Amy Margolis, Ph.D.

Dr. Amy Margolis is Assistant Professor of Medical Psychology with an appointment in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and an affiliation with the Cognitive Development and Neuroimaging Laboratory. The scientific question she seeks to answer concerns how learning problems are related to underlying deficiencies in the structure and function of neural systems that support learning processes.

In the first decade of her career, she established a pediatric neuropsychology training program in comprehensive assessment and treatment of children with learning disabilities and attention disorders. She developed novel treatment methods for children with learning disabilities and attention disorders by combining tutoring, cognitive remediation and psychotherapy techniques.

In 2010 Dr. Margolis transitioned to a research career, in which she seeks to use neuroimaging to inform the development of novel therapeutics and early prevention programs for people with learning disabilities.

She is Principal Investigator of a project sponsored by the NVLD Project that examines the neural correlates of Non-Verbal Learning Disability. She is also Principal Investigator of the Promise Project Reading Study that examines how neural circuits that support cognitive control and learning processes produce reading disorders.

She also studies how exposure to neurotoxic chemicals may affect neurodevelopment and manifest as subsequent learning and social problems. She is Principal Investigator on a study entitled, “Effects of Prenatal Exposure to Air Pollutants on Neurodevelopment & the Manifestation of Learning Disorders” funded by the NIEHS Center for Environmental Health In Northern Manhattan.

Dr. Margolis received a B.A. in The Evolution of Human Behavior from UC Berkeley and a Ph.D. in Applied Educational Psychology: School Psychology, and an MSEd. in Neuroscience and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University.