| Contact Information: | ishiff@yorku.ca |
| Degrees in Progress: | Ph.D. (Clinical-Developmental Psychology) |
| Degrees Completed: | M.A. (Clinical-Developmental Psychology) B.A. (Honours Psychology, New York University) M.Ed. (Human Development and Psychology, Harvard University) |
Research Interests:
Ilana’s master’s thesis focused on the interactions between preschool children and their caregivers during child vaccinations. Specifically, she examined child and caregiver factors that are associated with patterns of increased distress during vaccination. Ilana’s doctoral work will focus on maternal-infant interactions in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and the impact of maternal stress on child outcomes. In addition to these projects, Ilana also contributes to the lab’s update to the Cochrane Review on non-pharmacological management of infant and young child procedural pain.
Honours and Awards:
2023-2026: CIHR Canada Graduate Scholarship-Doctoral Award
2022: Ontario Graduate Scholarship
2022: Governor General Gold Medal Award
2022: York University Faculty of Graduate Studies Thesis Prize for Exceptional Thesis
2021: Ontario Graduate Scholarship
2020: HSBC Bank of Canada Graduate Award
2020: Ontario Graduate Scholarship
2020: Meighen Wright Foundation Maternal-Child Health Graduate Scholarship; York University
2019: Graduate Entrance Scholarship; York University
2017: Saul Zaentz Early Childhood Initiative Fellowship; Harvard Graduate School of Education
2015: Phi Beta Kappa; New York University
2015: Doris Aaronson Award for Outstanding Research in the Department of Psychology; New York University
Select Publications:
Pillai Riddell, R., Bucsea, O., Shiff, I., Gennis, H., Badovinac, S., Racine N., … Uman, L. (2023). Non-pharmacological management of infant and young child procedural pain (updated review). Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.
Bucsea, O., Rupawala, M., Shiff, I., Wang, X., Meek J., Fitzgerald, M., Fabrizi L., Pillai Riddell, R., & Jones, L. (2022). Clinical thresholds in pain-related facial activity linked to differences in cortical network activation in neonates. Pain.
Shiff, I., Bucsea, O., Pillai Riddell, R. (2021). Psychosocial and neurobiological vulnerabilities of the hospitalized preterm infant and relevant non-pharmacological pain mitigation strategies. Frontiers in Pediatrics. 9:568755.
Shiff, I., Greenberg, S., Garfield, H., & Pillai Riddell, R. (2021). Trajectories of distress regulation during preschool vaccinations: Child and caregiver predictors. Pain.
Khoury, J., Beeney, J., Shiff, I., Enlow MB., Lyons-Ruth, K (2021). Maternal experiences of childhood maltreatment moderate patterns of influence between maternal and infant cortisol levels under stress. Developmental Psychobiology. 63(5), 1309-1321.
Olsen, ST., Basu, I., Bilge, MB., Kanabar, A., Boggess, MJ., Rockhill, AP., Gosai, AK., Hahn, E., Peled, N., Ennis, M., Shiff, I., Fairbank-Haynes, K., Salvi, JD., Cusin, C., Deckersbach, T., Williams, Z., Baker, JT., Dougherty, DD., Widge, AS. (2020). Towards targeted network disruption: A case report of dual-site neurostimulation and chronic recording of cortico-striatal circuitry in a patient with treatment refractory obsessive compulsive disorder. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 14, 423.
Heusser, A.C., Ezzyat, Y, Shiff, I., Davachi, L. (2017). Perceptual boundaries cause mnemonic trade-offs between local boundary processing and across-trial associative binding. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 44(7), 1075.