(Psychology): Dr. Ayana Jordan
“Faith Based Approaches To Increasing Access to Treatment for African Americans with Substance Use Disorders”
Ayana Jordan completed an MD, PhD program at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. She completed a general adult psychiatric residency and addiction psychiatry fellowship at Yale University, where she served as Program-Wide Chief. Currently, Dr. Jordan is an assistant professor at Yale and a physician attending at Connecticut Mental Health Center. She is committed to increasing access to addiction services within minority communities, both nationally and abroad. Dr. Jordan has done research in Sierra Leone, West Africa examining the link between, mental illness, substance use and stigma, and has served as an expert witness discussing these issues. In CT, Dr. Jordan is working with Black churches to offer evidenced based interventions for substance use. Dr. Jordan is the proud recipient of various clinical and research awards and was rcently inducted into the Top 40 under 40 society, by her undergraduate alma mater.
(Neuroscience): Dr. Jaclyn Durkin (postdoctoral researcher, University of Pennsylvania
"Sleep-dependent thalamocortical activity is crucial for visual system plasticity"
Dr. Jaclyn Durkin graduated Summa Cum Laude from Muhlenberg College in 2013 with a Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience and a minor in Mathematics. She earned her PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Michigan in 2019, and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Durkin first became interested in neuroscience during her undergraduate experience at Muhlenberg College. While at Muhlenberg, she worked in Dr. Gretchen Gotthard’s lab studying an animal model of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, with a particular focus on potential non-pharmacological means of eliminating anxiety-like behavior. Dr. Durkin started her graduate work in the University of Michigan’s Neuroscience Graduate Program in 2013. While doing her thesis work in Dr. Sara Aton’s lab, she developed a passion for understanding the neurobiology of sleep. Her dissertation focused on the role of sleep-specific neural activity in regulating synaptic plasticity, a process believed to underlie memory formation. This work was funded by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and a Pre-Doctoral Fellowship from the Rackham Graduate School at Michigan. In 2018, Dr. Durkin was awarded the Neuroscience Graduate Program Innovator Award and the Office of Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Affairs Award for Excellence in Research. Since completing her PhD, Dr. Durkin started work as a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Matt Kayser’s lab at the University of Pennsylvania. She will continue her study of sleep circuits, with a particular focus on understanding the role of early life sleep in brain development.
