Sarah Aghjayan is a first-year LEND trainee. She is a fourth-year student at the University of Pittsburgh in the joint Clinical and Biological Health Psychology Ph.D. program and a member of the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition. She graduated from the University of Vermont in 2014, where she studied Psychology, Studio Art, and American Sign Language. Sarah’s employment, volunteer, and clinical experiences have had a formative influence on her interests and skills in working with individuals from diverse backgrounds.

Before arriving in Pittsburgh, Sarah worked with deaf and deaf-blind individuals at the New England Home for the Deaf. In research and clinical settings, she has worked with older adults with a number of neurological conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and brain tumors. These experiences fostered her desire to advocate and amplify the voices of marginalized and underrepresented groups, including ethnic minorities, sexual minorities, and individuals with developmental disorders. This commitment to representing the needs of others led her to the focus of her doctoral studies: the intersection of cognition and behaviors in the treatment of neurological disorders.

Sarah is thrilled to be a LEND trainee. The experience provides the opportunity to better understand the challenges and rewards of joining the interdisciplinary healthcare team of individuals with medically complex presentations and their families. As a LEND trainee, Sarah hopes to develop leadership and advocacy skills to best serve clients with neurological disorders and their families in her future career as a clinical neuropsychologist.