Preschool & Me Research Team
Reshma Shah, MD, MPH, Principal Investigator
reshmamd@uic.edu
Dr. Shah is a physician-scientist, an Associate Professor of Pediatrics, and a practicing Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrician at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Dr. Shah’s research aims to improve educational and developmental disparities with a health equity focus.
Dr. Shah received her MD from Wayne State College of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan. She trained with Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital and Lurie Children's/Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine pediatric residency programs and developmental and behavioral fellowship program at University of Chicago. She currently heads a clinical research lab which incorporates behavioral intervention design and implementation science to develop, implement, and evaluate a community-clinical linkage model to increase equitable access to educational and therapeutic services that promote developmental skills and contribute to improved health outcomes for both children and their families. A primary objective of her lab is to also create accessible and sustainable strategies supporting early childhood development (ECD) in healthcare settings serving predominantly low-income communities, both domestically and internationally.
Dr. Shah is a Fellow at the Institute for Health Research and Policy and Associate Director of Global Pediatrics at the UIC Center for Global Health. She was selected by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to be the ECD Project Technical Advisor where she has been working with Kenya Paediatric Association (KPA) to support health care initiatives and policy work in Kenyan communities and national health care systems to support ECD. She serves as the co-chair for the Illinois Chapter of American Academy of Pediatric Early Childhood Committee and co-chairs the Advisory Board for the Chicago Children’s Museum.
Kruti Acharya, MD, Co-Investigator
Dr. Acharya is Director of the Illinois Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (LEND) Program (illinoislend.org), an interdisciplinary graduate-level training program to develop leaders to care and advocate for individuals with disability, funded through the Maternal Child Health Bureau. Her research themes are 1) the role of childhood, family and community adversity in the health disparities experienced by individuals with disabilities and 2) the ethics of genetic testing for disability in various contexts. As a physician, Dr. Acharya cares for individuals with developmental disabilities using a lifespan perspective from childhood to adulthood. She is particularly interested in supporting adolescents and young adults with developmental disabilities as they transition to adult-systems of care and beyond.
Mike Berbaum, PhD, Co-Investigator
Dr. Berbaum is an Illinoisian, born in Urbana and raised in Decatur. He graduated from the University of Illinois with a B.S. in Psychology. He has a Master's degree in International Relations from the University of Southern California, Master's degrees in Russian and East European Studies and in Biostatistics from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Michigan. Dr. Berbaum joined the Institute for Health Research and Policy at UIC in 2001. He now directs the IHRP Methodology Research Core and the Center for Clinical and Translational Science BioStatistics Core.
Sarai Coba, PhD, CLFE, Co-Investigator
Sarai Coba-Rodriguez, PhD, CFLE, is an Assistant Professor in Human Development and Learning at the Department of Educational Psychology. Her research centers on presenting a more complex, dynamic, and resilient picture of how racially-linguistically diverse families with young children support their children’s successful transition to kindergarten. Her qualitative research emphasizes families’ strengths, cultural resources, and agency in promoting their children’s education. She is also the Co-PI on a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Grant that seeks to elevate the voices of parents whose children have been excluded from child care following a 2018 Illinois law barring the use of expulsion. To learn more about her work, please visit her lab page, The Diverse Families and School Readiness Lab, which Dr. Coba directs.
Kathleen Diviak, PhD, Co-Investigator
Dr. Kathleen Diviak, is a clinical health psychologist with over two decades experience in longitudinal health research. Dr. Diviak has expertise in clinical trial data collection and management, developing intervention protocols, training and supervising research staff, and assessing intervention fidelity. In addition, she has expertise in Ecological Momentary Assessments (EMA), informed consent, and survey development. Dr. Diviak has specific interest in ensuring that our research protocols and processes support high quality science and fit into the lives of the people who engage in the health behaviors or live with the health conditions we are studying.
Molly Martin, MD, MAPP, Co-Investigator
Molly Martin, MD, MAPP, is a Professor of Pediatrics and a Fellow in the Institute for Health Research and Policy at the University of Illinois Chicago. Dr. Martin is an established leader in the fields of implementation science and behavioral intervention design and testing, especially as they relate to community health workers. She is also active in local and national policy efforts that target health inequities. Her research focuses on community models to improve health. Dr. Martin is the Director of the UIC Center for Clinical and Translational Science Pilot Grant Program and an Associate Director in the UIC Center for Dissemination and Implementation Science. She is particularly interested in asthma, oral health and COVID-19 in children. Dr. Martin has been the principal investigator on multiple NIH-funded projects that test community-based interventions targeting these conditions. She served on the Board of the Chicago Asthma Consortium and held a position on the Executive Committee for Community Health Worker Section of the American Public Health Association. She currently is a member of the State of Illinois Community Health Worker Advisory Board which is formalizing community health worker workforce credentialling in Illinois. In 2023, she was honored with the Savithri and Samuel Raj Endowed Professorship in Pediatrics. As a complement to her research, Dr. Martin sees patients in the Mile Square Health Center and participates in resident and student education.
Tina Schuh, Project Manager
Tina is a project manager with a passion for working on research projects that strive to achieve health equity and reduce health disparities in the city of Chicago and beyond. Tina received her Masters in Public Health, with a focus on Maternal and Child Health, from University of Illinois Chicago. She also was a fellow for the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) program. Tina ensures our patient navigators and our families are supported and the project's operations and administration are running smoothly.
Ashley Andrade, MD, Research Fellow
Dr. Andrade is a first-year Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics Fellow at the University of Chicago. As part of this fellowship, she cares for children with neurodevelopmental disabilities by providing family centered, evidence-based recommendations. One of her main interests includes strengthening partnerships between medical systems, families, and schools.
Karis Gorak, Graduate Student
Karis is an MD/PhD student at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, currently pursuing a PhD in Neurobiology. Her career aspiration is to become a pediatrician, specializing in developmental delays and disabilities in children. Karis has received a Master’s in Bilingual Education and has experience teaching both in the United States and abroad. She is enthusiastic about supporting families in navigating the complex processes of accessing therapies for their children through the Preschool & Me project.
Zaynab Rehman, Research Assistant
Zaynab is a junior at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She is majoring in bioengineering and minoring in psychology and hopes to lead a neuroscience lab in the future. She is very excited to be part of a team that prioritizes health equity and helps children living in underserved communities.
Giovanna Savastano, Research Assistant
Giovanna is an occupational therapist working in the preschool and acute care settings. She completed her occupational therapy degree at University of Illinois at Chicago, where she started working on the PreSchool and Me pilot project as a graduate student in 2020. She is excited to continue and expand this work to support and empower many more children and families in Chicago to get the services they need to succeed!
Denise Carreto-Munoz, Patient Navigator & Research Assistant
Denise is a student at UIC majoring in neuroscience and minoring in chemistry. She is on the pre-medical track and aims to attend medical school to pursue surgery. Denise is very excited to join the Preschool and Me team and help families receive the proper resources to be successful.
Diya Patel, Patient Navigator & Research Assistant
Diya is a third year student at UIC set to graduate in December 2025. She is majoring in psychology and double minoring in biology and kinesiology. She is on the pre-physician assistant track where she hopes to work in the pediatric speciality. She is dedicated to ensuring children have access to the right resources and supporting families.
Anna Whelan, Research Coordinator
Anna is a project coordinator with experience in research, community-based healthcare, and education. She recently obtained her master’s in public health with a concentration in Community Health Sciences from University of Illinois Chicago. Anna is passionate about working to promote health and social justice for underserved communities. She is excited that this role will allow her to make meaningful contributions to improve health equity in Chicago.
Devin Morgan, Research Assistant
Devin is a graduate of the University of Illinois Chicago with a degree in American literature, having also pursued a pre-health track with the goal of attending medical school. With experience in clinical research, Devin is passionate about the intersection of healthcare and community-based services. He is particularly interested in service-oriented research, like Preschool & Me, that provide essential resources to people that need it.
Zughey Flores, Research Assistant
Zughey Flores holds a Master’s degree in Counseling from Northwestern University and is passionate about advancing research to support neurodivergent children and their families. She plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with a focus on addressing educational and developmental disparities through a health equity lens. Zughey is excited to join the Preschool & Me team, contributing to initiatives that ensure underserved families receive the resources and support necessary for supportive developmental outcomes.
Hanna Ghalyoun, Research Assistant
Hanna is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the Clinical Psychology program at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), hoping to become pediatric health psychologist. She earned her Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology from UIC in 2023 and is deeply committed to serving pediatric and child populations, particularly those from underserved communities. She has accrued three years of clinical experience providing evidence-based therapeutic interventions (e.g., CBT, CPT, ACT, CBT for Insomnia, the Unified Protocol (UP), and exposure therapy) as well as conducting comprehensive psychodiagnostic assessments. Her clinical work spans children, adolescents, and adults, addressing a wide range of learning, neurodevelopmental, mood, and anxiety disorders, such as Specific Learning Disorders, ADHD, and PTSD.