About
I'm a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of South Carolina, where I direct the USC Aging Brain Cohort (ABC) Study and serve as a core investigator at the South Carolina Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (SC-ADRC). I'm a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the Arnold School of Public Health.
My work sits at the intersection of brain imaging, machine learning, and rehabilitation - trying to understand why some brains age gracefully while others don't, and how we can use that knowledge to help people recover from stroke and language disorders.
I earned my PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience from Dartmouth College in 2005, spent four years as a postdoc at the Donders Institute for Brain, Behavior and Cognition in the Netherlands, and have been at USC since 2009. One of my favourite discoveries: the mirror neuron system fires more strongly when you complement someone's action than when you simply imitate them (Nature Neuroscience, 2007). Brains are social organs.
Career Timeline
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2025 – Present
Research Associate Professor, Dept. of COMDUniversity of South Carolina
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2022 – 2026
Research Associate Professor, Dept. of PsychologyUniversity of South Carolina
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2019 – Present
Director, Aging Brain Cohort Study (ABC@UofSC)University of South Carolina
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2017 – 2026
Managing Director, McCausland Center for Brain ImagingUniversity of South Carolina
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2017 – 2022
Research Associate, Dept. of PsychologyUniversity of South Carolina
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2009 – 2017
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Exercise ScienceUniversity of South Carolina
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2005 – 2009
Postdoctoral ResearcherDonders Institute for Brain, Behavior and Cognition · Radboud University Nijmegen
Education
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2005
Ph.D., Cognitive NeuroscienceDartmouth College · Advisor: Scott T. Grafton, M.D.Thesis: Brain Correlates of Second Language Acquisition in Adult Learners
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1997 – 1999
B.A., PsychologySUNY Geneseo
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1995 – 1997
Coursework towards bachelor's degreeJohns Hopkins University