The Young Investigators Research Forum is a research training program designed to aid the career development of promising early career investigators in circadian and sleep research by providing opportunities to network with senior sleep investigators, exposure funding agencies and sleep funding mechanisms, refine their research ideas, and guidance to thrive in an academic sleep research career.
The Young Investigators Research Forum will allow early-career investigators to interact with senior investigators and officers from federal and nonprofit funding agencies. The forum includes didactic presentations, leadership workshops, small group sessions covering grantsmanship, a mock grant review, and the mentor-mentee relationship. As active participants, attendees can present their research, provide feedback on each other’s research proposals, and review a grant.
The following are the trainees that were accepted and will be participating in the YIRF 2025.
Dr. Priscilla Amofa-Ho completed her doctoral training at University of Florida in clinical neuropsychology. Her interests are in mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias, implementation of interventions to prevent cognitive impairment and adaptation of interventions for underserved populations. She joined the McCrae Sleep Research Lab at University of South Florida to advance her training in how sleep impacts cognitive aging and neurodegenerative disorders.
Dr. Katyayini Aribindi is a sleep medicine fellow at University of California-Davis, having already completed her Pulmonary & Critical Care at UC-Davis and her Internal Medicine Residency at University of Texas-Houston. She has research interests in the overlap of sleep disordered breathing and pulmonary overlap syndromes. She completed a T32 research year investigating the effects of jet fuel on airway epithelium.
Dr. Alexander Baumgartner is a neurologist with fellowship training in movement disorders and a particular focus on deep brain stimulation (DBS). He is interested in the relationship between DBS and non-motor symptoms of Parkinson disease, in particular sleep dysfunction. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Neurology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.
Dr. Miranda Chappel-Farley is a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Pittsburgh. By combining neuroimaging techniques, physiological measurements, and behavioral assessments, her research aims to determine the mechanistic role of sleep and physical activity in brain dynamics and memory function, with the goal of developing interventions to delay or prevent Alzheimer’s disease.
Dr. Chad Coleman is a National Institutes of Health T32 postdoctoral research fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He completed his PhD in Epidemiology from Boston University in 2024, where he examined the prospective association between sleep and reproductive outcomes. His current research explores how sleep health relates to blood pressure outcomes in pregnant and non-pregnant populations.
Dr. Lauren Hartstein is an Assistant Professor in Psychiatry at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. Her research focuses on modifiable environmental and behavioral factors affecting sleep and circadian health in early childhood, with an emphasis on the role of the lighting environment.
Dr. Dana Kamara is a clinical psychologist at the University of Colorado, specializing in behavioral sleep medicine. She was recently awarded seed funding to begin examining sleep health in girls with Turner syndrome. She is passionate about building a research program to improve sleep health in children and families affected by pediatric neurodevelopmental and/or medical conditions.
Dr. Kat Kennedy is a postdoctoral researcher in the Social, Cognitive, and Affective Neuroscience (SCAN) Lab at the University of Arizona. She received her PhD in Physiological Sciences from the University of Arizona in 2024 and has broad research interests in women’s health and the impacts of circadian misalignment on cognitive performance and eating behavior.
Dr. Erin Kishman is a postdoctoral fellow at Colorado State University. She received her PhD in exercise science from the University of South Carolina. She has experience in measuring sleep using wearable devices and is currently gaining more clinical sleep and circadian science training at Colorado State University. Her NIH T32 project focuses on the impact of circadian misalignment on markers of neurodegeneration.
Dr. Joshua Landvatter is a Behavioral Sleep Medicine Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Utah. His current work explores the intersection of sleep and relationship dynamics as key factors in healthy aging. Building on research linking relationship dynamics to physical health outcomes, including cardiovascular disease, he seeks to advance understanding of mechanisms related to healthy aging.
Dr. Ari Leonhard completed his Internal Medicine Residency followed by Sleep Medicine Fellowship at the University of Chicago. He is currently a Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Fellow at the University of Washington. Ari works with his mentor, Dr. Lucas Donovan, on health systems research focusing on the delivery of care to patients with pulmonary and sleep related disorders.
Dr. G. Max Liu is currently a sleep medicine fellow at Washington University in St. Louis. He is interested in investigating the bidirectional relationship between sleep and neurodegeneration and also using antisense oligonucleotide to target tau protein as a treatment for neurological diseases.
Dr. Magaña is a National Research Service Award T32 Research Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. She completed her residency otolaryngology-head & neck surgery and will continue as a clinical fellow in sleep medicine & surgery at Penn this year.
Dr. Clarisa Medina Poeliniz is a first-year postdoctoral fellow studying social determinants of health that impact sleep duration and practice to develop culturally relevant interventions that reduce cardiometabolic risk factors in Latinas. A secondary interest is exploring whether human milk components have a circadian rhythm and whether components play a role in infant growth and development of their biological clock.
Dr. Christina Mu is a T32 postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Francisco (Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics), working with Dr. Katie Stone. She studies sleep and pain, specifically its reciprocal relationship and joint effects on health outcomes. Future aims are to study the chronification of transient sleep and pain problems, modifiable risk factors, and pain reactivity.
Dr. Brittanny Polanka is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Population Science. Dr. Polanka completed her PhD in Clinical Psychology at Indiana University-Indianapolis. Her program of research aims to identify, understand, and intervene upon psychosocial and behavioral risk factors for and exacerbators of cardiovascular disease.
Dr. Joel Raymond is a behavioral neuroscientist with a PhD from the University of Sydney and postdoctoral training at Rutgers University. Their research focuses on the role of sleep in mental health and psychiatric disorders involving the dysregulation of motivated behaviors. By leveraging preclinical models, they aim to develop novel treatments for mental health conditions and disorders.
Dr. David Reichenberger’s research investigates the interplay among sleep health, cardiovascular health, and daily health-related behaviors, such as smartphone interactions or substance use. He leverages advanced statistical methodology to analyze intensive longitudinal data. Ultimately, he aims to develop interventions that minimize the physiological consequences of health behaviors.
Dr. Kimberly Savin is a postdoctoral fellow at VA San Diego. Her research interests are the association of sleep and cardiometabolic health and reducing sleep inequities. She completed her doctoral training at the San Diego State University/University of California-San Diego Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology and postdoctoral residency at the VA Sepulveda in Behavioral Sleep Medicine and Primary Care Mental Health.
Dr. Jelaina Shipman-Lacewell is a postdoctoral fellow in the Multidisciplinary Research Training to Reduce Inequalities in Cardiovascular Health (METRIC) T32 program at Emory University. Her work focuses on examining the role of the sociocultural environment in sleep and cardiometabolic health to inform culturally relevant interventions to improve the health of Black individuals across the lifespan.
Dr. Garima Sinha is an Orthodontic resident with a diverse background in dental medicine and research. Passionate about exploring sleep apnea management, she aims to contribute to this field as an orthodontist. Recognized with awards like the Frances Best Watkins Award and the AAO Dental Student Scholarship, she strives to advance dental sleep medicine through impactful research and innovation.
Dr. Ivy Wei is a Clinical Assistant Professor in Prosthodontics at University of Michigan. Her research focuses on obstructive sleep apnea treatment for edentulous patients. Leading the Dental Sleep Clinic, she encourages interdisciplinary collaboration and remains committed to patient-centered care and impactful solutions.
Dr. Kelcie Willis is a T32 postdoctoral fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital. She received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University and completed a pre-doctoral clinical internship at Yale School of Medicine. Her research seeks to improve the quality-of-life of patients with cancer and their caregivers through the development of supportive care interventions.
Dr. Fernanda Yanez Regonesi obtained board certification in orofacial pain and dental sleep medicine. She is faculty at the University of Kentucky and the clinic director of the orofacial pain clinic. Her research interests are bruxism, dental sleep medicine and neuropathic pain.
Dr. Phoebe Yu attended Harvard College followed by Yale School of Medicine. She then completed otolaryngology residency at Massachusetts Eye & Ear. She received a T32 training grant and a Masters of Public Health in biostatistics at the Harvard School of Public Health. She is currently a sleep medicine fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research interests relate to outcomes research in sleep surgery.
Dr. Afsara Zaheed is a clinical neuropsychologist and currently a T32 postdoctoral scholar at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research examines how sleep and other modifiable biopsychosocial factors over the life-course impact cognitive aging, the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD), and the development of racial, gender, and intersectional disparities in ADRD.
Dr. Li Zhou is a postdoctoral fellow at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She received her medical degree in China and PhD in Medical Science at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research focuses on sleep disorders and neurodegenerative diseases, including ɑ-synucleinopathies and Alzheimer’s disease, from mechanism to clinical intervention.
1Supported through a travel scholarship from the Sleep Research Society Foundation
2Supported through a travel scholarship from the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine
