Aiello Research Group (ARG)

Our Team

Allison Aiello, PhD

James S. Jackson Healthy Longevity Professor of Epidemiology (in the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center) 

Interim Director, Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center

 

Dr. Aiello’s research explores how social, psychological, and infectious exposures shape trajectories of healthy aging, cognition, and the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, with the goal of identifying actionable points for intervention. A central focus of her work examines life course exposures and immune system aging (immunosenescence) as a critical pathway linking early stressors to later-life health outcomes.  

As Deputy Director of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), Dr. Aiello spearheaded the development of the Add Health Cognitive Assessment, Physical and Sensory Function protocol (“Add CAPS”).  This innovative protocol was administered to more than 2,000 participants nationwide and combined gold-standard cognitive measures- such as delayed word recall, digit span, and animal naming- with cutting-edge digital neuropsychological tools. Under her leadership,  digital assessments were also integrated into the full Add Health survey, generating a landmark neurocognitive dataset of nearly 12,000 participants in early middle age- the first of its kind at this scale.  In addition, Dr. Aiello directed the collection of physical and sensory function measures, including grip strength and hearing, which provide key early indicators of cognitive decline in Add Health. Together, these efforts have expanded the scientific community’s capacity to investigate the early emergence of biological and social pathways to cognitive aging and dementia risk, paving the way for new interventions to promote brain health across the life course.

Meet the Team

  • Cherese Parker

    • Research Director

    Cherese Parker is currently the Project Director for the Aiello Research Group (ARG) at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. Since joining the Columbia University ARG team in 2022, Cherese has worked to lead multiple domestic and international studies, her role includes managing funding sources, overseeing IRB, DUA, and MTA initiation and compliance, managing field work operations and overseeing the ARG biobank. Prior to beginning her work at Columbia University, Cherese worked with Dr. Aiello as a Research Project Manager at UNC Gillings (2018–2022) and held clinical and laboratory research roles at East Carolina University prior to that. Cherese Parker holds an MPH in Health Behavior from UNC-Chapel Hill, a graduate certificate in Health Communication, and a BS in Exercise Physiology from East Carolina University. Honors include Staff Excellence Awards and multiple scholarship recognitions.

    Cherese Parker

  • Rebecca Stebbins

    • Associate Research Scientist in the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center

    Dr. Rebecca C. Stebbins is an Associate Research Scientist at Columbia University’s Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center, where her work focuses on the social determinants and biological mechanisms underpinning cognitive aging. Her research integrates life course epidemiology, immunosenescence, health disparities, and causal inference, examining how patterns of disadvantage accumulate across the lifespan and manifest in cognitive outcomes among aging individuals.

    Dr. Stebbins has contributed to studies investigating associations between risk factors, ATN biomarkers, and cognitive function in young to mid‑adulthood, demonstrating that Alzheimer’s disease–related indicators are impactful decades before clinical onset. She has also examined the aging immune system in older adults, focusing on sex- and race/ethnicity‑specific patterns in immune aging and all‑cause mortality using nationally representative data. Her scholarly work examines the interplay of cognitive, biological, and social factors across the life course, including occupational cognitive stimulation, early-life cognitive development, multisystem biomarkers of aging, immune function, and the impacts of stress, adversity, and other life experiences on cognitive and health outcomes.

    Dr. Stebbins earned her PhD in Epidemiology (2020) and MSPH in Epidemiology (2017) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and her AB in Biology with a minor in International Studies from Dartmouth College (2011).

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  • Kamaryn Tanner

    • Associate Research Scientist in the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center

    Kamaryn Tanner joined the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center in 2023 and the Aiello Research Group in 2025. She works with large longitudinal and cross-sectional cohort datasets to study biological aging, inflammaging, and persistent infections. Dr Tanner has expertise in clinical prediction models, survival analysis, mediation analysis, conducting simulation studies and application of novel statistical methods. She holds a PhD in biostatistics from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Prior to completing her PhD, she held senior quantitative, analytics development and product management roles at software firms serving banks, broker-dealers and wealth management firms.

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  • Aanya Bahl

    • Project Coordinator

    Aanya Bahl is a project coordinator in the Aiello Research Group and works with both data and administrative teams. Her academic and research background centers on blood-based biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease, cognitive methodology, interpretation of diagnostic tests, and the role of comorbidities in large populations. She holds a Master’s degree in Epidemiology and is especially interested in translating complex data into insights that advance both science and practice.

    Aanya Bahl

  • Youngjoon Bae

    • Postdoctoral Research Scientist in the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center
    • Affiliated Researcher in the Carolina Population Center at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

    Youngjoon Bae is a Postdoctoral Research Scientist with the Aiello Research Group (ARG) at the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Since joining ARG in 2024, he has contributed to data quality checks of Add Health Wave VI and grant writing for Add Health Wave VII. His current research focuses on how social and behavioral factors, such as widowhood, early-life chickenpox infection, and shingles vaccination, relate to immune system aging and epigenetic aging. He is currently working on two manuscripts in this area. Additionally, Dr. Bae has investigated the impact of cash transfers on cognitive function in Malawi. He earned his PhD in Sociology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He previously served as a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Center on Aging & Population Sciences (CAPS) at the University of Texas at Austin.

     

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  • Farizah Rob

    • Biostatistician

    Farizah Rob is a Staff Associate and Biostatistician in the Aiello Research Group. She conducts day-to-day data management and quality control across multiple projects, including the AddCAPS section of the Add Health study. Additionally, she supports and frequently leads statistical analyses for ongoing manuscripts.

    Farizah's research interests lie at the intersection of social epidemiology, biological aging, and cognitive health. She received her BS in Statistics from the University of Michigan in 2021 and an MS in Biostatistics from the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health in 2024. She conducted her MS thesis with Dr. Aiello, studying social relationships and immunosenescence in the Add Health Study. 

    Farizah Rob

  • Maya Krishnamoorthy

    • Research Assistant

    Maya is a second-year M.S. candidate in the Biostatistics department on the Public Health Data Science track at Mailman. She currently works with Dr. Aiello on the Add Health study primarily, where her work includes implementing data science methods for analytical research Her current projects focus on the relationship between caregiving and cognitive aging, as well as the impact of lifecourse socioeconomic status on biological aging. She also contributes to exploratory data science initiatives, such as building an AI agent for research purposes specific to ARG. Maya is particularly interested in applying modern data science tools to epidemiologic research, with an emphasis on developing measures for chronic disease and Alzheimer’s disease-related dementias.

     

    Maya Krishnamoorthy

  • Devdatt Golwala

    • Research Assistant
    Devdatt Golwala

  • Jasmine Lo

    • Research Assistant

    Jasmine is a M.S. Data Science student at Columbia University's Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science. Currently, she is working with Dr. Aiello to develop speech-to-text machine learning models for verbal fluency tests and LLM-powered AI agents for retrieving and synthesizing public health data from research databases.

     

    Jasmine obtained her bachelor's in Data Science from the University of California, San Diego. Her interests revolve around using data science and machine learning techniques to analyze large datasets and solve research and engineering problems. Specifically in the healthcare field, she aims to understand how the emerging use of AI can enhance current methodologies used to address health disparities affecting aging populations.  

     

    In her free time, she enjoys trying new cafés, thrifting and styling clothes, and making playlists on Spotify.

    Jasmin Lo

  • Denis Leang

    • Research Assistant

    Denis earned an M.S. in Data Science from Columbia University in 2024. Currently, he is working with Dr. Aiello to develop voice audio recognition machine learning models and LLM-powered AI agents, which are designed to retrieve and synthesize public health data from research databases, enhancing information retrieval efficiency and reducing search times.

     

    Denis graduated from the French grande école d’ingénieurs Télécom Saint-Étienne with a major in Computer Science and is a past alumnus of Lycée du Parc’s CPGE program. He is deeply interested in leveraging software development and machine learning to solve real-world problems, specifically in the healthcare field.

     

    In his free time, he enjoys exploring new bubble tea places and spending time with his friends.

    Denis Leang