Meet the Zimmerman Clinical Neuropsychology Lab

2022-2023 End of Year Lab Party (L-R): Sebastian Garbanzos, Hasib Mia, Clare Culver, Theresa Lin, Caitlin Dougher, Malorie Watson, Ben Fusco-Gessick, Eric McConathey, Alyse Peduto, Molly Zimmerman

 

 

 

 

2022-2023 Lab Members (L-R): Theresa Lin, Clare Culver, Caitlin Dougher, Malorie Watson, Alyse Peduto, Hasib Mia, Molly Zimmerman, Basti Garbanzos. Not pictured: Eric McConathey, Ben Fusco-Gessick

 

 

Director

Molly Zimmerman, PhD
Dr. Zimmerman is the director of the Neuropsychology Laboratory. She is a licensed clinical neuropsychologist who enjoys engaging in a wide-range of research, teaching, and clinical practice activities. Her research interests explore the many ways in which cognitive abilities interact with medical conditions such as insomnia, sleep apnea, dementia, and sports-related traumatic brain injury. Much of her early clinical work involved diagnosis of dementia syndromes and she has maintained that interest in her research investigations that seek early predictors of age-associated cognitive decline. She also has a longstanding interest in sleep disorders and the complex relationships between sleep, cognition, and mood. An emerging interest has been the impact of light exposure, particularly blue light, on sleep and cognitive abilities in younger adults. And finally, she has focused on the impact of so-called subconcussive events sustained during normal sports play, such as heading of the ball in soccer, on measures of cognitive function and brain structure and function. A complete list of Dr. Zimmerman's publications can be found here.

Graduate Students 

Eric McConathey, MA
Eric is a 5th year graduate student in the Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program at Fordham University. He received his BS in Psychology from Drexel University in 2013 and his MA in Psychology from Fordham University in 2020. He has since worked in several clinical research settings and is currently a Senior Research Coordinator at NYU Langone's Multiple Sclerosis Comprehensive Care Center. At Fordham, Eric recently defended his dissertation assessing the role of athletic involvement and repetitive head impacts on neuropsychological function. 

 

 

Benjamin Fusco-Gessick, MA
Ben is a graduate student in the Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program at Fordham University. He received his BA in psychology from the University of Rochester in 2008 and his MA in Psychology from NYU in 2014. Before beginning the Fordham program, Ben worked as a researcher at an acute inpatient rehabilitation hospital where he studied the effects of post-stroke hemispatial neglect and treatment outcomes for children with severe TBI. Ben’s research interests include the cognitive effects of sleep quality, variability, and efficiency, and how these factors may be related to evolving patterns in blue light exposure. 

 

Malorie Watson, MA
Malorie is a graduate student in the Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program at Fordham University. She received her BA in Psychology from Kent State University and her MA in Clinical Psychology from the University of Indianapolis. Prior to beginning at Fordham, Malorie worked as a neuropsychological assessment technician in private practices and at the Indiana University School of Medicine (IUSM) with diverse individuals aged 12+ referred for a variety of purposes. She also had the opportunity to assist with cognitive baseline testing and concussion protocol for the Indianapolis Colts. Additionally, Malorie worked as a Clinical Research Specialist at the IUSM on a project examining the effects of cognitive and physical training on cognition in older adults with memory concerns. Malorie is particularly interested in how factors such as sleep, personality, and TBI impact neuropsychological functioning, issues related to performance validity testing, and forensic neuropsychological evaluations.

Theresa Lin, MA

Theresa is a graduate student in the Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program at Fordham University. She received her BA in Neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania in 2019 and her MA in Psychology from Fordham University in 2023. Prior to Fordham, she worked at Mount Sinai Beth Israel as a clinical research coordinator studying the genetics behind Parkinson's disease as well as other movement disorders. Theresa is interested in cognitive decline in neurodegenerative diseases among older adults and preventative measures that may be developed to remediate that effect. She is also interested in the cognitive effects of sleep disordered breathing among young adults.

Caitlin Dougher, MS
Caitlin is a graduate student in the Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program at Fordham University. She received her BS in Psychology with a minor in Biology from Villanova University, followed by her MS in Psychology from Drexel University.  Right before starting at Fordham, Caitlin worked as a Psychometrist at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.  She was directly involved in intake interviews and neuropsychological assessment of individuals over 18 years old with varying disorders and diseases.  More notably, this involved working with pre and post-surgical Epilepsy, TBI, Parkinson's, and dementia patients.  Caitlin is interested in sleep behaviors and quality in TBI, specifically sports concussion. Additionally, she hopes to study rehabilitation outcomes and treatment interventions for the same population. 

 

Emily Galano, BA
Emily is a graduate student in the Clinical Research Methods Masters Program at Fordham University. She graduated in 2022 from Marist College with a BA in Psychology. In her time at Marist, she completed internships at Family Services Center for Victim Safety and Support and the Anderson Center for Autism, where she was able to gain valuable experience in psychology research in varying settings. While at Family Services she assisted in research investigating the efficacy of community crisis response teams, and while at the Anderson Center she had a role in analyzing data collected on the effects of group contingency reinforcement on direct support staff task completion within residential behavior staff. Emily is interested in the relationship between the brain and behavior, more specifically in the case of individuals with neurological compromise, as well as assessment of and rehabilitation from brain injury.

Undergraduate Students

Ava Musacchia
Ava is currently an undergraduate junior at Fordham University, majoring in Psychology with a minor in Marketing. Ava is interested in studying the neuropsychological aspects of memory, cognition, and well-being among adults and adolescents. She is part of Best Buddies as the club's Secretary, where she Builds relationships with individuals aged 13 and older from the Kingsbridge community of the Bronx who have intellectual and developmental disabilities/are neurodiverse. She also has a specific interest in studying brain aging diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Dementia.

Alexandra Schurek
Alexandra Schurek will graduate from Fordham University in May 2024 with her B.S. in Psychology.  She is a member of the Honors Program at Fordham College Lincoln Center and is currently working on her Honors thesis.  Alexandra is the President of Lincoln Center EMS Club and a member of Fordham University EMS.  She currently works as an EMT and plans to continue to work in the medical field.  Alexandra is interested in researching the relationships between sleep quality and well-being.

 

Franklin Croce
Franklin is currently a senior at Fordham Rose Hill, majoring in psychology with a minor in philosophy. During his time at Fordham, he operated as a direct support professional, working one-on-one with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Franklin is passionate about understanding the complexities of human development as they vary across differing environments. Upon graduation, Franklin aims to become a psychotherapist, working to improve communities most in need.

 

Alumni

Alessandra Palladino (BS, graduated 2016)

Katrazyna McNeal (BS, graduated 2016)

Tiffany Le (BS, graduated 2017)

Anika Masand (BS, graduated 2017)

Brianne Roche (BS, graduated 2017)

Jess Weathers (MS, graduated 2018)

Jerome Vessichio (BS, graduated 2019)

Daniella Toto (BS, graduated 2019)

Antigone Phili (MS, graduated 2019)

Rachel Zimmerman (MS, graduated 2019)

Eileen Moran (PhD, graduated 2020)

Cara Levitch (PhD, graduated 2020)

Julia Marsden (BS, graduated 2020)

Carlotta Santoni (BS, graduated 2020)

Julia Phillips (BS, graduated 2020)

Katya Farber (BS, graduated 2021)

Alexander Makatsaria (BS, BA, graduated 2021)

Amy Wang (MA, graduated 2022)

Clare Culver (BS, graduated 2023)

Alyse Peduto (BS, graduated 2023)

Sebastian Garbanzos (BS, graduated 2023)

Hasib Mia (BS, graduated 2023)