Neurodevelopmental and Behavioral Phenotyping Service

Biography
Dr. Audrey Thurm, Ph.D. received training at DePaul University and Boston Children's Hospital/Harvard Medical School, and conducted a post-doctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She has been at NIMH since 2002, serving in the extramural program until 2006, as chief of both the Autism and Social Behavior Program, and the Compulsive Repetitive Behaviors Program. In 2006 she moved to the intramural program to help launch the autism research program. She has expertise in longitudinal studies and an interest in markers of the early diagnosis of autism as well as genetic conditions associated with neurodevelopmental disorders.

Biography
Lisa Joseph, Ph.D. is the lead clinical child psychologist in the Neurodevelopmental and Behavioral Phenotyping Service at NIMH. She received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Palo Alto University in California. Dr. Joseph completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Warren Alpert Medical school of Brown University in the Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities, and she joined the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Intramural Research Program in 2008 as a research fellow. Dr. Joseph’s research interests include repetitive behaviors in neurodevelopmental disorders, identification of intellectual disability and the behavioral phenotype of neurodevelopmental disorders and rare genetic disorders, and the impact of ASD and other neurodevelopmental disorders in low- and middle-income countries.

Biography
Maria Martinez Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist in the Neurodevelopmental and Behavioral Phenotyping service (NBPS) within the Consultation Liaison Service in the Office of the Clinical Director. Dr. Martinez received her Ph.D. from the University of Chapel Hill in Clinical Psychology, specializing in Children and Families, and her clinical internship at the Charleston Consortium at the Medical University of South Carolina and Ralph Johnson Veteran Affairs Medical Center. She completed postdoctoral training at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill including Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) training at the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities in Maternal and Child Health. Her clinical work and research has focused on improving assessment and services for families at-high risk for developmental disabilities and psychopathology in community settings. Dr. Martinez conducts neurodevelopmental and neuropsychological evaluations with infants, children and adults including Spanish language dominant and bilingual families.

Biography
Cristan Farmer, Ph.D. is a research psychologist in the Neurodevelopmental and Behavioral Phenotyping Service. She received her Ph.D. in Intellectual and Developmental Disability Psychology from the Ohio State University and completed post-doctoral training in the NIMH Pediatrics and Developmental Neuroscience Branch. Dr. Farmer has expertise in statistics and psychometrics, with a particular interest in measurement challenges encountered in research with severely impaired populations. Her primary duties in the NBPS concern collaborations with multidisciplinary teams to manage, analyze, and disseminate data from a wide variety of modalities, study designs, and participant populations. Dr. Farmer is also an enthusiastic teacher, serving as a statistical consultant to trainees and colleagues throughout NIH and administering the NIMH Trainee Statistics Seminar series.

Biography
Ivy Giserman-Kiss, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist in the Neurodevelopmental and Behavioral Phenotyping Service (NBPS). She received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Massachusetts Boston and subsequently completed her clinical internship in pediatric neuropsychology at Rusk Rehabilitation at NYU Langone and postdoctoral fellowship at the Seaver Autism Center at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She has extensive experience working with children with significant intellectual and developmental disabilities across clinical settings. Dr. Giserman-Kiss conducts neurodevelopmental and neuropsychological evaluations with infants, children, and adults with rare genetic conditions and serves as the Training Coordinator for NBPS clinical psychology practicum students.

Biography
Margaret Pekar is the Research Coordinator for the Neurodevelopmental and Behavioral Phenotyping Service and is actively involved in patient intake and protocol regulatory activities. She received her Master of Arts degree in 1999 from Marymount University. She transitioned to the NBPS in April 2019 and has been with the National Institute of Mental Health since 1996.

Biography
Leslie Manso is a Contract Data Analyst with a passion for turning numbers into insights. With a background in Memory Disorders research, she is well-versed in the art of working with both qualitative and quantitative data. Leslie’s true passion lies in uncovering trends and patterns in numeric data to create a more comprehensive understanding of complex issues. In the future, she plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Public Health with a focus on minority health disparities, specifically related to improving health data on the Hispanic/Latinx population at the subgroup level. Leslie is excited to use her skills and expertise to drive positive change and make a difference in the lives of those who need it most.