Imani Todd is a 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. program at the University of Maryland, Imani was involved in research with the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. Imani's dissertation is examining the association of sleep problems with cognitive impairment in the psychosis spectrum. Imani is currently (2026-2027) completing her predoctoral clinical internship at the University of New Mexico Health Services Center, Integrative Behavioral Health track.
Kasey Schuchardt is third year 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.
Brittany Davis is a first year doctoral student. She earned her B.S. in Psychology with a focus in Neuroscience and minor in Biology at The Pennsylvania State University in 2021 and then completed an MPS in Clinical Psychological Science at Maryland. During her undergraduate degree, she worked in the Cognitive Aging and Neuroimaging (CAN) Lab examining the effects of episodic memory in both younger and older adults using behavioral and neuroimaging (fMRI) methods. After graduating from Penn State, she moved to Baltimore, MD to work as a Clinical Research Coordinator for the Department of Surgery at University of Maryland, Baltimore focusing on transplant research. There, she worked with University of Maryland Medical Center patients who were waiting or received kidney, liver, and/or pancreas transplants to observe various treatment/testing methods to improve patient health outcomes. Brittany served as a lead research staff within LEAP immediately prior to join the doctoral program (2024-2026).
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.