- Disruptive Technology Initiative
- / DTI Committee Bios
Jared F. Benge, Ph.D., ABPP-CN
Associate Professor, Department of Neurology
Director, Adult Neuropsychology Postdoctoral Program
The University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School
Clinical Neuropsychologist
UT Health Austin
Jared Benge is a clinical neuropsychologist and associate professor at UT Dell Medical School. He specializes in the understanding of how engaging with technology changes cognitive functioning in older adults, forming the foundation of the technological reserve hypothesis.
Disclosures: Dr. Benge receives research funding from the National Institute of Aging and Alzheimer’s Association. He has no disclosures for honoraria or consulting fees from the following commercial interests.
Robert M. Bilder, Ph.D., ABPP-CN
Michael E. Tennenbaum Family Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences and Psychology
Chief, Division of Psychology
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Jane & Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience at UCLA
Stewart & Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA
Bob Bilder has long been committed to research on brain and behavior, with aims to eliminate artificial boundaries between mental health and illness, and between every day and exceptional creativity. He is particularly interested in advanced technologies and has led the AACN’s Disruptive Technology Initiative since its inception and is committed to working towards the vision championed by the late Karen Postal, which is now manifest in a new functional competency for neuropsychology following the Minnesota Conference guidelines.
Disclosures: Dr. Bilder receives research funding from the National Institute of Mental Health and the Nationoal Endowment for the Arts. Over the last two years he has received honoraria or consulting fees from the following commercial interests: Karuna Therapeutics, Prodeo LLC-TALi Digital Limited/TALi Health Pty Ltd, and ThinkNow Inc.
Naomi S. Chaytor, Ph.D., ABPP
Board Certified Clinical Neuropsychologist
Chair and Professor (with tenure)
Department of Community and Behavioral Health
Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine
Washington State University
I have had a longstanding interest in taking neuropsychological assessment out of the clinic and into the real world. Understanding how cognition fluctuates across time, environmental conditions, or in response to internal states allows for more targeted interventions that have the potential to maximize cognitive performance. Technological advances have enabled reliable and precise data collection on personal devices, making direct to participant cognitive assessment possible. My research program harnesses the power of remote cognitive assessment coupled with clinically available diabetes technology (i.e., continuous glucose monitoring, automated insulin delivery) to understand the dynamic interactions between glucose, cognition, stress, sleep and mood in real world environments, with direct clinical applicability.
Disclosures: Dr. Chaytor receives research funding from NIH, NSF and JDRF and is a paid consultant for Adaptelligence, LLC.
Tannahill Glen, Ph.D., ABPP
Dr. Glen is board certified in Clinical Neuropsychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology. She is a licensed psychologist in the state of Florida (PY 6757). Dr. Glen completed a doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the Georgia School of Professional Psychology, and completed an American Psychological Association- and Canadian Psychological Association-accredited internship in Pediatric Neuropsychology at Alberta Children’s Hospital. She completed a National Institute of Health research training grant funded residency in Neuropsychology at the University of Alabama-Birmingham School of Medicine.
After more than a decade as a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology at UF Health Neuroscience Institute in Jacksonville, Florida, Dr. Glen opened Neuropsychology, Inc., an expert forensic consultation company, and also serves as a clinical neuropsychologist at MD Anderson Cancer Center/Baptist Medical Center in Jacksonville. Michelle Chen, Ph.D., ABPP
Assistant Professor, Rutgers University
Neuropsychologists are uniquely positioned to elucidate the patient’s real-world strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately, most of our existing validated tools have limited ecological validity and only take a snapshot of the patient’s functioning at a single time point. Digital tools have the potential to address these limitations by collecting data from the patients in their home environment for a longer period of time. Not only can we make stronger conclusions about the patient’s functioning by observing their real-world behaviors, the highly longitudinal data allow us to detect personalized changes in shorter time frames (e.g., due to disease activity or new therapeutic regimen). As a researcher, I am fascinated about applications of these technologies and how they may improve our clinical practice in the long run.
Disclosure statement re: potential conflicts of interest: Dr. Chen receives funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institute on Aging, New Jersey Health Foundation, National Academy of Neuropsychology, and Rutgers University. She has also received honoraria for speaking from the National Academy of Neuropsychology.
Alexandra Davis M.S. Psy.D. Candidate
Predoctoral Intern, Neuropsychology Track, Bay Pines VA
Alexandra has a background in computer science before starting her career in neuropsychology. She is interested in bridging the gap between neuropsychology and technology. She is particularly interested in Machine Learning and its application in research and clinical application.
Andrew Dimmick, M.S.
Doctoral Candidate in Clinical Psychology,
Neuropsychology track – University of North Texas
Andrew is a 4th year doctoral student studying clinical psychology with an emphasis in neuropsychology at the University of North Texas. He is interested in increasing the accessibility and application of neuropsychology to people who have been historically underserved and marginalized. Andrew joined the Disruptive Technology Initiative to assist in exploring how the increasing use of technology in neuropsychology can be used to broaden the reach of neuropsychology and increase utilization among individuals with limited access.
Leah Ellenberg, Ph.D., ABPP
I am a licensed, Board Certified Clinical Neuropsychologist, with a subspecialty in Pediatric Neuropsychology, and a Clinical Professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. I have a private practice in clinical neuropsychology and I supervise interns and fellows in pediatric neuropsychology at UCLA. My interest in Disruptive Technology is primarily as a consumer, looking to optimize tools available for clinical practice in neuropsychology.
Bryan Freilich, Psy.D., ABPP-CN
Director of Neuropsychology, Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Dr. Freilich is Director of the Neuropsychology Assessment Service (NAS) at Montefiore Medical Center (MMC) and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Albert Einstein College of Medicine (AECOM). Dr. Freilich received his doctoral degree from Yeshiva University, Ferkauf Clinical School of Psychology and completed his internship and postdoctoral fellowship in clinical neuropsychology at MMC/AECOM. He is board certified in clinical neuropsychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP). Dr. Freilich’s clinical and research interests include dementia differential diagnosis and the neuropsychological screening/assessment of traumatic brain injury, sickle cell disease, systemic lupus erythematosus, and acute lymphoblastic leukemia. He presently serves as the Club Neuropsychologist for the New York City Football Club (NYCFC) of Major League Soccer (MLS). Dr. Freilich joined the Disruptive Technology Initiative (DTI) committee to help promote the advancement of technology within the field of clinical neuropsychology. He is particularly interested in using technology to streamline neuropsychological assessment, scoring, and report writing.
Katherine Hackett, MA
Psychology/Neuropsychology Intern – Rusk Rehabilitation | NYU Langone Health
Doctoral Candidate in Clinical Psychology, Neuroscience minor – Temple University
Katherine’s primary research interests surround how technology can enhance our existing neuropsychological assessment and intervention methods, with a focus on aging and neurological disorders. Specific projects she has led include exploring the validity of the computer-administered NIH Toolbox for cognitive assessment in older adults, developing and evaluating a smartphone reminder application to improve everyday functioning for individuals with MCI and dementia, and most recently investigating the feasibility and validity of smartphone digital phenotyping to assess cognition, function and mood in older adults – the focus of her dissertation and her NIH/NIA NRSA F31 fellowship. Katherine is excited about the potential for new technologies to be integrated into research and most importantly clinical practice, as they offer opportunities for increased efficiency, sensitivity, ecological validity and personalization. She is committed to helping the field of neuropsychology remain at pace with rapid advances in technology, and believes that clinical neuropsychologists have a key role to play in ensuring new methods are investigated rigorously and applied from a theoretically informed framework. She is looking forward to learning from fellow disruptive technology committee members and collaboratively working to address the many open questions, challenges, and opportunities related to this subfield.
Sophie Leib, M.S.
Pediatric Neuropsychology Intern
Future Post-Doctoral Fellow at Nationwide Children’s Hospital
I am interested in the use of innovative technology to advance the field of pediatric neuropsychology, especially in the context of inpatient evaluations. I am also motivated to find ways to include training on advanced statistical techniques and disruptive technology into graduate school curriculums and hope to help prepare the next generation of neuropsychologists for practice in a technologically-advanced society.
Anna Papova, Ph.D.
Neuropsychologist, Main Line Health
Dr. Papova is a licensed psychologist in the state of Pennsylvania and works at the Bryn Mawr Rehab Hospital as an outpatient neuropsychologist with adult populations. She completed a doctorate in clinical psychology at Arizona State University, as well as an APA-accredited clinical internship at the Department of Veterans Affairs in Memphis, TN and an APPCN-accredited neuropsychology postdoctoral fellowship at Henry Ford Health in Detroit, MI. She joined the Disruptive Technology Initiative committee to promote technological advancement within the field of neuropsychology and is passionate about streamlining and optimizing processes to put greater focus on patient care.
Brittany Wolff, Ph.D.
MPsych/PhD (Clinical Neuropsychology)
Brittany is a postdoctoral student and provisional neuropsychologist at the University of Western Australia. Her PhD investigated the neurocognitive functioning and developmental trajectories of siblings of persons with neurodevelopmental conditions. Brittany practices as a clinical neuropsychologist trainee in lifespan forensic and pediatric rehabilitation neuropsychology. Her current research also focuses on identifying transdiagnostic neuro-biopsychosocial processes associated with atypical brain development, brain injury, and severe mental illnesses in children and adolescents. Brittany is excited about transformative opportunities for clinical digital phenotyping and integrated data-rich approaches to improve equality of access for marginalized groups, and optimize scalability, translatability, and sustainability of neuropsychology to personalize interventions and treatment. She is especially interested in novel analysis methods (e.g., differential item functioning, item response theory, CAT, machine learning), and ecologically valid ways of capturing brain-behaviour associations (e.g., NLP, passive sensing, EMA, psychophysiological) to better understand the complex aetiology and course of neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions.