Ph.D. 2001 Developmental Psychology, The Graduate School and University Center, City University of New York

The main focus of my work is exploring social understanding in people with developmental disorders. I am currently coordinating the research activities of a five-year NIH-funded project investigating aspects of social perception in adolescents and adults with Williams syndrome. Specifically, this research program employs experimental methods to examine whether people with Williams syndrome have spared abilities in processing faces, speech and affective information. Among my current responsibilities are recruiting and organizing testing of project participants, conceptualization and design of research projects, developing experimental procedures and stimuli, coordinating daily activities in the lab and supervising research assistants, data collection, analyses and writing reports of the research findings, conference presentations. My goals for future research include exploring developmental aspects of social cognition in Williams syndrome, especially the behavioral precursors of the capacity to understand other people's minds in children with developmental disorders.

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