Manijeh Badiee, Ph.D., Professor
Research interests:
- Women’s empowerment, with a focus on Latina women
- Community-based mixed methods research
- Mental health of Iranian Americans
David Chavez, Ph.D., Professor
Research interests:
- Women’s empowerment and activism
- Community-based mixed methods research
- Empowerment of LGBTQI individuals
- Multicultural issues in mental health treatment
- Relational approaches to psychotherapy
- Stereotypes of Middle Eastern individuals and their impact
- Sexual assault prevention
Christina Hassija, Ph.D., Associate Professor
Research interests:
- Trauma and associated mental health conditions
- Risk and resilience factors in PTSD following interpersonal trauma
- Psychological and emotional consequences of sexual assault and intimate partner violence
- Meaning making and posttraumatic growth in trauma-exposed individuals
- Dissemination of evidence-based psychotherapies for PTSD via telemedicine
- Implementation and development of evidence-based psychotherapies for community sexual assault and intimate partner violence populations
Jacob Jones, Ph.D., Associate Professor
Research interests:
- Investigating the underlying neural mechanisms of neuropsychiatric symptoms in neurodegenerative disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease.
- Studies utilize structural neuroimaging methods and/or longitudinal statistical modeling to examine predictors of cognitive impairment, apathy and depression.
- One line of research is testing the hypothesis that disruptions in the microbiome (gut-brain health) contribute to cognitive impairment and white matter changes in Parkinson’s disease.
- A second line of research focuses on relating neuropsychiatric symptoms to meaningful outcomes such as diagnostic markers of cognitive impairment and quality of life.
Michael Lewin, Ph.D., Professor
Research interests:
- Early Maladaptive Schemas and Cognitive Vulnerability
- Schema Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
- Anxiety
- Mindfulness
- Psychological Inflexibility
Stacy Forcino, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Research interests:
- Treatment of common childhood behavior problems
- Treatment of clinically significant problems of childhood
- Parent training (e.g., Parent-Child Interaction Therapy)
- Behavior therapy/ applied behavior analysis
Maria Santos, Ph.D., Associate Professor
Dr. Maria Santos
Research Interests:
- Research to date has centered on improving mental health services for Latinos.
- Identifying factors that moderate the relationship between treatment and outcome and examined how BAL works to achieve good outcomes.
- Sought to identify factors that contribute to the successful engagement of depressed Latino clients in psychotherapy treatment, with a particular focus on the therapeutic alliance.
- interest in addressing engagement issues particularly for individuals with first-episode psychosis (FEP). Given BA’s effectiveness at engaging depressed clients and evidence of the positive effects of BA on individuals with psychosis, I took a first step to examine the applicability of BA to FEP.
- postdoctoral research focused on empirically investigating whether a relationship exists between activation and FEP-relevant outcomes. I examined the relationship between self-reported and observer-rated activation and treatment engagement, symptoms, and functioning in the R01 sample of individuals with FEP.
- As part of an NIMH-funded career development award, I will compare a 12-session BA protocol modified for FEP to treatment-as-usual delivered over 6 months with a sample of Latinos with FEP and their families. The study will also examine BA mediators of the intervention-engagement relationship and develop a dynamic model of engagement to guide future engagement research.