Meet Our Team
Michael Yassa, Ph.D.
Director
Ph.D., University of California, Irvine
B.A. and M.A., Johns Hopkins University
Ph: (949) 824-1687 | Email: myassa@uci.edu | Office: 320 QRL
Diana Lofflin, B.A.
Chief Administrative Officer
B.A., Willamette University
Prior to joining the CNLM team, Diana served as the Director of Communications in the UCI Office of the Provost where she worked on many cross-disciplinary projects and community engagement initiatives. She specializes in leveraging technology and design to make complex concepts accessible to a general audience. Her diverse skillset -- including strategic planning, graphic design, website development, and social media strategy -- will be instrumental in bringing the important work happening at the CNLM to a larger audience.
Ph: (949) 824-4186 | Email: dlofflin@uci.edu | Office: 320 QRL
Manuella Oliveira Yassa, M.A.
Director of Outreach and Education
M.A., University of California, Irvine
B.A., Johns Hopkins University
Ph.D. in progress, University of California, Irvine
Manuella was born in Brazil and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. She completed her Bachelor's degree in neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University, and Master's Degree in Social Ecology with a focus on neuroscience education. Before joining UCI as the CNLM's Director of Outreach and Education, Manuella taught middle school science in Baltimore’s inner city public school system. Manuella is also working toward earning a doctoral degree at the UCI School of Social Ecology where her research focuses on the impact of university-community partnerships on the diversity of the STEM pipeline and workforce.
Ph: (949) 824-5193 | Email: manuella.yassa@uci.edu | Office: 309 QRL
Eleanor Chan
Chief of Financial Affairs and Sponsored Projects
B.A., University of California Los Angeles
Eleanor is a graduate of UCLA and has been working at UCI since 2002 in divisions spanning Biological Sciences and Medicine. She is highly experienced in financial management and contracts & grants administration.
Email: echan@uci.edu | Office: 320 QRL
Raymond D. Villareal, Ed.S., NCSP
Outreach and Education Assistant
Ed.S. and M.Ed., College of William and Mary
B.A., University of California, Irvine
Prior to joining the CNLM team, Raymond served as a psychometrist and school psychologist for low-income students and incarcerated adults throughout Texas and Virginia. Raymond is currently a Ph.D. student in the Neurobiology and Behavior program in the School of Biological Sciences at UCI, researching on the effects of trauma on executive functioning and learning. Through advocacy and research, Raymond aims to improve access and educational outcomes for underrepresented minorities and low-income students interested in neuroscience, psychology, and education.
Ph: (949) 824-5193 | Email: rdvillar@uci.edu | Office: 320 QRL
Jennifer Smith, M.S.
Executive Director of Development
B.A., University of California, Los Angeles
M.S., University of Nevada-Las Vegas
Email: jennifer.smith@uci.edu
Morgan Coburn, Ph.D.
Neuroscience Outreach and Education Fellow
Ph.D and M.S., University of California, Irvine
B.A., Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley
Morgan grew up in San Juan Capistrano, before she traveled to Western Massachusetts to complete her Bachelors in Neuroscience and Behavior at Mount Holyoke College. She returned to Southern California to complete her Masters and Ph.D. in Biological Sciences in the laboratory of Dr. Mathew Blurton-Jones. Her doctoral research focused on human microglial dynamics in Alzheimer’s Disease. Morgan then completed a Postdoc at the University of Virginia with Dr. Ukpong Eyo before returning to the CNLM team. In her role, she works to advance the Outreach and Education goals of the CNLM to create accessible, equitable, and high-quality learning experiences in partnership with communities.
Email: macoburn@uci.edu
Jessica Ha
Student Administrative Assistant
Undergraduate, University of California, Irvine
Jessica is a Human Biology Major and a Business Entrepreneurship Minor at UC Irvine. As a research assistant, she studies early childhood development in the Yassa Lab and volunteers weekly with dementia focused programs. She is eager to pursue a career in psychiatry and hopes to attend medical school following her undergraduate education. Currently, she acts as a student administrative assistant for CNLM.
Email: hajn@uci.edu
Stephanie Washington
Administrative Assistant II
Stephanie assists with the administrative duties for the CNLM. She manages facility reservations, assists in financial transactions and is available to answer any questions about the Center. Prior to joining the CNLM team, Stephanie worked in banking and records administration.
Email: swashin1@uci.edu
Executive Committee
Sunil Gandhi
Vice Chair of the Executive Committee
Marcelo Wood
Chair, Neurobiology & Behavior
Christine Gall
Chair, Anatomy & Neurobiology
Gary Lynch
Distinguished Professor, Psychiatry
Bruce McNaughton
Distinguished Professor, Neurobiology & Behavior
Barbara Dosher
Distinguished Professor, Cognitive Science
Faculty Fellows
The 123 Faculty Fellows of the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory make up the core of the Center. Our Fellows have appointments in a wide range of departments in including Neurobiology and Behavior, Engineering, Psychology, Neurology, Psychiatry, Cognitive Sciences, Anatomy and Neurobiology and Pharmacology because they tackle the study of the neurobiology of learning and memory from different angles, using different tools. To learn more about the Faculty Fellows of the CNLM, please click here.
CNLM Ambassadors
The CNLM Ambassadors are a group of over 70 undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, research staff and community members who are passionate about brain awareness, education and outreach. The group engages in brain awareness activities both on the UC Irvine campus and in K-12 schools, community centers and senior centers in Orange County and Southern California. Click here to learn more about the CNLM Ambassadors Program.
The Chairs of the CNLM Ambassadors for 2022-2023 academic year are Caden Henningfield and Miranda Chappel-Farley.