I am a bilingual (English/Spanish) clinical psychologist, Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry & Human Behavior and Pediatrics at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and a faculty member with Rhode Island LEND. My work bridges basic cognitive linguistics, computational speech analysis, and pediatric primary care implementation science.
As a clinician-scientist, my mission is to improve developmental care for neurodivergent young children while centering health equity for underserved, Medicaid-insured, and Spanish-speaking families. My research focuses on identifying atypical language acquisition features (such as echolalia and scripted speech), developing equitable primary-care-to-specialty diagnostic pathways, and leveraging natural language processing (NLP) to establish scalable, objective digital markers of early language patterns. Guided by the motto "nothing about us without us," I partner closely with community advisory boards, clinical trainees, and interdisciplinary collaborators to ensure that research directly improves clinical care and family outcomes.
I welcome collaboration with faculty and students interested in:
I mentor students in hands-on research activities including chart reviews, qualitative interviews, psychometric assessments, and data analysis. My long-term goal is to build scalable, evidence-based programs and tools that improve developmental outcomes and family experiences across diverse populations.
