Clinical Psychology Resident Blurbs 2017
Marissa Alert graduated cum laude from Dartmouth College with an AB in psychology in 2009. She then spent two years working as a research assistant at the Massachusetts General Hospital before pursuing her graduate studies in clinical psychology at the University of Miami (UM) under the mentorship of Dr. Patrice Saab. As a graduate student, she worked on studies that promoted physical activity and healthy eating, improving sleep habits, and reducing sedentary time among diverse populations. While at UM, she was awarded the Dean’s Graduate Student Research Fellowship to fund her dissertation project that examined the trajectory of sedentary behavior. She was also inducted into the Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society and received the Graduate Student Award for Academic Excellence, Leadership, and Service for her commitment to scholarship and community service. During her pre-doctoral internship, she received the Clinical Psychology Research Grant, which allowed her to further explore her interest in sedentary behavior and sleep. After completing her PhD, she will continue her training at Johns Hopkins as a General Internal Medicine research fellow. Marissa is extremely grateful for the research, professional, and clinical skills she acquired during her training at Brown and would like to extend her deepest gratitude to her mentor, Sara Becker, clinical supervisors, professors, and fellow students. She is also grateful for the outstanding support and mentorship provided by Drs. McCaffery and Wing. Lastly, Marissa would like to thank her parents, brother, family members, and friends for their love and unwavering support.
Leah A. Brogan received her BA in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2009. Leah then worked as a psychology research assistant in the Women’s Health Sciences Division of the National Center for PTSD within the VA Boston Healthcare System from 2009 to 2012. At the VA, Leah helped coordinate a posttraumatic stress prevention program for active duty military and a national multi-site clinical drug trial. In 2012, Leah started pursuing her PhD in clinical psychology at Drexel University under the stellar mentorship of Dr. Goldstein in the Juvenile Justice Research and Reform Lab. Leah’s research and clinical interests focus on health risk behaviors among justice-involved youth and she has received several travel awards to present her work on justice-involved youths’ substance use and sexual risk-taking at the annual American Psychology-Law Society conference. At Brown, and under the outstanding mentorship of Dr. Larry Brown, Leah advanced her research training in adolescent sexual health specific to court-involved youth and families. Upon completing her pre-doctoral internship the Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Leah will begin her postdoctoral fellowship in the Violence Prevention Initiative at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Leah is grateful for the superb guidance and valuable wisdom received from her clinical supervisors and Dr. Brown as well as the additional support received from the Rhode Island Family Court, Rhode Island Training School, Eleanor Slater Hospital, and Young Adult Behavioral Health Clinic. She is beyond grateful for the love and support received from her family and, especially, her husband.
Charlene Collibee graduated summa cum laude from the University of Connecticut in 2010 with a BA in psychology. She then pursued her PhD from the University of Denver (DU) under the mentorship of Wyndol Furman, PhD. At DU her work focused on understanding interpersonal and developmental risk and resilience. Charlene received an F31 grant from NIAAA to test a moderator model of alcohol use and dating aggression among young adults as well as a dissertation funding grant from the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) to support her work. Charlene has also received a number of awards including the competitive SRA/ERA Summer School and Travel Award in Utrecht, Netherlands, the Harry Gollob Award for best first-authored student publication at DU, a DU Dissertation Fellowship, and a DU Outstanding Teaching Award. During her clinical psychology pre-doctoral internship at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University, she was fortunate to have received excellent mentorship and supervision from many faculty including Drs. Kathleen Kemp and Christie Rizzo. Following graduation she will remain at Brown as a postdoctoral fellow on the project, Dating Violence Prevention for Juvenile Justice Girls, with Drs. Kemp and Rizzo. Charlene would like to express her gratitude to her clinical supervisors and research mentors for a wonderful training year, namely Drs. Rizzo, Kemp, and Conrad. She would also like to thank Dr. Furman for his continued guidance and encouragement. Finally, she would like to express her heartfelt gratitude to her husband for his laughter, love, and support.
Eugene Dunne graduated with a bachelor's degree in psychology from Rowan University in 2008. He then completed a master's program in clinical psychology at Towson University and a research assistantship at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Eugene decided to pursue his PhD in clinical and health psychology at the University of Florida where he was awarded a pre-doctoral fellowship through the Substance Abuse Training Center in Public Health. Eugene would like to recognize his mentors throughout graduate school, including Drs. Nicole Ennis Whitehead, William Latimer, Robert Cook, and Elizabeth Katz. Eugene's dissertation utilized mixed-methods to explore the influence of impulsivity on medication adherence among individuals with HIV. Eugene was thrilled to match at Alpert Medical School of Brown University for his pre-doctoral internship in Behavioral Medicine. Eugene would like to thank his clinical supervisors, particularly Drs. Kevin McKay and Pamela Steadman-Wood for their dedication to training in evidenced-based therapies. Eugene also enjoyed working with his research mentor, Dr. Michael Carey, and is excited to be staying at Brown for postdoctoral fellowship on the Adolescent/Young Adult Biobehavioral HIV T32. Eugene expresses gratitude to his internship advisor, Dr. Kasey Claborn, for her guidance throughout the year. In addition to his professional development at Brown, Eugene has enjoyed playing squash and exploring Rhode Island with cohort-mates. Lastly, Eugene thanks his friends and family for all their support - and he looks forward to more weekend trips back home to New Jersey!
Melissa Edwards graduated summa cum laude from Texas Tech University with a BA in psychology and minor in business administration. From there she completed her MA also at Texas Tech University in clinical psychology and then continued on to the University of North Texas to pursue her doctoral degree. After completing the clinical psychology pre-doctoral internship at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Melissa will graduate with a PhD in Clinical Health Psychology with an emphasis in clinical neuropsychology. During her graduate career, Melissa’s research has focused on translational work among ethnic minority groups. Specifically, her research has sought to establish biomarker-cognitive profiles for predicting risk of cognitive loss among Mexican Americans. Her dissertation on combining select blood-based biomarkers with neuropsychological measures to predict Mild Cognitive Impairment received the Outstanding Dissertation Award from the National Academy of Neuropsychology. Following her pre-doctoral internship, Melissa will continue her research examining blood-based biomarkers related to cognitive loss among cancer survivors at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center as a clinical neuropsychological postdoctoral fellow. Melissa feels very blessed to have had the opportunity to work with wonderful mentors throughout her career. She would like to extent her most heartfelt gratitude to her graduate school advisor, Dr. Sid O’Bryant, her Brown research mentor, Dr. Steve Correia and her clinical supervisors at Brown including Drs. Paul Malloy, Laura Frakey, Janet Grace, Karen Holler, and Athene Lee. Finally, Melissa would like to thank her family, friends and classmates for their continued support and encouragement throughout her training.
Emily Claire Gathright graduated summa cum laude from Baylor University with a BA in psychology and a minor in criminal justice. She earned her MA in clinical psychology from Kent State University, from where she will also complete her PhD with a concentration in health psychology upon completion of her pre-doctoral internship at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University. Emily has crafted a program of research examining the impact of psychological factors such as depression on self-management behaviors, physiological disease processes, and prognosis in cardiovascular disease. For her dissertation, she expanded on an NIH-funded R01 prospective cohort study by securing funding to obtain follow-up vital status and cause of death information from the CDC’s National Death Index. Emily has continued her research while at Brown under the mentorship of Dr. Andrew Busch and was awarded a certificate for First Prize Clinical Psychology Resident Research Poster at Mind Brain Research Day for presentation of her dissertation findings. Emily is thrilled to continue at Brown next year for postdoctoral fellowship on the Cardiovascular Behavioral Medicine T32, where she will expand her program of research under the mentorship of Drs. Hank Wu and Lori Scott-Sheldon. She extends her gratitude to the clinical and research mentors that have shaped her experience at Brown, namely Drs. Andrew Busch, Maria Buckley, Karen Oliver, and Hank Wu. She thanks her family for their continued support and fellow residents for their new friendship.
Joshua Gray graduated from the University of Maryland with a BA in psychology. He pursued his doctoral studies in clinical psychology at University of Georgia under the primary mentorship of Dr. James MacKillop, and secondary mentorship of Drs. Lawrence Sweet and Steven Beach. These mentors were deeply generous with their time in helping Josh to publish and to cultivate his research interest in using neuroscience to dissect the clinical facets (e.g., impulsivity, cue reactivity) that comprise addiction. Josh is grateful for the support and guidance he received from his Brown research mentor, Dr. Robert Miranda, with whom he submitted a manuscript exploring predictors of dropout in a trial of topiramate and motivational enhancement therapy for heavy cannabis using youth. Josh very much enjoyed his time connecting with other fellow clinical psychology residents including squash, March Madness brackets, Captain Seaweeds/the Fez, and general discussions over life and work. Josh wishes his fellow residents all the best in the future. Josh would like to sincerely thank his mentors and supervisors at Brown: Drs. Robert Miranda, Hayley Padovano, Jane Metrik, Jayne Kurkjian-Siegel, Bob Tilton, Samantha Collum, Jennifer Lambert, William Unger, Dwayne Heitmiller, Jeffrey Burock, Megan Pinkston-Camp, Selby Conrad, Lucy Rathier, and John Wincze. Following completion of his pre-doctoral internship at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Josh will be starting a position as Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical and Clinical Psychology at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.
Rachel Gunn graduated from the University of Kentucky in 2010 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. She began her research career at Kentucky, working as a research assistant in two separate NIH-funded laboratories, examining the association between alcohol dose and aggression with Dr. Peter Giancola and personality and motivational factors associated with preadolescent drinking with Dr. Greg Smith. After graduating, Rachel pursued her doctoral studies at Indiana University- Bloomington. Under the mentorship of Dr. Peter Finn, her research focused primarily on personality and cognitive factors associated with alcohol use disorders and comorbid externalizing psychopathology. She received the Mabel LaDuke Dissertation Year Research Fellowship from the Indiana University College of Arts & Sciences for the completion of her dissertation examining the efficacy of working memory training in those with alcohol use disorders. After completing the clinical psychology pre-doctoral internship at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Rachel will graduate with a PhD in clinical science with a minor in cognition and neural systems. Upon graduation, she will then remain at Brown as a postdoctoral fellow on the NIAAA T32 through the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies. She looks forward to further investigating cognitive factors associated with combined alcohol and marijuana use. Rachel would like to thank her many clinical supervisors and research mentor, Dr. Jane Metrik, for not only an incredible learning experience, but also a rewarding, productive, and enjoyable year.
Lorenzo Lorenzo-Luaces graduated summa cum laude from the University of Puerto Rico with a BA in psychology. Under the mentorship of Dr. Yovanska Duarté-Vélez at the UPR, Lorenzo conducted research on risk factors for suicidal behaviors in adolescents and young adults. He also completed summer research internships under Dr. Julie A. Phillips, at Rutgers University, and Dr. Robert J. DeRubeis, at the University of Pennsylvania. After obtaining his BA, Lorenzo enrolled in the clinical training doctoral program at the University of Pennsylvania, under the mentorship of Dr. DeRubeis. His research focused on outcomes and processes of treatments for major depression as well as on the history and classification of depressive disorders. His articles have been published in multiple peer-reviewed journals and he has been recognized by various awards including the Aaron T. Beck Student Achievement Award, of which he is the inaugural recipient, the Frank & Mary Ann Dattilio Scholarship Award, and the International Society for Bipolar Disorder’s Best Paper Award. After completing the clinical psychology pre-doctoral internship at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and thus his PhD at Penn, Lorenzo will join the faculty at the University of Indiana’s Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences in Bloomington. Lorenzo would like to thank his family and friends, especially his peers at Penn and Brown. He would also like to thank his mentors and supervisors at the University of Pennsylvania, especially his advisors, and to extend gratitude to the faculty and staff affiliated to Brown University’s internship.
Alyssa L. Norris graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University with a BA in psychology, after which she worked as a research assistant in the Substance Dependence Research Group at the New York State Psychiatric Institute/Columbia University. There she managed two studies of treatment interventions for cocaine and substance use disorders. Alyssa then pursued a master’s degree at the University of Minnesota before going on to Washington State University for her PhD in clinical psychology. While in graduate school, Alyssa received the Student Diversity Award for Research and Practice from the Association for Applied Sport Psychology as well as a number of internal graduate school awards, such as the Albrecht Fellowship. Following successful completion of the pre-doctoral internship at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Alyssa will continue on at Brown as a postdoctoral fellow on the Adolescent/Young Adult Biobehavioral HIV T32 with the mentorship and guidance of Dr. Michael Carey. Alyssa extends her gratitude to her graduate school advisors and clinical mentors for helping her find her voice as a psychologist. Alyssa continues to be amazed by the genuine warmth and simultaneous productivity of her peers and mentors within the Brown training program, who take a genuine interest in each other’s work and well-being. She looks forward to continuing to develop as a researcher alongside her fun-loving and bright peers in an environment of camaraderie and collaboration.