Our Team

• Pedro Pinheiro-Chagas, PhD - PI Assistant Professor

  • Dr. Pinheiro-Chagas is an Assistant Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience with a joint appointment at the Neurology and Neurosurgery Departments of UCSF. He studies the neural architecture and dynamics of human intelligence, with a focus on cognitive symbolic systems such as mathematics and language. His multidisciplinary research program aims at understanding how these systems develop and decline, and how we can help. He combines machine learning computational modeling, electrophysiological recordings (intracranial EEG, MEG), neuroimaging (fMRI), continuous behavioral measures (trajectory-tracking), and neuropsychology. Before joining UCSF, Dr. Pinheiro-Chagas received his PhD From the Sorbonne University/NeuroSpin Center - France and worked as Postdoctoral Scholar at Stanford University.

• Bettina Pedemonte, PhD - Full Specialist in Math Education

  • Dr. Bettina Pedemonte is a specialist in math education with extensive experience in teaching the full math curriculum from elementary school to college level. Her research interests are to design science-based assessment tools and to implement intervention programs in math for children with learning differences. At UCSF, she led a multidisciplinary team to design the UCSF Dyscalculia Subtyping Battery (DSB), with the goals of refining the diagnoses of dyscalculia and providing individualized recommendations tailored to children’s cognitive profiles. Dr. Pedemonte holds a PhD in Pure Math from Genoa University (Italy) and a second PhD in Math Education from Grenoble University (France).

• Mariah Pospisil, MEd - Learning Interventions Applied Research Manager

  • Mariah L. Pospisil, M.Ed, is a lifelong educator and advocate for students with dyslexia, dyscalculia, and related learning differences. After receiving her A.B. in Psychology from Harvard College, Mariah earned her teaching credential and Master of Education as an Education Specialist, Mild/Moderate from Notre Dame de Namur University. A longtime mathematics educator, instructional coach, and academic program leader, Mariah’s work includes individual intervention and group instruction, curriculum and pedagogy development, and professional development for educators focused on math learning differences. Mariah now serves as the Learning Interventions Applied Research Manager for the UCSF Dyslexia Center and is a member of the math cognition team.

• Margo Kersey, BS - Research Data Analyst

  • Margo earned her B.S. in Applied Mathematics from UCLA and has a background in psychology and neuroscience research. She is currently a research coordinator at the UCSF Dyslexia Center on the Math Cognition team. Her main focus is leveraging data science to improve the identification of cognitive profiles in children with math and reading difficulties, and coordinating the development of our new math-focused program. She is also involved in processing neuroimaging data, specifically diffusion tensor imaging (DTI).

• Rian Bogley, BS - Database Architect

  • Rian graduated from UC Santa Barbara in 2018 with a B.S. in Biology. He is currently the ALBA Lab and Dyslexia Center’s Database Architect after having been a Clinical Research Coordinator with the team for over 3 years. Now, he primarily focuses on the development, implementation, and maintenance of more sophisticated database systems for both teams by utilizing his relevant experience in database systems such as REDCap, LAVA, Excel, Qualtrics, and PACS.

• Daniel Quintana, BS - UCSF Medical Student

  • Daniel is a medical student at UCSF School of Medicine who is interested in understanding the dynamics of neural circuits responsible for speech production and mathematical cognition. He earned his BA degree in Molecular and Cell Biology with emphasis in neurobiology from UC Berkeley, where he researched how different cell types in the primary visual cortex modulate behavior using optogenetics. Currently, he is studying the plasticity mechanisms that take place on neural populations in patients who experience speech and mathematical deficits due to brain tumors.