Our Team
Co-Founders and Co-Directors
Dr. Nancy Padilla-Coreano is an assistant professor in the department of neuroscience at the University of Florida. Her lab studies the neural mechanisms underlying social competence using mice as a model. For Stories of WiN, Nancy does general management, interviews women neuroscientists and occasionally writes.
Dr. Megan Kirchgessner is a postdoc in the lab of Dr. Robert Froemke at New York University School of Medicine, where she is studying how early-life social and sensory environment and neuromodulators shape the development of the auditory system for vocal processing. She completed her Neurosciences PhD at UC San Diego, working with Dr. Edward Callaway at the Salk Institute. Megan conducts interviews and writes profiles for Stories of WiN.
Dr. Catie Profaci is a postdoc in Dr. Ardem Patapoutian’s lab at Scripps Research where she studies mechanosensation. Catie interviews and writes for Stories of WiN. During graduate school, she was a frequent contributor to NeuWriteSD.
Current Members
Inge E. Guerrero is a Neuroscience PhD student at Florida State University. She is studying the neural circuits associated with ingestive behavior, anxiety, and reward in rodent models. She is a translator for Stories of Win.
Omaris Vélez Acevedo is an undergraduate student at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus. She conducts research on the biophysical properties of dopaminergic neurons at the UPR, Medical Sciences Campus in the laboratory of Dr. Carlos Jiménez-Rivera . After graduating, she plans on pursuing a PhD in Neuroscience. Omaris is a translator for Stories of WiN.
Megan S. Anderson is a first-year Neuroscience PhD student at UC San Diego. She is still rotating through labs but is interested in neural circuits and sexual dimorphisms. She manages the Stories of WiN website.
Caitlin Ashcroft is a first-year Neuroscience DPhil student at the University of Oxford. She is studying the neural basis of decision-making in the labs of Dr Armin Lak, Dr Adam Packer, and Dr Kerry Walker. She interviews and writes profiles for Stories of WiN.
Dr. Meenakshi Asokan is a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Annegret Falkner’s lab at the Princeton University where she studies neural circuits and computations that drive flexible state-dependent social behaviors. She conducts interviews and manages the Stories of WiN website.
Dr. Hannah Elam recently completed her PhD at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio under the mentorship of Daniel Lodge. Her dissertation work focused on orexin receptor antagonists as a novel therapeutic treatment for psychosis. Next, she will begin a postdoctoral fellowship with Erin Calipari at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. She helps with social media posting for Stories of WiN.
Dr. Melissa Franch is postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Benjamin Hayden’s lab with the Neurosurgery research team at Baylor College of Medicine. She investigates neural correlates of social cognition and language in humans and has a passion for cultivating a belonging and prosperous environment for underserved individuals in STEM. At Stories of WiN, she is one of our interview audio editors.
Dr. Cecilia A. Hinojosa is a Post-doctoral Fellow in the Department of Psychiatry at Emory University. Dr. Hinojosa's research focuses on understanding the neural correlates of co-occurring posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol use disorder (AUD) using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). For Stories of WiN, Dr. Hinojosa edits audio and helps with social media posting.
Lesley A. Guareña is a research associate in the Departments of Medicine and Psychiatry at UC San Diego, where she administers cognitive tests and neuromedical interviews to Latinos with and without HIV as part of the HLA2 Study and is in an administrative role at the San Diego Alzheimer’s Disease Center for Minority Aging Research. She is a translator for Stories of WiN.
Ivette Martorell-Serra is a second year PhD student in the Neurosciences Graduate Program at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. She is part of the Trotti lab at the Weinberg ALS center. For her thesis, she is studying how neuroinflammation spreads in ALS and FTD. She is a translator for Stories of WiN.
Margarida Pinto is a first-year neuroscience PhD at École Normale Supérieure. Her research in the lab of Dr. Clément Lena & Dr. Daniela Popa focuses on vestibulo-cerebellar circuits involved in spatial orientation. Margarida conducts interviews and occasionally writes for Stories of WiN.
Gabriela Rasch is a first year graduate student at MIT’s Brain and Cognitive Science Program. She is currently in the process of rotating and choosing her lab. She is generally interested in the neurobiological basis of memory and neural circuit dysfunction in disease. She is a translator for Stories of WiN.
Ali Rigby is a rising second year PhD student in the Neurosciences Graduate Program at UC San Diego. She works with Drs. Terry Jernigan, Anders Dale, and Brad Voytek to study developmental brain and behavioral trajectories in infants and adolescents, utilizing extensive longitudinal multimodal datasets. She manages the Stories of WiN website.
Chiaki Santiago Chiaki is a second year PhD student in the UCSD Neurosciences Graduate Program working with Dr. Brenda Bloodgood. She is studying how an experience-dependent immediate early gene changes the inhibitory profile of neural circuits. Chiaki helps manage post-production for the Stories of WiN podcast series.
Gates Schneider is a research technician at the Salk Institute. She currently works in Kay Tye's lab and studies social homeostasis. She hopes to pursue a PhD in neuroscience in the near future with interests including but not limited to fear learning and memory, microcircuits, and behavioral endocrinology. Gates helps with audio post-production and editing the podcasts.
Leslie Sibener is a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Columbia University Neurobiology and Behavior Graduate Program working with Dr. Rui Costa at the Zuckerman Institute. For her thesis, she is studying how animals learn, maintain, and execute motor skills. Leslie interviews and writes profiles for Stories of WiN. She also is the Head of Curriculum Development for Columbia University Neuroscience Outreach and a group leader for NeuWrite.
Sydney Smith is an upcoming third year PhD student at UC San Diego. She is studying the electrophysiological signatures of auditory perception and predictive coding in the lab of Dr. Bradley Voytek. Sydney writes profiles for Stories of WiN.
Sheila Steiner is a first-year Neurosciences PhD student at UCSD. She works in Dr. Martin Hetzer lab studying long-lived histone proteins in Alzheimer’s disease. Sheila writes profiles for Stories of WiN.
Dr. Sarah Winokur is a postdoctoral fellow in lab of Dr. Robert Froemke at the New York University School of Medicine where she studies the neuroscience of maternal behavior. She completed her PhD at UMass Amherst, working with Dr. Mariana Pereira. Sarah works as an editor for Stories of WiN.
Past Contributors
Dakota Blackman (Co-Founder)
Daniela Cassataro (Co-Founder)
Marley Rossa (Co-Founder)
Dr. Elena Blanco-Suárez
Mia Borzello
Dr. Rianne Campbell
Rosa Chen
Sabrina Santos
Dr. Cristiana Vagnoni