Dissemination and Outreach
The Dissemination and Outreach Core is responsible for ensuring that our research results are shared with the public in a timely manner. Additionally, we have a Family Navigator to help families understand eligibility and how to apply for early intervention services. Our Dissemination and Outreach Core has developed a toolkit for families with infants identified as being at increased genetic risk of developmental differences.
Project Leads
Jeremy M. Veenstra-VanderWeele, MD
- Suzanne Crosby Murphy Professor of Pediatric Neuropsychiatry (in Psychiatry) and Professor of Pediatrics
- PROGRESS PI Admin Core - Co-Lead
- Dissemination and Outreach Core - Lead
Dr. Veenstra-VanderVeele trained in human molecular genetics in the laboratory of Edwin H. Cook at the University of Chicago. Following his child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship, he expanded his research experience with a postdoctoral research fellowship in molecular neuroscience with Randy Blakely and Jim Sutcliffe at Vanderbilt University. He is a child and adolescent psychiatrist who uses molecular and translational neuroscience research tools in the pursuit of new treatments for autism spectrum disorder and pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder. Dr. Veenstra-VanderWeele’s laboratory at Columbia University and NYSPI focuses on the serotonin and glutamate systems in genetic mouse models with abnormal social or repetitive/compulsive-like behavior. His clinical/translational research program at the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Center for Autism and the Developing Brain studies potential treatments for autism spectrum disorder and related genetic syndromes. His long-term goal is to be able to develop novel approaches in the molecular laboratory that can then be tested in children.
Gazi Ferdousi Azad, PhD
- Assistant Professor in the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health at Mailman School of Public Health
- Dissemination and Outreach Core - Co-Lead
Dr. Azad graduated with her B.A. in psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles, and received her Ph.D. in School Psychology from the University of California, Riverside. She completed her pre-doctoral internship at The School at Columbia University. Dr. Azad’s research focuses on using the principles of implementation science to optimize service delivery across systems of care. She is the developer of Partners in School, a multifaceted, multilevel implementation package for aligning evidence-based practices across home and school for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Additional areas of expertise include community-partnered research, mixed methods, and issues related to equity in service provision.
Faculty
Kally Sparks, PhD
- Assistant Professor of Clinical Neurobiology in Psychiatry
- Admin Core - Director of Operations
Dr. O’Reilly Sparks uses rodent models to understand typical and atypical neurodevelopment, with the idea that a single insult can alter brain-wide function at various neurobiological levels. Since earning her PhD from the University of Texas at Austin in 2008, Dr. O’Reilly Sparks has focused her studies on the systems underlying learning and memory--the hippocampal-parahippocampal network. Her work involves investigation of neuroanatomical and molecular development of the hippocampus as well as examining the structure and function of the adult hippocampus after abnormal development. These studies have implications for mental illnesses of neurodevelopmental origin, such as autism and schizophrenia. She has ongoing collaborations at the Norwegian Institute for Science and Technology and at New York University where she conducted her postdoctoral studies.