Fall 20081

Psychology News

Fall 2008

Outstanding AlumnusCall for Nominations

Nominations are now being accepted for the2008-2009 Outstanding Alum Award.

Send nomination letter and CV torwellens@miami.edu.

Mobile Autism ClinicBrain-child of our own Michael Alessandri,

UM-NSU CARD installed amobile autism clinic

we believe to be the first of its kind.

A Note from the Chair

Professor and ChairDepartment of Psychology

This has been an extremely active year for theDepartment in almost every respect. In addition to the usualhigh level of research productivity evidenced by our facultyand graduate students, we were also able to recruit fiveoutstanding new faculty members who have now joined usthis Fall. Given the continued growth of our undergraduateprograms we have been given the nod to recruit another cadreof new faculty this hiring season to fill positions vacated bythose who have recently retired or moved on to other positions.

As part of our commitment to continually review andimprove our programs, we held a self-study and strategicplanning retreat this summer to assess our strengths andweaknesses relative to other programs around the country. Totop things off, we were very pleased to receive APA’s Awardfor Culture of Service in the Psychological Sciences for 2008.

I invite you to read about these and other activities ofthe Department within the pages that follow. As always, wethank those of you who have supported us in the past and

hope you will continue to do so.Best wishes for another great year.

College of Arts and Sciences

HighlightsDepartment Receives APA Award

Fall 20082

2008 Outstanding Alum Visits Department

Alumni Networking Event

Psychology Department WinsAward for Culture of Service

If you have been keeping upwith the activities here in theDepartment, you are well aware ofthe many hours that our faculty,graduate students, and under-graduates devote to service at theUniversity and in the community.As usual, updates about thePsychological Services Center, theCenter for Autism and RelatedDisabilities, the Linda RayIntervention Center, and ProjectCHRIS are provided in this issue ofPsychology News. And although there was anawareness that we have been busy,

it wasn’t until Chairman Rod Wellensnominated the Department for theAmerican Psychological Association’sDepartmental Award for Culture ofService in the Psychological Sciencesthat the full scope of our contributionswas evident. In addition to pursuing their ownscholarly research activities, andtraining graduate students, Depart-ment faculty have served as Editors forseven nationally and internationallyrecognized scientific journals. HerbQuay and Neil Schneiderman wereFounding Editors. Chuck Carver andAnnette LaGreca are current editors

for two of APA’s flagship journals.Faculty are members of 20Editorial Boards and serve as adhoc reviewers for over 30 additionaljournals. For a complete listing,have a look at the Department’sweb page at www.psy.miami.edu.In addition, both faculty andgraduate students have a time-honored tradition of providingexpertise on scientific reviewboards at the national, state, andlocal levels as well as contributingtalent to organizations representingthe psychological sciences.

Graduate students, faculty, and guests enjoyed the visit and lecture byWendy Stone, Ph.D., our Outstanding Alum of 2007-08. Introduced byher former mentor, Annette LaGreca, Stone is currently Professor of Pe-diatrics and Psychology and Director of the Vanderbilt Treatment andResearch Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders (TRIAD) which shefounded in 1998. Her talk, titled “Your Child is Artistic?” highlighted manyaspects of her professional career which began with the completion of herPh.D. from UM in 1981. Stone has dedicated herself to educating thepublic and other professionals about the nature, identification, assessment,and follow up of children with autism. With 1 in 166 US children todayidentified with autism, Stone’s work has been and will continue to be bothvaluable and inspiring.

In March of 2007, nearly 50 localalumni and faculty gathered in anetworking event held at the BankUnited Center on the Coral Gablescampus. In December, alumna AmyBoyers (Clinical Health ‘00)approached Chairman Wellens withthe idea of having an event that wouldallow the local alumni to meet eachother in order to support and facilitatemutual referrals in both academic andprivate practice settings. The eventwas quite a success as we spent hourschatting with old friends and new. Inaddition to alumni, a number of current

faculty attended the event, givingeveryone a chance to learn more aboutwhat’s happening in the Departmentthese days. On hand for the event wereProfessors Emeriti Richard Carrera andLeonard Jacobson. Among the studentalums were Ketty Gonzalez, Ana RivasVasquez, Michael di Tomasso, NicoleMarcus, Shelly Payne, Tony Sabatosso,Tammy Sifre, Blanche Freund, TomBonner, Vanessa Archer, Melanie Ferber,Amy Schaffer, Roselyn Smith, EdwardSczechowicz, Alison Grossman, PhilBoswell, Barbara Boldman, Sally Kolitz-

Russsell, Sophie Guellate-Salcedo, BillSamek, Ami Kutler, Fran Kulik, NancyKirsner, Joan Gailes, Marilyn LopezCugnetto, Jeniffer Stella, WinsomeThomas, Carrie Lazarus, Donna Phillips,Janet Aiken, Rich Garvine, and JoseSandoval. Current staff and faculty includedChuck Carver, Andre Perwin, Rod Gillis,Annette LaGreca, Gail Ironson, JudyMcCalla, Michael Alessandri, VictoriaNoriega, Maria Llabre, Richard Williams,Rod Wellens, and, of course, KentSchomber. Stay in touch for the announcementof the next Alumni Networking Event!

For more information see http://www6.miami.edu/news/everitas/2008-09/10-13-08.html

Fall 20083

Donor Honor Roll 2007-2008

The Honor Roll represents donations to Psychology and its community service centersincluding CARD and LRIC. Corporate and Foundation support, including matching gifts,are acknowledged at the perimeter. Please note: Honor Roll information has been carefullyreviewed. Nevertheless, errors or omissions may occur. If your name does not appearor is listed incorrectly, please accept our apologies and let us know!

Thank You!

Fall 20084

Adult DivisionFor the sixth year, the Adult program was directed

by Chuck Carver with Sheri Johnson as Associate Director.

Professor Mike McCullough’s new book,“Beyond Revenge: The Evolution of the Forgiveness Instinct,”was published in April to very positive reviews. Along withhis graduate students Adam Blake and Benjamin Tabak,Mike presented research at the meetings of the Societyfor Personality and Social Psychology in Albuquerque, andthe Association for Psychological Science in Chicago. Aftersix years at UM, he will be taking his first sabbatical during

the 2008-2009 academic year. He ishoping to take some time to learn moreabout genetics and evolutionary biologyduring that period, but he also will befocused on writing a couple of grantapplications, and finishing some articles.Although the sabbatical will involve acertain amount of travel, he willcontinue to oversee projects on

forgiveness, religion, and gratitude that are currentlyunderway. His student, Adam Blake was recently awardeda graduate fellowship from the Social Sciences andHumanities Research Council of Canada, freeing himfrom teaching assistant responsibilities so that he can devotemore time to his research on religion and self-control.

Professor Sheri Johnson had another busy year.She has been collaborating intensively with Chuck Carverand Jutta Joormann on an elaborate project that they hopewill lead to a better understanding of the role of serotoninfunction in psychological disorders. She has also continuedto develop deeper collaborations with researchers inEngland. One result of thislatter development was a tripto meet with colleagues andshare findings at Oxford inApril. Dr. Johnson continuesher work on a funded projectaimed at understanding therole of reward responsivity inbipolar disorder. She and gradstudents Lori Eisner, DanFulford, and Chris Miller are also creating an interventionintended to prevent mania, based on the rewardresponsivity findings. Apart from her ongoing researchactivities, Sheri has recently completed a new edition ofan undergraduate textbook on Abnormal Psychology, co-authored with Ann Kring. Sadly for the other members ofthe Adult Track, and for the Department at large, Sherihas decided to accept a position at the University ofCalifornia at Berkeley, beginning in January 09. Her

collaborations with several people at UM will continue, eventhough she will be on the other side of the country, but shewill be greatly missed.

Assistant Professor JuttaJoormann received a Scholarlyand Creative Activities Awardfrom the College of Arts andSciences in recognition of heroutstanding research achieve-ments. Her Depression andAnxiety Disorders lab has been atwork studying how cognitive

processes and individual differences in emotion regulationaffect onset and recovery from these disorders. Severalspecific projects are investigating attention and memoryprocesses, genetic factors that may underlie individualdifferences in these processes, and links from these processesto psychological disorders. The team has also started utilizinga new lab to investigate psycho-physiological responses tostressors and the effectiveness of different emotionregulation strategies in regulating these responses. Jutta andtwo of her graduate students, Joelle LeMoult and TanyaTran, presented initial results at several meetings, includingthe Association for Psychological Science and the Societyfor Research in Psychopathology. Joelle’s work focuses onbiased processing of emotional material in persons with bothdepression and anxiety disorders; Tanya studies whethertraining people to interpret ambiguous situations in a positiveor negative way will influence other cognitive biases andstress reactivity. Lira Yoon, a post-doctoral fellow in thelab, led a symposium at ABCT on memory processes insocial anxiety disorder. She also submitted a proposal forNIH funding. Catherine D’Avanzato, who joined the lablast fall, received an honorable mention for her initialapplication for NSF funding. Joormann also won the MUSEaward for Contributions to the Undergraduate Program. Sheis pictured above at Just Desserts with the CUP and flowers;she also received a cash award.

Associate Professor Amy Weisman de Mamanipublished an article in April with Jennifer Kymaainen (aliterature review on culture, communication deviance, andexpressed emotion in family members of patients with

schizophrenia) which wasthe feature article in APA’sCultural Diversity and EthnicMinority Psychology. She alsopublished an article withgrad student EugenioDuarte in the InteramericanJournal of Psychology, oneducational attainment,

Fall 20085

attributions, and expressed emotion in family members of patientswith schizophrenia. Amy’s publication is not limited to English.She, along with students Vamsi Koneru, Stephanie Wasserman,Eugenio Duarte, and Radha Dunham, also completed twoSpanish language chapters for a book due out later this year. Theywere invited to submit these chapters following a series of talksthey gave at the Ibero-American Congress of Clinical and HealthPsychology in Costa Rica in 2006. During this past summer, Amy,Radha Dunham, Naomi Tuchman, and Stephanie Aldebotoffered a workshop on Culturally Informed Treatment for MentalIllness at the International Conference on Diversity in Organizations,Communities, and Nations in Montreal. At the same conference.Amy gave another talk on the relevancy of incorporatingspirituality into treatments for serious mental illness. During the2008/2009 academic year Amy will be on sabbatical. Amongthe projects for this year will be an application for funding tocontinue to test her family-focused Culturally Informed Therapyfor Schizophrenia.

Assistant Professor Matthias Siemer continues to workwith his grad student Jessica Jacobson on a number of projectson emotion regulation and psychological resilience. One projectis investigating the idea—deeply embedded in everydaypsychology—that people sometimes use anger in order to regulateor avoid anxiety. Surprisingly no studies on that question exist todate. Another project is studying individual differences in emotionregulation in the lab and in everyday life. Matthias is interestedin finding out whether certain emotion regulation strategies workfor some people but not for others. The overall goal of this workis to learn more about why some strategies do not work foreveryone, and which strategies are more effective in the shortand in the long run. After having spent substantial effort in settingup a psychophysiology lab, Matthias is also starting to includephysiological data in his studies of emotion regulation. JessicaJacobson has completed her master’s thesis on executivefunctions and cognitive flexibility, with results showing that theability to switch flexibly between the processing of affective andnon-affective material seems to lie at the heart of being a resilientindividual. Jessica recently presented these results at theconference of the Association for Psychological Science. Nextfall the Siemer lab will be joined by a new grad student, KatieDenny, who comes to Miami from Stanford.

Assistant Professor Debra Lieberman is the newestaddition to the Adult Track. Her research focuses on kinship,altruism, and disgust as an emotional experience. One projectinvestigates how humans learn who counts as a close genetic

relative, a process required for sexual aversionsand altruistic motivations to develop betweenfamily members. As recently reported inNature, Debra’s research shows that we use atleast two social cues to identify siblings: seeingone’s mother care for a newborn and childhoodco-residence. These two cues predict bothdisgust associated with sexual behavior with asibling and sibling-directed altruism. This year,

Debra expanded this project and traveled to Israel tocollect data from individuals raised from birth withunrelated children on Israeli Kibbutzim. She hopes todiscover whether living with non-relatives producessimilar levels of sexual disgust and altruism. Anotherarea of Debra’s research focuses on differences amongtypes of disgust. In a forthcoming publication in theJournal of Cognitive Neuroscience, Dr. Lieberman andcolleagues show that different domains of disgustactivate unique areas in the brain. During the comingyear, she plans to continue working on kin detectionand to resubmit an application to the National ScienceFoundation to continue studying neural, physiological,and social aspects of different types of disgust. Dr.Lieberman is being joined by two graduate students,Robert Oum and Alison Aylward.

Professor Chuck Carver saw the sixth edition of hisundergraduate textbook in Personality Psychologyappear in print this past year. Together with long-timecollaborator Michael Scheier, he was honored inFebruary by the Society for Personality and SocialPsychology with the Donald T. Campbell Award forLifetime Contributions to Social Psychology. Chuck

is currently serving his sixth andfinal year as editor of thePersonality Processes andIndividual Differences section ofJPSP. His eagerness to move onto something else has foundexpression during the past yearin an ambitious project heundertook with Sheri Johnson,Jutta Joormann, and severalgrad students. This project

brings together molecular genetics, neurotransmitterfunctioning, executive control processes, and behavior,and it has potential implications for understandingdepression and other sorts of problems. Busy, busy.Apart from this project, Chuck continues work onconsequences of positive affect (also in collaborationwith Dr. Johnson) and he continues to be involved inpsycho-oncology research, in collaboration with MikeAntoni and his team, and in collaboration with newHealth track faculty member Youngmee Kim. Dr.Carver also participated in the Sydney Symposiumon Social Psychology in Australia last spring.

Calvin continues to guard the Department,occasionally extending his watch from his outpost onthe fourth floor to oversee the numerous denizensinhabiting the other floors of the Flipse Building.Various individuals delight as they deliver treats-as-payment for his services, keeping us all safe in thistime of change and uncertainty.

Fall 20086

Child Division

Professor Daniel Messinger’sEarly Development Lab is tacklingnew projects in typical and atypicaldevelopment with a fullcomplement of graduate students,post-docs, and numerous under-graduates. A recent graduatestudent paper shows, for the firsttime, that infants at risk for autism

have trouble flexibly shifting their attention duringnaturalistic interactions with a parent. We areexpanding our use of automated softwaremeasurements to document gaze shifts and facialexpressions in these interactions. New projects includea collaborative grant on autism risk with Wendy Stone,Ph.D., and new work to understand development fromthe bottom up from an engineering perspective.

Alexandra Quittnercontinues to serve asDirector of the ChildDivision. Her researchfocuses on the deve-lopment of health-related quality of life(HRQOL) instru-

ments for chronic respiratory conditions. HerHRQOL instrument for cystic fibrosis (CF) has nowbeen translated into 25 languages and is being used innational and international trials. For the first time inhistory, this tool was used as the primary outcome ina clinical trial of a new inhaled antibiotic which willbe approved this fall by the Food and DrugAdministration (FDA). Dr. Quittner also received agrant from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to conductan epidemiological study of depression and anxietyin patients with CF and their parent caregivers. Thisstudy is now international, involving the UK, Italy,France, Germany and Australia.

Alexandra is also beginning a new, NIHfunded study of quality of life for children withintersex conditions and their parents. This will be thefirst study to examine the impact of disorders of sexdevelopment (DSDs) on parents and young children.Her research on adherence is now in the translationalphase, with a new study comparing two adherenceinterventions for adolescents with CF at 18 Centersacross the US. Dr. Quittner was also co-chair of theNational Conference on Child Health Psychologysponsored by Div. 54 of the APA and theDepartments of Psychology and Pediatrics at UM.

Annette LaGreca was appointed by APA President,Alan E. Kazdin, to chair a Presidential Task Force on PTSD andTrauma in Children and Adolescents, which was highlighted in theOctober issue of the APA Monitor. Severalproducts are likely to result, including acongressional briefing sheet, tips forprofessionals dealing with traumatized youth,and a special section of the Journal of Consultingand Clinical Psychology. Annette was elected tochair the APA Council of Editors, and beginsher term as Chair-Elect this fall. The NICHDpediatric research training grant, which AnnetteCo-Directs (with Alan Delamater), was refunded for 5 years.Annette, Alexandra Quittner, Alan Delamater, Anna MariaPatino-Fernandez, and Danny Armstrong were the keyorganizers of the 2008 National Conference in Child HealthPsychology, which took place in April. Finally, Annette continuesher community-based research on adolescent peer victimizationand also her work on the effects of disasters on children andadolescents, including a continuing project funded by NIDA, thatfocuses on adolescent survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

Heather Henderson and her research groupare studying individual differences inchildren’s social behavior and emotionalfunctioning in both typically developingchildren and children with autism. Usingpsychophysiological techniques (EEG/ERP) and behavioral measures, they areinterested in cognitive and attentional

processes that help children regulate their behaviors and emotions.Based on their ongoing work observing young children’sinteractions with peers, they recently designed a peer interactionassessment for children with autism which allows them to relatetheir basic measures of cognition and attention to everydaybehaviors that occur in social interactions.

Associate Professor Kristin Lindahlwelcomed grad student Hallie Bregman to theFamily Study Lab to focus on the FamilyInteraction and Treatment Outcome project,examining family factors related to childmaladjustment, the relative effectiveness ofparent counseling vs family therapyapproaches at reducing symptomatology in

children, and improving parent-child and family relationships.NICHD funding will commence on Parental Acceptance andChild Functioning in LGB Youth: A Family Stress Perspective(Neena Malik and Kristen, Co-PIs.) which will address the familyclimate of teenagers who are coming out as gay or lesbian totheir parents and friends. The object is to understand how familiesfrom multiple ethnic groups manage the stress associated with achild coming out as gay. These youth are identified as high riskfor suicidality, family and peer rejection, and victimization.

Fall 20087

Assistant Professor Jill Ehrenreich received her Ph.D.from the University of Mississippi in 2002, where shegained a strong foundation in appliedbehavior analysis and childhoodanxiety. She completed her clinicalinternship at the University of Chicago,where she was able to explore herinterests in treatment-oriented researchin the course of investigations for awide range of child psychopathologyissues. She then worked as a ResearchAssistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at

Assistant Professor Rebecca BulotskyShearer is a child clinical and schoolpsychologist by training and has workedboth as a practitioner and researcher withvery young children and families living inimpoverished urban areas for the past 15years. Her research interests are in earlychildhood mental health and the

relationship between early behavior problems and schoolreadiness, specifically in community-based agencies thatserve diverse low-income families, such as Head Start.Before coming to UM she worked as a research analyst inthe Office of Early Childhood Education, Chicago PublicSchools and as a research scientist at Erikson Institute, aGraduate School of Child Development. She graduatedfrom the U Penn, in 2004 with a Ph.D. in School,Community, and Child Clinical Psychology. While agraduate student and an employee for the School District,she worked directly with Head Start and otherprekindergarten programs to develop a classroom basedassessment of preschool emotional and behavioraladjustment. She also collaborated with a taskforce to createfeedback and professional development training for teachersaround classroom-based mental health concerns. Sheespecially enjoys conducting research in school systems inpartnership with teachers, administrators and parents whereresearch can be applied to direct practice and programimprovements that benefit children and families.

Here at UM Rebecca plans to develop acommunity-based research agenda that focuses onidentifying behavioral problems that interfere with children’sopportunities to learn within early childhood educationalsettings and the development of reliable and valid measuresthat can inform programmatic interventions.

Professor Daryl Greenfield and his team ofgraduate students, Elizabeth Bell, Ximena Dominguez,Janna Fuccillo, Ariela Greenberg, Michelle Maier, andVirginia Vitiello, are involved in several projects related toschool readiness in low-income preschoolers. One area offocus has been the school readiness domain, approaches tolearning, which includes learning behaviors such as initiative,curiosity, persistence, and problem-solving flexibility. Thisdomain has the potential to impact development in all otherschool readiness domains and so is a potentially importantpoint of intervention. Graduate students are engaged inindividual research projects examining factors that influenceand are influenced by children’s approaches to learning. Thelab is also excited to contribute to this area of research by

beginning the developmentof an observationalmeasure of approaches tolearning. For the past threeyears, Darryl has directedUM’s InterdisciplinaryTraining Grant inEducation Research andAdvanced StatisticalMethods. The program is

one of 10 such programs in the nation funded by IES. Theemphasis of UM’s IES program is the in-depth study ofeducational issues and risk-factors associated with poverty,developmental disorders, bilingual education, and chronichealth conditions. The Greenfield lab is continuing workon a project funded by the IES involving a classroom-basedpreschool science program. In collaboration with theMiami-Dade County Head Start/Early Head Start Programand the Miami Museum of Science, the research team is inits third year of development of an IRT-based preschoolscience assessment. They plan to conduct a randomizedfield trial of the science curriculum and to expand the scienceassessment to an adaptive computerized assessment system.Current students funded through the IES training grantinclude David Barker, Elizabeth Bell, Dolores Farhat,Ann-Marie Faria, Janna Fuccillo, Ariela Greenberg,Camilla Hileman, Christine Hughes, Shira Kolnik,Michelle Maier, Olga Moas, Sandy Romero, and VirginiaVitiello.

Boston University and was Associate Director of the Childand Adolescent Fear and Anxiety Treatment Program atthe Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, then directedby Dr. David H. Barlow. It was there she developed hercurrent grant-funded investigations and interests indisseminating evidence-based or “gold-standard”interventions for child and adolescent anxiety to communitysettings. Dr. Ehrenreich has a Mentored Patient-OrientedResearch Career Development Award (K23) from theNational Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to developand evaluate the feasibility of a transdiagnostic approachto the treatment of anxiety and depression in adolescence.This treatment approach has a strong basis in emotionregulation theory and presents adolescents and their familieswith evidenced based treatment components formatted tobe applicable across multiple types of anxiety and depressivedisorders. Dr. Ehrenreich is also the co-author of a cognitive-behavioral treatment (CBT) for adolescent panic disorderand is funded by NIMH to investigate optimal modes ofclinician training in this treatment approach.

Fall 20088

Health DivisionProfessor Neil Schneiderman continues to Direct the

Health Division and direct the Miami Field Center of the NIHmulti-center Hispanic Community Health Study/Study ofLatinos (HCHS/SOL), and the NIH Program Project Grant“Bio-behavioral Bases of CHD Risk and Management.” Neilwas an invited plenary speaker at Witwatersrand Universityin South Africa and at the 8th Congress of the InternationalStress Management Association of Brazil. Neil is most pleasedwith the hiring of two new faculty members, featured below.

Associate Professor Youngmee Kimreceived her Ph.D. in Social and PersonalityPsychology from the University ofRochester and completed a postdocfellowship at the University of RochesterSchool of Medicine. She then served asDirector of Family Studies at the AmericanCancer Society. Youngmee studies variousaspects of quality of life of cancer survivors

and their family and close friends, such as psychological andspiritual adjustment, coping with caregiving stress, gender,relationship quality, and cancer preventive behaviors. She hopesto develop programs and services to assist them in meetingtheir needs and to promote healthy lifestyle behaviors amongcancer survivors as well as their family and friends.

Assistant Professor Monica Webbis a clinical health psychologist whoseresearch interests are in health behaviorchange, with an emphasis on cancer-relatedbehaviors. Her research has largely focusedon theoretical, behavioral, experimental, andapplied investigations of tobacco use,cessation, and relapse prevention. Monica’sprogram of cancer prevention is focused on interventions forsmoking cessation, and the psychological mechanisms thatunderlie their efficacy.

Monica earned her B.S. degree from UM and was partof PRIME. She received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology atthe University of South Florida before becoming an AssistantProfessor at Syracuse University. She was recently awarded aMentored Research Scholar grant from the American CancerSociety to conduct a randomized controlled trial testing theefficacy of a highly personalized smoking cessationintervention. Monica has two of her graduate students,Elizabeth Baker and Denise Rodriguez, to carry out researchon minority health and smoking-related health disparities. Sherecently published in Health Psychology the first meta-analysisof smoking cessation interventions among African Americans.

Research Associate Professor Marc Gellman is Co-Director of the Health Division and Program Manager of theHCHS/SOL as well as two projects on the NIH ProgramProject grant: (1) Community Approach to Lifestyle Modifi-cation for Diabetes and (2) Community Health Approachesto Reducing Risk in the Metabolic Syndrome. During the

past year, much of Marc’s efforts have gone into gettingthe above projects, and other Behavioral MedicineResearch Center projects in the new Clinical ResearchBuilding (CRB). Hemanaged the hiring, training,and housing of over 20nurses, medical assistants,dieticians, dental hygienists,psycho-social assessors,recruiters and an outreachcoordinator. Marc recentlyparticipated in symposia at the Society of BehavioralMedicine meeting on the HCHS/SOL and at theInternational Congress of Behavioral Medicine onimproving the relevance of multi-center health research.

Professor Michael Antoni’s research at theBehavioral Medicine Research Center brings togethermulti-disciplinary teams of investigators from across UMto investigate the effects of stressors, stress responsesprocesses and stress management interventions inpersons dealing with chronic medical conditions. Mike’sNCI research (funded continuously since 1993) tests theeffects of group-based cognitive behavioral stressmanagement (CBSM) intervention on psychosocialadaptation, neuroendocrine, and immunologicfunctioning, and treatment-related symptoms in womenbeing treated for breast cancer. Mike also works withDrs. Penedo and Schneiderman testing the effects ofCBSM on quality of life and management of treatment-related symptoms in men treated for prostate cancer.This year they published a set of empirically validatedstress management materials tailored for menundergoing treatment for prostate cancer. Mike alsoexamines the effects of CBSM on psychosocialfunctioning, immune status and health outcomes in menand women living with HIV infection. During the pastyear Mike published, with Drs. Ironson andSchneiderman a set of empirically validated stressmanagement materials tailored for persons with HIV.Finally, Mike is leading an NINDS-funded R01, whichtests the effects of a telephonically delivered CBSMintervention on fatigue and related symptoms, di-urnalcortisol production, and inflammatory indicators in menand women dealing with chronic fatigue syndrome.

Professor Phil McCabe, Associate Chair, waselected as President of the Academy of BehavioralMedicine Research (ABMR) for 2009-10. Phil hasserved as the Secretary for ABMR since 2005. Hecontinues to serve as the Director of the UndergraduateNeuroscience Program, an elite major with over 200majors. Phil welcomed a new graduate student, formerUM undergrad, Crystal Noller.

Fall 20089

Professor Maria Llabre’s interest in theconsequences of war exposure onchildren’s mental and physical healthtook her to Lebanon where she workedwith others on a study of over 6,000children who were exposed to the 2006Lebanese-Israeli war. Maria participatedin a workshop on latent variable modelingwith Mplus at the University of Florence,Italy. She has incorporated the skills

learned into a second course in structural equation modelingto be offered in 2009. She presented a training session onlatent growth models at the American Psycho-somaticSociety annual meeting and a workshop on longitudinaldesigns to minority investigators, sponsored by the NCI.She continued her collaborations with colleagues in Healthand began a new collaboration with the Biostat Division atSylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. Maria is StatisticalEditor of Psychosomatic Medicine.

Associate Professor Frank Penedo was the 2008Program Chair of the Annual Meeting of the Society ofBehavioral Medicine in San Diego. Frank also presented aplenary address on psychosocial intervention in chronicdisease at the Chilean Congress of Psychology. He alsospoke at the meeting of the American Association of CancerResearch where he joined one of our graduate studentalumni, Paige McDonald. Both spoke on the biobehavioralbases of health disparities in cancer. Frank also chairedand participated in a symposium at the InternationalCongress of Behavioral Medicine in Tokyo. His researchefforts focus on understanding biobehavioral, sociocultural,and psychosocial determinants of health and disease activityin prostate cancer.

Professor Barry Hurwitz’s research at theBehavioral Medicine Research Center on the MedicalCampus has recently focused on HIV disease progression. Barry and former graduate, Jeff Greeson recently publisheda paper in the Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine showingenumerative and functional alterations in killer lymphocytesmediate the relationship between higher levels ofpsychological distress (defined by perceived stress, anxiety,and depressive symptoms) and greater HIV disease severity(defined by HIV-1 viral load and T-helper cell count),independent of standard demographic and various HIV-related factors. This research is a step toward understandinghow the psychological distress of disease may play a role indriving pathological mechanisms linked with diseaseprogression. Barry and his team, including former graduatestudent Joanna Klaus, have also conducted a randomizedtrial of 262 patients that indicated that supplements of themicronutrient selenium appear to be useful as an adjuncttherapy to suppress HIV viral load and increase CD4 count.Information about this study can be found in the Archives ofGeneral Medicine. In addition to replicating these findings,future research will examine ways to improve theeffectiveness of this powerful antioxidant.

Associate Professor Patrice Saab, together withJudith McCalla, is collaborating with the Miami Museumof Science to develop Heart Smart, an interactive museumexhibit on cardiovascular health designed to educate thepublic about cardiovascular disease and its prevention,underscoring the message that behavior and healthy habits

matter. The project involves conducting a randomizedcontrolled trial to assess the effectiveness of a museum-based informal learning curriculum and its impact on studentknowledge, attitudes, and behavior. With graduate students,Katie Chipungu, Amanda Countryman, and StephanieFitzpatrick, Pat and Judy are developing a Heart Smartdiscussion activity designed to be played by small groupsof students to reinforce the exhibit content. This work issupported by an NIH NCRR Sciences EducationPartnership Award. It extends Pat’s primary preventionwork with teenagers to the broader community.

Professor Gail Ironson directs the PositiveSurvivors Research Center and is the PI on two multimilliondollar NIH grants oriented toward exploring why somepeople thrive and others deteriorate rapidly when faced withlife threatening illness. There are several projects in her lab.

First is Psychobiological Processes in HIV/AIDs,directed by Research Associate Elizabeth Balbin. Usingpsychological assessments, they examine the predictivepower of both traditional psycho-social variables (such ascoping and depression) and newer variables such asproactive behavior, optimism, meaning in life, the doctor-patient relationship, spirituality, emotional expression, anddistress tolerance. Biological variables such as cortisol,norepinephrine, and natural killer cell activity are also beingexplored. Other members of the group include AnnieGeorge, Nathaniel Kieval, and Jonathan Atwood.

Second is a randomized controlled trial exploringthe effect of emotional disclosure through writing in peoplewith HIV. This study is directed by postdoctoral fellowJoanne Fordiani. Results are exciting (it helps certainsubgroups but not others) and are being presented andsubmitted for publication this year. We are examining theeffect of this writing intervention on symptoms of PTSDand depression, markers of disease progression, physicalsymptoms of HIV, and neuroendocrine stress measures.Team members include James Blount, Rachel Kuhn, andJennifer Meister.

Yet another study in Gail’s lab, funded by theMetanexus/Templeton foundation, focuses on spirituality.She and Scientist Heidemarie Kremer have authorednumerous publications demonstrating the potentiallypositive association of various aspects of spirituality andspiritual transformation.

Fall 200810

Alumni News and NotesDoctoral Degrees

1967Stuart R. EllinsI and my wife have recently retiredand are enjoying our travels toPatagonia, Las Vegas, California,and New York.

1969Edith Anne FioreI gave a lecture and trainingworkshop in London, Englandtwo years ago on depossession.That work is described in my book“The Unquiet Dead.” I also gavea lecture and training workshop forthe National Guild of Hypnotiststhree years ago on past life therapywhich is described in my book,“You Have Been There Before.”

1973Harriet LefleyI recently authored two entries inInternational Encyclopedia of theSocial Sciences ... one on “MentalIllness” and one on “Schizo-phrenia.” I continue as Professor ofPsychiatry and Behavioral Sciences,UM Miller School of Medicine. Iam a member of the AmericanPsychological Association’s TaskForce on Serious Mental Illness.

David B. MillerI recently published an article inDevelopmental Psychobiologytitled “From nature to nurture,and back again.” I also gave aplenary address to the AmericanAssociation of Collegiate Registrarsand Admissions OfficersTechnology Conference titled“Podcasting: Enhancinguniversity courses, visibility, andstudent life.”

1978George John PratsinakThe book Arresting Addictions ofwhich I am co-author continuesto be sold by the America Correct-ional Association.

1982Eric DiamondI am developing a Men’s Centerin addition to therapy practice.www.gainesvillemenscenter.com).My daughter, Lizzie, is teachingin New Orleans Recovery schooldistrict. My son, Hunter, is goingto study jazz at Indiana University.

1983Anne E. HoganI continue to direct the HarrisCenter for Infant Mental HealthTraining at FSU.

1992Daniel L. SegalI am starting year 14 at theUniversity of Colorado. OurPh.D. program in Clinical Psycho-logy with emphasis in geropsycho-logy was recently accredited byAPA for 5 years which was a bigrelief. I am also co-editing aninterviewing book which shouldbe completed in about a year.

1993Cindy B. KamilarI am professor at Pikes Peak Comm-unity College. I am also co-coordinator of faculty assessmentof student learning and team leaderof our HLC/NCA assessmentacademy project.

1994Michael J. DiTomassoI am still in private practiceconducting psychological evalua-tions in the criminal justice andchild welfare systems. I continueto enjoy teaching PersonalityTheory for the Department.

1997Vicki DiLilloI’m still teaching at Ohio WesleyanUniversity. This year I waspromoted, tenured and receivedthe University’s teaching award.Personally, this year has been morechallenging. My husband Joeydied unexpectedly last summer.Benjamin (now 2) and I are doingwell considering the circumstancesand would love to hear from otheralums.

Shari Wasserstein EliceNothing new to report…thechildren keep getting older and I’vebecome a part-time psychologistand full-time taxi driver/chauffeur!

1998Barbara Wolfsdorf Kamholz2008 has been an exciting year. InMay, my husband and I welcomedout first child – a baby girl. We’reenjoying work and play in Boston!

2005Amy Kizer CuellarIn August 2007 I completed aMIRECC postdoctoral fellowshipat the Michael E. DeBakey VAMedical Center in Houston, TX.After fellowship, I accepted aposition at the Michael E.DeBakey VA Medical Center as aclinical psychologist in thePsychosocial Rehabilitation andRecovery Center and as AssistantProfessor at Baylor College ofMedicine.

2006Adam W. CarricoI am a postdoctoral fellow inreproductive infectious disease. Iam pursuing a clinical researchprogram with HIV+ methamph-atemine users and collaborating on

Fall 200811

Alumni News and Notesiation (2007). I will conclude term(2005 – 2009) as the Editor of theJournal of Primary Prevention nextyear. I am serving on several APAcommittees; 07–09 Member-at-Large (elected), APA Div. 37,Section 1 (Child Maltreatment);2008, APA Working Group onChild Maltreatment Preventionthrough Community Health Centers.

Barry GrantIn May, I became the Directorof Product Management atBrightRoll.com, a San Francisco-based internet startup focused ononline video advertising. Inaddition to leading all productdevelopment efforts, I amresponsible for product strategyand business development.

2002Jason SalasI have taught at all the levels(elementary/middle/high) as wellas in suburban, rural, and urbanschools. Next I will be teaching at aprivate school in Simsbury, CT. Ihope to be there for a while.

2005Anik HuffmanI am now pursuing a doublemasters in: 1. Mental Healthcounseling with a certificate inmarriage and family therapy and2. Lifestyle medicine – I want toholistically serve health andwellness needs.

Samuel LockhartI will be entering the graduateNeuroscience (Ph.D.) program atUniversity of California, Davis,starting Fall 2008. I will also be 4th

author for yet-named abstractsubmitted to ACTRIMS confer-ence (Montreal, Sept. 08) for initialvalidation study of Functions

Index for Living with MultipleSclerosis (FILMS instrument).

2006Mark CusickI am currently studying for theCatholic Priesthood. I am goinginto my second year of six atMount St. Mary’s University inMaryland. I enjoyed my first yearas a seminarian and look forwardto another great year!

Bevin MerlesBrian (Brian Stubits, BSC, 2006)and I are getting married! Heproposed November 18, 2007 and Isaid “yes!” A December 2009wedding is being planned. I will alsobe earning my Master’s degree inClinical-Forensic Psychology atNova Southeastern UniversityDoctoral Program.

2007Teresita C. MartinezI will be starting my Masters inCounseling Psychology thisupcoming August, at FIU.

Adam Greenberg I am currently enrolled in a year ofcommunity service throughout ournation with AmeriCorps NCCC, afantastic program for 18-24 yearolds to travel our country while serv-ing in our nation’s most under-as-sisted sectors.

2008Desiree KamekaI spent 2 months traveling aroundEurope to reward myself forgraduating, but also to prepare formy business that will launch inSeptember. JUST ASK! Willconnect college students, autisticteens, and local youth groups toincrease quality of life for the teensand spread awareness of autism.

projects that focus on HIVprevention in SubSarahan Africa.

Jeff GreesonIn July, I was promoted toAssistant Professor in theDepartment of Psychiatry andBehavior Sciences at Duke. I ameagerly awaiting a fundingdecision on an NIH CareerDevelopment Award, which wasenthusiastically supported byseveral of my mentors at UM. Mywife, Jenna, will finish her Ph.D.in Social Work at UNC ChapelHill in the spring of 2009, and werecently bought our first house.

Masters

1967John PowellI have a book in progress on elderrites of passage, using the Jungianparadigm of archetype and symbol.

Bachelors

1955Sydelle WhiteMy granddaughter Jennifer LeMayis premed at UM with a psychologyfocus and is looking forward tobeing a Psychology Peer Advisor.

1990Lynn M. CohenI was named Human ResourcesDirector for Mayors Jewelers inApril 2006. I married Barry Cohenin March 2006. We reside inWeston, FL with our 3 children,Jared 12, Mitchell, 10, and Jeffrey 8.

Preston A. BritnerI was appointed to AssociateDepartment Head for GraduateStudies, Department of HumanDevelopment & Family Studies,Universty of Connecticut (2008). Iwas also named a Fellow of theAmerican Psychological Assoc-

Fall 200812

Graduate Student Posters and PublicationsAvivi, Y. E., Laurenceau, J-P., & Carver, C.S. (in press). Linking relationship quality to perceived mutuality of relationship goals and perceived

goal progress. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology.Blake, A., McCullough, M., & Willoughby, B. (2008, February). Did religion evolve to prop up humans’ self-control capacities? Poster session presented

at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology- Evolutionary Psychology Pre-Conference, Albuquerque, NM.Chipungu, K., Fitzpatrick, S., Saab, P., McCalla, J., Countryman, A., & Schneiderman, N. (2008, March). Ethnic identity’s role in stress

management for African American and Hispanic adolescents. Poster Session presented at the annual meeting of the Society of BehavioralMedicine, San Diego, CA.

Chipungu, L., Fitzpatrick, S., Saab, P., McCalla, J. (2008, June). Differences in perceived stress for African American and Hispanic adolescents. Postersession presented at the annual meeting of National Black Graduate Students, Ann Arbor, MI.

Countryman, A. J., Fitzpatrick, S. L., Saab, P. G., McCalla, J. B., and Zhao, F. (2008, March). Social distress and insulin resistance in adolescents.Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Society of Behavior Medicine, San Diego, CA.

Coyrell, V., Schultz, L., Wohlgemuth, W., Gonzalez, N., Lawrence, R.., Martin, P., Klimas, N., & Hurwitz, B. (2008). Vital exhaustion, sleepdisturbances, and inflammatory biomediators in chronic fatigue syndrome. Poster presented at the 29th Annual Proceedings of the Society ofBehavioral Medicine, San Diego, CA.

Eisner, L. & Johnson, S. (in press). An acceptance-based psychoeducation intervention to reduce expressed emotion in relatives of bipolarpatients. Behavior Therapy, 39(4).

Eisner, L., Johnson, S. & Carver, C. (2008). Cognitive responses to failure and success relate uniquely to bipolar depression and mania. Journalof Abnormal Psychology, 117, 154-163.

Farrell, K., Shen, B. J., Baverlin, E. J., Penedo, F. P., Mallon, S. (2008, March). Depression, social support, and self-efficacy are associated with medicationadherence among individuals with heart failure. Poster session presented at the annual meeting of The Society for Behavioral Medicine,San Diego, CA.

Fulford, D., Eisner, L. E., & Johnson, S. L. (2007, November). Addressing unrealistic expectations for success in a pilot study of mania prevention. Posterpresentation at the annual convention of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, Philadelphia, PA.

Fulford, D. & Johnson, S. L. (in press). Bipolar disorder. In R. Ingram (Ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Depression. New York: SpringerPublishing Company.

Fulford, D., Johnson, S. L., & Carver, C. S. (in press). Commonalities and differences in characteristics of persons at risk for narcissism andmania. Journal of Research in Personality.

Greenberg, A. C., Penfield, R. D., & Greenfield, D. B. (2008, June). Differential item functioning in a large-scale preschool science assessment. Posterpresented at the biennial meeting of the National Head Start Research Conference, Washington, DC.

Greenberg, A. C., Penfield, R. D., Greenfield, D. B. (2008, June). Fighting bias with statistics: Detecting gender differences (DDF) in responses to items ona preschool science assessment. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Institute of Education Sciences, Washington, DC.

Greenberg, A. C., Penfield, R. D., Greenfield, D. B. (2008, Spring). Fighting bias with statistics: detecting gender differences [DDF] in responses to itemson a preschool science assessment. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Cross University Collaborative Mentoring Conference,Philadelphia, PA.

Ibanez, L., Grantz, C., Messinger, D., Cassel, T., Haltigan, J., Acosta, S., & Kelley, K. (2008, March). Early gaze shifting and joint attention ininfants at-risk for autism. Poster presented at the biennial meeting of the International Conference on Infant Studies, Vancouver,Canada.

Ibanez, L., Messinger, D., Newell, L., Sheshkin, M., & Lambert, B. (in press). Visual disengagement in the infant siblings of children with anASD. Autism: International Journal of Research and Practice.

Ibanez, L., Grantz, C., Messinger, D., Cassel, T., Haltigan, J. D., Acosta, S., & Kelley, K. (2008, April). Gaze shifting and joint attention deficits ininfants at risk for autism. Poster presented at the Marino Autism Research Institute Scientific Symposium: Environment and AutismEtiology, Nashville, Tennessee.

Kuhn, R. (2008, March). Health locus of control and health survival with HIV. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Society for BehavioralMedicine, Sand Diego, CA.

Lemoult, J. & Joormann, J. (2007, October). Memory for emotional faces in comorbid depression and social anxiety disorder. Poster presented at theannual convention of the Society for Research in Psychopathology, Iowa City, IA.

LeMoult, J. & Joorman, J. (2007). Attention and memory biases in individuals with comorbid social anxiety disorder and depressions. Poster presented atthe annual convention of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy (ABCT), Philadelphia, PA.

Lopez, C., Antoni, M. H., Fekete, E., & Schneiderman, N. (2008, March). Ethnic identity and perceived stress in HIV and minority women: The role of coping, self-efficacy, and social support. Poster presented at the annual meeting of The Society of Behavioral Medicine, San Diego, CA.

Lopez, C., Antoni, M. H., Fekete, E., Penedo, F., Duran, R., Ironson, G., & Schneiderman, N. (March, 2008). Ethnic identity and perceived stressin HIV and minority women: An examination of psychosocial mediators. Poster presented at the annual conference of the Office forWomen’s Health, University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL.

Miller, C. J., Johnson, S. L., Carver, C. S. (2007, November). Utility of three self-report screening measures for detecting bipolar disorder in undergraduates. Posterpresented at the annual meeting of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, Philadelphia, PA.

Schultz, L., Coryell, V., Patterson, A., Gonzalez, A., Baez-Garcia, C., Gonzalez, N., & Hurwitz, B. (2008, March). Linkages to HIV antiretroviraladherence and disease severity: Ethnic identity, beliefs and attitudes about medicine, and psychological distress. Poster presented at the annualmeeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, San Diego, CA.

Tabak, B. A., Fulford, D. ,McMurrich, S. M., & Johnson, S. L. (2007, August). Over-reactions to positive emotion – Is there more to hypomania than meets the eye?Poster presentation at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco, CA.

Tabak, B.A., Jacobson, J.G., & McCullough, M. E. (2008, May). The affective consequences of forgiveness. Poster presented at the annualconvention for the Association for Psychological Science, Chicago, IL.

Tabak, B. A., Fulford, D., Feldman, G., & Johnson, S. L. (2008, August). Mania risk and creativity: The role of overinclusive categorization. Posterpresented at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association, Boston, MA.

Wasserman, S. & Weisman de Mamani, A. (2007, October). The relationship between expressed emotion and self-conscious emotions in relatives of patientswith schizophrenia. Poster presented at the society for Research in Psychopathology, Iowa City.

Wasserman, S., Weisman de Mamani, A. G., & Mundy, P. (2007, under review). Expressed emotion, attributions, and family cohesion in schizophreniaand high functioning autism.

Fall 200813

Graduate Students in the News

Internship 2008-2009

The Psychology Graduate Student Association (PGSA) had an active year promoting and enhancingcommunication between students and faculty and fostering a collegiate environment for students.

Co-Presidents for the year were Ximena Dominguez and Nathan Doty.

Susan Acosta - Miami Children’s Hospital - Miami, FL - PsychologyYael Avivi - Dallas Metropolitan Consortium/Southern Methodist - Dallas,TX - Psychology

Lawrence Brooks - Yale University School of Medicine, Dept. of Psychiatry - Conn. Mental Health Center:New Haven, CT - Neurological and Psychological Assessment

Irene Delgado - Harvard Medical/Massachusetts General Hospital - Boston, MA - NeuropsychologyNathan Doty - Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia/Children’s Seashore House- Philadelphia, PA - Psychology

Eugenio Duarte - Pace University - New York, NY - PsychologyAnne Inge - University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, NC Clinical - Child/Pediatric

Vamsi Koneru - Yale University School of Medicine, Dept. of Psychiatry - Conn. Mental Health Center:New Haven, CT - Hispanic Clinic

Daniel Nation - University of California San Diego - Consortium/Veteran’s Administration Medical Center - San Diego, CA - Neuropsychology and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Kristin Phillips - University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, NC - Adult Behavioral MedicineEmily Polak - Mental Health Associates - Elmsford, NY - Psychology

Lindsey Root - Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services - Grand Rapids, MI - PsychologyBlake Scanlon - Veteran’s Administration Palo Alto Health Care System Palo Alto, CA - Geropsychology

Caley Schwartz - Yale University Child Study - New Haven, CT - AutismLara Traeger - Harvard Medical/Mass General Hosp - Boston, MA - Behavioral Medicine Track

Paul Wachowiak - Temple University Health Science Center - Philadelphia, PA - PsychologyOrit Weitzman - Nova Southeastern University, Fischler School of Education and Human Services - Miami, FL, -Psychology

Nicole Zahka - Dupont Hospital for Children - Wilmington, DE - Psychology

Research and Creativity Day Forum Winners1st place

Lena Mohapatra - H. Henderson, PhD, Mentor2nd place

Christopher Miller - S. Johnson, Ph.D., Mentor3rd place

Nathan Doty - N. Malik, Ph.D. and K. Lindahl, Ph.D., Mentors

Recipients were also chosen for two new awards:

The Peter Mundy CARD Graduate Student Award for Clinical Research in Autism

Caley SchwartzCaley is mentored by Dr. Heather Henderson;

her area of research is children with high-functioning autism.

The Keith Scott CARD Graduate StudentAward for Developmental Research in Autism

Vanessa GonzalezMentored by Dr. Marygrace Yale Kaiser,

Vanessa has been working on a project funded by theCDC to determine the prevalence of autism in Miami-Dade county. She plans to follow up with a 2 yearfellowship with the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS)at the CDC in Atlanta, GA.

Ryan Landoll and Catherine D’Avanzato

OutstandingTeaching AssistantsEach will receive acash award and a

plaque.

Nathan Doty won the Bertha WeberGraduate Student Appreciation Award.

Ann-Marie Faria won theDr. Carol Alson-Fineman Award.

Kirk R. Danhour Memorial Awards. Each of theserecipients will receive a cash prize and their names will appearon the plaque on display in Flipse 5th Floor Lobby.

Adult Child Health Yael Avivi David Barker Connie Myerson

Fall 200814

Undergraduate News

Management of all of these students is donethrough the office of Undergraduate Academic Servicesfor Psychology, (UASP), which continues to becoordinated by the Director of Undergraduate Studies(Dr. Victoria Noriega). Staff in UASP includedAssistant Director of Advising, Sean Kilpatrick, twofull-time Advisors, Rachel Acosta and Dr. EvelynAlvarez, and seventeen highly trained undergraduatepeer advisors. UASP handles advising for all Psychologyand Neuroscience majors, as well research recruitment,research participation credit and pretesting, datacollection for accreditation, freshman and transferorientation, and events like graduation and Just Desserts.Since 1998, the number of students serviced by thisoffice has tripled.

Undergraduate Academic Services

Again last year the Undergraduate Program enrolled record numbers of students in various schools. The majority(622), come from the College of Arts and Sciences, with 138 coming from the School of Communication, 54 from theSchool of Education, 3 from the School of Music, 2 from the School of Nursing, and 1 from Continuing Studies. The Neuroscienceprogram continues to be administered by our Department and Directed by Phil McCabe; it increased to 213.

The retirement of Dr. Lynn Durel presents a significant loss for the Undergraduate program,for both Psychology and Neuroscience. Known as a ‘tough cookie’ who expects a lotfrom her students and gives her all in return, Durel has been with the Department since1985. Her most oft taught recent undergraduate courses have included Intro, Psychobiology,and Health Psychology. She also taught an Introductory Psychology course linked withDr. David Wilson’s Introductory Biology course in a Learning Community - the only LCin the Department - for ten years. In addition to her many services to the Department,the College, and the University, Durel also served as Director of Undergraduate Studiesduring the 1990’s. This favorite teacher, mentor, and advisor will be missed by theundergraduates and the undergraduate program. Dr. Durel will leave Miami in order to becloser to her children and grandchildren. On behalf of all of her students, we wish Dr.Durel a wonderful retirement.

Best Wishes

Freshmen continued to receive orientation,advising and mentoring though our one-year programcalled FACT FORUM. Our freshman class was the bestever in terms of SAT scores. We ended the Springsemester with a 97% retention rate for PSY majors and100% for Neuroscience.

In 2007, we graduated 21% of all CAS graduates,more than any other major in the College. During Fall2007, the Department taught 9482 credit hours, 11.7%of all CAS credit hours, and more than any otherdepartment except English (11,930). Sixty-five of ourstudents, more than any other declared major in theCollege, participated in the study abroad programbetween 2001 and 2007. Approximately 39% of ourFall 2007 and Spring 2008 CAS graduates haveparticipated in research for academic credit.

While our tenured and tenure track faculty werebusy with their myriad activities, a host of full-timelectures, clinical and research faculty, and adjuncts carriedthe bulk of our undergraduate teaching. We are gratefulto Drs. Michael Alessandri, Evelyn Alvarez, LourdesCasares, Christine Delgado, Pamela Deroian, LynnDurel, Michael DiTomasso, Jennifer Durocher, ErinFekete, Franklin Foote, Roderick Gillis, BrainardHines, Hillary Hoffman, Malcolm Kahn, MarygraceYale Kaiser, Jill Kaplan, Judith McCalla, PeterMitchell, Margo Mustelier, Marilyn Rodriguez, AmySchaffer, Rick Stuetzle, Ray Winters, and BarryZwibelman. Their dedication to undergraduate teachinghelps to make our program one of the best on campus.Graduate students Virginia Coryell, XimenaDominguez, Nathan Doty, Anna-Marie Faria, KristenFarrell, Stephanie Fitzpatrick, Daniel Fulford, CarolynKinnamon, Camila Hileman, Lisa Ibanez, RachelKuhn, LaMista Schultz, Connie Meyerson, ChrisMiller, Leena Mohapatra, Ben Tabak, and Kevin Vagialso taught as part of their graduate training requirements.

Teaching

Just DessertsThe time-honored tradition of Just Desserts continuedthis year with over 175 participants joining us to cel-ebrate the achievements of students who made one of

the Honor Rolls.Sebastian was on handagain to cheer studentson as they competedfor the copier-printer-scanner combinationdonated by Mrs.David King.

Fall 200815

Senior Honors ThesesPsychology and Neuroscience

Stephanie Beckel - Psychology summa - Daniel Messinger, Ph.D.Does the Continuous Rating System Capture Face-to-Face a Still-Face Effects

and Can it be Used to Identify Specific Behaviors that Contribute to LowerRatings of Emotional Valence in Parents?

Danette Beitra - Psychology Honors - Silvina Lewis, M.D.Relationship Between Depression and Drug Adherence in a Clinical Trial

of Soy Phytoestrogens in Menopausal Women

Catherine Duchowny - Psychology Honors - Maria Llabre, Ph.D.Does Riding Horses as a Treatment Improve Social Functioning

in High-Functioning Autistic Children?

Janine Galione - Psychology Honors - Jutta Joormann, Ph.D.Triggering Autobiographical Memories in Sociotropic Individuals

Tara Irani - Psychology summa - Jutta Joormann, Ph.D.Depression, Memory, and Self-Esteem

Cindy Joseph - Neuroscience summa - Min Tran, Ph.D.MRNA Expression of Bax & Bcl-2 Gene in Cultures of Primary Astrocytes

Marissa Kummerling - Neuroscience summa - Edward Green, Ph.D.Evaluation of Strategies UnderlyingSensorimotor Learning in the Mouse

Laura Kupperman - Psychology magna - Marygrace Yale Kaiser, Ph.D.Changes in Knowledge about Child Development After a Parenting Intervention

Jennifer Ledon - Psychology Honors - Bonnie Levin, Ph.D.Hallucinations and Parkinson’s Disease

Crystal Noller - Psychology Honors - Heather Henderson, Ph.D.Face Recognition Ability as a Predictor of Social Competence

Amy Pearlman - Neuroscience summa - John Bixby, Ph.D.Expression of Novel NPCD Isoforms in Cultured Cells

Richard Rammo - Neuroscience summa - John Bethea, Ph.D.Improvement of Axonal Regrowth FollowingSpinal Cord Injury Using NF-KB Knockouts

Nima Sharifai - Neuroscience summa - Jeffrey Goldberg, M.D./Ph.D.Developmental Gene Expression and Central Nervous System Regeneration

Amberly Reynolds - Psychology Honors - Frank Penedo, Ph.D.Active Coping as a Mediator Between Personal Controland Quality of Life in Men Living with Prostate Cancer

Maria Agustina Rosetti - Psychology Honors - Heather Henderson, Ph.D.The N170 ERP Component and Face-Processing of Emotional Face

Expression in Children with High Functioning Autism

Caitlin Walsh - Psychology magna - Darryl Greenfield, Ph.D.Ethnic Differences in Preschool Children’s

Receptive Vocabulary and Cognitive Inhibition Skills

Vanessa Villar - Psychology magna - Heather Henderson, Ph.D.Individual Differences in Toddlers’ Compliance: The Influence of

Temperament, Maternal Behavior, and Their Interaction.

As an indication of the quality of our undergraduateresearch training, in 2008 approximately 19% of all magna andsumma cum laude theses awarded University-wide were fromstudents majoring in Psychology (i.e., six theses) or Neuroscience(i.e., five theses). We also had four psychology majors and twoneuroscience majors complete honors theses for DepartmentalHonors in Psychology, giving us a total of 17 completed thesesduring these 2 semesters.

Our success in undergraduate researchhas come from a multi-pronged approachincluding early information through FACTand FORUM, intensive recruiting andtracking efforts, and most of all, through thededication of our faculty. Undergraduateparticipation in research during the past tenyears received a major boost with the fundedsummer research program, PsychologyResearch Initiatives Mentorship Experience(PRIME). This summer, 15 studentsparticipated in PRIME with continuing fundsbeing supplied by the American Psycho-logical Association’s grant from the NIGMS,and the office of the Provost, ThomasLeBlanc. Another five students werementored in Psychology labs under theauspices of the Dean’s Woman and MinorityScholarship and a grant from the NationalScience Foundation.

During the past ten years, the PRIMEprogram has been enormously successful.About 171 students (122 of whom who havebeen minority students) have participated inthe program. All have completed theirundergraduate education. Thirty-eight ofthese have entered graduate school; two havebecome assistant professors. Fifteen havegone on to work in research.

We are especially delighted towelcome Dr. Monica Webb, a former PRIMEstudent from the first cohort in 1998, to theUM faculty!

1st place Kendra MollJutta Joormann, Ph.D., Mentor

2nd place Aaron Fischer Jennifer Durocher, Ph.D., Mentor

3rd place Susan Geffen Kristin Lindahl, Ph.D., Mentor

Research and Creativity Day Forum Undergraduate Winners

Research

Fall 200816

by Lynne Katz, Ed.D. Director. & Marygrace Yale Kaiser, Ph.D., Associate Director

The Linda Ray Children’s Center continues its focus on implementing research-driven interventions for infantsand toddlers with special needs, and those who have been victims of abuse, neglect, and/or exposure to violence. Throughcollaborative partnerships with the child welfare system provider network and the Juvenile Court, the LRIC has obtainedfunding for the early intervention educational component, the infant mental health clinical interventions, parenting skillsprograms, summer programs to support language and literacy, school readiness skills, and training and curriculumdevelopment.

Both undergraduate and graduate students participate at the Center, with hands-on activities including: assessmenttraining and collection of child assessment data, working with parents and collecting data related to the parents’ roles intheir children’s lives, community outreach activities with childcare providers, as well as data analyses, videotape codingprojects and curriculum and training development activities. Three undergrads continued to be involved with theseprojects. Six other undergraduate students did voluntary hours across both semesters at the Center. Laura Kupperman(2007) graduated magna cum laude by doing an honor’s thesis using Center data examining how one of our parentingprograms impacted parenting attitudes and increased knowledge of child development. Developmental students DoloresFarhat and Shira Kolnik are currently completing their master’s theses and one student (Christine Hughes) is currentlycompleting her dissertation at the Center. Laura Bolzani Dinehart (2006), who completed her dissertation examiningmaternal responsiveness and language development in Center children, was recently appointed an Assistant Professor inthe School of Education at Florida International University.

At this year’s Regional Child Welfare Conference, the LRIC received the Outstanding Community PartnerAward for ‘providing high quality, innovative programs to children and families, and for leadership in promoting communitycollaboration.’ Faculty member and LRIC Director Lynne Katz (UM alumna ‘99) received the Eleventh JudicialCircuit Leadership Award at the State Dependency Summit for her work with children in the child welfare system.LRIC Associate Director Marygrace Yale Kaiser (UM alumna ‘99) continues to supervise research at the Center andhas co-authored several manuscripts examining development of children receiving the LRIC intervention.

UM-NSU CARD continues to serve more and morefamilies affected by autism spectrum disorders despite a mid-year budget cut in FY07-08 and an additional funding cut forFY08-09. Currently, we have over 4000 families from Miami-Dade, Broward, and Monroe Counties on our constituentregistry. While we have lost critical funding, along with severalkey staff members, we continue to thrive in our efforts tomeet the needs of our clients thanks to innovativeprogramming and extensive community partnerships.

This past May we hosted our 6th Annual TropicalNights fundraiser at the Biltmore Hotel. This year’s eventhonored longtime CARD and UM supporters Bob & JeanSchomber, along with the Honorable Bob Graham, formerGovernor and Senator from the State of Florida. Five hundredloyal friends and supporters gathered to raise nearly $300,000to support our services and programs. Tropical Nights 2009is scheduled for April 25th at the Biltmore Hotel. Sponsorshipopportunities are available. We hope to see you there!

With funds raised from Tropical Nights, UM-NSUCARD has purchased a first of its kind Mobile Family Clinic.The Mobile Family Clinic will travel throughout South Floridaproviding screenings, resources, and autism awareness to our

UM-NSU CARD UpdateBy Michael Alessandri, Ph.D., Director

community. The UM-NSU CARD Mobile Family Clinicwill allow families who may not be able to travel to aCARD center the ability to meet with CARD staff intheir local communities.

The UM-NSU CARD Mobile Family Clinic is a23 foot bus that is customized with a therapy andevaluation room in the back and a waiting room and workstation in the front. The therapy/evaluation room is out-fitted with video cameras which connect to recordingequipment and a monitor in the waiting area. This willallow for effective interactive training opportunities.

Fall 200817

Children’s Registry and Information System

Psychological Services Center by Kim Fuller, Ph.D., Director

by Christine Delgado, Ph.D., Principal Investigator

The Children’s Registry and Information System (CHRIS) project is responsible for the developmentand maintenance of a statewide registry of children who have disabilities that may affect their future schoolperformance and children who may be at-risk of developing such disabilities. The CHRIS database is used at allFlorida Diagnostic and Learning Resources System (FDLRS) centers to register children for whom specialservices may be needed. The primary target population consists of children referred for services under theIndividuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part C (birth to 3 years of age) and Part B (3 to 5 years ofage).

As required by IDEA, the CHRIS database provides the Florida Department of Education, its fundingsource, with a means of documenting Child Find efforts to locate, evaluate, and provide necessary services to at-risk children. CHRIS is also used to create reports for state agencies and to provide information to serviceproviders. In addition, research conducted using the CHRIS database informs service providers and policymakersas to important issues regarding children with disabilities served in Florida.

Research using the CHRIS database focuses on issues related to preschoolers with disabilities. CHRISrecords are integrated with Florida birth certificate records and/or public school records to create the datasetsneeded to address specific research questions. Current research projects focus on the following two generalareas: 1) Identification of early risk factors for preschool-aged children with disabilities and 2) Tracking outcomesof preschool-aged children with disabilities. Early identification of children with disabilities is facilitated byfocusing attention on those children most likely to develop a disability. Information provided on birth certificaterecords can provide an index of risk that may be utilized by Child Find specialists and other service providers totarget the children at greatest risk. Understanding the outcomes of preschool children with disabilities (e.g.,special education placement and achievement) and the factors that are related to those outcomes is importantfor the development of intervention programs and special education services for those children. Additionalinformation on the CHRIS project can be obtained from our website at www.chris.miami.edu.

The Psychological Services Center had an activeand productive year serving 341 clients of all ages, cultures,and ethnicities. As usual, the clinic provided individualtherapy, family therapy, group therapy, couples therapy andpsychoeducational assessment services. We also trained43 graduate students and two post-doctoral trainees.

The clinic is undergoing change and development.In July, we were fortunate to recruit Dr. Saneya Tawfik toserve as our new Assessment Coordinator. A graduate ofUniversity of Denver in Child-Clinical Psychology, Dr.Tawfik has worked as a psychological examiner, consultant,psychotherapist, and clinical supervisor in the Miami areafor 15 years. She was a popular clinic supervisor for someof our child track students from 2002 to 2005. She istrilingual (English, Spanish, and French) and has particularexpertise in behavioral medicine, and in the assessment andtreatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder inchildren. In her current position at the clinic, Dr. Tawfikmanages the assessment services we offer to thecommunity, supervises our practicum classes in thepsychological assessments students perform in the clinic,and participates in the classroom teaching and training ofour graduate students.

The clinic has also benefitted from the addition ofa new full-time clinical supervisor, Adriana Weisz Rosenwho joined the staff in December 2007. Dr. Rosen receivedher Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University ofNorth Texas and completed her internship and post-doctoraltraining at the University of Miami Jackson MemorialHospital. She has broad clinical interests and experiencewith both adults and children. Her primarily psychodynamictherapeutic orientation has been an asset to the clinicaltraining we offer at the clinic. In addition to supervisinggraduate students from the Adult, Child, and Health Clinicaltracks, Dr. Rosen has also been teaching an undergraduatepsychology course in Psychology of Gender. She has beena welcome addition to our team.

The clinic continues to utilize advanced graduatestudents to help with the training and mentorship ofbeginning students. The advanced practicum team for 2007-08 included Nathan Doty, Lara Traeger, StephanieWasserman, and Nicole Zahka. They were extremelyhelpful in providing supervision for pre-practicum students,getting the practicum class oriented to the clinic, andparticipating in therapy intake screenings.

Fall 200818

Kudos

Michael AlessandriDED, IES/University of North Carolina

Comparison of Two Comprehensive Treatment Modelsfor Preschool-Aged Children with Autism

and Their Families

Jennifer DurocherOrganization for Autism Research

A clinical Randomized Control Trialof Joint-Attention Intervention in Young Children

with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Jennifer DurocherAutism Speaks

Providing Outreach and Educationto Underserved Minority Families

Michael McCulloughJohn Templeton FoundationReaching Opinion Leaders

with the Science of ForgivenessA Comprehensive Outreach Plan for “Beyond Revenge:

The Evolution of the Forgiveness Instinct”

Frank PenedoNARSAD/USC

Depression and Progression ofCongestive Heart Failure

Alexandra QuittnerCystic Fibrosis Foundation

Prevalence and Impact of Depression and Anxiety inCystic Fibrosis Patients and Their Caregivers

Alexandra QuittnerNIDCD/John Hopkins University

Research Supplement to Promote Diversity: Ivette Cruz

Neil SchneidermanNHLBI/UCLA

Multisite Collaborate Study for Adherence:Virologic and Clinical Outcomes

New GrantsAPA Presidential Citation

to Annette LaGreca

Alan Kazdin, President of the AmericanPsychological Association, awarded a Presidential Citationto our own Professor Annette LaGreca in a ceremony heldin Boston. The citation was given “In recognition of threedecades of outstanding contributions to science, practice,and education within the fields of clinical child and pediatricpsychology. Dr. Annette M. LaGreca has devoted hercareer to the care and welfare of children and adolescents,and to the advancement of psychological science. Herpioneering research was among the first to recognize theunique psychological needs of children and adolescents,and distinct approaches for the assessment and treatmentof youth, as compared with adults. This has been reflectedin her extraordinary work on the management of Type Idiabetes, the role of peers in the development ofpsychopathology and health behaviors, the developmentof children’s social anxiety, and children’s reactions totrauma. Dr. LaGreca’s work has had a global impact. Hermaterials, designed to assist psychological responses tonatural disasters, have been disseminated to thousands ofyouth, parents, teachers, and emergency response personnelon at least three continents. Dr. LaGreca’s selfless andextraordinary efforts have been particularly noteworthy inher consistent service to governance groups within theAmerican Psychological Association and its divisions onclinical child and pediatric psychology. Dr. LaGreca hasprovided these impressive contributions while maintainingtireless dedication to education, demonstrated through herrole as a training director, her receipt of several traininggrants, and her award-winning mentorship to students.”Congratulations to Annette! We in the Department arehonored to have her among our colleagues.

Graduate Teacher of the YearRod Gillis Award forBest Graduate Student Teacher

PGSA’s Graduate Teacher of the Year awards aregiven to professors who go above and beyong the call ofduty to make his or her teaching a great learning experiencefor graduate students. This academic year, students votedfor two Teacher of the Year awards - one for a full timefaculty member and one for a part-time faculty member.

The full time faculty award went to Dr. SheriJohnson for her contribution as a clinical psychologyprofessor. Dr. Johnson’s students mentioned her courses areintellectually challenging and interesting. Her reportedpassion for psycholgy is contagious and that they clearlylearn how to apply the knowledge learned in class.

The part-time award went to Dr. Lourdes Casares.Dr. Casares’ students mentioned her psycho-analytic coursewas a great learning experience that bridged theory andpractice by providing them specific therapeutic strategiesin addition to extending their theoretical understanding.

At the annual NewGraduate Student WelcomingReception, Chairman RodWellens presented the RodGillis Award for Best GraduateStudent Teacher to third yearXimena Dominguez. Anactive member of DarylGreenfield’s research team,PRIME mentor, and currentPGSA President, Ximenareceived the highest ratingsfrom both students andsupervisors. Congratulationsand best wishes!

Fall 200819

Lifetime Achievement Professor Emeritus Theodore Millon received theGold Medal Award for Life Achievement in the Applicationof Psychology from the American PsychologicalFoundation. Millon is most famous for introducing thebiosocial-learning framework for personality developmentand his clinical instruments including the Millon ClinicalMultiaxial Inventory (MCMI) and variants of thatinstrument including the Millon Behavioral HealthInventory, the Millon Behavioral Medicine Diagnostic, theMillon Adolescent Personality Inventory, the MillonAdolescent Clinical Inventory, and the Millon Index ofPersonality Styles. A long-time donor to the Department,Millon is now living in the New York area.

Professor Emeritus Don Routh is now in his secondyear as a graduate student in History at Florida Gulf CoastUniversity. He co-authored an article with his mentor I.D.Winsboro titled “Utopia’s healing messiah: Dr. Cyrus R.Teed of Chicago and the national mind-cure movement.”The article was recently accepted for publication to theJournal of Illinois History.

AdieuWe were saddened to learn of the passing of Mrs. Marion Routh and Mrs. Dorothy Truss,

wives of Professor Emeriti Don Routh and Carrol Truss, respectively.The Department extends heartfelt sympathies to the families of our former colleagues.

Still Publishing

With the benefit of recent retirements, and new fundingopportunities, we plan to continue our recent development byrecruiting additional tenure-track faculty members over thenext 2-3 years. Donna Shalala has affirmed her desire to bringthe University to the next level of scholarly attainment, andthe Department plays a major role in that process.

The Adult Division is seeking one or two clinicalpsychologists whose interests would complement andsupplement those of the existing faculty group, i.e., bridgingbasic and clinical science. We are interested in individuals whoconduct research in personality-social areas blending social andbiological views. Rank for these positions is Assistant to FullProfessor.

The Child Division is seeking one or two facultymembers with expertise in childhood disorders such as autism,ADHD, ODD, chronic illnesses, anxiety or depression andfrom those with research interests in behavioral genetics, childassessment, or evidence-based interventions.

We also seek faculty members to strengthen ourexisting expertise in social, cognitive, and affective developmentand neuroscience, and in early intervention.

The Health Division is seeking to fill one or two facultypositions. Individuals with clinical or nonclinical interests in(a) cognitive or behavioral neuroscience or (b) cardiovascular,HIV/AIDS, metabolism and type 2 diabetes, or healthdisparities. Individuals with strong quantitative skills and interestin teaching one of our graduate statistics courses are especiallyurged to apply. The neuroscience search is emphasizing researchinterest in human cognitive neuroscience (e.g., using functionalMRI) or animal models examining brain and behaviormechanisms.

Psychological Services Center is seeking a Directorwith clinical and/or research interests and expertise in evidence-based assessment and treatment to oversee the clinic andprovide training focus in these areas. The Director positionrequires a Ph.D. in clinical psychology (any area) from an APA-accredited program, and knowledge and experience withevidence-based assessments and treatments for children,adolescents, and/or adults. Applicants must hold a Floridalicense or be license-eligible. Depending on expertise, theposition could either be tenure-track (research oriented) or non-tenure track (clinical service oriented).

Faculty members in the Department are expected todevelop their own independent areas of research, teach coursesat the graduate and undergraduate level, as well as supervisedoctoral students, serve on thesis, dissertation, and othercommittees. We are particularly interested in candidates whohave some postdoctoral experience and thus have a track recordof scholarly accomplishments.

Seeking New Faculty

On the non-clinical front, our long time officemanager Cindy Papale Hammontree completed her book.With her co-author Sabrina Hernandez, The Empty CupRunneth Over was completed and recently released. Thebook outlines her experience of surviving breast cancerand provides information and guidance for others, especiallyyounger women, who are coping with the disease. Cindyand her colleagues have been working on this now for fouryears and all of their hard work is coming to fruition. Talkabout making lemonade out of lemons! Congratulationsto Cindy who has inspired all of us whether or not we havebreast cancer! You can read more about Cindy’s book atwww.theemptycuprunnethover.com.

Experience helps

Greetings from all of us to all of U

Photo by Andre Perwin

Fall 200820

Outstanding Alumnus Award ............................2

Department Wins Service Award .......................2

Alumni Networking Event ................................2

Donor Honor Roll...........................................3

Adult Track Update .........................................4

Child Track Update..........................................6

Health Track Update .......................................8

Alumni News and Notes .................................10

Graduate Student News ..................................12

Undergraduate News .....................................14

Community Service and Outreach ...................16

Kudos .........................................................18

Contributors

Rachel Acosta, B.A.

Evelyn Alvarez, Ph.D.

Jossie Dauval, B.A.

Sean Kilpatrick, B.A.

Andre Perwin, B.S.

A. Rodney Wellens, Ph.D.

Richard Williams, Ph.D.

The Psychology Faculty

The Psychologyand Neuroscience

Peer Advisors

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Psychology News:What’s Inside?

Department of PsychologyP.O. Box 248185Coral Gables, FL 33124-2070

Published by University of Miami, College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Psychology.Creative Editor, Layout, and Design: Victoria Noriega, Ph.D.

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