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Our Team

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Dr. Richard Zweig

Lab Director

Dr. Richard Zweig, Professor, Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology of Yeshiva University and Assistant Professor, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, received his doctoral training in Clinical Psychology at Northwestern University wherein he matriculated through a specialized clinical geropsychology training program. Following his internship at the Yale University School of Medicine, and a fellowship in medical psychology / neuropsychology at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Dr. Zweig obtained specialty training in Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy. From 1995-2001, Dr. Zweig was Senior Staff Psychologist and Coordinator of Geriatric Psychology Extern Training in the Geriatric Psychiatry Division of Hillside Hospital - Long Island Jewish Medical Center. In 2001 Dr. Zweig was recruited by the Ferkauf Graduate School of Yeshiva University to develop and direct the Ferkauf Older Adult Program, a concentration which provides didactic, research, and clinical training within the Clinical Psychology Program, and which was the recipient of a national “Innovative Training Award” in 2014. Dr. Zweig’s current research is focused on relationships between personality pathology, depression, and social functioning in older adults. Recent research interests have also included risk and protective factors related to psychopathology and functional decline in older adults, and doctoral level training in mental health and aging. Dr. Zweig was Principle Investigator and Co-PI of two DHHS- HRSA Graduate Psychology Education grants focused upon geropsychology training. He has authored articles, book chapters, and co-edited a book focused on personality pathology in later life, and has served on the Editorial Boards of Clinical Gerontologist, the Journal of Clinical Geropsychology and the Journal of Mental Health and Aging. A Founding Board Member of ABPP-GERO, and a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, Dr. Zweig has served as Treasurer of APA Div. 12-2 (Geropsychology), and as Chair of the Council of Professional Geropsychology Traning Programs. Click here to view Dr. Zweig's faculty page: http://faculty.yu.edu/faculty/pages/Zweig-Richard

Coming Soon

Sarah Brown Adams

Sarah is in the Adult Clinical Psychology Psy. D. program.  She received a B.A. in religious studies from New York University. She is currently an extern at Weill Cornell Brain and Spine Center where she is pursuing her interest in neuropsychological assessment.  Her systematic review of geropsychological literature examined the relationship between premorbid neuroticism and agitation in patients with dementia.

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Christine Bushell

Sixth-year student

Christine is a sixth-year student in the Adult Clinical Psychology PsyD program. She received a B.A. in Psychology from Elon University and an M.A. in Psychology with a specialization in forensics from New York University. Christine's research and clinical interests include neuropsychology, neurodegenerative disorders, forensic assessment, and personality disorders. Her dissertation focuses on the relationship between normal cognitive aging, impulsivity-related executive functions, and personality. Christine is currently an extern at Northwell Health/LIJ Department of Neurology. She previously completed externships at the NYU Langone Comprehensive Epilepsy Center and the Montefiore Medical Center Neuropsychology Assessment Service conducting neuropsychological assessments on patients across the lifespan and with a wide range of neurological conditions.

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Alison Madnick

Sixth-year student

Alison is a sixth-year student in the Adult Clinical Psychology PsyD program with a minor in clinical neuropsychology. She received a B.A. in Psychology from CUNY Hunter. Her dissertation focuses on the factors associated with clinician ratings of the working alliance in neuropsychological assessment settings. Alison is currently employed full-time in the pediatric neuropsychology division of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She previously completed neuropsychology externships at Northwell Health, Mount Sinai Health System, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and Envisage Neuropsychology.

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Emma Pendry-Aber

Fourth-year student

Emma is a fourth-year student in the Ferkauf Adult Clinical Psychology PsyD program. She got her BA in psychology from Barnard College, Columbia University in 2014, and recently received her MA in Clinical Psychology at Ferkauf in 2023. Before being admitted to Ferkauf, Emma worked as a project coordinator in the Researching Inequity in Society Ecologically (RISE) lab at New York University on multiple projects at the local and national level that aimed to understand and redress inequity for marginalized groups, as well as design, deliver and evaluate clinical practice and policy interventions that aim to empower youth involved in or at risk for involvement in the juvenile justice system through systems-change. Emma has previously worked a Pre-Doctoral Extern Therapist at Pace University Counseling Center conducting psychodynamic interpersonal individual psychotherapy and Co-leading DBT and ACT therapeutic groups. She currently works under the supervision of Dr. Yulia Landa at Mount Sinai Hospital as a pre-doctoral student clinician on an NIMH funded RCT using a manualized CBT intervention designed to prevent paranoia in young adults at clinical high risk for developing, or who have already experienced, psychosis. She is also training to use the Structured Interview for Psychosis-Risk Syndromes (SIPS) to determine if they are at clinical high risk (CHR) for developing psychosis. Her research interests include how interpersonal relationships (particularly family bonds and friendship), and the social support they offer, may serve as a protective factor related to functional and psychological decline in older adults, as well as examining the resilience of the oldest old (80+ years) in the face of increased interpersonal loss.

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Karen Nissim

Fourth-year student

Karen Nissim received her BA at New York University in Psychology and Journalism. Given her previous journalism background she is especially drawn to narrative and didactic elements of research. As a PsyD student at Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, she is interested in studying resilience and interpersonal relationship dynamics in older adults. Upon graduating, she hopes to provide family and couples therapy to help strengthen support systems for older adults.

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Lea Beresford

Third-year student

Lea is in her third year of Ferkauf’s Adult Clinical Psychology PsyD program and is currently an Extern at Barnard College's Rosemary F. Furman Counseling Center.  She has also worked as a patient intake coordinator and was a research assistant in Columbia University’s DANLAB for a study that evaluated the effect of familiar music on deliberate memory retrieval in cognitively healthy adults between the ages of 65 and 80 years old. The paper was recently published in Memory.   Lea received her BA in psychology and English from Cornell University and worked for many years as an acquiring editor of literary fiction and nonfiction in the book publishing industry before pivoting to clinical psychology. She is exploring the effect of therapist ageism on older adults' therapy outcomes and the connection between personal narratives and mental well-being in older adults.

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Nicholas Norman

Third-year student

Nick is a third-year student in the Adult Clinical Psychology PsyD program at the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology.  He received a BA in English Literature and Language from the University of Leeds and an MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University.  He worked for a number of years as an Elementary and Middle School teacher.  Amongst other things, Nick is interested in all aspects of the treatment of, and research into, obsessive-compulsive disorder.  As a member of the DP-Relate lab he intends to study obsessive-compulsive disorder in the older adult population.

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Folake Olowu

Third-year student

Folake is a third-year student in the Adult Clinical Psychology PsyD program. She received her B.S. in Psychology and Criminal Justice from SUNY Brockport in 2022. As a PsyD student at Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, her research interest centers on understanding how serious mental illness (SMI) affects the psychosocial functioning of older adults in the correction system. She is also interested in studying prejudice, discrimination, and the impact of stigma within the criminal justice system.

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Julia Phillips

Second-year student

Julia is a second-year graduate student whose clinical interest lies in providing cognitive behavioral therapy for older adults suffering from anxiety and depression. Through research, she is specifically interested in exploring risk and resilience factors for late-life anxiety and depression. Previously, she worked on clinical trials investigating therapeutic interventions for anxiety-related disorders and cognitive impairment in older adults. In her free time, Julia enjoys running in Central Park, traveling, and snowboarding. 

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Jamie Karns

Second-year student

Jamie is a second-year student in the Adult Clinical Psychology PsyD program. She received her BA in Psychology and minor in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Studies from New York University. She later received her MA in Clinical Psychology from New York University. Her Master’s thesis focused on how anxiety severity, cognitive control, and threat discrimination influences attention bias heterogeneity in individuals struggling with anxiety and depression. Jamie’s research interests include neuropsychology, mood disorders, forensic assessment, and self-harm and suicide risk assessment.

Coming Soon

Amy Stern

First-year student

Amy is a first-year graduate student in the Adult Clinical Psychology PsyD program. She earned a B.S. in Psychology with a focus in Neuroscience, with minors in Biology and Sociology, from The Pennsylvania State University. Her research and clinical interests include neuropsychology, traumatic brain injuries, neurodiversity, and neurodegenerative disorders.

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Jennifer Prat

First-year student

Jennifer is a first-year student in the Adult Clinical Psychology PsyD program at the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology. She received a B.A. in psychology from the University of Connecticut in 2006. Jennifer spent more than a decade working across the nonprofit landscape in fundraising and marketing capacities before returning to the mental health field in 2022 when she started her M.A. in Mental Health Counseling at Ferkauf. She holds an LPCA in Connecticut and focuses her clinical practice on working with neurodiverse women and girls. Jennifer’s clinical and research interest is psychodiagnostics in women, specifically the mis- and missed diagnosis of ADHD, and twice-exceptionality across the lifespan. In her free time, Jennifer enjoys time with her spouse and children, finding ways to be creative, and cooking for her friends and family.

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Won Young Choi

First-year student

Won Young is a first-year student in the Adult Clinical Psychology PsyD program. He received his BA in Mechanical Engineering and minor in Psychology from Cornell University. He later received his M.Eng in Engineering Management from Cornell University, and an MA in Psychology in Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. His Master’s thesis focused on a pilot RCT study design evaluating the effectiveness of VR-mediated nature interventions for geriatric populations for the treatment of depressive disorders. Won Young's current research interests include understanding the mechanisms of therapeutic change relevant to East Asian immigrant populations, and the potential technological avenues for making mental health services more accessible to geriatric populations.

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