Kate Bentley, PhD is a clinical psychologist whose research focuses on the prediction and prevention of suicidal and nonsuicidal self-injurious thoughts and behaviors. Dr. Bentley received her doctorate in clinical psychology from Boston University and completed her clinical internship at MGH in the cognitive-behavioral therapy track. She is currently funded by a five-year NIMH career development award, mentored by Dr. Matthew Nock at Harvard University and Drs. Jordan Smoller and Maurizio Fava in the MGH Department of Psychiatry.

Karmel Choi, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and member of the faculty at Harvard Medical School. Her research uses methods from data science, epidemiology, and genetics to understand the etiology of stress-related conditions (e.g., depression, PTSD) and to identify actionable strategies for prevention and resilience promotion across the life course. Dr. Choi completed her PhD in Clinical Psychology at Duke University and her predoctoral clinical internship in Behavioral Medicine at Mass General. She also completed a postdoctoral T32 training fellowship in psychiatric genetics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Choi’s clinical work focuses on the treatment of mood and anxiety disorders and stress-related health conditions.

Tian Ge, PhD is an applied mathematician and biostatistician who works at the intersection of neuroimaging science, genetics and statistics. His current research focuses on developing statistical and computational methods to integrate large-scale imaging, genomic, and biomedical data. Dr. Ge received his BS in Mathematics and PhD in Applied Mathematics from Fudan University, and a PhD in Computer Science from University of Warwick. He completed his postdoctoral training with Drs. Mert Sabuncu and Jordan Smoller at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He is currently an Instructor at Harvard Medical school, a junior faculty member in the Psychiatric & Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit (PNGU), Center for Genomic Medicine, and is also affiliated with Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital. More information can be found on his personal webpage and GitHub.

Dr. Christy A. Denckla is a clinical psychologist with joint appointments as a Research Associate in the Department of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, a Research Fellow at the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and an Instructor in Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital. Her work aims to understand how adversity affects mental health and well-being across the lifespan, with a particular focus on bereavement. Dr. Denckla’s work is funded by an early career K23 award from NIMH, mentored by Drs. Karestan Koenen, Jordan Smoller, and Henning Tiemeier. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship in Psychiatric Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and her clinical internship at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School. Her doctoral research was completed at Adelphi University in New York.

Heather Lee, PhD, is a postdoctoral research fellow at PNGU, working with Dr. Jordan Smoller. She recently completed her PhD in psychiatric epidemiology from Brown University, focusing on prenatal immune activation as a potential predictor of offspring’s cognitive and psychiatric outcomes in the New England Family Study. During her postdoctoral training at PNGU, she’s excited to investigate the etiologic connections between immunological and psychiatric disorders using electronic health records and GWAS data.

Travis Mallard, PhD is a clinical psychologist whose research is focused on understanding the etiology of psychiatric disorders, with a particular interest in forms of psychopathology that are characterized by disinhibition and/or psychosis. He is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the Psychiatric & Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit and the Center for Genomic Medicine, where he is working with Dr. Jordan Smoller to advance understanding of comorbidity and bridge levels of analysis in psychiatric genetics. Travis completed his doctoral training in clinical psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, and he received additional training in statistical genetics and imaging genetics at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the National Institute of Mental Health, respectively.

Eric Ross, MD is a resident psychiatrist at MGH and McLean Hospital. He graduated from Dartmouth College with a neuroscience/chemistry degree in 2011 and from the University of Michigan Medical School in 2018. His research focuses on the use of population-level mathematical modeling to address issues in public health, health economics, and clinical decision-making. At MGH, he's working on projects evaluating the health-economic effects of suicide risk prediction, the cost-effectiveness of novel treatments for depression, and the approach to testing for medical causes of first-episode psychosis.

Hyunjoon Lee is a Senior Data Analyst in Jordan Smoller’s lab at the PNGU. At Smoller Lab, Hyunjoon focuses on analyzing and modeling using electronic health records data. Prior to joining the Smoller Lab, he was a data scientist for a tech start-up. He holds a BS in Computer Science and MS in Data Science from Brown University. He is especially interested in suicide prediction and interventions and hopes to earn his PhD in psychiatric epidemiology in the future.

Kristin Joyce is the assistant to Dr. Jordan Smoller. Kristin has held this position for over five years and has become an integral part of the PNGU team.

Lin Shi is the Senior Research Program Manager for the Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit (PNGU). Lin has a PhD in Communication, is a Certified Research Administrator, and has over a decade of experience in program management in the context of developing social programs and technologies to improve public health. Lin is excited to be a part of the team and support the continued growth of PNGU!

Emily Madsen graduated from SUNY Stony Brook University with a BS in biology specializing in developmental genetics. She previously worked closely with the clinical interpretation team of a clinical genetics laboratory focused on rare pediatric disorders. She is excited to learn more about complex trait genetics and psychiatric disorders.

Marina Wilson is a Clinical Research Coordinator in the Smoller Lab. She has earned her BS in Psychology from Northeastern University. She has previously worked in an outpatient clinic for youth and adolescent supporting different programs and research projects. She is excited to learn more about the innovative tools used to examine various psychiatric disorders. 

Dia Kabir is a Clinical Research Coordinator at the Smoller Lab. She earned both her BA in Biology with a concentration in Cell Biology, Molecular Biology, and Genetics, and her MS in Clinical Research from Boston University. She has previous engagement in clinical research through the School of Public Health at Boston University, and within Boston Medical Center’s Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Clinic. Her research interests lie in the realm of exploring how genetics influence mood and well-being and how to create health policies and interventions that can ultimately maximize positive mental health outcomes. She hopes to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology in the future, with the intentions of pursuing a career within mental health research.

Anushka Kumar is a student intern at Dr. Smoller’s lab from Scarsdale High School. She is most interested in preventing mood and anxiety disorders by mitigating the impact of genetic risk through environmental modifications as well as integrating mental health support into primary care. She is extremely excited to experience the process of research and learn from experts in the field.