Lab Manager

I graduated from Connecticut College in 2015 with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Music. At Connecticut College, I designed and conducted empirical research assessing the impact of select DSM-5 revisions on mental illness stigma, which culminated in a 120-page honors thesis. Driven by my interest in major depression and stigma research in traditionally stigmatized populations, I pursued coursework at University College London; completed a clinical practicum at Sound Community Services, a social rehabilitation center for adults with chronic mental illness in New London, CT; interned at the Positive Emotion and Psychopathology Laboratory at Yale University and facilitated psychological research in adults with mood disorders; worked at the Schizophrenia Clinical and Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, performing clinical trials in adults with schizophrenia and young adults with first episode psychosis; and, at the Loggia Lab (2016-2018), assisted in the study of neuroinflammation in chronic pain and stroke patients. 

I recently completed the Post-Baccalaureate Premedical Program at Columbia University and volunteered as a Research Intern at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center in the Emergency Department.

I am returning to the Loggia Lab to further my exploration of striatal hypofunction as a neural correlate for anhedonic mood alterations in chronic pain patients, a phenomenon I documented in a first-author paper in Dr. Loggia’s laboratory. I am excited to test the immunoexcitotoxicity hypothesis in Gulf War veterans and to delineate the extent of microglial and astrocytic contributions to neuroinflammation. Finally, I look forward to contributing to Dr. Loggia’s research by serving as a primary staff for neuroimaging data acquisition and analysis in HIV patients.

Contact

Email: ekim35@mgh.harvard.edu