Angela Phillips

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

After spending two years in the lab as a Post-Doctoral Fellow and helping with the original SAINT study, Angela worked as the Director of Digital Clinical Content at Advanced Recovery Systems LLC, and is now the Neuromodulation Division Director at UCLA.

Azeezat K. Azeez

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Dr. Azeez received her Bachelor’s Degree in  Biomedical Engineering at the City College of New York. The majority of her research is in neural systems and signal processing. Her graduate work at New Jersey Institute of Technology was in the alterations in brain morphology, and functional connectivity in Autism, specifically at the intersection of developmental stage, and biological sex.

Now a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford, her work primarily focuses on the resting-state changes that result from Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) as a clinical intervention for psychiatric disorders as well as exploring innovative methodological approaches to characterize these resting-state changes.

Claudia Tischler

Clinical Research Coordinator

Claudia Kaya Tischler currently is a MSTP student at Baylor College of Medicine. She formerly worked at Stanford Medicine Brain Stimulation Lab with Nolan Williams, MD as a clinical research coordinator. She studied Cognitive Science at the University of California, Berkeley and did her undergraduate thesis in the lab of Richard Ivry, Ph.D.

Claudia is now

Clive Veerapal

Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator

Clive received his B.S. in biology with a concentration in systems physiology and a minor in chemistry from San Jose State University. During his undergraduate years he developed an interest in the relationship between psychology and physiology, and how understanding that relationship can lead to effective medical treatments. His future goal is to pursue a medical degree.

Clive is now working on clinical trials for Magnus Medical.

Eleanor Cole

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Ellie is was a Post Doc in the Brain Stimulation lab and first author on first SAINT clinical study. Since then Ellie has worked as Director of Research at Acacia Mental Health, Senior Manager of Clinical Research at Magnus Medical and now Director of innovation at Neuronetics, INC.

Ella Sonnelid

Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator

Ella worked as a coordinator for the BSL and is now pursing medical school in her home country of Sweden

Danielle DeSouza

Scientist, Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences

Danielle is now the VP or Research at Acacia Mental Health.

Fahim Barmak

Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator

Fahim was a part of the treatment team at the BSL responsible for delivering TMS. He is now doing his Neurology Residency at University of West Virginia.

Haroon Musleh

Clinical Research Coordinator Associate

Haroon is a cardiologist by practice and a first generation immigrant from Afghanistan/Khurasan. Haroon is excited to join a residency program in Adult Psychiatry this upcoming year. He is specialized in Internal Medicine and had done a fellowship in Cardiology in Kabul. He works as Clinical Research Assocaite/treater for Brain Stimulation Lab. He loves spending time with his children. Fun fact about Haroon is he is the father of four children. Haroon runs 5 miles a day, most days of the week and is looking for a running parter. He is a formal Colonel of Kabul National Army and a director of an ICU.

Haroon is now pursing an Internal medicine residency!

Jackob Nimrod Keynan

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Dr. Keynan has been investigating the brain mechanisms of stress and depression for the past 10 years, focusing on development of new neuromodulation treatments. He completed his PhD research in cognitive neuroscience at Sagol Brain Institute, Tel-Aviv Medical Center & Tel-Aviv University. Dr. Keynan has extensive experience in human brain imaging techniques including MRI and EEG. During his PhD he led a prospective imaging study with recent trauma survivors, investigating cognitive and brain mechanisms that underly stress recovery vs stress vulnerability. Dr. Keynan further led a simultaneous EEG/fMRI study that resulted in an enriched EEG based neuromodulation protocol that is mobile and cost effective.

Dr. Keynan joined Stanford University as a post-doctoral fellow in 2019 where he continued his research on finding remedy for stress and depression. At the Brain Stimulation Lab Dr. Keynan is overseeing several research projects focusing on facilitating personalized neuromodulation treatment in Psychiatry. Dr. Keynan is the recipient of Fulbright and Rothschild post-doctoral research awards.

James Bishop

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Dr. Bishop has more than 11 years of experience in pain and imaging research. He joined the Pain, Analgesia, Imaging, and Neurobiology (P.A.I.N.) Group at Harvard Medical School in 2008 where he conducted pre-clinical and clinical projects centered around defining functional imaging (fMRI) biomarkers for analgesic drug efficacy. Dr. Bishop transitioned to the University of Vermont in 2012, where he completed his PhD in Neuroscience, examining the contributions of the thoracolumbar fascia in the generation of musculoskeletal pain by developing a porcine model of low back pain-like pathophysiology. During this time, Dr. Bishop also maintained clinical research interests, simultaneously conducting a clinical trial investigating structural neuroplasticity following cognitive behavioral therapy intervention for chronic musculoskeletal pain.

While a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, Dr. Bishop worked across Psychiatry and Radiology Departments, examining the use of neuromodulation techniques including transcranial magnetic stimulation and focused ultrasound mediated drug delivery to define novel therapeutic approaches to treat chronic pain.

Dr. Bishop is now a Associate Director Medical Science Liaison – Neuroscience for Eli Lilly and Company

Jean-Marie Batail

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Dr. Batail was an MD/PhD postdoctoral scholar from Rennes in France. Before arriving at Stanford, he worked in both clinical and research fields. He is now back in France working at a staff psychiatrist at CENTRE HOSPITALIER GUILLAUME REGNIER. Specifically, Dr. Batail led a unit specialized in neuropsychiatric treatment resistant disorders (mainly Depression, Parkinson Disease with psychiatric comorbidities and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder) with two residents. In this unit, Dr. Batail utilized and coordinated neuromodulation techniques such as repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, Electroconvulsive therapy, and Deep Brain Stimulation. His research focused on biomarkers of poor outcome of depressive disorder using clinical/neuropsychological/brain imaging assessments. In addition, he conducted research on neurofeedback applied to depression. In addition to his involvement in the national coordination of this topic for psychiatric diseases (Neurofeedback section of French Association of Biological Psychiatry and Neuropsychopharmacology), Dr. Batail was actively involved in the development of a new generation of brain-computer interface therapies based on joint bimodal EEG-fMRI neurofeedback. In this project, he led the clinical research applying this new technology to depression. He is very interested in working on biomarkers of neuropsychiatric disorders and the development of personalized-targeting neuromodulation techniques.

Jean Marie is now a Professor / Psychiatrist at the Université de Rennes in France

Katy Stimpson

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Katy had many roles at the Brain Stimulation Lab, prior to leaving to pursue her PsyD in Psychology she was the Lab manager. Katy is now a Sr. Manager of clinical trials at Magnus Medical.

Kirsten Cherian

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Dr. Cherian has a PhD in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis in neuropsychology from Palo Alto University.  Clinical experience includes assessment and cognitive rehabilitation with veterans and pre- and post-surgical assessments of individuals with refractory epilepsy. Her pre-doctoral neuropsychology residency in Toronto focused on memory & neurodegenerative disorders and neuro-oncology. Her doctoral research with the Stanford Brain Stimulation Lab examined the cognitive outcomes of a novel neurostimulation protocol in treatment-resistant depression.

Currently, as a postdoctoral fellow with Stanford University, Dr. Cherian is investigating the relationships between cognition and neuromodulation in populations with various psychiatric and neurological disorders including mood disorders, trauma, and acquired brain injuries, as well as seeing patients in the neuropsychiatry clinic. She is also interested in working with populations with neurodegenerative and movement disorders. She has a background in kinesiology, with a focus on long-term sequelae of brain and spinal injuries. She is interested in the interrelationships between mind and body.

Kirsten is now a Assistant Clinical Professor at Stanford University Department of Psychiatry and part of the Neuropsychiatry Clinic.

Lauren Anker

Academic Staff – Research

Dr. Lauren Anker is a neuropsychologist and member of the assessment team in the Brain Stimulation Lab. Dr. Anker is licensed by the Board of Psychology in California with long standing involvement in clinical research at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Anker has extensive expertise in assessing psychiatric symptom improvement in individuals with treatment resistant depression and other psychiatric disorders, and with this expertise supports multiple NIH and non-NIMH grants aimed at optimizing healthy aging through assessing the safety and efficacy of novel treatments.

Dr. Anker’s doctorate degree and training was in the field of neuropsychology, diagnostic assessment, and cognitive behavioral therapy. Dr. Anker completed an Advanced Psychology Fellowship at the Palo Alto VA Health Care System where she pursued rigorous training in three domains, clinical research, diagnostic assessment, and developmental neuropsychology. Recently her research emphasis has focused on how sleep contributes to cognitive and psychiatric wellbeing over the lifespan in various neurodevelopmental, genetic, and psychiatric disorders. Dr. Anker is committed to researching and understanding the impact of aging in individuals with comorbid medical and psychiatric disorders across the lifespan in vulnerable populations.

Lauren is now working as a psychologist with Kaiser Permanente

Mackenzie Mattos

Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator

Mackenzie is now working at a medical startup company.

Malvika Sridhar

Research Data Analyst 1

Malvika graduated with a Master of Science in Neuroengineering from Columbia University. During her grad school, she worked with the human memory and navigation lab run by Dr. Jacobs at Columbia.

Prior to this she completed her Bachelor of honours in electrical engineering and worked in the data analytics field for a year. Here, she decided to pursue engineering applications in medicine for the purpose of psychiatric research.

Her research interest lies in signal/image processing of brain MRI/EEG data in the field of affective neuroscience. She hopes to analyze and gain a better understanding of emotional circuitry networks in the brain to improve current treatment methods and thus increase remission success rates for psychiatric mood disorders.

Malvika was accepted into a dual PhD program for Clinical Neuropsychology and Cognitive & Affective Neuroscience at Georgia State University. She is working in the TReNDS Center for Translational Research in Neuroimaging & Data Science under Dr. Vince Calhoun.

Mia Gholmieh

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Mia is an MD from Lebanon that hopes to pursue her residency in psychiatry in the US. She has started her post doc at the BSL in 2021. At first, she was part of the inpatient study team and worked on recruiting participants that were in the psychiatry unit at the Stanford Hospital. Since then, she has been part of the assessment team and is involved in several studies. Being part of the lab gave her a great opportunity to develop her clinical skills and deepen her passion for psychiatry. During her free time, Mia enjoys traveling and exploring new cultures, exercising, painting, photography, road trips to the beach and discovering new cities.

Dr. Gholmieh has finished her Post-Doc rotation in the BSL and is now pursuing her psychiatry residency at the University of Houston Medical School.

Mike Feyder

Academic Staff – Research

Mike completed his PhD at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden as part of the NIH-KI Collaborative Doctoral Program in Neuroscience. He continued his research as a post-doc at the Johns Hopkins Institute of Genetic Medicine. Mike has worked in a variety of academic and industry positions managing large, data-intensive projects. At the BSL, he managed the lab’s data infrastructure.

Mike is now working as the Sr. Manager of Research and Development at Magnus Medical

Nabil Bahjat Helmi Alnajjar

Clinical Research Coordinator Associate

Nabil worked with our treatment team delivering TMS treatments. He now works as a Field Engineer for Magnus Medical.

Or Keynan

Clinical Research Coordinator 2

Or joined the Brain Stimulation Lab after 10 years of experience in clinical psychology. She graduated first of her class in 2016 from the Tel-Aviv Academic College, Tel-Aviv Israel.

Or is a compassionate and dedicated clinical psychologist with a true passion to promote human mental health and well-being. Or assessed and treated individuals with a variety of mental disorders within outpatient clinics and inpatient units, created treatment and rehabilitation plans for patients, and conducted crisis interventions.

Prior to joining the Brain Stimulation Lab, Or served as a psychotherapist in Israel’s COVID-19 crises intervention services.Or further has industry experience working on innovations to promote mental health.

At the Brain Stimulation Lab Or was conducting clinical evaluations for Major Depression, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, anxiety, and other psychopathologies.

Romina Nejad

Clinical Research Coordinator II

Romina completed her Bachelor of Science degree in neuroscience and molecular biology at the University of Toronto. Her research interests began as an undergraduate student in 2012, when she started as a research student in a neurosurgical lab at the Keenan Research Center in Toronto.

Romina’s research involved studying rare brain tumors such as chordoid meningiomas as well as evaluating the psychological and behavioral effects of traumatic brain injuries on homeless youth. She then completed her Master of Science degree with a focus in neuro-oncology under the guidance of Dr. Gelareh Zadeh at the University of Toronto. Her graduate research focused on multi-platform profiling of neurological tumors and aimed to study the relevance of genetic, molecular and metabolic markers in clinical practice.

With a cross-disciplinary interest in neuroscience, neuro-oncology, and psychiatry, Romina joined the Brain Stimulation Lab in 2018 in hopes of utilizing neuromodulation to improve brain health.

Romina is now a clinical trials manager at Neuralink

Sandeep Dronavalli

Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator

Sandeep was working as a coordinator helping recruitment on BSL clinical trials. He is pursing Residency

Saron Atnafu Hunegnaw

Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator

Saron was a member of our Imaging Team at The Stanford Center for Cognitive and Neurobiological Imaging. She conducted fMRI scans, EEGs, and TMS sessions. Saron joined the lab in August of 2021 after graduating from Vanderbilt University with a BA in Neuroscience. She is now at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) for graduate school. She plans to earn a Master’s Degree in Clinical Research and a PhD in Translational Science. Her long-term goals include running global clinical trials and becoming a professor.

Saron also worked as a research assistant to analyze crime-involved women’s navigation of the COVID-19 pandemic, their trust in the government, and access to resources. She has presented her work at the American Society of Criminology Conference and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences.

After working in the BSL Saron is now in a Graduate Program at UCSF

Sean O’Sullivan

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Dr. Sean J. O’Sullivan is an MD/PhD postdoctoral scholar from Philadelphia. His PhD in neuroscience from Thomas Jefferson University focused on the molecular mechanisms of alcohol and opioid withdrawal.

Specifically, he took a systems neuroscience approach to understand the role of the gut microbiome in influencing the negative physical and emotional states that characterize alcohol and opioid withdrawal syndromes.

This work led to the generation of a novel hypothesis—interoceptive neuroinflammatory signaling involving gut dysbiosis and peripheral network decompensation secondary to abstinence in the context of allostasis drives neuroinflammation in the nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS) and amygdala during alcohol and opioid withdrawal which increases the severity of the symptoms.

He also investigated neuronal subphenotypes in the suprachiasmatic nucleus which is the principle circadian brain region. He further investigated how circadian rhythms affect gene expression in the NTS and amygdala.

At the Stanford Brain Stimulation Lab, Dr. O’Sullivan was leading a study researching the effects of TMS on a peripheral biomarker of depression.

Dr. O’sullivan is now in a Psychiatry Residency at UT Austin.

TJ Ford

Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator

TJ graduated with Highest Honors in Cognitive Science from the University of California, Berkeley. While an undergraduate, she studied gene repair mechanisms in the School of Public Health, held a Fung Fellowship within the College of Engineering, attended Yale University’s Sherwin B. Nuland Institute at the Center for Interdisciplinary Bioethics, and completed the work for her Honors Thesis on temporal attention at UCSF’s Neuroscape under advisors Dr. Ted Zanto and Dr. Mark D’esposito. Upon graduation, TJ joined the Abortion Freedom Partnership as the principal product manager for the non-profit, creating and implementing mutual aid tools and software to increase equitable access to critical reproductive healthcare. TJ then joined the Brain Stimulation Lab at Stanford University’s School of Medicine in 2021 as an Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator working hands-on to treat participants, explore biomarkers of neuromodulation treatment efficacy, and research cognitive, clinical, and neural outcomes of rapid-acting interventions for a range of psychiatric disorders. In her spare time, TJ loves leisurely reading in the sun (responsibly with adequate SPF), being in bodies of water, and spending time with her incredible friends.

TJ now works at Magnus Medical as a Field Clinical Engineer.

Tram Dinh

MRI Tech/ LVN

Currently at Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital (LPCH).

Xiaoqian Xiao

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Data Analyst

Xiaoqian Xiao is a PhD in cognitive neuroscience and majored in psychology for BS. She was trained using fMRI data to detect the neural representations related to effective learning (e.g. space learning, variable encoding), during which she generated experiment design to optimize the single trial estimate and also obtained item level neural representations separated during encoding phase and retrieval phase. Her research interest is exploring data, both behavioral and neural,  and detecting best features to build tools helping objective diagnoses for clinical practice.

Zui Narita

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Dr. Zui Narita worked at stanford as a postdoctoral fellow. Dr. Narita is now the Chief of the Mental Function Research Section at the NIMH Japan. Dr. Narita has a broad background in clinical neuroscience and is board-certified in psychiatry. He has specific expertise in psychiatric epidemiology, clinical trials, and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Dr. Narita was trained in the prestigious schools, Johns Hopkins and Stanford, resulting in his burst of publications. He has published over 40 peer-reviewed articles in the past 5 years, appearing in leading journals such as Schizophrenia Bulletin, Psychological Medicine, and Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences. He has contributed book chapters to notable textbooks, including Managing Treatment-Resistant Depression Road to Novel Therapeutics (Academic Press) and Tasman’s Psychiatry Fifth Edition (Springer). Also, Dr. Narita translated Systematic Psychiatric Evaluation: A Step-by-Step Guide to Applying The Perspectives of Psychiatry into Japanese. In 2019, Dr. Narita was invited to the Research Colloquium for Junior Investigators as one of the 50 psychiatrists selected by the American Psychiatric Association. In 2022, Dr. Narita was selected as a member of Early Career Editorial Board of Asian Journal of Psychiatry.