The Johns Hopkins Hospital
600 North Wolfe Street
Phipps 446
Baltimore, MD 21287
Division of Cerebrovascular Neurology
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Alumni
Jonathan Yao
Jonathan is a current senior majoring in Neuroscience and minoring in Psychology at Johns Hopkins University. Jonathan has been serving the campus community as an EMT for the Hopkins Emergency Response Organization. Before joining Johansen Lab, Jonathan worked for Zhao Labs doing olfactory epithelium research. In his free time, Jonathan enjoys playing the piano for seniors at assisted living centers.
Manasi Prashant, BS
Manasi Prashant is a former Research Assistant in the Johansen Lab. She recently graduated with Honors from Johns Hopkins University with a BS in Neuroscience with a focus in Systems Neuroscience and minored in the Writing Seminars. She is passionate about neurological research, specifically in the areas of neurodegenerative disorders, cognition, dementia, and clinical patient interaction. Manasi is a current first year medical student at UMD, hoping to continue her passion for biology and patient care.
Emma Gootee, MS
Emma Gootee is a Research Coordinator with the Division of Cerebrovascular Neurology at Johns Hopkins University. She was a former Lead Research Coordinator for the Johansen Lab and is the Lead Coordinator for the DISCOVERY study's Cognitive Core. Emma received her MS in Global Health from Kings College London. While working with the Johansen Lab, Emma led a number of projects which focused on understanding the brain heart connection in acute stroke patients and post-stroke cognitive impairment and dementia. Prior to joining the Johansen Lab, Emma's research focused on brain injury in low- and middle-income countries.
Colin Stein, BS
Colin Stein graduated with honors from Siena College with a BA in Psychology. Upon graduating, he took on several roles in the Department of Neurology of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. At Hopkins, Colin served as a laboratory manager of the Stroke Cognitive Outcomes and Recovery (S.C.O.R.E.) lab under Dr. Argye Hillis and research assistant to Dr. Michelle Johansen. Colin now works with Dr. Edward Huey in the Taub Institute at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, where he manages clinical trials involving pharmacological symptom management of neurodegenerative disease.
Alexandra Walker, MHS
Alexreceived a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Duquesne University and her Master of Health Science in Mental Health at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. Current projects include examining the feasibility of using electronic communications to augment the care of patients with mood disorders, and investigating how passive data gathered via wearable devices can generate transdiagnostic digital phenotypes to inform the treatment outcome of major mood disorders. She has previously assisted in the neurology department studying language performance over time in conjunction with neuroimaging, longitudinal changes to language processing and emotional prosody following stroke, and FLAIR hyperintense vessel rating to predict deficits and penumbra in acute stroke.
Ana Lopez, BS
Ana Lopez is a 2nd-year medical student at Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED). She graduated from the University of Central Florida in 2020. She is currently working with Dr. Johansen this summer as part of the Medical Student Training in Aging Research (MSTAR) program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Her research project involves comparing the outcomes and time to treatment of acute ischemic stroke patients treated with endovascular therapy based on the presence of atrial fibrillation.
Nicholas Daneshvari, BA
Nick Daneshvari is currently a 4th-year medical student at Johns Hopkins. He started working with Dr. Johansen in his first year, hoping to explore cerebrovascular neurology. His primary work involved analyzing brain MRIs in order to understand how the volumes of ischemic strokes correlated with various stroke etiologies, in order to potentially aid in acute stroke decision making. He has also assisted with other projects, such as with writing a literature review on reperfusion therapies for acute stroke in patients with comorbid heart disease. Nicholas is currently applying to residency in psychiatry, where he hopes to utilize this neurological background to help understand psychiatric disease.
David Zhao, BA
David Zhao graduated from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 2024 and is now completing Ophthalmology residency at the Mass. Eye and Ear Infirmary. Through the Scholarly Concentrations program at the school of medicine, he worked on a clinical research project investigating the association between atrial cardiopathy and cerebral microbleeds with Dr. Johansen.
Royce H. Kwon, MS, BA
Royce Kwon is currently a 3rd-year medical student at the University of Hawaii, John A. Burns School of Medicine. He began working with Dr. Johansen in the summer of 2020 as part of the Medical Student Training in Aging Research (MSTAR) program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His research project involves looking into how the pre-morbid functional status of an ischemic stroke patient affects their post-stroke recovery, independent of stroke severity.
Samantha Lee, MMSc BS, BA
Samantha Lee is a Hopkins Neuroscience and Sociology alumna and recent MSc in Medical Sciences student graduate from Brown University. She is originally from San Jose, CA and loves to row in her free time. Samantha is currently a Project Coordinator at the Hassenfeld Child Health Innovation Institute at Brown University’s School of Public Health running a school-based universal mental health screening program in Rhode Island and Massachusetts public K-12 schools.
As she explores potential career trajectories, she plans to utilize her experience in the Johansen Lab to sculpt her career in medicine and public health.
Mya Watson
Mya Watson is a junior at Johns Hopkins University studying Neuroscience and Applied Mathematics and Statistics. She is originally from South Florida. Mya has a fascination with the intricate relationship between the brain and other vital organs and uncovering the complicated mysteries of the brain. She is passionate about neurology and cognitive neuroscience. In the future, Mya plans to apply to medical school, where she will further cultivate the skills she learns from working in the Johansen Lab.
Daniel Mousavi, BS
Daniel Mousavi is currently a graduate student studying Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. He recently graduated with Honors from Johns Hopkins University with a BS in Neuroscience and Molecular & Cellular Biology. Prior to his work on the NOMINATE Study, he worked for 4 years with Dr. Jennifer McQuade at the MD Anderson Cancer Center studying how a high fiber diet affects the gut microbiome of melanoma patients. He is most proud of his work directing Science Olympiad tournaments for Baltimore students, impacting over 10,000 students in 4 years. Daniel is currently applying to medical school. His ultimate goal is to one day serve as a physician for the first human settlements on Mars.