Meet the Team

Marni Shabash

Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator

Marni graduated from the University of Florida with a BS degree in Psychology – Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience and a minor in Zoology. At UF, she was a Research Assistant for a Neurocognitive Lab studying addiction. She also coded qualitative data on the impact of COVID-19 on college students, created a scientific poster for an international conference and wrote a manuscript that is currently under review for publication. Marni was Clinic Manager at a Neuropsychology Clinic where she gained experience scoring and administering neuropsychological tests.

Ranjani Shankar, BS

Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator

Ranjani graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a bachelor’s degree in cognitive science specializing in Clinical Aspects of Cognition. She is extremely interested in and passionate about neurodegenerative disease research, especially Alzheimer’s disease. She now works at the Memory and Aging Center in Dr. Rabinovici’s In Vivo Molecular Neuroimaging Lab.

Julian M. Siebert, PhD

Postdoctoral Scholar

Dr. Siebert is a quantitative researcher interested in linguistically equitable measurement in education and its influence on multilingual students’ educational trajectories. He is a Postdoctoral Scholar with UCSF’s Multitudes Project where he works on building a linguistically fair reading screener for Californian public schools. 

Karen Smith, BS

Clinical Research Supervisor

Ms. Smith is the clinical research supervisor working directly with the Rabinovici Lab and the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. She works closely with both faculty and staff in monitoring operational issues, regulatory compliance and project development. Ms. Smith brings many years of experience in clinical and non-clinical trials across a variety of funding mechanisms and disciplines. Prior to coming to the Memory and Aging Center in April 2019, Ms.