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Zia Bajwa
- Zia Bajwa is a Project Coordinator with the Golden Bear Sleep & Mood Research Clinic. Working primarily on the National Institute of Aging (NIA) study, her responsibilities include clinical assessment, data management, study coordination, recruitment, and supervision of undergraduate research assistants. Zia graduated from UC Berkeley in 2023 with a B.A. in Cognitive Science. During her undergraduate years, she researched the neural and inflammatory correlates of adolescent depression as a research assistant in the Stanford Neurodevelopment, Affect, & Psychopathology (SNAP) Lab and the UCSF Cognition, Affect, and Neurodevelopment in Youth (CANDY) Lab. She joined the Golden Bear Sleep & Mood Research Clinic in 2021 as a research assistant, where she wrote her honors thesis on the implementation outcomes of TranS-C for treating severe mental illness in community mental health centers. Before returning as a project coordinator, Zia spent a year as a research assistant at Columbia University studying adolescent depression and suicidality in the Translational Research on Affective Disorders and Suicide Lab with Dr. Randy Auerbach. In the future, Zia hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, and her research interests include treatment development, implementation science, adolescent mental health, and severe mental illness. In her free time, Zia enjoys running, reading, and traveling.
Sirena Cuevas
Sirena Cuevas is a Sleep Therapist with the Golden Bear Sleep and Mood Research Clinic. She has her B.A. in Psychological Science from the University of California, Irvine. Sirena worked as a Research Coordinator in the Trauma & Resilience Lab under Dr. Alyson Zalta researching evidence-based interventions aimed at reducing the impact of intergenerational trauma and traumatic stress. Sirena was interested in further researching interventions for mental health and continued research working under Dr. Sara Mednick’s Sleep and Cognition lab, where she researched interventions for sleep disorders and memory consolidation utilizing electroencephalography (EEG). Her research interests led her to become a Prevention Specialist where she developed and implemented interventions aimed at early prevention and community based mental health in K-12 youth. Sirena is currently a second year Master’s student at UC Berkeley’s School of Social Welfare and is deeply passionate about mental health and increasing resiliency factors. In her MSW internship she worked at EBAC as a grief and loss therapist providing group therapy, individual therapy and case management. Sirena’s interests focus on trauma-informed care, early prevention, grief and loss, culturally-based interventions and increasing mental health accessibility in underserved populations. After graduate education she plans to receive her LCSW and implement trauma-informed and holistic care in underserved communities. Sirena enjoys meditation, hiking, reading and cooking.
Bianca Gonzalez
Bianca (She/Her/Ella) is a Sleep Therapist with the Golden Bear Sleep and Mood Research Clinic, where she works on the National Institute of Aging (NIA) study. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Sociology from UC Berkeley and has returned to her alma mater to pursue a Master of Social Welfare. Her work supports research at the intersection of sleep, mood, and mental health, with an emphasis on improving clinical outcomes through evidence-based interventions. Bianca is deeply passionate about social work, with a focus on intergenerational healing and the promotion of long-term well-being through compassionate, client-centered care. Outside of her professional and academic pursuits, she enjoys spending time in nature and cherishes quality time with loved ones.
Anissa Hall
Tania Jarjuora
- Tania is Sleep Therapist and Clinical Assessor with the Golden Bear Sleep and Mood Research Clinic. She has her BA in Human Biology and Society with a concentration in Bioethics and Public Policy from the University of California, Los Angeles. During her time at UCLA, she worked in a Perceptual Processing and Computational Lab under Dr. Zili Liu while simultaneously participating in California Teach. Tania proceeded to receive her Masters in Teaching, researching the impact of societal labels on educational outcomes in middle-school aged youth in Harlem, NY. Her research propelled her into analyzing disparities that exist because of societal labels and hierarchies and pivoted her career interests into social welfare work. Tania is a second year Masters student at UC Berkeley’s School of Social Welfare. She hopes to receive her LCSW to do both micro and macro level social work to improve outcomes of underserved youth and study the impacts of social determinants of health into adulthood. Her interests are in implementation science to modify existing educational systems and assessing treatment efficacy in serving trauma-impacted youth.
Jessica Kuang
Jessica (she/her) is a Sleep Therapist with the Golden Bear Sleep and Mood Research Clinic. She earned her B.S. in Physiology and Neuroscience with a minor in Global Health from UC San Diego and is currently a second-year Master of Social Welfare student at UC Berkeley. Prior to graduate school, she worked in HIV and Hep C prevention and later coordinated programming for LGBTQIA+ youth. As an MSW intern at the Korean Community Center of the East Bay, she provided individual psychotherapy and clinical case management to children and older adults. Jessica is passionate about health equity, social justice, and evidence-based treatments. She plans to pursue LCSW licensure after graduation and provide culturally sensitive, trauma-informed mental health care to diverse populations.
Sophia Oliver
Sophia (she/her) is a Clinical Science PhD student in Dr. Allison Harvey’s lab. She graduated from UC Davis, summa cum laude, with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Public Health Sciences. Prior to graduate school, Sophia completed an honors thesis under Dr. Nicole Kravitz-Wirtz at UC Davis, exploring the impact of gun and community violence exposure on sleep and post traumatic stress symptoms. She also worked as a Project Coordinator with Dr. Harvey on research focused on memory support strategies, habit formation, and implementation and dissemination science. Under the mentorship of Dr. Harvey, Sophia is interested in researching the role of sleep and circadian processes as transdiagnostic mechanisms in mental health. Her goal is to contribute to knowledge on developing and refining scalable, evidence-based interventions that enhance treatment outcomes, support client adherence, and advance mental health equity in underserved populations. Sophia is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and is deeply committed to promoting equity in access to higher education and research pathways for underrepresented groups.
Isabel Ponte
Isabel Ponte is a therapist with the Golden Bear Sleep and Mood Research clinic. She is a second-year MSW student at UC Berkeley. She completed her first-year MSW internship at Partnerships for Trauma Recovery, where she worked with refugees and survivors of torture. She also has prior experience in phone crisis counseling with the perinatal population. After school she would like to receive her LCSW. Her professional interests center on mind-body connections and include insomnia, perinatal mood disorders, acculturative stress, somatic approaches to trauma recovery, and transdiagnostic perspectives on mental health treatment.
Katie Truong
Katie (she/her/她) is a sleep therapist at the Golden Bear Clinic with a background in sociology, public policy, and community health. She is currently pursuing her Master of Social Welfare at her alma mater, UC Berkeley, and will graduate in Spring 2026. Before beginning graduate studies, Katie worked for several years in San Francisco’s housing nonprofit sector in roles ranging from outreach and case management to program coordination. Her work has focused on supporting both unhoused and housed community members in their paths toward stability and wellness. She brings a trauma-informed, client-centered approach to care, grounded in systems thinking and collaborative practice. Her long-term goal is to contribute to program development within local government, advancing community-driven initiatives that promote mental health access and collective healing. In her spare time, Katie enjoys spending time with her two dogs—affectionately known as the Nosy Gals—and collaging.