PanLab

Principal Investigator

Leanne Williams, PhD

Vincent V.C. Woo Professor
Associate Chair of Translational Neuroscience
Stanford University School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

Director, Education & Precision Medicine Core

VA Palo Alto Sierra-Pacific MIRECC

Leanne Williams, Ph.D., is the Vincent V.C. Woo Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. She is the founding director of the Stanford Center for Precision Mental Health and Wellness and of the Stanford PanLab for Personalized and Translational Neuroscience, Associate Chair of Translational Neuroscience in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and Director of Education and Precision Medicine Core at the Palo Alto VA Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center.

Prior to joining the Stanford community, Dr. Williams was the founding chair of Cognitive Neuropsychiatry and directed the Brain Dynamics Center at Sydney Medical School. Her PhD was completed with a British Council Scholarship for study at Oxford University.

Dr. Williams' Center and translational programs integrate advanced neuroimaging, technology and digital innovation to transform the way we detect mental disorders, tailor interventions and promote wellness. She has developed the first taxonomy for depression and anxiety that quantifies brain circuits for diagnostic precision and prediction. Dr. Williams' research programs are supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health, spanning priority Research Domain Criteria, Human Connectome and Science of Behavior Change initiatives. She has contributed over 390 scientific papers to the field.

Early Career Award Mentess

Primary Mentorship

Laura Hack, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor,
Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

Laura Hack, M.D., Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor within the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford School of Medicine and a Staff Physician within the VA Palo Alto Health Care System. She also holds the positions of Director of Novel & Precision Neurotherapeutics at the Stanford Center for Precision Mental Health and Wellness (PMHW), Director of the Stanford Translational Precision Mental Health Clinic, and Deputy Director and Esketamine Lead at the Precision Neuromodulation Clinic (PNC), VA Palo Alto Health Care System

She received her B.S. in Neuroscience from the College of William and Mary and her M.D. and Ph.D. in Human and Molecular Genetics from Virginia Commonwealth University. Subsequently, she completed a Psychiatry Residency at Emory, where she was Chief of the Research Track.
Dr. Hack then completed a Fellowship through the Palo Alto VA MIRECC and Stanford under the mentorship of Drs. Williams, Schatzberg, and O'Hara. As an early career faculty member, Dr. Hack's translational research program focuses on identifying bioclinical subtypes of depression and testing mechanistically-guided treatments for these subtypes. Clinically, Dr. Hack specializes in delivering novel treatments to patients suffering from treatment-resistant depression and related disorders. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, vegetarian cooking, attending her husband's performances with robotic musicians, and spending time with her family, friends, and polydactyl cat.

John Leikauf, MD

Child & Adolescent
Psychiatrist and Clinical Assistant Professor,
Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

John Leikauf, M.D., is a graduate of the Stanford Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship, Research Track. Previously, he served as Chief Resident of the General Psychiatry residency at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where he also attended medical school. His clinical interests are many and include working with young people with disruptive behaviors, ADHD, anxiety disorders, and family conflict. His research interests are complementary, and he has been working with Prof. Leanne Williams in developing personalized approaches to the treatment of ADHD and anxiety by understanding the relationships between measures of impulsivity, inattention, and arousal across different levels of organization. Some of this work has benefited from collaboration and the incredible expertise in statistics and computer science here at Stanford, and he is currently working on a project involving the Apple Watch for deep phenotyping via passive data collection. He has greatly enjoyed his time at Stanford so far and is excited to be joining the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Division as a junior faculty member. In his personal life, he enjoys spending relaxing time with family and friends, yoga, and exploring the natural beauty of the Bay Area on foot.

Co-Mentorship

Donna Murray, Ph.D., is a behavioral neuroscientist. She is a Research Health Science Specialist at the Palo Alto Veterans Affairs HCS and Instructor (Affiliate) at Stanford School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Dr. Murray's research focuses on the neurobiology of substance use disorders and the impact of psychiatric comorbidities. Her research uses multimodal neuroimaging methods (MR spectroscopy and resting-state fMRI), neuropsychological assessment measures, and statistical learning methods.

Donna is a collaborator with the Padula BRAVE lab.

Donna Murray, PhD

Instructor (Afflifiate),

Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

PanLab Post-Docs

Jeesung Ahn, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

Jeesung earned her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, where she focused on enhancing the effectiveness of behavioral health interventions and understanding why certain individuals are more vulnerable to mental health challenges, particularly in relation to loneliness and social isolation.

Passionate about translating scientific discoveries into real-world solutions, Jeesung’s work at PanLab leverages brain function as a biomarker to improve the precision of depression treatments and develop personalized mental health care models. Her approach integrates diverse methods, including neuroimaging, social network analysis, experience sampling, wearable data analysis, surveys, and behavioral assessments.

Outside the lab, Jeesung enjoys unwinding with dog videos, taking walks while listening to music and podcasts, and immersing herself in mystery novels.

Teddy earned his M.D. from the American University of Beirut and completed his Psychiatry Residency at both Stanford University and Cleveland Clinic, where he received the NIMH Outstanding Resident Award. He underwent postdoctoral training at Yale's Department of Psychiatry, specializing in multimodal neuroimaging, network neuroscience, and clinical trials of rapid-acting antidepressants like ketamine.

His current research focuses on understanding the neural underpinnings of trauma and chronic stress disorders, identifying brain-based biomarkers for precision psychiatry, and developing therapies for treatment-resistant depression and PTSD — namely, glutamatergic antidepressants, psychedelics, and neuromodulation.

Teddy Akiki, MD

MIRECC Advanced Fellow
Stanford Clinical Scholar

Cordelia Erickson-Davis, MD, PhD

T32 Fellow Clinical Scholar

Cordelia Erickson-Davis, M.D., Ph.D., is an interdisciplinary physician-scientist in training. She has spent the past two decades studying the neurosciences and the social sciences, in one form or another, as a way of exploring the relationship between perceiver and environment. She utilizes anthropological and neuroscientific methods to bring together physiological, phenomenological, and sociocultural data to create more holistic descriptions of perceptual experience.

She received a BA in neuroscience from Mount Holyoke College, an MPH in the history and ethics of public health from Columbia University, and an MD and PhD from Stanford, the latter in socio-cultural anthropology. She is currently finishing up her residency training in psychiatry at Stanford.

She is delighted to be joining the Williams PanLab for her postdoc, with co-mentorship by anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann. She will be focused on integrating phenomenological and other ethnographic data with behavioral and neuroimaging data in mechanistic studies of psychedelics. She is particularly interested in questions of dissociation and the forms of connection that dissociative states of consciousness can facilitate, which often go overlooked in both psychiatric and anthropological scholarly work.

Xue Zhang, PhD

Xue received her PhD degree in 2019 in Biomedical Engineering from Tsinghua University School of Medicine. She was a Visiting Student Researcher in the Radiology Department at Stanford in 2017-2018. Her PhD research involved methods development for dynamic fMRI and concurrent fPET-fMRI and its application in identifying neuroimaging markers for depression vulnerability. As a postdoctoral neuroimaging engineer-scientist in the PanLab, Xue’s research interest lies at the intersection of neuroimaging and computation, and their translation in addressing clinical questions in psychiatry. Currently, Xue is interested in how the acute experience under ketamine, MDMA, and psilocybin modulates brain activity changes under resting-state and tasks, and its relevance to their therapeutic effect. Xue received the SOBP Travel Award in 2022.

In her spare time, Xue enjoys swimming, dog training, and painting nails.

Postdoctoral Fellow

PanLab Staff

Anna joined PanLab after extensive experience in various industries, cultures, and business environments, ranging from protocol-driven organizations to dynamic start-ups. She is fascinated with our research and committed to adding value by utilizing her professional experience while also learning new skills and expanding her knowledge about our work.

Anna Boken

Executive Assistant

Leyla graduated from UCLA in June 2023 with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in the Study of Religion. During her time at UCLA, she was a research assistant in the Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience Lab, which focuses on better understanding schizophrenia spectrum disorders through the lens of neuroscience. Her undergraduate experience revealed her passion for clinical psychology research, and she is interested in gaining a holistic understanding of depression and translating this knowledge into more effective treatments. Leyla currently works as a CRCA in the PanLab and she hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology in the future. In her free time, Leyla loves to ride horses, read books, and spend time with her cat.

Leyla Boyar

CRCA

Andrea graduated from Queen’s University in 2024 with an MSc in Neuroscience. Her thesis focused on developing computational pipelines to analyze advanced neuroimaging data for the pre-operative assessment of patients with epilepsy. Since graduating, Andrea has joined the Psychiatry Department at Stanford, where she now works in the PanLab as a data analyst specializing in neuroimaging data. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, running, and is looking forward to exploring the Bay Area.

Andrea Ellsay

Research Data Analyst

Lara holds a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from UCLA and completed postdoctoral research at Stanford University in both the Psychiatry and Psychology Departments. Throughout her training, she contributed to a variety of research initiatives aimed at improving psychiatric and cognitive health outcomes in a variety of conditions. Now at PanLab, she leads a major multi-site project focused on identifying reliable quantitative biomarkers that can inform treatment decisions for major depression. Her work involves synthesizing data from brain imaging, cognitive testing, behavioral analysis, and clinical evaluations. Outside of work, Lara enjoys baking, spending quality time with her family, and exploring Japanese confectionery shops.

Lara Foland-Ross, PhD

Academic Research Scientist

Rachel Hilton is a board-certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP). She received her education (MSN) and psychiatric training at Vanderbilt University. She is an experienced PMHNP in the inpatient and outpatient settings. Additionally, she is currently pursuing her PhD at Vanderbilt. Her research interests include precision psychiatry, sleep disorders and treatments, and implementation science. In her free time, she enjoys gardening and hiking with her husband and dog.

Rachel Hilton

Research Nurse Practitioner

Tim graduated from Northeastern University with a combined major in Computer Engineering and Computer Science in 2019. He joins us from WHOOP, a fitness wearable company based out of Boston, where he worked as the Manufacturing Test Software Engineer. He’s very interested in brain computer interfaces and hopes to join a PhD program one day. In his free time, he loves to cook, eat, and play video games. He’s excited to hike, bike, and explore San Francisco and the West Coast!

Tim Lyons

Research Neuroimaging Data Engineer

Erica earned her B.A. from UCLA and conducted health services research at VA Puget Sound before completing her M.S. in Physician Assistant Studies at Stanford where she collaborated with the Heifets Lab studying intraoperative dreaming, anesthesia, and mood. In PanLab, her work focuses on cognitive dysfunction in mood disorders, the effects of MDMA on brain circuits, and targeted treatment for specific biotypes of depression. She is dedicated to improving mental health care by translating research into clinical practice. In her spare time, Erica enjoys spending time outdoors, trad climbing, and exploring art, music, and vegan food. She values finding joy and humor in everyday life and spending time with her partner and friends.

Erica Ma

Research Physician Assistant

Hosna joins the Center as Executive Director, previously providing program support for a growing Stanford institute, running an internal grant-funding source, developing research infrastructure support, and developing an access request system to electronic medical records (EMR) for research personnel in the School of Medicine. Receiving the Dept of Pediatrics Donna Schurr Spirit Award for her notable contributions in her previous role. She’s received an MS in Clinical Research Management (Regulatory Science) at Arizona State University and brings her experience in streamlining processes, project management and showcasing the work of the center to both the internal Stanford community and external partners.

Hosna Omarzad

Executive Director

Adam completed his Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia (2017-2022). At UPenn, Adam’s work centered on measuring hierarchical cortical organization and maturation in neurodevelopment. In the PanLab, Adam is investigating the role of hierarchical cortical function in normative and divergent cognition. His other research interests include developmental neuroscience, brain-environment interactions, and adaptive plasticity in the brain. In his free time, Adam enjoys trail running, road trips, making and listening to live music, smoking meats, and the mountains of California.

Adam Pines, PhD

Research Data Specialist

Leonardo got his MD from Pisa University in 2013 and his PhD from Trinity College Dublin in 2018. He joined Stanford in 2018 as a researcher within the Human Connectome Project. Since 2022, he leads the Computational Neuroscience & Neuroimaging Group at the Stanford Center for Precision Mental Health and Wellness. Leonardo aims to develop quantitative biomarkers for psychiatry that are reliable, interpretable and useful for treatment selection. To this end, he integrates recordings of brain structure and function, behavioral measures, symptoms, and other biomarkers. In his free time, Leonardo enjoys martial arts, video games, philosophy and discovering the local culture.

Leonardo Tozzi, MD, PhD

Academic Staff Scientist

Isabelle graduated from Middlebury College in February of 2024 with a B.A. in Neuroscience and a minor in Spanish. She is interested in neuroscience as a means to further characterize and understand psychiatric disorders. At Middlebury, she worked as a research assistant in a lab studying trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Most recently, she conducted her thesis research on students’ psychophysiological responses to trigger warnings and trauma cues. Isabelle works as a CRCA at the PanLab and hopes to ultimately pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. In her free time, she enjoys exploring the outdoors by running, biking, and backpacking.

Isabelle Wydler

CRCA

Hyun-Joon graduated from the University of Southern California in 2021 with a B.S. in Computational Neuroscience and a minor in Computer Science.
At USC, Hyun-Joon was a research assistant within the Laboratory of NeuroImaging, working with Dr. Farshid Sepehrband to create a deep neural network that segments white matter hyper-intensities in MRI images. Hyun-Joon joined the Psychiatry Department at Stanford in 2021 and currently works in the PanLab as a data analyst. He hopes to eventually further his interest in neuroscience and data science by pursuing a graduate degree. In his free time, he likes to run, play tennis, and draw!

Hyun-Joon Yang

Research Data Analysis

PanLab Students

Graduate Students

Divya is a PhD student in the Mechanical Engineering department at Stanford and a Master's student in the Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering (ICME). Her research focuses on applying approaches from computational mechanics to understudied aspects of human health, particularly the health of women and individuals with disabilities. She completed her Bachelor of Science at Columbia University, where she developed patient-specific models of the late-pregnancy uterus. Her other passions include most forms of storytelling—from books to musical theater—and spending time with family.

Divya Rajasekharan

PhD Candidate, Mechanical Engineering
Master's Student at ICME

Paula was born in Colombia and grew up in Puerto Rico. She completed her Cellular and Molecular Biology major at the University of Puerto Rico - Río Piedras Campus. As an undergrad, she was part of the NIH Blueprint ENDURE program and worked on projects studying interaction between the oxytocinergic, endocannabinoid, and serotonergic systems in the mesolimbic and endocrine pathways and their effects on aerobic exercise, drug addiction, anxiety, and depression-like behaviors. In her graduate rotations at Stanford, she worked on projects trying to understand the effects of orexin signaling in CRF neurons and the role of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) in alcohol intake. Besides her preclinical research experience, Paula also started working in clinical studies with patients with hoarding disorders and is currently working with neuroimaging tools.

Paula Munoz Rodriguez

PhD Candidate in Neuroscience

Daniel was born and raised in the UK, but completed his undergraduate degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2021. He then worked as a project coordinator with Jamil Zaki at the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab, collecting fMRI, experience sampling, and social network data for a large longitudinal study on wellbeing. He is now a PhD student in the Psychology department and is interested in pairing ethnographical data on transformative experiences induced by psychedelics and behavioral data with neuroimaging methods. In his free time, he enjoys hanging out with friends, hiking, and trying out new recipes in the kitchen.

Daniel Ogunbamowo

PhD Student in Psychology

Undergraduate Students

Sierra grew up in Northern California and currently resides in Tucson, where she is completing her bachelor’s degree in psychology at the University of Arizona. Her interest in neuropsychology developed while studying at St. Mary’s University in London and she is excited about her future in clinical psychology.

Sierra Healy

Undergraduate Research Assistant

Evelyn is an undergraduate student at Stanford studying Psychology (neuroscience) and Computer Science (biocomputation). She is deeply committed to advancing precision psychiatry, with a career-long mission to personalize treatment for psychiatric disorders based on biomarkers and machine learning algorithms. Prior to Stanford, Evelyn assisted animal experiments at a neurology lab investigating the molecular mechanisms of migraine; conducted a systematic review of “the spiritual brain”; and presented her work on trust at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology 2021 Annual Convention.

Evelyn Song

Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance Scholar

Interns

Sean Nesamoney

Sean Nesamoney is a Menlo School student here in the Bay Area. He is passionate about using technology to pioneer innovation in the field of neuroscience as well as using music as a means to improve the well-being of individuals, especially teens.

Sean is a H.S. intern at the Panlab, part of Stanford's Center for Precision Mental Health & Wellness. With mentorship from Dr. Leanne Williams, he's worked on various projects in the field of neuroscience. Some of these projects include developing a user interface for Mentaid, a wearable device to monitor individuals' mental health that the lab had created prior to Sean joining. He is currently working on an individual research paper, studying how various mental health diagnoses impair cognitive function. Sean is also the student leader of PMHW's Creative Science Communications Group, a cohort of H.S. students passionate about raising mental health awareness from a scientific lens.

Sean is the founding director of "Menlo Voices for Hope,” a student-led organization that recently put on a benefit concert to raise awareness about teen mental health, with a focus on how students have used the arts to cope with the COVID pandemic.

Additionally, Sean is a published app developer of a free mobile app called "Muse: Music for the Mind." Muse is a music recommendation platform to help teens find songs that suit their mental health needs. Using an emotionally-cognizant machine learning algorithm, Muse suggests songs to users based on their current mental state.

A two-time semi-finalist in the International Songwriting Competition, Sean is eager to continue his musical endeavors, his work with Menlo Voices for Hope, and his research at the Center.