Fellows (Post-Docs and Interns)
Dumichel Harley, PhD
Title: Postdoctoral Fellow
CHOIR Role: Study Clinician
Research Interests: Aging, Dementia, Geropsychology, Neuropsychology
Clinical Interests: Neuropsychological Assessment and Cognitive Rehabilitation
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Dr. Dumichel Harley is a 2024 MASS-Envision RCMAR scholar at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. He completed his PhD in Clinical Psychology at Palo Alto University and his pre-doctoral internship in Neuropsychology as a part of the Psychology Assessment Center at HMS/MGH. His work within CHOIR is focused on developing a cognitive rehabilitation protocol for underserved populations. At CHOIR, Dumichel serves as a clinician for the My Healthy Brain, Active Brains, and HABIT (Healthy Aging as Black Adults: In It Together) studies. Outside of his work, Dumichel enjoys traveling, videography, and baking everything from pies to cakes
Julia E. Hooker, PhD
Title: Postdoctoral Fellow
CHOIR Role: Study Clinician
Research Interests: Chronic pain, intervention development, improving pain care in acute care settings
Clinical Interests: Addressing the psychological consequences of pain and pain-related concerns, applying evidence-based approaches (e.g., CBT, ACT, DBT) to address chronic and acute medical stressors, integrating novel technology into intervention delivery
Publications: | Google Scholar | ResearchGate |
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Dr. Julia Hooker is a Bridge-the-Gap T32 postdoctoral fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. She completed her PhD in Clinical Psychology at Syracuse University, and her pre-doctoral internship in the Lifespan Health track within CHOIR at HMS/MGH. Julia's work within CHOIR is focused on developing and testing mind-body interventions for chronic musculoskeletal pain. Additionally, Julia’s research centers on addressing chronic pain care in the Emergency Department. At CHOIR, Julia serves as a clinician for Dr. Vranceanu's Recovering Together (RT) study in the NeuroICU, as well as the THRIVE study promoting activity and mind-body skills use among sedentary individuals with chronic pain. She is also a co-facilitator of the CHOIR Research Seminar. In addition to her research and clinical interests, Julia enjoys walking ridiculously long distances, playing mandolin (badly), and hunting down the perfect bowl of ramen.
Brenda C. Lovette, PhD, CCC-SLP
Title: Postdoctoral Fellow
Research Interests: Multidisciplinary rehabilitation and psychologically informed rehabilitation practices, mindfulness-based intervention for mild traumatic brain injury, mind-body intervention for chronic orofacial pain
Clinical Interests: Medical speech-language pathology for adult populations including cognitive-communication rehabilitation after traumatic brain injury, language rehabilitation for aphasia, treatment of motor speech disorders, treatment of organic and functional dysphonia, gender affirming voice therapy, and assessment and treatment of dysphagia.
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Dr. Brenda C. Lovette is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow within CHOIR at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. She earned her PhD in Rehabilitation Sciences at MGH Institute of Health Professions in Charlestown, MA. Her doctoral research focused on the development and early testing of a mindfulness-based rehabilitation intervention for persistent symptoms after concussion. She is also trained in mindfulness-based stress reduction through the University of California San Diego Center for Integrative Health. At CHOIR, she works with Dr. Jonathan Greenberg, contributing to the development and testing of mind-body interventions for chronic orofacial pain and symptoms after mild traumatic brain injury. Prior to her doctoral work, she earned her clinical degree in speech-language pathology at University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. Brenda has worked as a clinical speech-language pathologist in a variety of health care settings, treating individuals with cognitive-communication, language, motor speech, voice, airway, and swallowing challenges. She maintains a clinical role at a community hospital in the Boston area. Outside of her scholarly and clinical work, Brenda enjoys swimming, reading, hiking in the White Mountains, teaching yoga, playing the ukulele and guitar, and ballroom dancing with her spouse.
Dominique Popescu, PhD
Title: Research Fellow
Research Interests: Investigating mind-body approaches to alleviating disparities in stress-related conditions among Black adults. How lifetime and everyday experiences of racism, and adverse life experiences may influence vascular health over the life course. Understanding the effects of social drivers of health, such as structural racism, on aging outcomes.
Publications: ResearchGate | Google Scholar
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Dr. Dominique Popescu is a Research Fellow at CHOIR and Harvard Medical School. She earned her doctorate in Integrative Neuroscience from Stony Book University and completed the post-doctoral Research Fellowship Program at Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. She is the recipient of the Clinical Training Scholarship in Neurodisparities funded by the American Brain Foundation and the American Academy of Neurology. She is a Scholar in the 2023 R25 Dementia-Palliative Care Clinical Trials Training Program. Her research is dedicated to reducing disparities in brain health outcomes to increase the likelihood of enjoying healthy aging among all. Specifically, her research is centered around three main goals: 1) promoting brain health via investigating the impact of early life experiences on health outcomes later in life, 2) prevention of adverse brain health outcomes through innovative interventions informed by the social determinants of health contributing to disparities in risk factor prevalence, and 3) protecting cognitive abilities through the early detection of neurodegenerative diseases by advancing promising retinal imaging-based disease biomarkers. Outside of the office, Dominique is a sneaker-head who travels the world, runs, speaks French, rides a motorcycle, and adores her two Australian Shepherds (Vie and Arlo).
Michael Williams, PhD
Title: Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Research Interests: Digital Health Interventions, Structural Determinants of Health, Anxiety, Depression, Substance Use Disorders, HIV Prevention
Links: Pubmed, Google Scholar
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Michael is a postdoctoral fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital/CHOIR and a T32 research fellow at Harvard Medical School. He completed his PhD in Population Health at Northeastern University. Broadly, his research unpacks how the intersection of neighborhood, social, and digital spaces affect mental, behavioral, and sexual health, digital health intervention efficacy, and access to health services. Funded by an F31 training fellowship through the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, his dissertation work examined how neighborhood, social, and digital spaces influence HIV vulnerability and the efficacy of a digital pre-exposure prophylaxis adherence intervention among sexual and gender minority adolescents. At CHOIR, Michael works on the STRIDE study, which uses a digital mindfulness intervention to reduce caregiver stress for caregivers of persons with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Utilizing his multidisciplinary background in epidemiology, biostatistics, game design, human-computer interaction, and philosophy of science, he aims to design and robustly evaluate digital health interventions to improve mental, behavioral, and sexual health. In his free time, Michael enjoys cooking, video games, playing his guitar, snowboarding, going to the gym, and spending lots of quality time with his family, friends, and dog.
Interns
Kirsten Klein, MS
Title: Predoctoral Intern
CHOIR Role: Study Clinician
Research Interests: palliative care; aging; community engagement; health promotion and equity; clinical research in medically underserved communities
Clinical Interests: Mindfulness and acceptance-based therapeutic strategies for comorbid mental and physical health concerns, cultural sensitivity in therapy
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Kirsten is a predoctoral intern in the Lifespan Health track within CHOIR at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital. She is a graduate student in the University of Florida's Counseling Psychology Ph.D. program. Her research interests focus on identifying the barriers to accessing and utilizing health interventions for medically underserved communities with co-occurring mental and physical health concerns. Additionally, she is interested in the co-creation of evidence-based and culturally-tailored health interventions. She is particularly interested in health outcomes within Black communities. Within CHOIR, Kirsten is a study clinician on Active Brains and Recovering Together. Outside of work, Kirsten enjoys playing bass guitar, thrifting, and spending time with family and friends.
Darby Simon, MS
Title: Predoctoral Intern
CHOIR Role: Study Clinician
Research Interests: Improving quality of life for people living with dementia and their family care partners; improving quality of care for patients in formal, long-term care settings
Clinical Interests: Working with adults who have experienced a serious medical event and their family care partners; working with older adults; positive, person-centered care; integrative psychotherapy
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Darby is a Lifespan Health track at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital. She is a doctoral candidate in Clinical Psychology at the University of Louisville in Louisville, KY. Her research focuses on improving the quality of life and care of people living with dementia and their family care partners in community settings and after admission into formal, long-term care. She also has a clinical and research interest in improving the quality of care for patients in formal, long-term care settings. At CHOIR, Darby is a study clinician on Active Brains and Recovering Together. Darby is also participating in a clinical rotation in geropsychology rehabilitation at Spaulding Nursing & Therapy Center. Outside of work, Darby loves reading, going on walks, and trying new restaurants.
Christopher Webster, MA
Title: Predoctoral Intern
CHOIR Role: Study Clinician
Research Interests: Investigating the integration of physical activity and psychological interventions; Mind-body interventions for improving health-related outcomes and reducing chronic pain; Culturally adaptive interventions
Clinical Interests: CBT and ACT for anxiety-related disorders and physical health concerns. I also enjoy working with patients with sport-related performance anxiety or sports-related injuries
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Christopher Webster is a predoctoral intern in the Lifespan Health Track within CHOIR at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. He is a dual major doctoral candidate in Clinical Psychology and Kinesiology at Michigan State University. His research interests are in the integration of exercise and physical activity into psychological interventions. He is also interested in the development of mind-body interventions to reduce chronic pain following orthopedic injuries. Chris’s clinical interests are in CBT and ACT for anxiety disorders and physical health concerns and working with athletes with performance anxiety or sports-related injuries. Within CHOIR, Chris is a study clinician for iHope and Active Brains. Outside of work, Chris enjoys exercising, sports, playing chess, cooking, and traveling.