Trainees
Current Predocs
Gillian Fennell
Gillian Fennell is a fifth year PhD candidate at the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology under the mentorship of Dr. Jennifer Ailshire and Dr. Elizabeth Zelinski. She began her academic career at USC in 2019 after completing a bachelor’s degree in Human Development at Cornell University. Her doctoral studies focus primarily on how older adults with chronic pain subjectively perceive their futures–namely, their perceived chances of retirement and death at certain ages. In studying the imagined futures of individuals with chronic pain, she offers insight into this large subpopulation’s likelihood to adequately plan for advanced ages.
Alice J. Kim
Alice Kim is a Clinical Science PhD student at USC Dornsife working under the mentorship of Dr. Christopher Beam in the Lifespan Development and Clinical Aging Lab. Her work is focused on using developmental behavior genetics to understand how psychosocial experiences and genotype contribute to individual differences in cognitive aging and risk of ADRD. Alice graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Sociology.
Margarita Osuna
Margarita Osuna is a PhD student in Gerontology at the University of Southern California. Under the mentorship of Jennifer Ailshire, she is conducting research in the Ailshire Lab focused on Latin American demography, health, and aging. She is interested in socioeconomic inequalities in health and well-being in the older adult population. Margarita graduated from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in 2015 with an undergraduate degree in Sociology and is currently a member of the LAHA research group (Latin America Health and Aging research group).
Ana Silverstein
Ana Silverstein is a Molecular Biology PhD student working under the mentorship of Dr. Pinchas Cohen at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. Ana’s work primarily focuses on the interface between mitochondrial genetics, mitochondrial malfunction, and immune system decline in aging populations. Her research looks to explore the role of mitochondrial-derived peptides in modulating immune system communication, to better elucidate the key contributors to age-related immune system decline and chronic systemic inflammation.
Current Postdocs
Kristina Dang
Calley Fisk
Calley E. Fisk, PhD, received her doctorate in Sociology from the University of South Carolina. She examines the embeddedness of structural racism in the social, economic, and built environments of U.S. neighborhoods and the resulting impacts on wellbeing for older Black and White adults. Her most recent projects focus on the relationship between historical redlining and various aging related health outcomes, such as cognitive functioning and biological markers of advanced aging.
Eric T. Klopack
Eric T. Klopack, PhD, is a postdoctoral researcher in the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology at USC. He received his doctorate in Sociology from the University of Georgia. His research focuses on the processes by which social circumstances and relationships interact with biological and developmental systems to produce inequalities in illness, aging, and mortality. He current research investigates how life experiences (especially early life adversity and social stressors) influence immunological aging and biological hallmarks of aging that may lead to impaired cognitive functioning, risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD), chronic disease morbidity, and mortality.
Aaron Lim, PhD
Aaron Lim, PhD, received his doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of California Los Angeles. His research interests include longitudinal predictors of financial exploitation vulnerability, health disparities in cognitive aging, and the effects of substance use on decision-making in older adults.
Addam Reynolds
Addam Reynolds, PhD, received his doctorate in social work from Rutgers University-New Brunswick. His research interests include understanding how intersecting social positions in childhood contribute to later life health and well-being. He is also interested in how social conditions get under the skin to contribute to disease and mortality among older adults. He is currently investigating how intersecting social positions (i.e., socioeconomic status, race and region) contribute to later life cognition and immunological functioning.
Past Predocs
Dawn Alley, PhD
Director, Prevention and Population HealthGroup
Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation
Joe Angelelli, PhD
Senior Advisor, Alternative Payment Models
UPMC Health Plan
Shelby Bachman, PhD
Graduate Research Fellow, University of Southern California
Jessica Brommelhoff, MPH, PhD
Principal Clinician, MedAvante, Bedford Massachusetts
Licensed Clinical Psychologist/Neuropsychologist, Specialized in Geropsychology
Lauren Brown
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Population Studies Department, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan
Elisabeth Burgess, PhD
Director and Professor, Sociology and Gerontology
Georgia State University
Valeria Cardenas, PhD
Predoctoral Fellow
Hans Dalton, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
University of Utah
Marti DeLiema, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, Stanford Univ. Center on Longevity, Financial Fraud Research Center
Carrie Donoho, PhD
Chief of Behavioral Epidemiology
Walter Reed Army Institute of Research
Charlotte Dunham, PhD
Associate Professor of Sociology
Director, Texas Tech Center for Women Studies
Texas Tech University
Kelly Durbin
F31 PhD Student
USC
Stephen Frochen
VA Health Services Research and Development Fellow
VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare
Nicole Gatto, PhD
Associate Professor of Public Health
Director, Doctorate in Public Health Program
Claremont Graduate University
Haley Gallo
Scott Hofer, PhD
Professor, Harald Mohr, M.D. and Wilhelma Mohr, M.D. Research Chair in Adult Development and Aging
Director, Institute on Aging and Lifelong Health Psychology
University of Victoria
Dom Grisafe
Postdoctoral Researcher
University of Southern California
Molli Grossman, PhD
Senior Specialist, Enrichment Programming
WISE & Healthy Aging
Amy Hammerquist
PhD Student
Dominique Ingegneri, PhD
Vice President, Health Care Economics
Medical Informatics at UnitedHealth Group
Chandra Ghosh Ippen, PhD
Psychologist, University of California, San Francisco
Dissemination Director, Child Trauma Research Program
Early Trauma Treatment Network of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN)
Ross Jacobucci, PhD
Assistant Professor of Psychology
University of Notre Dame
Brian Kaskie, PhD
Associate Professor
MPH in Policy Program, Health Management and Policy,
College of Public Health,
University of Iowa
Morgan Levine, PhD
Assistant Professor of Pathology
Yale University School of Medicine
Nichole Lighthall, PhD
Assistant Professor of Psychology
University of Central Florida
Gerardo Marti, PhD
L. Richardson King Professor of Sociology
Department Chair
Davidson College
Teheran (Terry) Mills, PhD
Assistant Provost for Diversity and Inclusion
John Carroll University
Todd McCallum, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Psychological Sciences,
Case Western Reserve University
Brendan Miller
Kaoru Nashiro, PhD
Research Assistant Professor
Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California
James Nhan
Doctoral Student
Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California
Christy Nishita, PhD
Associate Specialist, University of Hawaii Center of Aging and Center on Disability Studies
Researcher and Gerontologist
Catherine Pérez
PhD Student
R36 Dissertation Grant
USC
Shai Porat
Norella Putney, PhD
Lecturer, Sociology
California State University, Los Angeles
Amber Watts, PhD
Assistant Professor of Psychology
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences,
The University of Kansas
Kristi Wisnieswski
Nicholas Woodward, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, Keck School of Medicine,
University of Southern California
Linda Ann Wray, PhD
Associate Professor of Biobehavioral Health
The Pennsylvania State University
Yuan Zhang, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Carolina Population Center
Past Postdocs
Jennifer Ailshire, PhD
Associate Professor of Gerontology,
Leonard Davis School of Gerontology,
University of Southern California
Theresa Andrasfay, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar,
Leonard Davis School of Gerontology,
University of Southern California
Sarah Barber, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Psychology
Georgia State University
Christopher Beam, PhD
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Department of Psychology
University of Southern California
Ryon Cobb, PhD
Department of Sociology, University of Texas at Arlington
Yeon Jin Choi, PhD
Mateo Farina, PhD
Assistant Professor at UT Austin
Kevin Feeney, PhD
Associate at Analysis Group in Boston, MA.
Megan Fitzhugh, PhD
Robert F. Kennison, PhD
Assistant Professor of Psychology
California State University, Los Angeles
Andy Jeesu Kim
Postdoctoral Scholar
Uchechi Mitchell, PhD
Assistant Professor
Community Health Sciences
University of Illinois, Chicago
Haena Lee, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar – Research Associate
USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology
View Curriculum Vitae
Joseph Saenz, PhD
Assistant Professor
Leonard Davis School of Gerontology,
Anna Rahman, PhD
Research Assistant Professor
Leonard Davis School of Gerontology,
University of Southern California
Nicholas Resciniti, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
University of Southern California
Chandra A. Reynolds, PhD
Professor of Psychology
University of California, Riverside
Sandra L. Reynolds, PhD
Emeritus Faculty
School of Aging Studies,
University of South Florida
Jennifer Robinette, PhD
Assistant Professor
Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences; Psychology
Chapman University
Hiram Beltran-Sanchez, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Community Health Sciences, UCLA
Connor Sheehan, PhD
Assistant Professor,
Arizona State University