying anxiety and compulsive behaviors using translatable mouse behavioral tasks, computational modeling, optogenetics, and in vivo electrophysiology. He also provides clinical care as an attending physician in UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital’s Center for Interventional Psychiatry. 

Selected Publications: 

• Chung DW*, Geramita MA*, Lewis DA. Synaptic Variability and Cortical Gamma Oscillation Power in Schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry. 2022 Apr;179(4):277-287. (* contributed equally)
• Manning EE*, Geramita MA*, Piantadosi SC*, Pierson JL, Ahmari SE. Distinct patterns of abnormal lateral orbitofrontal cortex activity during compulsive grooming and reversal learning normalize after fluoxetine. Biological Psychiatry. 2021 Nov 27;S0006-3223(21)017980-4. (* contributed equally)
• Geramita MA, Burton SD, Urban NN. Distinct lateral inhibitory circuits drive parallel processing of sensory information in the mammalian olfactory bulb. eLife. 2016;5.
   

Melanie Grubisha, MD, PhD, participated in the PRP from 2013-2017, serving as chief resident for the PRP during her PGY4 year. Her research project focused on impairments in dendritic morphogenesis in schizophrenia under the mentorship of Robert Sweet, MD. She then held a postdoctoral appointment supported by the Training for Transformative Discovery in Psychiatry T32 program. Dr. Grubisha was appointed as a Pitt Psychiatry faculty member in 2019 when she received her K08 award from the National Institute of Mental Health. In 2023 she received her first R01 aimed at investigating adolescent dendritic development. In addition to her research, Dr. Grubisha sees patients at resolve Crisis Services and serves as the content lead for the Introduction to Psychiatry course for Pitt medical students in their preclinical years.

Selected Publications:

• Grubisha MJ. et al. A Kalirin Missense Mutation Enhances Dendritic RhoA Signaling and Leads to Regression of Cortical Dendritic Arbors Across Development. PNAS. 2021 Dec 7;118(49): PMID: 34848542  PMCID: PMC8694055
• Grubisha MJ, Sun X, MacDonald ML, Garver M, Sun Z, DeGiosio RA, Lewis DA, Yates NA, Camacho C, Ding Y & Sweet RA. MAP2 is hyperphosphorylated in schizophrenia, altering its function. Mol Psych. . 2021 Sep 26(9):5371-5388: PMID: 33526823 PMCID: PMC8325721
• Russell TA, Grubisha MJ, Remmers CL, Kang SK, Forrest MP, Smith KR, Kopeikina KJ, Gao R, Sweet RA, Penzes P. A schizophrenia-linked KALRN coding variant alters neuron morphology, protein function, and transcript stability. Biol Psychiatry. 2018 Mar 15;83(6):499-508. 
• Grubisha MJ, Lin CW, Tseng GC, Penzes P, Sibille E, Sweet RA. Age-Dependent Increase in Kalirin-9 and Kalirin-12 in Human Orbitofrontal Cortex. Eur J Neurosci. 2016 Oct;44(7):2483-2492.

Danella Hafeman, MD, PhD, director of the PRP, participated in the PRP from 2009-2014. Her research project focused on bipolar disorder and neuroimaging, under the mentorship of Mary Phillips, MD. She then held a postdoctoral appointment supported by the Innovative Methods in Pathogenesis and Child Treatment Training grant. She was appointed as a Pitt Psychiatry faculty member in 2017 when she received a K23 Award from the NIMH.

Selected Publications:

• Birmaher B, Hafeman DM, Merranko J, Zwicker A, Goldstein B, Goldstein T, Axelson D, Monk K, Hickey MB, Sakolsky D, Iyengar S, Diler R, Nimgaonkar V, Uher R. Role of Polygenic Risk Score in the Familial Transmission of Bipolar Disorder in Youth. JAMA Psychiatry. 2022 Feb 1;79(2):160-168. doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2021.3700. Erratum in: JAMA Psychiatry. 2022 Jun 1;79(6):632. 
• Hafeman DM, Ostroff N, Feldman J, Hickey MB, Phillips ML, Creswell D, Birmaher B, Goldstein TR. Mindfulness-Based Intervention to Decrease Mood Lability in At-Risk Youth: Preliminary Evidence for Changes in Resting State Functional Connectivity. Journal of Affective Disorders. J Affect Disord. 2020 Nov 1;276:23-29.
• Hafeman DM, Rooks B, Merranko J, Liao F, Gill MK, Goldstein TR, Diler R, Ryan N, Goldstein BI, Axelson DA, Strober M, Keller M, Hunt J, Hower H, Weinstock LM, Yen S, Birmaher B. Lithium Versus Other Mood Stabilizing Medications in a Longitudinal Study of Bipolar Youth. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. Volume 59, Issue 10, 2020, Pages 1146-1155.
   

Gil Hoftman, MD, PhD, served as Chief Resident of the PRP, and completed his psychiatry residency at the University of California-Los Angeles where he is a now faculty member. He was a mentee of David Lewis, MD, for many years. Using studies of postmortem human brain tissue research, he aims to understand the neural substrate of altered cognition in schizophrenia and its occurrence during postnatal development. He was also a fellow in the child and adolescent psychiatry program, and appreciated the flexibility provided by the Residency Program Directors to tailor his residency training to his individual clinical and research needs.

Selected Publications:

• Hoftman GD, Dienel SJ, Bazmi HH, Zhang Y, Chen K and Lewis DA. Altered Gradients of Glutamate and GABA Transcripts in the Cortical Visuospatial Working Memory Network in Schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry, 2018; doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2017.11.029. 
• Hoftman GD*, Datta D* and Lewis DA. Layer 3 excitatory and inhibitory circuitry in the prefrontal cortex: Developmental trajectories and alterations in schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry. 2017; 81(10):862-73. *Co-first authors. 
• Fish KN*, Hoftman GD*, Sheikh W, Kitchens M and Lewis DA. Parvalbumin-containing chandelier and basket cell boutons have distinctive modes of maturation in monkey prefrontal cortex. J Neuroscience, 2013; 33(19):8352–8358. *Co-first authors.
   

Heather Joseph, DO, participated in the PRP program from 2013-2016 and conducted research on familial transmission of ADHD and paternal parenting styles, mentored by Brooke Molina, PhD. She joined Pitt Psychiatry and Pediatrics faculty in 2019 after receiving a career development award. Her primary areas of research interest are early signals (cognitive, behavioral, and neural) of emerging risk for ADHD from birth through 5 years, and the development of behavioral interventions for parents to improve outcomes for families with ADHD. 

Selected Publications:

• Joseph HM, Santosa H, Fisher N, Huppert T, Morgan JK. Greater frontoparietal connectivity during task engagement among toddlers with parent reported inattention. Developmental Psychobiology. (In Press)
• Joseph HM, Lorenzo NE, Fisher N, Novick DR, Gibson C, Rothenberger SD, Foust JE, Chronis‐Tuscano A. Research Review: A systematic review and meta‐analysis of infant and toddler temperament as predictors of childhood attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. 2023 May;64(5):715-35.
• Joseph HM, Khetarpal SK, Wilson MA, Molina BS. Parent ADHD is associated with greater parenting distress in the first year postpartum. Journal of attention disorders. 2022 Jul;26(9):1257-68.
• Joseph HM, McKone KM, Molina BS, Shaw DS. Maternal parenting and toddler temperament: predictors of early school age attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder-related behaviors. Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology. 2021 Jun;49(6):763-73.

Ian Kratter, MD, PhD, is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. As a PRP resident he studied neuropsychiatric predictors of cognitive outcomes following deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease under the guidance of an interdisciplinary team of mentors that included a functional neurosurgeon, a geriatric psychiatrist, and a neuropsychologist. By calculating volumes of tissue activation and performing connectomic analyses on each patient, they worked to better understand how pre-operative clinical phenotypes might interact with local and network effects of deep brain stimulation to produce variation in post-operative outcomes.

Selected Publications:

• Kratter IH, Zahed H, Lau A, Tsvetkov AS, Daub AC, Weiberth KF, Gu X, Saudou F, Humbert S, Yang WX, Osmand A, Steffan JS, Masliah E, Finkbeiner S. Serine 421 regulates mutant Huntingtin toxicity and clearance in mice. J Clin Invest. 2016; 126(9):3585-97. 
• Lee JM, Kim KH, Shin A, Chao MJ, Abu Elneel K, Gillis T, Mysore JS, Kaye JA, Zahed H, Kratter IH, Daub AC, Finkbeiner S, Li H, Roach JC, Goodman N, Hood L, Myers RH, MacDonald ME, Gusella JF. Sequence- Level Analysis of the Major European Huntington Disease Haplotype. Am J Hum Genet. 2015; 97(3):435-44.

• Kratter IH, Richardson RM, Karp JF. DBS in major depression. In Deep Brain Stimulation: Techniques and Practice, edited by William S. Anderson, New York, New York: Thieme Medical Publishers, Inc. In press.

  ---

Joshua Krivinko, MD, participated in the PRP from 2018 to 2022. A mentee of Robert Sweet, MD, his PRP project focused on uncovering therapeutic targets for psychotic symptoms in Alzheimer’s disease. The techniques he used during his training included mouse transgenic models, primary neuronal cell culture, human postmortem tissue studies, and quantitative proteomics. Dr. Krivinko completed a consultation-liaison clinical fellowship and postdoctoral training in the lab of Dr. Sweet. He was appointed to the faculty in 2026.

Selected Publications:

• Krivinko JM, Koppel J, Savonenko A, Sweet RA. Animal models of Psychosis in Alzheimer Disease. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. Jan 2020; 28(1): 1-19
• Krivinko JM, Erickson SL, Ding Y, Sun Z, Penzes P, MacDonald ML, Yates, NA, Ikonomovic MD, Lopez OL, Sweet RA, Kofler J. Synaptic proteome compensation and resilience to psychosis in Alzheimer Disease. American Journal of Psychiatry. Oct 2018; 175(10): 999-1009.
• Krivinko JM, Erickson SL, Abrahamson EE, Wills ZP, Ikonomovic MD, Penzes P, Sweet RA. Kalirin reduction rescues psychosis-associated behavioral deficits in APPswe/PSEN1dE9 transgenic mice. Neurobiology of Aging. June 2017; 54: 59-70.

Manivel Rengasamy, MD, joined the PRP in 2015. He was appointed to our faculty in 2022 after conducting postdoctoral research training in the Innovative Methods in Pathogenesis and Child Treatment Training T32 program. Dr. Rengasamy’s research centers around the role of cytokines in depression and suicidality, along with examining neural correlates linked to those relationships. His research has received awards at the national level from the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine. Dr. Rengasamy also initiated a quality improvement project at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital involving brief telephone interventions to patients after discharge from inpatient adolescent psychiatric unit.

Selected Publications:

• Rengasamy M, Moriarity D, Kraynak T, Tervo-Clemmens B, & Price R. (2023). Exploring the multiverse: the impact of researchers’ analytic decisions on relationships between depression and inflammatory markers. Neuropsychopharmacology, 48(10), 1465-1474.
• Rengasamy M, Silva SADCE, Marsland A, & Price RB. (2022). The association of physical illness and low-grade inflammatory markers with depressive symptoms in a large NHANES community sample: Dissecting mediating and moderating effects. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 103, 215-222.
• Rengasamy M, Sylvester C, Shulman J & Pizon A. (2020). Contemporary characteristics and lethality correlates of serious suicide attempts in children and adolescents. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 50(3), 714-723.

Alfredo Sklar, MD, PhD, worked closely with his mentor, Dean Salisbury, PhD, developing his program of research during his time in the PRP. He served as PRP chief resident and was appointed to our faculty in 2022. Dr. Sklar received a K23 award from the NIMH to examine disruptions in visual processing and selective attention and their contribution to symptoms and functional outcomes in first-episode psychosis. Work in the Clinical Neurophysiology Research Laboratory provided the opportunity to expand his expertise in human multimodal imaging techniques including EEG, MEG, DTI, and structural MRI, which remain central to his research as a faculty member. 

Selected Publications:

• Sklar AL, Matinrazm S, Ren X, Chlpka, L, Curtis M, Coffman B A, & Salisbury D F (2023). Longitudinal Investigation of Auditory Dynamic Range Deficits in Early Psychosis and its Relationship to Negative Symptoms. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 49(6), 1508-1517.
• Sklar AL, Coffman BA, & Salisbury DF (2020). Localization of early-stage visual processing deficits at schizophrenia spectrum illness onset using magnetoencephalography. Schizophrenia bulletin, 46(4), 955-963.

Ceci Westbrook, MD, PhD, participated in the PRP from 2019-2023, serving as PRP Chief Resident in 2022-2023. She trained under the mentorship of Cecile Ladouceur, PhD, and Lauren Hallion, PhD (Pitt Psychology). Dr. Westbrook’s PRP project examined the neural mechanisms of real-time perseverative thought using fMRI and extended this work to adolescents, as well as the neurodevelopment of anxiety disorders and fMRI markers of treatment response to cognitive behavioral therapy in adolescents. Dr. Westbrook completed postdoctoral training in the lab of Dr. Ladouceur and was appointed to the faculty in 2026.

Selected Publications:

• Westbrook CA, Dutcher J, Kusmierski S, Creswell JD, Akpan E, & Hallion LS. (2023). Neural correlates of mindful disengagement from worry. Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science, 132(1), 38.
• Westbrook CA, Patsenko E, Mumford J, Abramson LY & Davidson RJ. (2018). Frontoparietal processing of stress-relevant information differs in individuals with a negative cognitive style. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 127(5), 437-447.
• Westbrook CA, Tabibnia G, Julson E, Tindle H & Creswell JD. (2013): Mindful attention reduces neural and self-reported cue-induced craving in smokers. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 8(1), 73-84.