The Sleep Research Program for Advancing Careers (SOAR) is a research training program designed to support early career sleep and circadian investigators through a structured and mentored grant writing curriculum. Five SOAR Fellows were selected through a competitive application process and will work with a team of SOAR Faculty to develop their first National Institutes of Health career development grant application. We are pleased to introduce the AASM Foundation 2024-2025 SOAR Fellows.
Gawon Cho, PhD
Postdoctoral Associate
Yale University School of Medicine
Dr. Gawon Cho is a Postdoctoral Associate at the Yale School of Medicine. Her specialty lies in epidemiologic methods, sleep assessment, and dementia research. She is currently developing expertise in neuroimaging in order to examine the association between glymphatic activity, sleep quality, and image-based markers of preclinical Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis for the first time among humans.
Oren Cohen, MD
Assistant Professor
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Dr. Cohen is an Assistant Professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine. His research focuses on the links between obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), inflammation, and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. Collaborating with experts in the Department of Population Health Science and Policy, he employs machine learning to study heterogeneity in CPAP treatment effects on CVD outcomes. Dr. Cohen has received funding from the ATS ASPIRE Fellowship and Stony Wold-Herbert Fund.
Sebastian Jara, MD, MPH
Sleep fellowship-trained Otolaryngologist
Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California
Dr. Sebastian Jara is a sleep fellowship-trained otolaryngologist at Keck Medicine of USC, who specializes in treating snoring and obstructive sleep apnea. His current research focus is to understand the causes of snoring and obstructive sleep apnea and to develop cutting-edge surgical and non-surgical treatments for these conditions as an alternative to CPAP machines.
Misol Kwon, PhD, RN
T32 Postdoctoral Research Fellow
University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
Dr. Misol Kwon is a T32 postdoctoral research fellow at the Chronobiology and Sleep Institute at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Dr. Kwon’s research focuses on disparities in sleep health, circadian rhythms, social determinants of health, and social health factors in young adults with obesity. Her long-term goal is to develop preventive strategies and digital health interventions to promote sleep health and improve cardiovascular health equity.
Bruno Saconi, PhD, MA, RN
Staff Scientist
Geisinger Clinic
Dr. Bruno Saconi is a staff scientist at Geisinger Clinic. He earned his PhD in nursing and a Masters in statistics from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Saconi’s research program addresses sleep and chronic pain symptom management in adults. His long-term goal is to address non-pharmacological opportunities to improve chronic pain symptoms (or outcomes) by treating co-occurring sleep disorders.
