Keynote Speaker & Panelists

Miraj Desai, Ph.D.

Dr. Miraj Desai is an Assistant Professor at the Program for Recovery and Community Health of the Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry. His work, as the Principal Investigator of the Structural Health and Psychology (SHP, or “ship”) Lab, focuses on the cultural, community, and social justice foundations of mental health.

The SHP Lab investigates the structural bases of health, equity, and inequity, with a dedicated mission to community engagement. His work sought to develop a novel applied science— “structural psychology”— to aid in these efforts. Structural psychology spans the entire translational science spectrum, inclusive of basic, clinical, community, and population mental health research.

Dr. Desai’s scientific work on culture, community, race, and racism has been funded by a range of awards, including a K01 Award from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities/NIH. Among his many accolades, he is a Minority Fellow of the APA and was named a 40 Under 40 Leader in Health by the National Minority Quality Forum. He is also a Resident Fellow of Pierson College, Affiliated Faculty in the Center on Climate Change and Health (Yale School of Public Health), and a Member of the South Asian Studies Council.

Trevor Sorrells, Ph.D.

Trevor Sorrells is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Genetics at Yale School of Medicine. His research focuses on understanding the neurons in the mosquito brain that control blood feeding behavior and how this behavior evolved. He began his lab in 2022 after postdoctoral work at Rockefeller University studying the behavioral persistence of mosquitoes to search for humans. During his PhD at UCSF he studied the evolution of transcription regulatory networks in yeast. In addition to research, Trevor has led organizations to provide support to LGBTQ+ scientists and mentored many junior scientists. Outside the lab he enjoys music, horticulture, travel, and spending time with his husband and daughter. 

Li Yan McCurdy, Ph.D.

Dr. McCurdy is a neurobiologist by training who has recently pivoted to translational addiction research. She is currently a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Radiology & Biomedical Imaging at Yale School of Medicine. Her program of research centers on uncovering neural and psychological mechanisms of addiction recovery, with a particular interest in developing psychosocial interventions to support people with addiction. She completed her PhD in neuroscience at Yale University, and her undergraduate degree in biochemistry at Columbia University. Outside of work, she volunteers in the local addiction recovery community and enjoys mentoring people who are early in their academic careers.

Tara Thompson-Felix, M.D.

Tara Thompson-Felix received her undergraduate degree from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ and her MD from Rutgers, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Prior to medical school, she worked as a postgraduate research associate in the Yale Child Study Center focusing on investigating the genetic basis of developmental language and behavioral disorders. After earning her M.D., she trained in adult psychiatry at the Lewis Katz Temple University medical school. At Temple, she served as a chief resident and completed the child and research track. Her research involved collaborations with the Temple OB/GYN and neuroscience department to investigate the epigenetic landscape of fetal neural exosomes associated with in utero exposure to opiates. Based on this work, Dr. Thompson-Felix was selected as an APA research colloquium awardee in 2018. Dr. Thompson-Felix is also a National Neuroscience Curriculum Initiative (NNCI) scholar and continues to work on developing new teaching materials, including a “this stuff is really cool” talk on exosomes and clinical commentary published in the Journal of Biological Psychiatry (2019). She was awarded the 2020 George Ginsberg Fellowship award from the American Association of Directors of Psychiatry Residency Training (AADPRT), acknowledging her commitment to teaching and education. Dr. Thompson-Felix is interested in improving child development starting from the in-utero experience and maternal health. At this time, she is pursuing her PhD in the Yale Investigative Medicine Program through the Yale Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Her current project focuses on understanding the impact of maternal obesity on child neurodevelopment through the characterization of placenta and fetal neuron derived extracellular vesicles. This work is supported by various awards including the NRSA T32 training program, NIH Loan Repayment Program, and 2022 YCSC trainee pilot award. In her spare time, she enjoys dancing with her kids, spending time with family and cooking cultural dishes.

Milind Singh

Milind Singh is a PhD candidate in the Department of Cell Biology in the lab of Daniel Colón-Ramos where he studies the regulation of metabolism within brain cells of live worms (C. elegans). Milind is from India where he did his undergrad major in engineering physics with a minor in biotechnology from the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati. He hopes to transition to a scientist position in the biotech industry. In his free time, Milind loves playing and watching a lot of sports.

Henry Park, M.D., MPH

Dr. Henry S. Park is a board-certified radiation oncologist who serves as Associate Professor, Vice Chair for Clinical Research, and Chief of the Thoracic Radiotherapy Program for the Department of Therapeutic Radiology at the Yale School of Medicine. He received his undergraduate degree from Yale College, master’s degree from the Harvard School of Public Health, and medical doctorate degree from the Yale School of Medicine. He completed his internal medicine internship at Harvard Medical School’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center before returning to Yale New Haven Hospital for his residency and chief residency in radiation oncology. 

Dr. Park subspecializes in radiation therapy for lung cancer and head and neck cancer. He leads a wide-ranging research program in clinical trials, real-world evidence, and health services. He has co-authored over 130 peer-reviewed original research articles and 40 reviews, book chapters, invited editorials, and practice guidelines. He serves as an oral boards certifying examiner for the American Board of Radiology and as an active committee member for the American Society for Radiation Oncology, SWOG, ECOG-ACRIN, and NRG. He has been honored with multiple awards for his contributions to patient care, clinical research, and medical education.

Kavita Israni-Winger, Ph.D.

Dr. Kavita Israni-Winger is a first year medical student at Yale University. She completed her graduate degree at Yale University in the department of Immunobiology and her undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto. She plans to pursue a career as a physician-scientist with a focus in inflammatory disease. 

Cecilia Frometa, Ph.D.

Dr. Cecilia Frometa is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and Assistant Professor at the Yale University School of Medicine. She is a core faculty member within the Psychology Section at the Child Study Center where she serves as a member of the Child Study Center’s American Psychological Association (APA) Admission Committee in the Pre-post-Doctoral Fellowship Program in Psychology. Dr. Frometa is the Director of Yale’s Family Based Recovery Program (FBR).

She has been in the mental health field for over 27 years and has extensive therapeutic, clinical supervision, teaching, mentoring, program development and public policy experience. She is a part of the Yale Child Study Center’s Post Graduate Program (PGA) where she has mentored numerous undergraduate and graduate students on ways of navigating the graduate and medical school process.

Dr. Frometa has been a keynote speaker, expert panelist, and presenter at several national and state-wide mental health forums with an emphasis on child development/mental health and culturally centered care consideration for children and families. She has secured several travel scholarships for Yale of undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students interested in further developing their clinical, research and policy planning skill set.

Most recently, Frometa was chosen to lead a 16-member team of Yale Medical School alumni who take part on international service trips focused on improving the socio-emotional landscape of disenfranchised communities. Dr. Frometa was also featured on NBC Nightly News on a segment on ‘helping parents identify depression in children during the COVID pandemic’. She is also Chair of a Child Study Center Steering Committee focused on the creation, teaching and implementation of tools to enhance clinical engagement of minoritized populations in mental health care

Steven Riley, Ph.D.

Steve Riley works on developing methods for analyzing fMRI correlation matrices, with the goal that these methods improve accuracy of diagnosis and classification for substance use disorders. His PhD is in psychology from Emory, and he majored in mathematics at Stanford. He has previously been a computer programmer, a teacher, a tutor, and a therapist. He played the trombone in college and was the drum major of the Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band in 2001. He has published three crossword puzzles in the New York Times. He is definitely not the Steve Riley who was the drummer for the hair metal bands L.A. Guns and W.A.S.P.