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Ryan Orth is a doctoral student and earned his B.A. in Psychology from DePaul University in 2014. He received an MPS in Clinical Psychological Science from the University of Maryland in 2019 and started his Ph.D. training at Maryland in Fall 2020. Prior to joining the lab, Ryan worked as a Homeless Outreach Specialist and Community Support Specialist in Washington, DC. In these roles he assisted individuals living with severe mental illness progress toward their goals and learn to better manage their conditions. His current research interests include the prevalence of chronic medical conditions among those living with severe mental illness and developing treatments to improve wellness outcomes for this group. Ryan joined LEAP in 2018 as a full-time research assistant.
Imani Todd is Doctoral Student who earned her Bachelor's degree in Psychology and minor in Biological Sciences at DePaul University in Chicago, IL in 2020. Before starting her Ph.D at University of Maryland, Imani was involved in research with the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University working with adolescent children. Research goals for this lab included identifying early childhood markers of depression through a battery of test which included EEg performance, behavioral assessment with the child and parent, and language examination. Additionally, she was involved in the Stress and Learning Lab at DePaul University under Dr. Kathryn Grant working with complex traumas in urban adolescents. Her current research interest involves improving the assessment and intervention of patients with mental illness and neurodevelopmental comorbidities. Imani joined LEAP in 2021 as a full-time research assistant.
Kasey Schuchardt is an incoming (August, 2024) doctoral student who earned her B.A. in Psychology from Shippensburg University in 2022. As a student athlete on women’s varsity lacrosse team, she completed her undergraduate thesis focusing on mental health stigma in student athletes. She continued her education at Towson University where she pursued looking at attitudes and perceptions of concussions and help-seeking for her first-year project. She also furthered her experience in research by working in the Cognition, Regulation, & Affective Biopsychology (CRAB) Lab as a lab affiliate while working on her master’s thesis – a meta-analysis on the effects of CBT on positive symptoms of schizophrenia. She graduated with an M.A. in Experimental Psychology from Towson University in 2024. During her studies, Kasey gained clinical experience and developed an interest in psychopathology first as an undergraduate intern at KeyPoint Mental Health Outreach Center, where she worked with high-risk clients with severe and persistent mental illnesses, and then further expanded her clinical interests during her graduate studies by working in University of Maryland Medical Center’s Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Unit. It was at Towson and in the psychiatric unit that her passion for psychiatric neuroscience techniques and brain imaging technologies and how they are being utilized to determine brain systems implicated in psychiatric illnesses grew. Further, it ignited for her a desire to learn more about how these techniques can be used in diagnosis and treatment of mental illnesses. Her current research interests include working with assessments and neuroimaging techniques to provide insights on how schizophrenia impacts the daily functioning and lives of adults with this disorder.
Jason Smith, Ph.D. is the Director of Imaging Science in Dr. Alex Shackman's Affective and Translational Neuroscience Lab. Among Dr. Smith's varied and important responsibilities he oversees the critical tasks of designing, implementing and analyzing LEAP's fMRI protocols.
Laura Hemphill is research staff with LEAP and earned her B.A. in Psychology from Arizona State University in 2018. Prior to joining the lab, Laura worked as a Supported Employment Specialist in Silver Spring, MD. In this role, she supported individuals living with severe mental illness in searching for and maintaining competitive employment. Her current research interests include exploring how adversity impacts the onset and course of psychotic disorders. Laura joined LEAP in 2021 as a full-time research assistant.