
Kirthana Sukumaran, M.S.

Project Specialist
Kirthana graduated from the University of Texas at Dallas with a Master of Science in Applied Cognition and Neuroscience. She works on studies involving the ABCD dataset to analyze effects of environment such as air pollution exposure on brain diffusion outcomes and mental health. She assists with creation, quality control and analysis of cognitive and neuroimaging data.

Hedyeh Ahmadi, Ph.D.
Biostatistitian
Hedyeh Ahmadi earned her postdoc from University of California, Irvine in 2021 and Ph.D. in Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics from Columbia University in 2019. She completed her M.S. in Statistics at University of California, Irvine in 2016. Her research focuses on applying and testing of methods for analyzing repeated measure/longitudinal growth models in the context of Neuroscience, Salivary Bioscience, Psychology, and Education. In addition to exploring new methods, Hedyeh teaches advanced statistical methods to researchers via intensive training workshops. More broadly, she is interested in the use of regression models – particularly in the areas of meta-analysis and with censored salivary data.

Michael Rosario, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Michael Rosario earned his PhD in Neuroscience from Boston University in 2023. His research, leveraging the ABCD Study dataset, examines how socioenvironmental factors shape brain health, with a particular focus on how environmental and social exposures interact to influence learning, memory, and the brain regions that support these functions.

Jessica Morrel, B.A.
Graduate Student
Jessica graduated from UVA in 2021 where she studied psychology and mathematics. Following graduation, Jessica served as a research assistant within the Kennedy Krieger Institute’s Center for Autism and Related Disorders. Currently, she is a third-year Ph.D. student within USC’s Neuroscience Graduate Program and is exploring how complex interactions between genetic and environmental factors shape the morphology of brain perivascular spaces during development.

Nate Overholtzer, M.S.
Graduate Student
Nate is a fourth-year MD-PhD student at the University of Southern California (USC) Keck School of Medicine. Currently in the second year of his Neuroscience Graduate Program PhD, his research is primarily centered on examining the impact of ADHD medication usage on the development of the adolescent brain, within the context of the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. Nate also completed his undergraduate studies at USC in 2019, earning a Bachelor of Science in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and a Master of Science in Global Medicine.

Amanda Del Giacco, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow
Carinna Torgerson graduated from Loyola Marymount University with a BA in Psychology and is currently a PhD candidate in the USC Neuroscience Graduate Program. Her research focuses on the measurement of sex and identity as well as their influence on neurodevelopment and perivascular space.