Team

Andreana (Anya) Benitez, Ph.D.

Dr. Benitez is a clinical neuropsychologist who specializes in the dementing diseases of aging. A strong advocate of work-life balance, she is often found exploring the Lowcountry with her family and friends, reading, traveling, and practicing yoga.

Stephanie Aghamoosa, Ph.D.

Dr. Aghamoosa is a clinical psychologist with specializations in neuropsychology and health psychology. Her research focuses on better understanding the brain changes associated with aging and dementia and testing interventions to improve cognitive function. In her free time, she takes advantage of Charleston's great weather by spending time outdoors with her family, with her dog Rosie in tow.

Katrina Madden

Katrina oversees study recruitment and scheduling. With an educational background in chemistry and business, she has a passion for the fields of science and marketing. She has been a resident of the Lowcountry for over 20 years but was born and raised in Colorado. She is a mountain girl at heart.

Kathryn (Ryn) Thorn

Ryn is the MR image analyst and lab manager, as well as a science communications intern with MUSC's SC-SWIFT program. She is a Charlotte native with an educational background in Biology and Psychology. In her free time, you can find her reading, sewing, or playing Pokemon Go while walking her dog, Miyazaki.

Olivia Horn

Olivia is the program coordinator responsible for running the IAM study. With an educational background in biology and psychology, she is passionate about research of dementia-related diseases. In her free time, she can be found exploring Charleston or reading in a public park.

Reyna Hickey

Reyna is a research coordinator with a background in neuroscience. A graduate of the University of Illinois, she recently moved to Charleston and is excited about the nicer weather. When not working, she loves reading, spinning her flag, swimming and hiking.

Alumni

Siddhartha (Sid) Dhiman

Sid is the research specialist who manages all 0's and 1's of incoming data. As a biomedical engineer who's passionate about computational biology and computer vision, he composes diffusion MRI processing pipelines to support data analysis. When not working, you may find him exploring the East coast, on his guitar, reading, or playing video games.

James Lopez

James is the coordinator for the PUSH Study. A graduate of the College of Charleston, he has lived in Charleston for the past 6 years. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his cat Lemon.

Pets

Miyazaki

Miyazaki, AKA Miya AKA Zaki, is a very good dog who love sleeping, snacks, and rides in the car. She is a 7 year old Shiba Inu who spends most of the day napping with her stuffed shark, Mack. You can see her out and about with her human, Ryn.

Cecil and Ziggy

Cecil (brown and white) and Ziggy (black and white) are two very good boys. Ziggy enjoys meowing loudly at birds and knocking things off of counters. Cecil enjoys catnip and snuggling.