The Sleep Research Program for Advancing Careers (SOAR) supports early career sleep and circadian investigators through a structured and mentored grant writing curriculum. Each year, selected fellows are matched with program faculty for direct mentorship and guidance from leading expert investigators in the field. At the end of the program, fellows will have developed a complete career development grant application for submission to federal funding agencies.
Since the program’s inception in 2020, SOAR fellows have gone on to secure nearly $7 million in federal funding for sleep and circadian research. To build upon this exciting momentum, we have doubled our cohort size this year to support ten future leaders in the field of sleep and circadian science.
We extend our gratitude to Resmed for their generous support of SOAR for the past five years.
Ghada Abu Irsheed, PhD
Assistant Professor
Loyola University Chicago
Dr. Ghada Abu Irsheed is an Assistant Professor at Loyola University Chicago’s Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing. Her research focuses on sleep health and stroke recovery, examining how sleep influences recovery trajectories and long-term health outcomes among stroke survivors. Her work integrates behavioral sleep science and clinical approaches to advance patient-centered strategies for stroke rehabilitation and recovery.
KuangHua Guo, MD
Clinical Instructor and Research Fellow
Northwestern University
Dr. KuangHua (Karl) Guo is a Clinical Instructor and Research Fellow at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. His research focuses on the intersection between sleep and chronic pain with aims to understand how sleep and circadian disruption may contribute to the formation and maintenance of nociplastic changes in chronic pain and develop novel therapies to improve sleep and pain outcomes in chronic pain patients.
Alison Huckenpahler, MD, PhD
Post Doctoral Research Scholar
Washington University in St. Louis
Dr. Alison Huckenpahler is a psychiatrist focused on the intersection of sleep and mood disorders. Her interest in sleep medicine was shaped by both clinical experience and a personal history of narcolepsy. Her current work develops sleep-based interventions for depression, including clinical trials targeting slow-wave sleep in treatment-resistant depression.
Allison Ikeda, MD, MS
Assistant Professor
Medical College of Wisconsin
Dr. Allison Ikeda is a clinician-scientist and Assistant Professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Her research focuses on integrating epidemiology and health services research to improve patient centered care by examining shared decision-making among patients considering sleep surgery and evaluating the impact of sleep apnea treatment on long-term health outcomes.
Kathryn Kennedy, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar
University of Arizona
Dr. Kat Kennedy is a physiologist in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Arizona. Her research examines how sleep and circadian rhythms interact with women’s health factors to influence cognition, cardiometabolic health, and lifestyle behaviors. Her broader work explores the consequences of sleep and circadian disruption for human health and performance, with the goal of advancing more individualized approaches to sleep and circadian health.
Linda Magaña, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor
Thomas Jefferson University
Dr. Linda Magaña is an Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgeon who completed her residency at the University of Pittsburgh and her fellowship in Sleep Medicine with a subspecialty in Sleep Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research examines the physiologic and anatomic mechanisms underlying obstructive sleep apnea to improve diagnostics and therapeutics for this patient population.
Melanie Stearns, PhD
Assistant Professor
University of South Florida
Dr. Melanie Stearns is a tenure-track Assistant Professor and pediatric clinical sleep psychologist at the University of South Florida, where she directs the Family, Adolescent, Child, and Caregiver Translational Sleep (FACCTS) Lab and serves as Assistant Director of Recruitment and Clinical and Research Education for the Sleep and Health Innovations in Neurobehavioral (SHINE) Science Center. Her research examines sleep, circadian health, and behavioral and emotional functioning in children and caregivers.
Po-Yang Tsou, MD, MPH
Attending Physician
Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Boston Children’s Hospital
Po-Yang Tsou, MD, MPH, is a pediatric pulmonologist and sleep medicine physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Boston Children’s Hospital, and a National Institutes of Health T32 recipient. His research uses polysomnography-derived physiological traits to predict individual risk and treatment response in sleep-disordered breathing.
Phoebe Yu, MD, MPH
Massachusetts Eye and Ear/Harvard Medical School
Phoebe Yu, MD MPH is a fellowship-trained sleep surgeon at Massachusetts Eye and Ear/Harvard Medical School. Her research investigates the factors that contribute to effective treatment of obstructive sleep apnea, with the goal of improving patient outcomes and advancing personalized approaches to care.
Li Zhou, MD, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Dr. Li Zhou is a postdoctoral fellow at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Her research focuses on sleep disorders, particularly obstructive sleep apnea and REM sleep behavior disorder, and their relationships with neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s disease and dementia with Lewy bodies.
