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Zoe Ademuyiwa

Undergraduate student

Gourav Banerjee, PhD

Gourav Banerjee, PhD

Postdoc Research Associate

Dr Banerjee is a postdoc in Nahman-Averbuch's lab (joined Jan 2022). Gourav’s research interests stem from his academic and clinical background – he graduated in Physical Therapy from Govt. NSCB Medical College (India) and earned his MSc and PhD in Pain Management from the Universities of Leicester and Leeds Beckett (UK). Gourav has had a few brief stints in multidisciplinary pain management clinics where he treated select caseload of patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain. Gourav has also previously held positions of a lecturer at a teaching hospital, and medical affairs manager at a pharmaceutical company.

Gourav is interested in better understanding chronic pain mechanisms and identification of treatment responders (with a focus on non-pharmacological therapies) for managing musculoskeletal-related pain in non-cancer and cancer conditions. Gourav is thrilled to work with Dr Nahman-Averbuch and contribute to the science of pain management!

Joel Brown, BSN, RN

Joel Brown, BSN, RN

Research Nurse Coordinator

Joel Brown is a Research Nurse Coordinator with DoCTR. He graduated from SIU-Carbondale and went on to work with the Knight Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at WashU. He then went back to school and graduated from Goldfarb School of Nursing in December 2020. He started his nursing career in the cardiothoracic surgery step-down unit at BJC. He is from Mascoutah, Illinois, is a huge Marvel junkie, loves golfing, and is a big fan of the St. Louis Cardinals, St. Louis Blues, and Dallas Cowboys!

Rachel (Roxy) Cundiff-O'Sullivan, PhD

Rachel (Roxy) Cundiff-O'Sullivan, PhD

Postdoc Research Associate

Rachel (Roxy) Cundiff-O’Sullivan joined the lab as a postdoctoral fellow in January 2024. She completed her bachelor’s degrees in Psychology and Cognitive/Behavioral Neuroscience at Loyola University Chicago. She then went on to complete a one-year master’s degree from the University of Chicago in the Masters of Arts Program in the Social Sciences (MAPSS), where she examined the relationships between alexithymia, psychological distress, and chronic pain in a sample of patients seeking care at a multidisciplinary pain clinic. Her interest in chronic pain research drove her to pursue a PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Her dissertation examined biological, psychological, and sociocultural contributions to disrupted pain processing in the brains of patients with chronic orofacial pain using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). She aims to continue her work in the PAL lab looking at the intersection of biopsychosocial factors and neurobiological mechanisms underlying chronic pain symptoms from adolescence to adulthood. A native of Chicago, Roxy loves to travel the world with her husband, play with her two cats, and cross-stich while watching TV.

Alana McMichael, MA, MRSO

Alana McMichael, MA, MRSO

Senior Clinical Research Coordinator

Alana joined the DoCTR team and Pain Across the Lifespan Lab in September 2022, and has worked at Washington University since 2017 with a focus in neurology, psychiatry and MRI research as a Magnetic Resonance Safety Officer. She completed her undergraduate degree in psychology with a graduate certificate in human-computer Interaction at Missouri University of Science & Technology then went on to complete her Master’s in Clinical Health Psychology at Appalachian State University. Outside of work she enjoys aerial acrobatics, Dungeons & Dragons, baking, and spending time with her menagerie of pets.

Hadas Nahman-Averbuch, PhD

Hadas Nahman-Averbuch, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Anesthesiology

Dr. Nahman-Averbuch is an assistant professor of anesthesiology. Dr. Nahman-Averbuch has obtained a B.Sc. in Biology from the University of Haifa as well as an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. During her M.Sc. and Ph.D., she worked with Prof. David Yarnitsky at the Laboratory of Clinical Neurophysiology (Haifa, Israel) and specialized in pain modulation mechanisms in adults with chronic pain. Dr. Nahman-Averbuch completed her post-doctoral fellowship at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (Ohio, USA) with Prof. Robert Coghill. During her fellowship, she focused on neuroimaging techniques to examine the neural changes in pediatric patients with chronic pain and in response to interventions such as cognitive-behavioral therapy.

Dr. Nahman-Averbuch presents her work in national and international scientific meetings. Dr. Nahman-Averbuch is a board member at the US Association for the Study of Pain (USASP) and is/was involved in several USASP committees including the Education Committee (Co-Chair) and the 1st USASP Scientific Meeting Committee. Dr Nahman-Averbuch seeks to promote early career programs and is a member of the steering committee for International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) Young Leaders Presidential Task Force.

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Elizabeth Wu-Chen

Undergraduate student