Welcome to INS-SLC
Thank you for visiting the page of the INS Student Liaison Committee! You may read about the history of SLC and about our student committee members on this page, or connect with the INS-SLC on their Facebook page.
The INS Student Liaison Committee also operates a google group especially for students. The google group is intended to provide a novel means of communication amongst neuropsychology trainees on professional development topics. The google group is a place where students can pose questions regarding training, provide peer consultation, and share ideas. The SLC will also post INS programming updates and upcoming deadlines.
History of the INS-SLC
At the 38th Annual Meeting of INS in Acapulco in 2010, the Board or Governors organized a meeting to solicit comments from students and trainees about how to better serve associate members and increase their involvement. As a result of this meeting, the Society formed a student-run standing committee with specific goals to address student and trainee professional development needs, foster student contributions to neuropsychological science, and provide opportunities for student involvement and leadership within the INS
The Student Liaison Committee (SLC) is currently recruiting for two positions:
Mid-Year Meeting Representative (for the 2025 meeting in Brisbane, Australia) and Annual Meeting Representative (Philadelphia 2026). Please see the attached document for a description of the positions, requirements for the application and application form. The application deadline is May 31, 2024, at 11:59 pm EST.
Donations to the Student Activities Fund supports the Student Liaison Committee in fostering student leadership, creating student-oriented programs and events, and developing funds and services to support students in the field of neuropsychology.
INS-SLC Committee Members
Aishani Desai
Co-Chair (2023-2025)
Aishani Desai is a PhD/Master of Clinical Neuropsychology candidate at Macquarie University in Sydney. She holds a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Psychology from the University of Warwick (UK) and a Master of Science in Developmental Neuroscience and Psychopathology from University College London (UK) and Yale University (USA). She has also worked in the areas of neurorehabilitation and epilepsy surgery research in her hometown of Mumbai, India. Aishani’s current PhD research is focused on investigating the different cognitive and psychological factors that are associated with return to productive activity following a traumatic brain injury, under the supervision of Associate Professor Jenny Batchelor, Dr Vincent Oxenham, Dr Jamie Berry, Dr Anthony Delaney and Dr Naomi Hammond at Royal North Shore Hospital (Australia). She is also currently working as a research assistant in the Department of Developmental Disability Neuropsychiatry at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). Aishani is passionate about understanding brain-behaviour relationships and its translational applications to better help diagnostic and interventional efforts. She has held a leadership position with the Australasian Society for the Study of Brain Impairment (ASSBI) as the National Student Coordinator from 2022-2023 and has previously served as the Mid-Year Meeting Representative for the INS SLC from 2020-2022 at the 6th Pacific Rim Conference (Melbourne) and Mid-Year Meeting in Barcelona. She is excited to continue working with the SLC in its many endeavours including promoting professional development and supporting trainees at a global level. She can be contacted via email at Aishani-bharat.desai@hdr.mq.edu.au
Kendra Pizzonia
Co-Chair (2024-2026)
Kendra Pizzonia is a fifth-year PhD student in Clinical Psychology completing the elective neuropsychology major area of study at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, USA under the mentorship of Dr. Julie Suhr. Kendra’s clinical and research experience has prioritized training in adult neuropsychology, with a focus on geriatric populations. For her dissertation, Kendra is leveraging the NACC dataset to explore gender differences in neuropsychiatric symptoms for individuals with mild cognitive impairment and she is examining whether neuropsychiatric symptoms are related to conversion and reversion rates. Kendra is looking forward to serving INS Associate Members as the SLC Co-Chair and she plans to continue to provide opportunities to showcase the work of neuropsychology trainees. She can be reached via email (ka104818@ohio.edu) or Twitter (@KLPizzonia).
Joshua Fox-Fuller
Past Co-Chair (2022-2024)
Josh Fox-Fuller is a postdoctoral fellow in the clinical neuropsychology consortium of Michigan Medicine (University of Michigan) and the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System. Josh completed his Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Boston University under the co-mentorship of Dr. Alice Cronin-Golomb and Dr. Yakeel T. Quiroz (Massachusetts General Hospital), and he completed his predoctoral internship on the adult/geriatric neuropsychology track at the Emory University School of Medicine. Josh’s research has focused broadly on two topics. First, he is interested in understanding the relationships between biological and cognitive markers of preclinical Alzheimer’s disease in mutation carriers (and non-carrier family members) of an autosomal dominant Alzheimer’s disease mutation whom are from Antioquia, Colombia. This research was supervised by his co-mentor, Dr. Quiroz, who directs the Multicultural Alzheimer’s Prevention Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, and was supported by an F31 NRSA from the National Institute on Aging. Second, Josh is interested in the development of teleneuropsychology and other remote tools for cognitive assessment. As Co-Chair of the International Neuropsychological Society’s Student Liaison Committee, Josh works to promote the open international exchange of neuropsychology research and education. He can be reached over email at joshfoxfuller@gmail.com or via twitter at @joshfoxfuller.
Tahlia Bragg
Annual Meeting Representative (2024-2025)
Tahlia Bragg (she/ella) is a Clinical Neuropsychology Postdoctoral Associate at Boston University Chobanian & Avedesian School of Medicine in the Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) Center. She completed her doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Fielding Graduate University in 2022. Most recently, she was a Psychology Intern at The Center for Multicultural Training in Psychology (CMTP) at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine & Boston Medical Center where her clinical foci were providing behavioral and psychotherapeutic interventions in systems-based care for children and families. Her research interests in Clinical Neuropsychology emphasize abolishing racial disparities in neuropsychology that impact Black-identified communities. In addition to her research responsibilities, Dr. Bragg is also providing clinical care in the Memory & Aging Disorder Clinic at Boston Medical Center.
María José Bracho
Global Engagement Representative
María José is a third-year doctoral student in the Psychology Program at Diego Portales University in Santiago de Chile. Originally from Ecuador, she graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Clinical Psychology from Universidad de las Américas. She then received her Master’s degree in Applied Neuropsychology from University of Glasgow in Scotland. María José’s PhD thesis is about social identity and stigma after Acquired Brain Injury under the supervision of Dr. Christian Salas. She is particularly interested in promoting initiatives that reduce stigma and facilitate community reintegration of this population. In addition to her research and academic responsibilities, she works in neuropsychological assessment and rehabilitation with adults in a private center.
Amber Ayton
Global Engagement Representative
Amber Ayton is a PhD (Clinical Neuropsychology) candidate at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. She attained a Bachelor of Psychological Science (Honours) from the University of Queensland in 2021. Amber’s honours thesis was based at the Centre for Children’s Health Research (Queensland Children’s Health) and focused on enhancing memory consolidation following paediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) using non-invasive brain stimulation. Amber is now completing her PhD thesis in geriatric TBI, where she is investigating the impact of older age on outcomes following moderate-severe brain injury, including neuropathological (MRI), psychosocial, emotional, and cognitive outcomes in the chronic period post-injury. Amber’s research is supervised by Dr Amelia Hicks, Dr Gershon Spitz, and Professor Jennie Ponsford at the Monash-Epworth Rehabilitation Research Centre (MERRC). Amber holds a student representative position at Monash University, and works at MERRC on additional research projects related to longitudinal outcomes and interventions in TBI.
Isabel Manica
Mid-Year Meeting Program Representative
Isabel Manica is a PhD of Language and Cognitive Sciences candidate at Universidade Católica Portuguesa in Lisbon. She holds a Bachelor of Psychology from Universidade da Madeira (Funchal, Portugal) and a Master in Neuropsychology from Universidade Católica Portuguesa (Lisbon, Portugal). Isabel’s current PhD research is related with cognitive aging trajectories of non-CNS cancer survivors, under the supervision of Professor Maria Vânia Nunes, PhD; Professor Raquel Lemos, PhD and Professor Albino Oliveira-Maia, MD, MPH, PhD. Currently, she is also working as neuropsychology trainee and clinical research fellow at the Champalimaud Foundation (Lisbon, Portugal). She has worked in two European Union’s Horizon 2020 funded projects: Predicting Effective Adaptation to Breast Cancer to Help Women to BOUNCE Back (H2020 77167) and A Prospective Observational Study for a Federated Artificial Intelligence solution for moniToring mental Health status after cancer treatment (H2020 875358). She can be reached via email (Isabel.manica@research.fchampalimaud.org).
Ivan Campbell
Communications and Outreach Representative
Ivan Campbell is a second year PhD student in Clinical and Counseling Psychology at the University of South Alabama studying clinical neuropsychology under Dr. Benjamin Hill. While working as a research assistant for Dr. Lawrence Sweet at the University of Georgia, Ivan developed an interest in behavioral neuroscience, clinical neuroimaging, and informatics which now guides his research. He is interested in the application of novel analytic methodologies to neuroimaging and neuropsychological data to uncover new information about the relationship between the brain and behavior, particularly within clinical populations. Ivan is especially interested in prediction, early detection, and prevention of neurological conditions such as dementia and Parkinson’s Disease. To that end, his masters thesis focuses on the use of quantitative neuropsychological performance data to attempt to define a premorbid cognitive profile for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy for the purpose of differential diagnosis. Going forward he hopes to focus his dissertation on the prediction of Parkinsonian mild cognitive impairment and freezing of gait from neuropsychological and neuroimaging data under an NIH funded grant with Dr. Virendra Mishra at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Ivan also has interests in positive neuropsychology, identifying factors such as mindfulness and bilingualism which can increase cognitive performance and longevity, which he hopes to integrate into his clinical research and practice. Ivan can be reached via email at iacampbell799@gmail.com
Lena Etzel
Member-at-Large
Lena Etzel is a PhD candidate at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and a current predoctoral intern in the adult/geriatric neuropsychology track at the Emory University School of Medicine. Her dissertation examines executive functioning as a protective factor in combat-related PTSD. As a German native, Lena is familiar with the challenges and opportunities that come with studying on a visa in the US. This experience has sparked a broader passion for identifying and implementing ways to support visa-holding scholars as well as those who may be involved in their training (e.g., training directors, supervisors). As the Member-at-Large, she is excited to work with the SLC to promote an inclusive community, educational opportunities, and professional growth among trainees. She can be reached via email (letzel@uncc.edu) or Twitter/X @lenaetzel.