Language

People primarily focused on studying speech and language.

Rayna Zhao, BA, MPhil

Clinical Research Coordinator

Rayna is a research coordinator in the Tee Lab at the Memory and Aging Center.

Joanne Wu, BS

Clinical Research Coordinator

Joanne is a research coordinator in the Tee Lab at the Memory and Aging Center.

Ally Radford, BA

Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator

Ally is an assistant clinical research coordinator at the ALBA Lab’s Dyslexia Center. Her research interests include developmental, clinical, and legal psychology. She plans to pursue a career that explores the intersection of psychology, mental health, and social systems.

Paula Guerrero de Luna, MD

Paula Guerrero de Luna Valverde, MD

Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator

Paula earned her medical degree from Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Peru. She joined the ALBA Lab as a research assistant on the Multitudes project and is currently working as an assistant clinical research coordinator at the Dyslexia Center.

Nicoletta Biondo, PhD

Specialist

Nicoletta holds a PhD degree in Psychological Sciences and Education from the University of Trento and a Master’s degree in Linguistics and Cognitive Studies from the University of Siena. Her research bridges theoretical linguistics and cognitive neuroscience to investigate how linguistic information is processed in the brain across different populations, including healthy and brain-injured monolingual and bilingual adults, using methods such as eye-tracking, EEG, and neuroimaging.

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. 

He completed his PhD degree in Developmental and Psychological Sciences and Education Data Science at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, under the supervision of Guillermo Solano-Flores.

Willa Keegan-Rodewald

Willa Keegan-Rodewald, MA

Speech Pathologist

Willa is a speech-language pathologist at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center in the ALBA Language Neurobiology Lab. Willa has a BA degree in Psychology from Lewis & Clark College and an MA degree in Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Texas at Austin.

Marilu Gorno Tempini

Marilu Gorno Tempini, MD, PhD

Professor in Residence

Dr. Maria Luisa Gorno Tempini is a behavioral neurologist, currently directing the Language Neurobiology laboratory of the UCSF Memory and Aging Center and the UCSF Dyslexia Center. She also directs the state-funded Multitudes Universal Screening Project, one of the four reading difficulties risk screeners approved by a state appointed panel for use in California public schools beginning in Fall of 2025. She obtained her medical degree and clinical neurology specialty training in Italy, and has a PhD in the neuroimaging of language from University College London.

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