Our Team

Online content manager

Yvonne is a PhD student in the Neurobiology and Behavior program at Columbia. She manages this very website for CUNO. In that role Yvonne updates lists of upcoming events and maintains CUNO’s database of curriculum. Yvonne has volunteered for Saturday Science and is involved in creating more activities for Saturday Science. 

VP, Single Visit Classroom Teaching

You-Nah is a PhD student in the Neurobiology and Behavior Program at Columbia. You-Nah joined CUNO in 2017 and she is the new VP of the Single Visit Classroom Teaching. She connects CUNO’s volunteers to school teachers who are interested in hosting a neuroscience lesson at their classrooms. In addition to coordinating single visits, You-Nah enjoys volunteering for different CUNO activities including Saturday Science and Curriculum Development. 

VP, Saturday Science

Risa is a PhD student in the Neurobiology and Behavior Program at Columbia, where she studies the aging and diseased nervous system. She joined CUNO in 2020 and is now Vice President of Saturday Science. Risa is excited to continue engaging with NYC children & families by developing hands-on neuroscience demos and organizing teams of passionate volunteers. Risa also enjoys volunteering with the Curriculum Development team.

President

Nick is a PhD student in the Neurobiology & Behavior program at Columbia, where he studies how memories are stored and retrieved in different regions of the mouse brain. In his current role with CUNO, he organizes executive board meetings, recruits volunteers, and oversees programming and fundraising. Nick joined CUNO in 2019 and has previously volunteered with the Saturday Science and Curriculum teams, as well as on the executive team as Vice President of Saturday Science.

Co-President

Michelle is a PhD student in the Neurobiology and Behavior program at Columbia. She joined CUNO in 2017 and as co-president, she secures funding, organizes executive board meetings, recruits volunteers, oversees programming and curriculum development, and manages CUNO’s internal volunteer mailing list. She has translated CUNO curricula into Spanish and volunteered for Saturday Science, Late Night Science, and the Bilingual Brain Fair.

VP, Classroom Visits

Mark is a PhD student in the Neurobiology and Behavior program at Columbia in the lab of Kristin Baldwin, where he studies the genetic underpinnings of neuronal identity and diversity in humans by turning different cell types into neurons. Mark is excited to bring fun neuroscience activities to classrooms across NYC together with co-VP Aleks.

VP, Curriculum

Leslie is a PhD student in the Neurobiology and Behavior program at Columbia. She is Vice President of Curriculum for CUNO. In that role Leslie helps create new curriculum for CUNO’s various outreach programs (Saturday Science, In-School Visits), and maintain CUNO’s database of curriculum. Leslie has volunteered for Saturday Science, the Brain Bee, and Brain Fairs. 
 

VP, Classroom Multi-visit

Kimberly is a PhD student in the Neurobiology and Behavior Program at Columbia. She joined CUNO in 2018 and is the new VP of the Muliti-Visit Classroom teaching program. She connects volunteers to middle schools in the community where they teach neuroscience subjects once a week for a semester. Kimberly has also volunteered for other CUNO events such as Saturday Science, Single Classroom Visits, and the Bilingual Brain Fair. 

VP, Brain Bee

Kelly is a PhD student in the Neurobiology & Behavior program at Columbia. She is Vice President of the regional Brain Bee competition that brings together high school students from all 5 boroughs of NYC to showcase their knowledge of brain facts. Kelly helps organize the event and coordinates study sessions taught by graduate students at Columbia to help prepare the participants for the competition. Kelly also volunteers at Saturday Science and has taught single-visit classroom visits to high school students in NYC. 
 

VP, Curriculum

Justin is a PhD student in the Neurobiology & Behavior program at Columbia, where he studies the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying hallucinations. Justin and the Curriculum Development Team design lesson plans and interactive activities for classroom visits and Saturday Science. He also maintains CUNO’s Virtual Educational Resource Database.

Co-President

Jennifer is PhD student in the Neurobiology & Behavior program at Columbia. As Vice President of Saturday Science, she coordinated monthly events relating to brain science for families and community groups. A different theme is featured each month, and the program is hosted in collaboration with the Zuckerman Institute and BioBus. In addition to managing volunteers and developing activities for Saturday Science, Jennifer had also volunteered for similar brain fair events with braiNY, the Greater NYC Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience. Her favorite outreach activity is the Jelly Bean Taste Test.

VP, Late Night Science

Gordon is a PhD student in the Neurobiology & Behavior program at Columbia. He studies which regions of the brain allow us to pay attention to important sensations while ignoring things that are distracting. Gordon helps coordinate the Late-Night Science lecture series, in which students share their research with members of our local community. Each month he helps his fellow graduate students create a presentation on their research and invites members of the public to attend and learn about what we are studying here at Columbia. He also helps to coordinate laboratory tours to teach members of the public about the tools and techniques used in biological research.

VP, Saturday Science

Briana is a PhD student in the Neurobiology & Behavior Program at Columbia, where she studies how motherhood changes the brain in rodents. She joined CUNO in 2020 and is now Vice President of Saturday Science along with Risa, where she helps to organize outreach events and design new activities. Briana is passionate about science outreach because events like Saturday Science were very influential in her path to becoming a scientist. Briana has also volunteered for Saturday Science event days in the past, as well as helped to translate existing curriculum from English to Spanish.

VP, Spanish Speaking Events

Andrés is a PhD student in the Neurobiology and Behavior program at Columbia. Raised by a recently immigrated single mother in a predominantly Latino and African American community, Andrés is committed to extend his reach to underrepresented communities. He is also the community outreach chair of SOCA and a representative of the SAC—Diversity and Inclusion in Neuroscience subcommittee. As the Vice President of Spanish Speaking Events, he will continue the theme of inclusion to make the excellent scientific research being done at Columbia accessible to the communities of Harlem and Washington Heights.

VP, Spanish Programming

Amanda is a PhD student in the Neurobiology and Behavior Program at Columbia. She joined CUNO in 2021 and is now Vice President of CUNO Spanish. Amanda looks forward to engaging with Spanish-speaking communities in NYC and developing fun brain science activities that transcend language barriers.

Amanda es una estudiante doctoral en el programa de Neurobiología y Comportamiento en Columbia. Se unió a CUNO en 2021 y ahora es Vice Presidenta de CUNO en Español. Amanda espera poder compartir con las comunidades hispanohablantes en NYC y desarrollar actividades divertidas sobre el cerebro que trasciendan barreras de lenguaje.

VP, Classroom Visits

Aleks is an MD-PhD student in the Neurobiology and Behavior program at Columbia, where she studies how synapses develop in the cerebral cortex and how the timing of this process may play a role in neurodevelopmental diseases. Aleks is excited to share her interest in neuroscience with schools across NYC together with co-VP Mark.

VP, Late Night Science

Abhi Shah is a second-year graduate student in the Neurobiology and Behavior program, co-advised by professors Attila Losonczy and Stefano Fusi. In his research, Abhi investigates how circuit structure in the hippocampus determines the computational underpinnings of learning and memory. Abhi is dedicated to making science accessible, and in addition to his work with CUNO, he is also an instructor for BRAINYAC. In his free time, Abhi enjoys cooking, making music, and going on useless tangents for extended periods of time.