PEBT
BEAM Team
Director
Joanna Christodoulou, EdD
Director
Telephone: (617) 643-1482
Email: jchristodoulou@mghihp.edu
Dr. Christodoulou is an Associate Professor at MGH Institute of Health Professions, as well as Research Associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Adjunct Lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her research is situated at the intersection of education and neuroscience, and aims to use behavioral and brain data to improve student outcomes and optimize educational interventions for struggling learners. Learn more about Dr. Christodoulou.
Postdoctoral Researchers
Noor Al Dahhan, PhD
Postdoctoral Researcher
Noor Al Dahhan is a postdoctoral associate in the BEAM lab. She is fundamentally interested in examining the neural mechanisms that support neurocognitive development and how these mechanisms differ in individuals with various neurodevelopmental disorders, such as ADHD and dyslexia. Read more about Dr. Dahhan.
Anila D’Mello, PhD
Postdoctoral Researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Anila is a postdoctoral associate in the Gabrieli Lab at MIT. She is interested in exploring the neural underpinnings of language behaviors across neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and dyslexia.
Rachel Romeo, PhD, CCC-SLP
Postdoctoral Researcher
Rachel is a postdoctoral fellow in Translational Neurodevelopment at Boston Children's Hospital and the Gabrieli Lab at MIT. Her research explores environmental factors contributing to children’s neural and cognitive development, specifically their language and reading acquisition.
Laura Mesite, EdD
Postdoctoral Researcher
Laura Mesite is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the BEAM Lab. Her research uses educational and cognitive neuroscience methods to explore the identification and remediation of learning disabilities in school-age children, particularly English Learners and those from socioeconomically-disadvantaged backgrounds. Her work aims to inform educational policy and practice.
Doctoral Researchers
Parnika Bhatia, MA-MBE
Doctoral Researcher
Parnika is a doctoral student at Le Centre national de la recherche scientifique, France.
Research Affiliates
Heather Beckius, MS '18, SLP-CF
Heather is a 2018 graduate of the MS in Speech-Language Pathology at the MGH Institute, and a speech-language pathologist at Boston Public Schools.
Allegra Le, MS '18
Allegra is a 2018 graduate of the MS in Speech-Language Pathology at the MGH Institute.
Neha Paranjpe, MS '18, SLP-CF
Neha is a 2018 graduate of the MS in Speech-Language Pathology at the MGH Institute.
Lili Uchida
Lili is an undergraduate Neuroscience major at Colorado College. She is interested in the relationships between the brain and human behavior, particularly in various neurological disorders.
Graduate Students
Claire Leong, BA
Graduate Assistant
MA-MBE Candidate at HGSE
Claire is a graduate student in the MA in Mind, Brain, and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Olivia Meegoda, BA
Graduate Assistant
Language and Literacy CAS Candidate
Olivia is a graduate student in the MS-SLP program at the MGH Institute and a candidate for the CAS Language and Literacy certificate. She is pursuing a thesis on reading fluency in populations with ADHD and Dyslexia and hopes to eventually work in the public school system as a speech-language pathologist and reading specialist.
Vanina Zack, BA
Graduate Assistant
MS-SLP Candidate
Vanina is a graduate student in the MS-SLP program at the MGH Institute.
Aliza Grant, BA
Graduate Assistant
MS-SLP Candidate
Aliza Grant is a graduate student in the MS-SLP program at the MGH Institute.
Kayla Kenney, BA
Graduate Assistant
MS-SLP Candidate
Kayla Kenney is a Graduate Student currently enrolled in the MS Speech-Language Pathology program at the IHP. She is interested in literacy, social communication, and Deaf studies.
Research Assistants
Andrea Imhof, BA
Research Assistant
Dayna Wilmot, BA
Technical Assistant
Dayna recently graduated from MIT after majoring in Brain and Cognitive Sciences. She is interested in the structural basis of learning disorders in children.
Xochitl Arechiga
Research Assistant
Xochitl recently graduated received her master's from the Mind, Brain and Education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is interested in bilingualism, language acquisition, and English language proficiency and the interconnectedness of these topics with socioeconomic status.
Undergraduate Interns
Shabnam Yazdanpanah, B.S. (c) Biology
Shabnam is interested in improving educational outcomes for struggling learners in minority groups coming from low socioeconomic backgrounds.
BEAM Team Alumni
Lauren Baron, PhD '18, CCC-SLP, MS
Lauren is a 2018 graduate of the PhD in Rehabilitation Sciences program at the MGH Institute. Lauren is now a postdoctoral research fellow and project coordinator in the South Carolina Research on Language and Literacy Lab at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC. She is working on two NIH-funded studies led by her mentor, Suzanne Adlof, PhD, that will investigate word learning and reading abilities in children with developmental language disorders from kindergarten through fourth grade. Tiffany Hogan is a Co-PI with Suzanne Adlof on one of the NIH studies.
Dessi Miles
SSJP Summer Research Intern
Mirschille Valmond
SSJP Summer Research Intern
