2017-2019 Cohort

Leila Wallach

Leila Wallach graduated from the General Psychology program, focusing on Forensic Psychology at NYU. Leila’s graduate work focuses on adolescents involved in the criminal justice system, risk assessment, alternatives-to-incarceration initiatives and diversion programs. Leila completed her undergraduate degree at Simon Fraser University, in British Columbia, Canada, graduating with a Bachelors of Arts, majoring in Psychology and minoring in Criminology. During her undergraduate career, Leila assisted on several research projects with prominent members of the SFU forensic community. Outside of academia, Leila spent several years in Vancouver, Canada, working in community mental health and addictions case management. Currently, Leila manages data collection for a randomized control trial of the ROSES program at NYU Steinhardt, and will be starting a PhD in Clinical Psychology at Palo Alto University in the Fall of 2019.

Paul Mensah

Paul Mensah graduated from the Anthropology Department’s Human Skeletal Biology Program. His academic interests include: anatomy and physiology, human evolution, human variation, and teeth. He was born in Ghana but has spent the majority of his life living in the Bronx.

Jennipher Ambrose

Jennipher Ambrose  graduated with an MA in English and American Literature. Her scholarly interests lie in nineteenth century American literature, specifically early- to mid-nineteenth century writings by Edgar Allan Poe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Herman Melville. She is interested in transcendentalism and portrayals of race in these works.

Laura Aldrich

Laura Aldrich completed her M.A. in Psychology at New York University and plans to pursue a doctorate in clinical psychology upon graduation. She earned her B.A. in International Leadership Studies and Spanish from Marietta College in Ohio. Her research interests include trauma, memory, and PTSD.

Helena Palmieri

A New York native, Helena Palmieri, is a recent graduate of New York University with an M.A. in Psychology, specifically focusing on Cognitive Psychology. During her time at NYU, she worked closely with the Curtis Lab, which has supported her interests in neural mechanisms and memory. When Helena is not in the library, she enjoys strolling through contemporary art museums and reading high fantasy novels.

Danielle Schuler

Danielle graduated from the General Psychology M.A. program. She received bachelor’s degrees in both Psychology and Spanish from the University of North Carolina Asheville. Currently, she is a research assistant in the NYU Infant Cognition and Communication Lab. Her research interests are in early language acquisition and speech preference. In the future, she plans on pursuing a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology and eventually applying her research to improve language interventions for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Outside of school, she enjoys reading and exploring Prospect Park with her elderly chihuahua.

Natalya Titova

Originally from Latvia, Natalya Titova earned her M.A. from the Religious Studies program. She graduated from Hunter College with a B.A. in Religion in 2017. Her studies focus on deaf theology, religious experience of the deaf, and how deafness is portrayed in traditional religions and the contemporary religious and secular media. Natalya’s major academic interests also include biblical studies, ancient Israel, early Christianity, and Eastern Orthodox Christian theology. She also holds a M.A. in Mathematics of Finance from Columbia University and B.A. in Mathematics from CUNY Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College and currently works full-time as a statistician.

Charlene Valdez

Charlene Valdez was Master’s student in the Biology program. Her current work focuses on reproductive health, using Saccharomyces cerevisiae (baker’s yeast) as a model organism for my research After completing her Master’s degree, she would like to enter a Ph.D. program in Public Health, with the intention to study the health impact of factory emissions in low-income neighborhoods.

Anthony Branch
Anthony Branch was a Master’s student in the International Relations department, concentrating in Middle East and Levantine Studies. He was a 2018 International Fellow at the Caucasus Research Resource Center - Armenia. His research interests include U.S. national security, great power conflict, hybrid warfare, and Middle East and South Caucasus geopolitics. He speaks Armenian and has work featured in the NYU Journal of Political Inquiry. Currently, Anthony works as an Intelligence and Risk Mitigation Analyst at WeWork. He focuses on assessing and mitigating strategic and current threats to executives, the enterprise, and operations. Anthony intends to pursue a practitioner route in security analysis.

Chelsea Marks 

Chelsea R. Marks was a Master's student in the Biology department. She worked  in a research lab in the radiology department at NYU Langone, focusing on breast cancer metabolism and MRI. Chelsea also started and runs a non-for-profit organization to help breast cancer patients regain their quality of life post surgery.

Monica Joyce

A MacCracken Fellow, Monica graduated with an M.A. from the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and completed an advanced certificate in Museum Studies. She is originally from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and her work centers around themes of globalization, urban development, and gentrification, especially as it relates to narratives of modernization and Brazilian nationhood. Her current research, aided by a Tinker Grant, investigates the history of cultural tourism Rio's port area, including the recent construction of new museums prior to the 2016 Olympics. In addition to her work in Rio, she is also involved in the museum world in New York, with an interest in the education and public program sectors.