Research in our lab

The Team

 Anna-Sophie Rommel, PhD

Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry
anna.rommel@mssm.edu

Anna is a psychiatric epidemiologist whose research focuses on how reproductive transitions, particularly pregnancy and perimenopause, shape mental health and development in women and children. She studies how prenatal experiences and exposures, including maternal mental health, infections, medications, and environmental factors, are associated with pregnancy outcomes, child neurodevelopment, and risk for psychopathology, with particular attention to disparities in these outcomes.

She established and leads the Generation C pregnancy cohort, initiated during the COVID-19 pandemic, which follows families to study developmental, mental health, and neurophysiological outcomes in children, including EEG measures of brain development. Her work integrates longitudinal cohort and registry-based studies to investigate mechanisms linking early-life experiences to later health. She collaborates on large-scale studies in the United States, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands.

Marco Rizzo, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow
marco.rizzo@mssm.edu

Marco holds an M.Sc. in Psychology (Sapienza University of Rome, Italy) and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience (Aalborg University, Denmark). His interests are rooted within the field of neuropsychology with a focus on the physiology underlying human psychological, behavioral, and cognitive processes. In the Psychiatry Department of Mount Sinai, he is responsible for the collection and analysis of electroencephalographic data to investigate the neurophysiological effects of prenatal exposure to SARS-CoV-2 on children’s neurodevelopment.

Rushna Tubassum, MPH

Research Coordinator
rushna.tubassum@mssm.edu

Rushna graduated from Hunter College, as a Yalow Honors Scholar, with a B.A in Human Biology and holds a Master’s in Public Health from the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy. She is very interested in women’s mental health and understanding its links with public health and medicine in underserved communities.

Floriana Milazzo, MPH

Data Analyst II
floriana.milazzo@mssm.edu

After graduating from Barnard College summa cum laude with departmental honors and a degree in English, Floriana obtained an MPH in Epidemiology from Columbia University. She intends to create a career at the intersection of medicine and psychosocial epidemiology.

Kynies Xiao

Volunteer Research Assistant

kynies.xiao@mssm.edu

Kynies is currently a first-year MA student in Psychology at New York University. She graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Sociology from the University of Pittsburgh and is currently working as a research volunteer at Mount Sinai. Her research experience spans both clinical and developmental psychology, and she is expanding her skills in EEG data analysis and clinical research. Outside of research, Kynies enjoys exploring the city, watching movies, and trying new shops with friends. Her long-term goal is to pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with a focus on Developmental Psychology.

Samantha Zimmerman

Research Trainee

samantha.zimmerman@mssm.edu 

Samantha is a current undergraduate student at Barnard College, Columbia University studying Psychology and Human Rights. She is greatly interested in maternal and child health, with a focus on long term neurodevelopmental outcomes in children. She hopes to expand her knowledge of epidemiology research and explore how research findings can be translated into clinical practice as she prepares to pursue a career in medicine. 

Lab alumni

Yasemin Schmitt

Clinical Research Coordinator (2024-2026)

Yasemin graduated from Wesleyan University with a B.A in Neuroscience and Behavior and German Studies. As a CRC, she split her time between the Perez and the Rommel lab. Across both labs, she was responsible for participant recruitment, sample coordination and collection at delivery, EEG data collection and database management. Her research projects explored the relationship between maternal immune health, birth outcomes, and child neurodevelopment. As an aspiring physician, who is particularly interested in the connections between cognition, mental health, and neurological function, Yasemin has now entered medical school.

Etta Raikes

CEYE Student (2025/2026)

Etta was a Senior at The High School for Mathematics, Science and Engineering. In the Rommel lab, she was exploring the association between perinatal maternal CRP levels and child brain development. She is going to study at Yale University. 

Luke Duculan

CEYE Student (2025/2026)

Luke was a Senior at The High School for Mathematics, Science and Engineering. In the Rommel lab, he studied the association between screen time and neurophysiological markers of attention in preschool children. He is going to study at Stony Brook. 

Aisha Said

CEYE Student (2024/2025)

As a Senior at The High School for Math, Science, and Engineering, Aisha was spending her afternoons at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, investigating the relationship between maternal inflammation during pregnancy and child neurodevelopment at 2-4 years of age.

Jazmine Chavez

CEYE Student (2024/2025)

Jazmine was a Senior at The High School for Mathematics, Science and Engineering. In the Rommel lab, she researched the impact of changes to health policies during the COVID-19 pandemic on changes to birth plans, birth satisfaction, trauma related to birth and mother-to-infant bonding. Jazmine hopes to pursue a career in pediatrics and is interested in pediatric neuroscience/oncology and child development. She is currently studying at Cornell. 

Carly Kaplan

Scholarly Year Student (2023/2024)
carly.kaplan@mssm.edu

Carly was a medical student at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. After being raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Carly attended Brown University where she graduated with a degree in Neuroscience. At Brown University, she became a leader in the university’s mental health community serving in both student leadership and partnering with the counseling center to implement interventions to more efficiently serve students’ mental health needs. She is interested in the cross-section of reproductive and mental health, hoping to improve the lives of her patient both through clinical and scientific work. She is currently a Psychiatry resident at Columbia University.

Moussa Konde

CEYE Student (2023/2024)
moussa.konde2@mssm.edu

As a Senior at The High School for Mathematics, Science & Engineering at City College, Moussa spent his afternoons in the Rommel lab investigating the association between prenatal exposure to SARS-CoV-2 and neurodevelopment at age 6 months. He is now a student at the University at Buffalo.