Rebecca Elias, PhD (she/her) is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and USC. Her research focuses on understanding how the fundamental processes associated with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) across the lifespan, influence the response to treatment and adult clinical outcomes. Dr. Elias received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Virginia Tech where she worked under the mentorship of Dr. Susan White. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at UCLA in the Department of Psychiatry under the mentorship of Dr. Catherine Lord.  She received her predoctoral internship from Indiana University School of Medicine. Prior to her graduate studies, Dr. Elias received her B.A. in Psychology from UC Berkeley. She has participated as a researcher and clinician in several NIH-funded clinical trials and has received independent funding through agencies such as the American Psychological Association.

Dr. Abigail Dickinson joined the KiNDD lab as a post-doctoral researcher in March of 2016, following her MSc in cognitive and computational neuroscience at the University of Sheffield (UK), and her PhD with the Sheffield Autism Research Lab. Her doctoral research focused on studying visual perception and neural activity (measured using EEG) in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Laura graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a Bachelor of Science in biopsychology and a minor inapplied psychology. In her recent work as a behavioral technician and child development specialist, she has had the opportunity to work with children with autism spectrum disorder and other developmental disorders. She is passionate about early intervention and supporting children and their families through the diagnosis and therapy process.

Maggie joined the KiNDD Lab in February 2021; she is a research coordinator on the ABC-CT study. She graduated from San Diego State University in 2018 with her bachelor’s degree in psychology. As an undergraduate, she was a research assistant in a lab at UCSD that studied the quality of life in patients living with brain tumors. After graduation, Maggie worked as a behavioral therapist for children with autism and related neurodevelopmental disorders.

Prior to joining the KiNDD Lab as a study coordinator, Andrew completed a three-year post-baccalaureate clinical research fellowship under Dr. Forbes Porter at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). While at the NIH, he assisted with natural history investigations of Niemann-Pick Disease, type C, CLN3-Batten, X-Linked Creatine Transporter Deficiency, and Smith-Lemli-Opitz Syndrome. In this role, he discovered a passion for rare neurodevelopmental disease research and pediatric patient care. As an aspiring pediatrician, Andrew hopes to improve the health of children suffering from rare diseases by supporting clinical trial development in his future career.

Madison graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 2021 with a BA in neuroscience and a minor in children’s studies where she researched functional selectivity of cortical networks mapped with high-density diffuse optical tomography. Now in her gap years prior to applying to medical school, Madison runs EEG data analysis for the Infant Brain Imaging Study (IBIS)- Opens in a new window in conjunction with five universities across the nation. The goal of this research is to uncover early biomarkers that could indicate a higher likelihood of being diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders.

Lauren Bui is a fourth-year pre-med student at UCLA, graduating with a B.S. in Human Biology in the College of Society and Genetics and a minor in Professional Writing. Since 2019, she has volunteered under Dr. Jeste as a behavioral analyst, assisting with EEG and eye tracking exams in the POLO/BLOOM and ongoing ABC-CT study. On the weekends, Lauren organizes free health screening clinics with the Vietnamese Community Health organization and teaches health workshops to high school students with Project Health at UCLA. Lauren’s passion for research, inclusive healthcare, and helping children with autism has shaped her goals to attend medical school.

Madeleine graduated from Princeton University in 2022 with a B.A. in Psychology and a certificate in Neuroscience. As an undergraduate she worked as a research assistant in the Niv computational neuropsychiatry lab studying learning in anxiety and mood disorders. Madeleine has a brother with profound autism and is passionate about contributing to autism research. At CHLA Madeleine works on the Remote Infant Studies of Early Learning (RISE) Battery, a study based at Duke University in collaboration with researchers across many universities and organizations. It is an online eye tacking study researching babies’ cognitive development from their homes. In the future this work may be used to identify children with developmental delays.