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Helping Middle School Children with Behavior Issues
Winter 2014
reetings from 806 W. Franklin St.!
As I write this, the spring semester is well underway, de-
spite colder than average temperatures in Virginia.
We have many exciting developments to report in this issue; for
example, we are launching a new feature on leadership in psy-
chology. Leadership is one of the three emphases of our coun-
seling psychology doctoral program (along with scholarship and
practice), and we are delighted to hear from Peter Zucker, Ph.D.,
who completed his studies at VCU in 1983.
We continue to excel in scholarship and report on two applied
projects conducted by our faculty. Herein you can read about
work by Joshua Langberg, Ph.D., who works with middle school
students diagnosed with ADHD to help them succeed in school.
Zewelanji Serpell, Ph.D., is also doing important work in our
schools and focuses on school-based interventions for underper-
forming students. Specifically, she is interested in harnessing
advances in cognitive science to develop and test interventions
that target students' executive functioning; one way she is doing
this is through the game of chess. These projects are just two
examples of the cutting edge science produced in the depart-
ment that provide graduate and undergraduate students the
opportunities to get involved in high impact research.
In this issue we are pleased to introduce our newest Psychology
faculty members, Charles Calderwood, Ph.D., and Marcia Winter,
Ph.D. We are excited to have their contributions to our dual mis-
sions of scholarship and pedagogy and look forward to their in-
volvement in our dynamic and ever-evolving department.
Graduate student training is a key focus of the university this
year. As the department with the largest number of doctoral
students at VCU, we invest considerable energy in our doctoral
training. In this issue we spotlight Rob Goodman, a soon-to-be-
graduate of our social psychology program, and note the recent
NIH training grant that Jasmine Abrams, a student in our health
psychology program, received.
Finally, we continue to celebrate the successes of and opportuni-
ties for our undergraduate students. Undergraduate student
Haroon Popal recently won a highly competitive scholarship
from the National Institutes of Health, based in part on his work
in Dr. Joe Porter’s lab.
As always, we would love to hear what you are up to. Please drop us a line or stop by for a visit. Wendy Kliewer Professor and Chair
PROGRAM DIRECTORS
Eric Benotsch
Health
Jeff Green
Social
Barbara Myers
Developmental
Bruce Rybarczyk
Clinical
Everett Worthington
Counseling
Jennifer Elswick
Newsmagazine Production
Jody Davis
Web and Facebook
Important Alumni Links
Submit a class note.
Update your contact information.
Join VCU Alumni .
View the alumni directory.
Get your alumni email address.
Michael Southam-Gerow Director,
Graduate Studies
Dorothy Fillmore Associate Director for Academic Operations
Wendy Kliewer Chair
Linda Zyzniewski Director,
Undergraduate Studies
4-5 Alumni news and notes
6-7 Alumni spotlight
Alexa Ebersole Carlo-Hickman
(B.S. ‘06)
8-9 New feature:
Leadership in Psychology
Peter Zucker (Ph.D. ’83)
10
CPSD Corner
Department celebrates five-year
collaboration with Puller Clinic
11 Ask the CPSD
Mom worries that her son has been
stealing from the medicine cabinet
14 Faculty scholarship recognition
College of Humanities and Sciences
15 Department news and updates
16-17 Meet our new faculty members
Charles Calderwood, Ph.D
Marcia Winter, Ph.D.
18-19 Graduate student spotlight and news
Robert Goodman, M.A.
20-21 Research spotlight
Zewelanji Serpell, Ph.D.
22 Teaching spotlight
Undergraduate preceptor program
Jennifer Joy-Gaba, Ph.D.
23 Undergraduate student spotlight
and news Haroon Popal, class of ‘14
24 New research findings
TedxRVA talk
Karen Kersting, M.A., M.S.
25 International visiting scholars
Nuran Korkmaz, Ph.D.
Muzafar Razali, Ph.D.
26 December 2013 graduates
27 Department contact information
12-13 COVER STORY
Helping middle school children with
behavior issues succeed
Joshua Langberg, Ph.D.
1970s
Jodi L. Teitelman, Ph.D. (M.S. ’78), assis-
tant professor in the Department of Occu-
pational Therapy in the VCU School of Al-
lied Health Professions, received a certifi-
cate of appreciation from the Virginia Oc-
cupational Therapy Association for her
ongoing commitment to advocacy in the
field. She also presented at the associa-
tion’s annual conference.
Teitelman is a life member of VCU Alumni.
1980s
Deborah Dugger (B.S. ’85), director of the
Chesterfield Adolescent Reporting Pro-
gram, was one of six chosen from among
more than 100 applicants to make a
presentation during the “rapid fire” ses-
sion “Innovations in Public Safety” at the
2013 Transforming Local Government
Conference in Atlanta. During her session,
which was attended by 200 people, Dug-
ger described the program she oversees
and noted that it has saved Chesterfield
County, Va. nearly $400,000. Further-
more, youths have provided more than
2,450 hours of community service, the
equivalent of a full-time county employee.
2000s
Three of our 2009 graduates who also went on to
earn their masters of science in occupational thera-
py degrees at VCU in 2012 gave us a recent update:
Nicole Baeza (B.S. ’09) serves as an occu-
pational therapist at Henrico Health and
Rehabilitation in Highland Springs, Va.
Courtney English (B.S. ’09) is working at
Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU
and its Petersburg therapy center.
Erin Laffoon (B.S. ’09) is working at
Hopewell Heathcare in Hopewell, Va.
Christina Mason (B.S. ’09) is working at
HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital of
Petersburg.
2010s
Katie Holcomb (B.S. ’11), artistic director
at Coalition Theater, was named one of
Style Weekly’s 2013 “Top 40 Under 40.”
Located in Downtown Richmond’s Art Dis-
trict, Coalition Theater is home to some of
Richmond’s best comedy shows and im-
prov classes.
Leila Islam (M.S. '03/HSC, Ph.D.) will finish
her postdoctoral fellowship at the VA Con-
necticut Health Care System in West Ha-
ven this August and would love to return
to VCU to begin her career as a health psy-
chologist thereafter; she is actively re-
searching opportunities. She and boy-
friend Jacob were married in a beautiful
ceremony in her hometown in Portsmouth
in December. Her sister Nadia, who is a
current graduate student in our clinical
program, was in the wedding.
Andrea Konig (Ph.D. ‘11) presented at
VCU Psychiatry’s Grand Rounds in Novem-
ber. The title of her talk was “Physical Dis-
ability and Diversity: Cultural Competence
in Clinical Practice.”
Kathy Reid-Quinones (M.S. ‘07, Ph.D. ‘11)
was promoted to clinical/forensic psy-
chologist supervisor in the child abuse
program at Children's Hospital of The
King's Daughters in Norfolk. She is the
supervisor of the mental health team,
which includes licensed clinical social
workers and psychology trainees.
Erin Wood (B.S. ’05, M.S. ’07, Ph.D. ’10)
started a tenure track job at Catawba Col-
lege in late summer 2010. She officially
ended the Ph.D. fun in the winter of that
same year and is still plugging away at
“this very different institution.” At Cataw-
ba, she teaches Data Analysis for the Be-
havioral Sciences, as well as General Psy-
Alumni News and Notes
Do you FEAR THE HAVOC? Join a pre-game social in a city near you!
chology, Health Psychology, Behavior
Modification, Fundamentals of Learning,
Cognition and Neuroscience (all three lab
courses) and also a multi-disciplinary first
year seminar with both an honors and a
non-honors section. A new course she
and Catawba’s poet in residence are de-
veloping is an honors Death and Dying
course. “So, lots of breadth, and I hope
some depth, too,” Wood says.
She is being supported in an investigation
of the role of technology in higher educa-
tion, in particular how it works in institu-
tions like hers. Wood recently presented
a poster at the Teaching Professor Tech-
nology Conference in Atlanta discussing
the various aspects of integrating technol-
ogy into pedagogy from a multi-system
perspective. She has also just started her
own research investigating the role of
wellness/healthcare app use in health-
related self-efficacy. Wood will present
her pilot data at the 2014 Annual South-
eastern Psychology Association meeting in
Nashville next month. This will be her
third time in so many years both pre-
senting at this conference, as well as tak-
ing undergraduates there to present work,
as well.
On a personal note, she is a relatively new
homeowner, a partner, a mom and an
aspiring jogger. Her son Micah is nearly 2
½ and she refers to him as “cannonball
with legs!”
The VCU School of Allied Health Profes-
sions‘ Department of Gerontolo-
gy recently held a reception to honor
Tracey Gendron (M.S. ‘95/AHP, M.S. ‘12,
Ph.D. ‘13), an assistant professor in their
department, for her completion of all re-
quirements for her Ph.D. in developmen-
tal psychology in December. Gendron
presented her research on the profession-
al identity development of gerontologists
and gerontological specialists.
Gendron teaches The Biology and Physiol-
ogy of Aging, Research Methods, Grant
Writing and electives in the Department
of Gerontology. She is also an ASPiRE fac-
ulty fellow and a service learning faculty
fellow at VCU.
Her research interests include the profes-
sional identity development and career
commitment of gerontologists; education
through community engagement and ser-
vice learning; aging anxiety; ageism and
gerontophobia; LGBT aging; and staff
knowledge and quality of care.
Alumni News and Notes
Check out the results from the recent alumni survey.
Thanks for participating!
Wood, left, Micah Aerton and Aaron Stevenson
Alumna Spotlight Alexa Ebersole Carlo-Hickman (B.S. ‘06)
Carlo-Hickman poses in front of Mt. Rainier. She and
her husband plan to climb the summit in September.
Give us a summary of your educational and/or career journey since you gradu-ated in 2006.
After graduating VCU in 2006, I joined the
military reserves which helped lead to
my current career as a government ana-
lyst. As an analyst, I focus heavily on
both qualitative and quantitative re-
search to create reports for a myriad of
government organizations. It can be very
interesting (and frustrating), but I love
being able to compile all forms of data to
create a complete story on my topics.
Who were your greatest influences at VCU and how did they shape you into the person you are today?
Linda Zyzniewski, Ph.D., had a huge im-
pact both before and after I graduated.
I’ve never considered myself a “math
person,” so I was apprehensive when it
came time to take the psych statistics
course. Being the incredible teacher she
is, Dr. Z did an amazing job conveying the
complex mathematic principles of statis-
tics. I actually did very well in her class.
At the risk of sounding corny, she made
me realize that I can do math. I don’t
currently work with psych-specific statis-
tics, but I do plenty of other statistics-
based research.
One evening while I was running some
research stats in the psych computer lab,
I ran into a few problems with my data
and had no idea what I was doing wrong.
Thankfully, Dr. Z was still in the building
and was willing to help me figure it out.
She showed me where I went wrong and
got me back on track. It sounds like a
simple story, but it was probably pushing
8pm and she didn’t have to stay to help
me. It meant a lot and I still appreciate it
to this day.
A few years after I graduated, I realized
grad school was something I would like
to pursue, but having been out of school
for a few years, I was concerned I didn’t
have enough recent research experience.
I reached out to Dr. Z who put me in
touch with an awesome post-doc , Ste-
ven Kinsey, Ph.D., who was conducting
research at the VCU Pharmacology and
Toxicology lab downtown. I volunteered
in his lab for about six months and was
able to contribute to one of his published
papers. Steve is now a professor at West
Virginia University. I jokingly like to think
I helped him get there. While I haven’t
decided on a graduate program just yet, I
gained the research experience I was
looking for and know that Steve and Dr. Z
are there to help with whatever I may
need.
What did you like best about your VCU
experience?
Overall, I liked the diversity at VCU. I
come from a very small town, so meeting
and working with so many eclectic and
unique people was great. I learned how
to work with a variety of personalities
and how to solve problems diplomatical-
ly . That skill comes in handy working
with the government.
But by far, my favorite thing at VCU was
playing for the Women’s Rugby Team.
The team was new at the time, so we
were all figuring it out together and real-
izing just how crazy you have to be to
play that sport. I got to know a lot of
great girls and gained a lot of great
friends from it. It was an awesome expe-
rience that I’ll never forget.
What was your favorite Psych course?
I think it’s a tie between Personality and
Physiological Psych. Physiological Psych
was extremely interesting to me in that it
provided the scientific, biological expla-
nations behind psychology. I am a very
fact- and data-oriented person, so learn-
ing the science behind the mind and be-
havior was fascinating. It still is.
Personality was also fun. Like everyone
else in the class, I had fun applying the
personality disorders to my friends and
family. But now, having an in-depth un-
derstanding of the complexities behind
personalities helps me as a manager and
leader. If I can truly assess a person’s
work (or life) motivation, I can do my
best to provide a tailored environment
where they can thrive, and in return, the
program retains a great worker. It
doesn’t always work out like that, but I
know the value of understanding differ-
ent personalities and how to work with
them.
What are your plans for the future?
Grad school is still a goal. I’ve been tak-
ing my sweet time trying to decide on a
program. I debate whether to go for a
work-oriented program (i.e. International
Relations or M.B.A.) or a less applicable
but more scientific program. Career
wise, I’m in the process of transitioning
to cyber analysis, so maybe a program in
cyber policy would be better. The debate
continues.
Do you have any updates from your per-sonal life you’d like to share?
I got married to my high school (and
VCU) boyfriend in April 2012. We’d been
dating on and off since we were 15. It’s
pretty cool to be married to someone
I’ve literally known half my life. My mar-
ried name is Alexa Carlo-Hickman. I hap-
pened to marry the one guy on earth
who already had a hyphenated last
name.
“..learning the
science behind the
mind and behavior
was fascinating.
It still is.”
I am fortunate to serve as the presi-
dent and CEO of Stars Behavioral
Health Group (SBHG), a community-
based behavioral health, child wel-
fare, education and training compa-
ny in the state of California. Stars
employs more than 1,000 staff and
operates in the five biggest counties
in the state, delivering system-wide
training in evidence-based practices
in more than 10 states throughout
the U.S. I started the organization
24 years ago with a senior partner
and served as clinical director and
vice president until 18 months ago,
when I became the president and CEO. The president and CEO is
responsible for the successful operation of the entire SBHG en-
terprise. This includes planning, management, financial steward-
ship, program effectiveness, community relationships, regulatory
and ethical compliance, intelligent use of human resources, staff
training and development and purposeful development of or-
ganizational culture and growth. Other key responsibilities in-
clude strategic planning, coordination of employee stock owner-
ship activities, legal management and external relationships.
The president and CEO also represents the facility and its pro-
grams to governmental agencies, national, state and local agen-
cy partners and the community.
My pathway from VCU to my current role reflects the academic
and professional training I received and personalized to fulfill my
goals, along with great assistance and support from my adviser
and other VCU faculty. More important than my Strong-
Campbell code, was the fact that as a teenager, I held a variety
of small jobs and always liked the world of work, from the role to
the rewards. These jobs included everything from delivering
newspapers to counseling the intellectually disabled at summer
camp and being a waiter (Tobacco Company).
When I began the VCU M.A./Ph.D. program in 1977 as a new
university B.A. graduate (who knew nothing about counseling!),
my pre-practicum professor invited me to be a training assistant.
This involved two human relations contracts he was leading to
provide human relations training to Virginia Commonwealth tax
agents and to help Commonwealth Troopers identify and work
more effectively with the dangerous and seriously mentally ill
person. Through my regular informal discussions with VCU fac-
ulty, I began to develop a vision of a
professional career that combined
psychology, management and lead-
ership. I discovered that I was eligi-
ble to take elective classes in the
Graduate School of Business, so I
took both the Management and Or-
ganizational Development classes.
These were very interesting and
they seemed such a great fit with
my way of thinking. It was a true
“ah-ha” experience. In retrospect, I
wish I had taken the finance or ac-
counting classes, too. Later, my ad-
viser supported me in taking a
practicum in organizational development at Phillip Morris, where
I worked as an assistant at a quality circle. It was great to see
applied psychology in an industrial setting. Again, it all seemed
easy, within reach and a natural fit to my way of thinking.
Once I completed my doctorate, I went to work at an adolescent
residential treatment center in Los Angeles and was soon a su-
pervisor, manager, clinical director and administrator. Over the
years, I’ve paid more focused attention to leadership and emo-
tional intelligence, which along with the more buttoned-down
skills of management and planning, have been the main skills I
deploy daily. I have kept my clinical skills up to date, especially
in some of the evidence-based practices such as Aggression Re-
placement Training, Functional Family Therapy and trauma in-
formed care such as Attachment, Regulation and Competency
and Structured Psychotherapy for Adolescents Responding to
Chronic Stress. These capabilities influence my approach and
contributions to the program leadership team of Stars.
My personal approach to leadership takes into account two pri-
mary factors. The first factor appreciates the role that environ-
ment and situation play in choosing which leadership style I se-
lect to evidence. I exert greater direction and leadership at the
beginning of a project, identifying objectives, pathways, due
dates, general budgets and more, and less direction and leader-
ship as the project matures. Similarly, I provide more direction
and leadership to new staff and career-beginning staff versus
veteran and highly experienced colleagues.** Finally, I pay atten-
tion to the distinction between work partners when they are an
actor versus an observer and I provide guidance and leadership
to work partners to make use of perspectives and contributing
New Feature: Leadership in Psychology
My Career Pathway in
Counseling Psychology
and Organizational
Leadership
Peter J. Zucker, Ph.D.
Counseling Psychology
Class of 1983
factors that may have been underemphasized.
The second factor I appreciate is the role of emotional intelli-
gence in guiding my leadership style. By this, I mean attaining
and displaying awareness of self and others, as well as interper-
sonal effectiveness, self-regulation, cultural attunement and per-
sonal integrity. All of these components initially came into focus
during my graduate education, then developed over time in each
job I had, along with the supervision I received and sought. To
this day, I am a big fan of coaching and provide mentorship to
more than 30 people in my current
organization on a casual but regular
manner via scheduled coffee
meetings, visits to their teams, etc.
This is a great way to guide and lead
the team, shape the organizational
culture and address my responsibil-
ity for talent management and suc-
cession planning (along with more
specific human resources activities).
I receive several forms of coaching
currently. This ranges from an or-
ganizational development consultant who guides me in top team
dynamics one hour per month, to a CEO circle I meet with one
morning per month and a finance coach who has helped me
read a P&L statement and hone in on factors limiting my compa-
ny’s financial performance. I am amazed at how my teammates
pay sharp attention to the things I say and do. By nature a casu-
al and informal person, I have had to learn to craft my comments
and emails carefully to assure precision in my communication.
One way I keep my head on straight in times of uncertainty or
great negativity is to take the time
to identify my inner emotional reac-
tion to the event, but make sure to
interpret and not gratify the com-
pelling affect. Another way to say
this is, “Name it to tame it.” In my
years in the field, I find I have al-
ready experienced quite a few suc-
cesses, as well as a handful of set-
backs; it’s all part of the story and
has reassured me that problem solv-
ing, resiliency and reliance on my
team and work partners will result
Zucker in Richmond in 1981.
“I believe leaders are
both born and made,
and the development
pathway is interactive.”
in the best outcome I could have managed at that time in that
situation.
There is currently great interest and need for psychologists to
assume leadership roles in many health care and service
settings, along with the management and consulting fields. My
advice for doctoral students pursuing this path is to first em-
brace the contributions of counseling psychology to provide a
firm grounding in psychological science, counseling, an apprecia-
tion of process and interpersonal dynamics and advanced capa-
bility in mathematics, statistics and computers. Having this skill
set and grounding has truly allowed me to make far greater use
of my business and management assets. Along with the study of
psychology, one way to proceed might be to pursue academic
and field experience activities that will not only introduce the
concepts, skills and roles of the organizational world, but the
leadership skills, too. I believe leaders are both born and made,
and the development pathway is interactive. It is important to
get exposure to persons in the management, consulting, training
and business worlds, including their background, perceptions,
language and world views. There is an entire field of literature
and science on management, organizations, leadership and hu-
man factors. Integrating this with your scientific and profession-
al preparation and experience in counseling psychology will pre-
pare you well for the challenges ahead.
Finally, be purposeful, focused and warm about engaging with
and making use of supervisors and mentors. Be open to both
receiving and giving supervision. Keep in touch with prior men-
tors, if even just once a year. I continue to occasionally visit
mentors who have something to share with me, and find each
contact rich and valuable. Our preparation as psychologists al-
lows us to make use of these richly developmental opportunities
perhaps better than most. Make the most of it!
**See my dissertation — Zucker, P.J. & Worthington, E.L., Jr.
(1986). Supervision of interns and postdoctoral applicants for
licensure in university counseling centers. Journal of Counseling
Psychology, 33, 87-89 – which found that interns requested and
made more use of explicit direction than post-docs.
(Continued from page 9, Peter Zucker)
The Department of Psychology is proudly celebrating five years of
successful collaboration with the Lewis B. Puller, Jr. Veterans Bene-
fits Clinic at the College of William & Mary. This joint effort was
initiated to help clear out an overwhelming federal backlog of vet-
erans’ benefits cases.
Since 2008, our clinical and counseling doctoral students at the
Center for Psychological Services and Development (CPSD) have
partnered with the Puller Clinic’s law students to serve veterans by
expediting the process through which their eligibility for benefits is
determined.
The Puller Clinic provides free services to military veterans who are
petitioning to increase their benefits, or are submitting benefits
applications for the first time. They often refer veterans to the
CPSD, where psychologists-in-training provide assessment and
counseling services. For example, CPSD students conduct objective
psychological evaluations, which may be used by the Puller Clinic to
support their veterans’ cases.
In August of this year, Senator Mark Warner and Secretary of Vet-
erans Affairs Eric Shinseki recognized the Puller Clinic as a national
“best practices” program and the first law school clinic in the na-
tion to be certified as a member of the Fully Developed Claims
Community of Practice. In his press briefing, Senator Warner de-
scribed this as a “win-win-win” situation for veterans, the VA and
the law students. Our department is proud to be a part of this
equation. In September, Mary Beth Heller, Ph.D., interim director
of the CPSD, accompanied Puller Clinic staff to Washington, D.C.,
where they met with Senator Warner prior to an outreach event
for homeless veterans. At that meeting, Senator Warner reiterated
his praise for the successful collaboration.
Read the press release from the U.S. Department of
Veterans Affairs.
“Name it to tame it.”
I had a knee replacement surgery a couple of months ago and was given a prescription for pain killers. I only used a couple of those pills, but yesterday I developed a severe pain in that knee again and when I went to find the bottle, I discovered that though it had been nearly full the last time I opened it, only a few pills remained. Puzzled, I asked my husband if he had used any and he reported that he had not. I am worried that my teenage son could be the one who has used them (no one else has access to our house) and I'm not sure how to handle this. You see, we caught him smoking about nine months ago and have worried since then about his cu-riosity about trying possibly harmful substances. I know him well enough to know that if we ask him about it, he would just say he doesn't know any-thing about it whether he does or not. Can you suggest the best way for me and husband to approach him about this?
First, let me say, “Good for you, Mom.” This is such a difficult issue that some parents opt to avoid confrontation, keep their
fingers crossed and hope for the best. By conscientiously monitoring the medications in your home, you’ve already taken a big
step toward keeping your son safe and healthy.
Before beginning the conversation with your son, ask yourself if you’ve noticed other changes in him. These may include a
drop in grades, skipping school, a different (and often more secretive) group of friends, withdrawal
from family and activities, less attention to hygiene and/or changes in sleep or appetite patterns.
Marked irritability and sullenness – or the opposite, unexplained giddiness – may signal intoxi-
cation or the residual effects of substance use. While adolescence is unequivocally a season
of change, as the number and severity of these signs increase, so should your level of con-
cern.
Work through your own anger, disappointment and anxiety by perhaps talking to your hus-
band or a trusted friend. Your goal is to have a dialogue with your son, so it’s important to
remain calm and open. Being in control of your own emotions will help you resist the urge to
lecture or interrogate.
Pick the right time to talk—ideally, a quiet time when your son isn’t engaged in other activities and you don’t have other press-
ing tasks. Begin by expressing your love and concern for him, then in a direct manner state the facts: because your prescription
medication is missing, you are concerned that he may have been taking it. Then, wait for him to respond.
Don’t be surprised if your son denies taking your prescription and don’t get caught up in the need
to prove it. Empathize with the challenges of adolescence and stick to the message of love, con-
cern and support. That said, be very clear about your family’s rules and what the consequences
for drug use will be. (And, never threaten something you won’t/can’t enforce!) Be prepared to
seek professional help if your son admits a problem or if you remain concerned despite his denial.
Lastly, thoughtfully consider subtle, unintended messages your son may be getting from you, his
dad or other family members about how to cope with stress and negative emotions, including the
movies and TV shows you watch together. Keep the conversation going and stay involved with
your son. You may be interested to learn that research shows, for example, that kids who regular-
ly eat dinner with their families are less likely to use drugs.
Send an anonymous
question about mental
health and treatment
issues through
our secure messaging
system.
Center for Psychological Services and Development,
612-620 N. Lombardy St.
Mary Beth Heller, Ph.D., is
interim director of the CPSD.
Succeeding in school can be challenging
for any child, but the journey may be es-
pecially difficult for youngsters with atten-
tion and behavior problems.
Joshua Langberg, Ph.D., as-
sistant professor of clinical
psychology in the Virginia
Commonwealth University
College of Humanities and
Sciences, is hoping to make
a difference for those chil-
dren.
Langberg has spent the better part of the
past 10 years working with schools across
the country to develop interventions to
help middle school students with condi-
tions such as attention deficit hyperactivi-
ty disorder (ADHD) succeed in school.
For the next four years, Langberg and co-
investigator Albert D. Farrell, Ph.D., pro-
fessor of clinical psychology and director
of the VCU Clark-Hill Institute for Positive
Youth Development, will be leading a $2.4
million grant from the Institute of Educa-
tion Sciences to compare two different
school-based interventions to determine
which one may offer the most effective
approach. The Institute of Education Sci-
ences is the research arm of the United
States Department of Education.
In 2008, prior to coming to VCU, Langberg
developed the HOPS Manual – Homework,
Organization, and Planning Skills, an inter-
vention for middle school students with
ADHD that is implemented by school psy-
chologists and/or counselors. From 2009
to 2012, Langberg worked with a number
of school districts to devise an acceptable
model for teaching these skills to students
in schools. This was transferred into the
manual, which outlines a step-by-step,
session-by-session approach to be imple-
mented in the school setting. This will be
one of the interventions evaluated in his
new study.
While HOPS was designed as a one-on-one
approach, once Langberg met with school
psychologists and counselors, they indicat-
ed that they saw themselves also using
HOPS in smaller groups or as class-wide
interventions. One school decided that
they would instruct all students to use the
HOPS system for organizing their school
materials. So Langberg went back and re-
vised the manual so it could be used in
multiple ways and provides flexibility.
Working directly with schools to develop
the intervention resulted in a program
that is effective and feasible to implement
– directly impacting the lives of students,
families and teachers.
As co-founder of VCU’s Center for ADHD
Research, Education and Service, which
provides much needed evidence-based
ADHD services to the Richmond area,
Langberg is also involved with training
clinical and counseling psychology gradu-
ate students at VCU to provide evidence-
based interventions for children, adoles-
cents and families with attention and be-
havior problems.
Below Langberg provides insight into his
work, where he hopes his field is headed
and his passion for being a mentor.
How is the translational nature and im-pact of your research on children and schools relevant?
I focus on developing interventions that
can be implemented directly in school
settings. This ensures that all children
have access to care. I also focus on devel-
oping interventions that are really feasible
for schools to use. Many times, that’s not
the case – what we develop in research is
really not usable in school and community
settings. So I try to develop interventions
for these youth that the school can really
take and apply.
Many children with attention and behav-
ior problems struggle with the skills need-
ed to learn and succeed academically,
such as organization, time management
and planning skills. These skills are what
all children and adolescents need to know
in order to get homework done and to
study for tests effectively and in a timely
manner. These skills continue to be very
important into adulthood and are neces-
sary to be successful in college and in
Helping Middle School Children
with Behavior Issues
Courtesy of Sathya Achia Abraham, Science Writer/Editor, VCU Across the Spectrum
Langberg
work settings.
Children with ADHD have particular diffi-
culty with these skills. They may have the
capacity to be A-B students, they are pro-
crastinating, losing their homework, and
as a result, they may receive C’s and D’s in
their classes. Most of the interventions I
have developed focus on helping children
with ADHD in middle school do better aca-
demically. The main reason to focus on
this age range is that middle school stu-
dents with attention and behavioral issues
often have a hard time with the transition
to middle school. The context changes
considerably – think about going from ele-
mentary school, where there is one teach-
er who really provides a lot of support and
monitoring, to middle school, where stu-
dents have at least four teachers who
each assign different homework and can-
not provide the level of support and moni-
toring that was offered in elementary
school. Children often struggle with this
transition and so most of my interventions
focus on supporting kids academically dur-
ing and after that transition.
We really focus on teaching students how
to organize their materials, plan ahead for
the completion of tests and projects, rec-
ord homework accurately and in sufficient
detail and to manage their time effectively
and efficiently. Importantly, we also show
families and schools how to use these in-
terventions so they can help reinforce and
monitor students using the skills.
The family and school piece are im-
portant. There are really no interventions
for youth with attention and behavioral
difficulties that work when delivered to
children alone. We teach the child the
skill, but what’s really important is teach-
ing parents and school personnel how to
monitor and encourage youth over time
so they maintain the use of these skills.
Where do you see the future of your re-search field headed?
I hope research will focus on developing
feasible, easy-to-use interventions, even if
that means that we have smaller effects
and we have to continue to intervene over
time.
I hope we will move away from testing
interventions that take “the kitchen sink
approach” and that target every behavior
the child is having difficulty with at the
same time. We’ve been doing that for a
number of years and you can generate
great effects, but the problem is that the-
se interventions are costly and often re-
quire lots of staff time, effort and training
to implement. I hope to see the field mov-
ing toward interventions that can really be
disseminated. The goal is supposed to be
that we develop not just something that
works, but that can also be used widely.
Last, I hope the field moves toward a
more chronic approach to treatment.
Most research now is short term. We
want to see what we can cram into eight
weeks and then cross our fingers and
hope improvements last the rest of their
lives. Frankly, that doesn’t work. So I think
we should move toward smaller doses of
intervention delivered continuously over
longer periods of time. Maybe this will
help with it being more feasible.
As a research mentor, what do you want your students to walk away with?
Being a mentor is honestly the most en-
joyable part of my job. I view training up-
and-coming clinicians and researchers as
one of the primary responsibilities of my
job.
In my case, during my post-doctoral and
graduate training, I had some excellent
and invested mentors who took the time
to teach me how to be effective as a re-
searcher and a clinician. Working with
those mentors throughout graduate
school and their support is really what got
me started on this path and why I have
been successful with a research and train-
ing career.
I currently mentor students at all levels –
from undergraduates to post-doctoral
scholars. I expect my students to work
very hard, but most leave with the skills
both academically and interpersonally
that they need to be successful and are
able to make informed career choices.
What advice do you have for students looking to enter the research field?
The environment is pretty competitive
these days and students have to get start-
ed early. I think it’s especially important
for undergraduates and early graduate
students to understand this. Mentors
don’t come to you – students need to be
assertive and seek out mentors. It may
take many tries to connect with the right
one, but the search needs to start early.
Coursework only counts for half of the
game, if not less. Students need to be pro-
active and work with people who are do-
ing research. That is going to set them on
the right path.
VCU Psychology Receives $2.4 Million
Grant to Examine Skills Intervention for Students with ADHD
The Institute of Educational Sci-
ences awarded a $2.4 million
grant to VCU Psychology to ex-
amine the “Efficacy of an Organi-
zational Skills Intervention for
Middle School Students with
ADHD.” Joshua Langberg, Ph.D.,
is the principal investigator of
the project.
Read more.
Faculty author awards are given to
faculty members listed as primary author
or editor for a book published in 2013.
Recipients from Psychology were
Michael Southam-Gerow, Ph.D., for the
book “Emotion Regulation in Children and
Adolescents: A Practitioner’s
Guide” (Guilford Press) and
Everett L. Worthington, Ph.D., for the
book “Moving Forward: Six Steps to For-
giving Yourself and Breaking Free From
the Past” (WaterBrook/Multnomah).
Scholarly award winners are faculty
members who are the recipients of
awards presented by outside organiza-
tions to recognize scholarship or scholarly
works between January 1 and June 30,
2013. Recipients from Psychology were
Thomas E. Eissenberg, Ph.D., member of
the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on
Human Research Protections, Department
of Health and Human
Services;
Shawn Utsey, Ph.D., Ful-
bright scholar, U.S. De-
partment of State’s Bu-
reau of Educational and
Cultural Affairs and
Everett L. Worthington,
Ph.D., fellow of Ameri-
can Psychological Associ-
ation’s Division 17, Soci-
ety for Counseling Psy-
chology.
Principal investiga-tors 2013 are faculty
members who were
principal investigators on
one or more external grants whose total
expenditures during fiscal year 2013 were
at least $40,000. Recipients from Psychol-
ogy were
Faye Z. Belgrave, Ph.D., for the project
“Substance Abuse and HIV Prevention
Among African American College Stu-
dents” funded by the Substance Abuse &
Mental Health Services Administration;
Thomas E. Eissenberg, Ph.D., for the pro-
ject “Waterpipe Tobacco Smoke Toxi-
cant Sampling in the Natural Environ-
ment” funded by the National Institute on
Drug Abuse;
Albert D. Farrell, Ph.D., for the project “A
Comprehensive Approach to Youth Vio-
lence Prevention” funded by the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention;
Clarissa S. Holmes, Ph.D., for the project
“Parenting and Control Among Young Chil-
dren with Type 1 Diabetes” funded by the
National Institute of Diabetes and Diges-
tive and Kidney Diseases;
Joshua M. Langberg, Ph.D., for the project
“Organizational Skills Intervention for Chil-
dren with ADHD” funded by the U.S. De-
partment of Education;
Suzanne E. Mazzeo, Ph.D., for the project
“Nourishing Families to Promote Healthy
Eating and Exercise In Overweight Adoles-
cents” funded by the National Institute of
Child Health and Human Development;
Bryce McLeod, Ph.D., and Michael A.
Southam-Gerow, Ph.D., for the project
“Development and Validation of Child
Therapy Integrity Measures” funded by
the National Institute of Mental Health;
Barbara J. Myers, Ph.D., for the project
“Parenting Children of Promise” funded by
the Virginia Department of Corrections;
Bruce D. Rybarczyk, Ph.D., for the project
“Psychological Services for the Uninsured”
funded by the Health
Resources and Services
Administration;
Terri N. Sullivan, Ph.D.,
for the project
“Promoting Social, Emo-
tional and Behavioral
Competence” funded by
the U.S. Department of
Education and
Everett L. Worthington,
Ph.D., for the project
“An Interdisciplinary Ap-
proach to the Study of
Humility” funded by the
John Templeton Founda-
tion.
Everett Worthington, Ph.D., left, and Suzanne Mazzeo, Ph.D., pose for a picture with James Cole-
man, Ph.D., dean of the College of Humanities and Sciences, at the awards reception.
The College of Humanities and Sciences proudly recognized its faculty’s accom-
plishments at a reception in October. The following are recipients from the Depart-
ment of Psychology. A full listing of the College’s awardees can be found here and
photos from the event can be viewed here.
Elijah Christman, fiscal
technician, completed the
VCU Sponsored Projects
Administration Certifica-
tion Program. This is a
VCU program aimed at fos-
tering and disseminating
knowledge about sponsored projects ad-
ministration.
What is the ideal age for
parenthood? The Science
of Relationships blog re-
cently featured an excerpt
from a chapter Jody Davis,
Ph.D., wrote for the 2011
book, “The Science of Rela-
tionships: Answers to Your Questions
About Dating, Marriage, and Family” ad-
dressing this very question. Read the ex-
cerpt.
Tom Eissenberg, Ph.D.,
continues to make head-
lines following the an-
nouncement of his $18.1
million grant establishing
the Center for the Study of
Tobacco Products in our de-
partment. Eissenberg’s work has most
recently been featured in a video and ex-
pert opinion forum for Legacy for Health,
a foundation that advocates for longer,
healthier lives through education, govern-
ment outreach, community initiatives and
research.
VCU’s research blog Across the Spectrum
also recently featured his collaborative
work with Penn State colleague, Jonathan
Foulds, Ph.D. The research focuses on
electronic cigarettes, work that continues
with a planned clinical trial of 520 smokers
– half recruited at Penn State and half at
VCU. The trial will evaluate the effects of
cigarette substitutes on smokers who have
decided to not quit smoking. The results of
the study will advise the FDA on regulation
of novel tobacco products.
Finally, Reuters UK tapped Eissenberg’s
expertise for this article on the rising num-
ber of Florida teens trying hookah
(waterpipe) smoking.
Geraldine Lotze, Ph.D.,
was elected to the board
of trustees for Jackson
Feild Homes, an agency
that provides intensive
therapeutic services for
boys and girls in residential
homes and in community-based services.
The Lott-Carey Herald mag-
azine recently published a
feature on Micah
McCreary, Ph.D., and the
work he has done in Haiti.
Read the article on page 17.
Reforming Virginia’s mental
health system is a popular topic of conver-
sation following the tragic incident involv-
ing Virginia State Senator
Creigh Deeds and his son
in December. James
McCullough, Ph.D.,
weighed in on the conver-
sation in an op-ed piece in
the Richmond Times-
Dispatch advocating for a community-level
prevention approach.
Listeners of local public
radio station WCVE (88.9)
recently heard Bruce
Rybarczyk, Ph.D., explain
how his “boot camp” for
chronic insomnia works.
Listen to the interview and
a patient testimonial.
Congratulations to Victoria
Shivy, Ph.D., for winning a
2013-14 service learning
award through VCU’s Divi-
sion of Community Engage-
ment. In her project
“Human Behavior in the
Parks: Recycling,” students in PSYC 317
will work with Central Virginia Waste Man-
agement Services, the City of Richmond,
James River Park System and Friends of
James River Park to develop and imple-
ment survey instruments that will assist
with understanding attitudes towards re-
cycling. It is hoped that the outcomes of
the survey will provide important infor-
mation to help increase recycling partici-
pation.
Shawn Utsey, Ph.D., was
featured in a recent Rich-
mond Times-Dispatch arti-
cle and VCU News article
highlighting his Fulbright
scholarship to study in
South Africa. Utsey will
conduct an oral history project to examine
the extent to which apartheid continues to
affect South Africans.
Everett Worthington,
Ph.D., was profiled as
part of a front page story
in The News Leader, a
newspaper that serves
localities in Virginia’s
Shenandoah Valley. The
article was called “Out of
the Depths I Cry to You, Oh, Lord” and
detailed the struggle of a minister to for-
give his murdering, arsonist son-in-law for
the death of his grandson and the injuries
to his daughter. Worthington is an expert
in forgiveness and shared his own person-
al tragedies and how he came to forgive.
Department News and Updates
Rybarczyk
Eissenberg
Utsey
McCreary
Shivy
Davis
McCullough
Lotze
Worthington
Christman
Charles Calderwood, Ph.D., joined our facul-
ty in January as an assistant professor in the
social psychology program. He is a native of
Maine and has spent the last year and a
half living abroad in Lausanne, Switzerland.
What is your educational background?
I attended Tulane University for my under-
graduate studies and received my B.S. in
psychology in 2006. I enrolled in graduate
school at the Georgia Institute of Technolo-
gy and received my M.S. in 2009 and my
Ph.D. in 2012. My primary concentration in
graduate school was industrial/
organizational psychology, with a minor in
quantitative methods.
What brought you to VCU?
I am excited about joining a psychology de-
partment with such a large impact on the
broader university and community. I think
that being involved with one of the largest
doctoral programs and undergraduate ma-
jors at VCU is very exciting, as it will give me
the opportunity to interact with many stu-
dents from diverse backgrounds and ap-
proaches to psychological inquiry. Being
able to teach and conduct research in this
type of environment is very appealing, as
diverse perspectives greatly enhance dis-
cussions in classroom and research settings.
As an applied psychologist, I am also very
drawn to the strong emphasis in this de-
partment on improving people’s lives using
a variety of approaches. Given that my re-
search focuses on work (non-work relation-
ships, stress and occupational health pro-
cesses), it is a good fit with this general fo-
cus. I believe that this position will give me
opportunities to conduct impactful collabo-
rative research with undergraduate stu-
dents, graduate students and faculty mem-
bers at VCU.
Describe your past research experience.
I have been involved in research in psychol-
ogy for the last 10 years. My research ca-
reer began as an undergraduate at Tulane,
where I assisted faculty members and grad-
uate students with research on topics of
managerial ethical decision making, work-
place discrimination and intergroup bias in
virtual teams. I also had the opportunity to
spend a summer doing applied research at
Vanderbilt Medical Center, where I was in-
volved in investigating patient safety issues
in surgical settings. Most recently, I spent
five years working in the Knowledge and
Skill Lab at Georgia Tech, where I was in-
volved in a number of research projects on
topics of work – non-work relationships,
occupational health, subjective fatigue,
adult cognitive training and student aca-
demic performance.
What are your current research interests and activities?
My research interests center on the impact
of daily and enduring influences on work –
non-work relationships and occupational
health. My most recent work has focused
on investigating employees’ off-job reac-
tions to encountered daily work stressors
and the implications of these reactions for
outcomes of employee well-being, work/
non-work conflict and perceived health. I
am currently broadening the scope of this
research by investigating the individual and
joint effects of specific daily events, person-
ality traits and work characteristics to the
duration of the post-work stress response,
while also exploring short and longterm
influences on work/non-work relationship
experiences over time. I have also begun to
extend my research to educational con-
texts, through investigations of technology
usage demands and strategies in student
populations, with attention to the role of
technology in linking academic and non-
academic domains of student life.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
I like to hike, travel, cook, watch movies,
read and write.
Marcia Winter, Ph.D., joined our depart-
ment in February as an assistant professor
in the developmental program.
What is your educational background?
I earned my Ph.D. from the University of
Rochester in 2006. From there, I completed
postdoctoral fellowships at Syracuse Uni-
versity and the University of Rochester
Medical Center.
What brought you to VCU?
This is a tough question because there were
many things that drew me to VCU. The fac-
ulty is diverse, but with many connected
interests; I see this as a place where collab-
Meet our New Faculty Members
Charles Calderwood, Ph.D.
Marcia Winter, Ph.D.
orations are fostered and I appreciate that.
I believe this is also reflected in the produc-
tivity and success of the department. In
addition, I appreciate the connections of
the psychology department with the VCU
Medical Center and the broader Richmond
community. Not only is that essential for
my research, but I also like to stay connect-
ed to the people we serve. Similarly, I look
forward to working with the VCU students,
about whom I have heard such great
things. Finally, I have found all of the facul-
ty, staff and graduate students to be very
welcoming and helpful, and I am looking
forward to being a part of the team and
exploring all that VCU and Richmond have
to offer.
Describe your past research experience.
My research focuses on the mechanisms by
which chronic stress and threat impacts
child development. Of particular interest is
how children are affected emotionally, es-
pecially in how they interpret and make
meaning of challenging situations, as well
as physically, at the level of immune func-
tion and health outcomes. I examine the
role of the family in these risk pathways,
for example, by examining how various
caregiving and family processes can be pro-
tective to children.
I first focused on family and sociodemo-
graphic stress (e.g., family and community
discord, low socioeconomic stress), then
began to also look at pediatric illness con-
texts. The danger and fear inherent in
medical threats to children render disease
contexts—such as chronic asthma and can-
cer—as particularly salient contexts for
research pertaining to threat.
What are your current research interests
and activities?
To VCU, I will be bringing a short term, lon-
gitudinal project that examines how chil-
dren and families cope during diagnosis
and the initial phases of treatment for
childhood cancer. I am examining the im-
pact of socdiodemographic stress, child
and family coping and child health behav-
iors on child immune and mental health
outcomes. For example, I am wondering if
the family’s reaction to the initial diagnosis
and treatment (i.e., family routines and
communication styles, child emotional se-
curity) impacts child immune and mental
health during and following treatment.
With this work, I hope to address an anom-
aly in the pediatric cancer literature: many
children and families appear to function
relatively well initially (i.e., they rally to
fight the disease), but in the longterm can
suffer multiple deleterious emotional and
mental health effects (e.g., symptoms of
post-traumatic stress). Ultimately, I hope
this work can be applied to assist families
at the time of diagnosis and treatment
with the intention of preventing future
negative effects.
What do you do in your spare time?
I have twin daughters, age 5, with whom I
spend most of my spare time. We like to
be outdoors, hiking and enjoying nature;
when it rains, we all love to read. I also
love to travel and seem particularly drawn
to Central American countries.
Name one “little known fact” about your-self.
I come from a family of commercial apia-
rists (beekeepers). It’s such an interesting
field and always a fun topic of conversation
– people have strong feelings
about bees!
Rob Goodman came to our social psychol-
ogy doctoral program in in 2009 after re-
ceiving undergraduate degrees in both
psychology and religious studies in 2007
and a master’s in experimental psychology
from Cleveland State University in 2009.
He claims no hometown saying, “I was a
Navy brat, so I never stayed in one place
for too long.” He has worked under the
mentorship of Kirk Brown, Ph. D., while at
VCU and expects to graduate with his own
Ph.D. this spring. We caught up with him
recently and asked him to tell our readers
about his interesting work.
Describe your research and teaching in-terests.
My research program implements a social-
affective neuroscience approach to under-
stand how a particular kind of awareness
known as mindfulness – an alert and re-
ceptive awareness of the present moment
– influences emotional experience and
memory function across physiological,
behavioral and psychosocial levels of anal-
ysis. At the broadest level, the aim of my
research is to extend mindfulness theory
by examining the constituent processes
that facilitate mindfulness and influence
basic emotion and memory processes. I
have recently extended these lines of in-
quiry into applied domains, including geri-
atric care and education. Accordingly, I
have two intersecting lines of interdiscipli-
nary research. First, my research exam-
ines how mindfulness influences the regu-
lation and experience of emotions, partic-
ularly under conditions of threat; second, I
examine how mindfulness affects memory
-related processes, such as the content
and accuracy of memory and the subjec-
tive experience of remembering.
I am thankful for the many opportunities I
have had to grow and develop as an in-
structor during my time at VCU and active-
ly seek opportunities to learn new meth-
ods that will keep my students engaged. I
recently completed the Preparing Future
Faculty Program to enhance my pedagogi-
cal training. At VCU, I have had the oppor-
tunity to teach the undergraduate courses
Social Psychology and The Application of
Statistics to Psychology and I am currently
working as a lab instructor for Dr. Linda
Zyzniewski’s statistics course this spring.
One aspect I particularly enjoy about
teaching is how closely it intersects with
my research interests in mindfulness. Ex-
emplary teaching requires a particular
sensitivity to context, such that an instruc-
tor knows when to pull back from planned
lecturing to honor moments of student-
directed learning. Students recognize
when their time is being honored. By
practicing mindfulness during my interac-
tions with students I improve as an in-
structor. At the same time I build a deep-
er first-person understanding of a mental
quality central to my research interests.
Describe your work on the grant you re-ceived from the Mind and Life Institute.
One line of my research recently received
funding by the Mind and Life Institute to
examine mindfulness training as a way to
slow the decline of several cognitive ca-
pacities among a community sample of
aging adults at risk for mild cognitive im-
pairment. Mild cognitive impairment is a
state of cognitive decline between typical
aging and dementia that is characterized
by impaired cognitive functioning. This
randomized controlled trial will examine
the influence of two stress reduction pro-
grams on neural measures of cognitive
functioning related to mild cognitive im-
pairment. Additionally, the study will use
mobile phone devices to assess the cogni-
tive functioning of participants as they
move throughout their daily life. Taken
together, these measures will allow for
tests of whether treatment-induced
changes in neurological activity are trans-
latable into functional, real-world benefits
in the day-to-day life of senior citizens.
The interventions are scheduled to begin
this term and our team is excited by the
opportunity to watch seniors from the
community improve their quality of life
through these stress reduction programs.
What are your plans for the future?
I am currently on the academic job market
seeking a tenure track faculty position at
institutions that balance their value of
scholarship and teaching. Ideally, I’d like
to obtain employment at a university that
will provide me with equal time to work
closely with undergraduates on rigorous
psychological research, and teach. On the
teaching side, I definitely have an affinity
for teaching statistics, particularly because
students are often uncertain about the
connection between psychology and sta-
tistics. It is very exciting to me to help
these students recognize something novel
and valuable that they hadn’t thought of
before. In short, while the precise details
of my future are uncertain at the moment,
I am certain it will include research and
scholarship.
Graduate Student Spotlight
Robert Goodman, M.A., Social Psychology program
What do you do in your spare time?
In my spare time I enjoy backpacking, particularly
on the Appalachian trail south of Shenandoah
National Park. Virginia is a very beautiful part of
the country and spending time in the forest is one
of my favorite ways to spend my free time. An-
other hobby, of course, is meditation (which I also
enjoy doing in the forest). For the last two years I
have helped organize Sit and Sutta Study, a VCU
student organization that meets weekly to prac-
tice meditation and discuss the teachings of the
historical Buddha. Finally, a current hobby is
watching VCU basketball with friends. Let’s go
VCU!
Jasmine Abrams, M.S.,
a doctoral student in
the health psychology
program, recently won
an F31 research grant
from the National Insti-
tutes of Health for a project entitled,
"Psychosociocultural Determinants of Cardiovas-
cular Disease Risk among Black Women." The
study will address important gaps in the literature
by using innovative methods (i.e., objective
measures of health via heart rate and biometric
data) to assess the impact of internalization of the
culturally salient Strong Black Woman schema
and emotion regulation on cardiovascular disease
risk. Results will inform future research and ulti-
mately the development of culturally specific pre-
vention strategies to decrease cardiovascular risk
in black women. Broadly, Abrams is interested in
global health prevention research with an empha-
sis on chronic illnesses.
Grad students in feel-good video of the year!
Elizabeth Robinson
Emily Wheat
When Shaka Smart and several players from the VCU men’s basketball team
paid a visit to Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU to spread some holiday
cheer in December, a party broke out! The players, patients and service pro-
viders participated in a video lip dub of Katy Perry’s “Roar” that captures the
wonderful spirit of CHoR. Clinical psychology students Elizabeth Robinson,
M.S., and Emily Wheat, M.S., happened to be around that day and joined in
the fun. Their individual moments of fame come at about 3:33 in the video.
Robinson and Wheat are practicum students at CHoR for the hematology/
oncology (Robinson) and cystic fibrosis (Wheat) clinics.
Jordan Quaglia, M.S., left, Morgan Maxwell, M.S., and Joshua Brevard, M.S.,
take a well-deserved break on W. Franklin St. on a cold day in January.
Quaglia and Maxwell are in the social psychology program and Brevard is in
the health psychology program. Look for great things from these three!
Consider a student struggling in school
to pay attention, to make smooth tran-
sitions between English and math
class, to keep his hands to himself, to
control his impulse to laugh out loud
during instruction. Perhaps the child
has multiple tutors for his various clas-
ses and a history of poor grades and
problem behaviors as far back as pre-
school.
Zewelanji Serpell, Ph.D., associate
professor of psychology, readily
recognizes such difficulties as
possible indicators of poor execu-
tive functioning. Executive func-
tioning refers to our ability to
reason, solve problems, plan
ahead, switch between tasks and
delay gratification. She and other
researchers have found that the-
se skills are more malleable than
we previously imagined and, that
our brains can be trained to oper-
ate more efficiently.
The more traditional approach to ad-
dressing struggling students’ difficul-
ties is through one-on-one content
tutoring with an individual proficient in
the subject matter of difficulty. Stud-
ies show, however, that this type of
intervention does not produce a
meaningful impact on academic
achievement, particularly among mi-
nority students. A different approach
that is gaining popularity is to directly
train cognitive skills independently
from academic material.
With funding from the National Sci-
ence Foundation, Serpell and collabo-
rators from Virginia State University
are studying whether cognitive train-
ing through commercially available
“brain training” programs improves
executive functions in African Ameri-
can students from middle school
through college. Preliminary findings
suggest that computer-based training
for just one hour per day for five days
a week for 15 weeks in a school con-
text improves students' cognitive skills.
The training tasks involve activities
known to stimulate various executive
functions, such as working memory
and holding attention.
Serpell and her team have learned –
unsurprisingly – that training one-on-
one with a human works better than
training with a computer-based pro-
gram. However, one-on-one methods,
she reports, are not practical for wide-
spread use in public schools that fre-
quently lack the human resources nec-
essary to provide individualized in-
struction. As such, developing more
effective computer-based programs is
an important goal of her research. To
accomplish this goal, she and research-
ers at the University of California San
Diego have been studying student en-
gagement, motivation and affect dur-
ing training sessions to understand
what specific aspects of facial expres-
sion and non-verbal behavior human
trainers use to effectively train
students, and to see if these
strategies can be replicated in
an automated or computer-
based system.
Serpell’s second project, one
for which she admits having a
special passion, involves a
deeper examination of the
pliability of brain functioning
using cognitive activities in-
volved with playing chess. It
turns out that the particular set of
skills required to play chess – fore-
casting moves, pattern recognition,
mental imagery processing, etc. – map
very well onto components of execu-
tive functioning. Funded by the Insti-
tute of Educational Sciences, Serpell
collaborates with faculty at the Univer-
Research Spotlight
Zewelanji Serpell, Ph.D.
Executive functioning
refers to our ability to
reason, solve problems, plan
ahead, switch between tasks
and delay gratification.
sity of Cambridge and a local chess
company on a project exploring
whether cognitive activities associated
with playing chess improve executive
functions and whether these improve-
ments boost academic performance in
African American students in local in-
ner city elementary schools. The chess
curriculum under investigation was
developed by department alumna Te-
resa Parr (B.S. ‘93, M.S. ‘95, Ph.D. ‘99)
and the first African American
grandmaster of chess, Maurice Ashley.
Ashley says, “Playing chess is really
about making a series of critical deci-
sions move after move, and therefore
forces the player to be alert, vigilant,
cunning, patient and focused at all
times.”
Reporting on her project’s progress,
Serpell excitedly describes her obser-
vations of students making the transi-
tion from a chaotic and unruly group of
third and fourth graders at the begin-
ning of a school year to one that
demonstrates discipline, attentiveness
and engagement at the commence-
ment of the end-of-year chess tourna-
ment. “The strength of this project is
that it scientifically tests whether cog-
nitive skills previously thought to be
stable are trainable. As a training con-
text, chess playing affords many bene-
fits: it is engaging and intense, so stu-
dents practice these skills hard and
often, all the while receiving lots of
feedback and reinforcement.” Serpell
is looking forward to examining wheth-
er their qualitative observations bear
out in the data they have collected.
This overarching commitment to de-
veloping innovative approaches to pro-
moting school success, particularly
among students who are struggling
academically, is a common thread in
all of Serpell’s research efforts.
A new faculty member this year in the
Department of Psychology, Serpell
says she came to VCU for the research
opportunities—new faculty collabora-
tions, working with VCU’s diverse stu-
dent body and getting involved with
efforts to improve outcomes for K-12
students attending urban public
schools. Serpell’s community-
engaged, translational scholarship ex-
emplifies department and university
initiatives to build high impact re-
search programs that have practical
benefits for the community at-large.
The Department of Psychology hosted its third annual Veterans Day event and reception for veterans who have served or were
serving in the military (Active Duty, Reserves or National Guard) and their families. The event included the panel discussion
“Community-Based Behavioral Health Resources for Veterans.” The panel members were Kristen Lessig, Sportable; John Paul
Cimino, Lewis B. Puller, Jr. Veterans Benefits Clinic at the College of William & Mary and Helping Veterans through Higher Education;
Jennifer Drake Patrick, Operation Educate the Educator and Sean Longnecker, VCU Student Veterans Association.
After the discussion, representatives from various community-based behavioral health service organizations were on hand to
provide information and raise awareness of some of the services available to veterans and their families.
Submitted by Jennifer Elswick, director for
strategic initiatives and assistant to chair.
Veterans
Day
2013
Jennifer Joy-
Gaba, Ph.D., is
an assistant
professor in
our depart-
ment and is
part of the
social psychol-
ogy program. This past academic year, Joy
-Gaba launched a new undergraduate
course entitled Introduction to Teaching.
The purpose of the course was to intro-
duce undergraduate students to basic is-
sues related to teaching, with an emphasis
on learning ways to increase teaching
effectiveness.
Many of the undergraduate courses
offered at VCU adopt a large lecture for-
mat; however, Joy-Gaba’s course was in
the style of a seminar – one that took on
many forms as the semester progressed.
Some weeks, students engaged in small
group discussions and were
given the opportunity to pre-
sent on material before class.
On other occasions, students
took part in an ongoing and
enriching dialogue posing
questions to one another, de-
bating the merits of particular
teaching strategies and
thoughtfully considering ques-
tions posed by Joy-Gaba.
Student discussions spanned
various topics, including how
to lead a class discussion, inte-
grate teaching strategies to
increase student engagement
and evaluate students’ under-
standing of course material.
Students received information
about how to approach large
lecture courses, lead discus-
sions, generate quality items
for exams and grade effective-
ly. Throughout the course, students also
learned about the importance of a syllabus
– its purpose in effectively guiding and
structuring a course, as well as the materi-
al that should be included.
In addition to participating in class discus-
sion, students were asked to write a series
of reaction papers through the semester.
Such papers were designed to provoke
critical thinking about the undergraduate
preceptor program and issues related to
teaching more generally. Reaction papers
were not only a way for Joy-Gaba to criti-
cally evaluate students’ thought processes,
ideas and responses to material covered,
they also stimulated rich class discussions.
Perhaps the most unique aspect of Joy-
Gaba’s course was that it was designed to
simulate many of the experiences that stu-
dents would encounter in future teaching
careers. For instance, at the end of the
semester, students were asked to write a
teaching statement delineating teaching
goals and style. In their statements, stu-
dents were asked to address questions
such as “How will you manage challenges
you may face as an instructor?” and “How
do you perceive your role as an instruc-
tor?”
Joy-Gaba’s preceptor program and corre-
sponding seminar was a tremendous suc-
cess. One student remarked, “[The
course] really helped me solidify my future
goals, specifically within the teaching are-
na.” Another said, “Before taking the
class, I guess I did not understand all of the
details that go into teaching. I mean, eve-
rything has to be planned from what mate-
rial will be covered in class to specific ex-
am questions. This was definitely a neat
eye-opener.”
In Joy-Gaba’s words,
Becoming a preceptor is an excel-
lent opportunity for undergradu-
ates to gain insight into the teach-
ing process. The course, Guided
Inquiry in Psychology, is in-
tended to compliment the pre-
ceptor experience. For exam-
ple, we discuss ways to effec-
tively lead class discussion. In
turn, students can employ the-
se methods in the course in
which they are preceptoring.
The Department of Psychology
hopes to see the development
of similar courses to Joy-
Gaba’s in upcoming semesters.
Teaching Spotlight: Undergraduate Preceptor Program
Jennifer Joy-Gaba, Ph.D.
pre·cep·tor
prē′sĕp′tər
n.
1. A teacher; an instructor.
2. An expert or specialist who gives practical experience and training to a student.
3. The head of a preceptory.
After visiting Richmond during his senior
year of high school, Haroon Popal, class of
2014, decided to attend VCU. “I liked the
idea of being in a city while in college be-
cause there would be plenty for me to do
outside of academics.” In particular, he
really enjoyed the art, music and variety of
cuisines that Richmond had to offer.
Popal was also interested in going to a
university with a prestigious medical
school where undergraduates could be
involved in research projects.
When asked why he chose psychology as
his major, Popal says his choice reflected
an interest nurtured by a particularly in-
teresting high school psychology course
and, too, that psychology is a major relat-
ed to the medical field. He indeed has
interests in pursuing a career in medicine
and is currently pursuing minors in biology
and chemistry as part of that preparation.
About being a psychology major, he says,
“After taking a few psychology courses at
VCU, I realized I made the right choice. I
am always excited to go to my psychology
classes.”
Popal’s favorite psychology classes have
been Learning and Cognition with Jennifer
Joy-Gaba, Ph.D., and Physiological Psychol-
ogy with Joseph Porter, Ph.D. Learning
and Cognition was one of his favorite clas-
ses because he is interested in how indi-
viduals learn and form memories. He says
that it was interesting to learn about
something relevant to his everyday life
and that Joy-Gaba made the class very
interesting by explaining studies that were
related to what they were learning. With
Porter, he particularly enjoyed learning
about different types of conditioning be-
cause of his interests in behavioral psy-
chology and brain functioning. “I liked
how Dr. Porter brought in his own experi-
ences and talked about the research he
does.” Inspired by Porter’s course, Popal
is now considering neuroscience research
as a future specialty.
Popal is very active in our department’s
research mission and currently works in
our behavioral pharmacology lab on an
animal model study that is investigating
drug discrimination of ketamine in rats
under Porter’s direction. Taking good ad-
vantage of VCU’s many opportunities to
experience interdisciplinary research, he
has also taken part in the VCU Honors
Summer Undergraduate Research Pro-
gram where he had the opportunity to
work in Biomedical Engineering’s Rehabili-
tation Technology and Haptics Lab under
the direction of Dianne Pawluk, Ph.D. The
lab study under investigation explored the
viscoelastic properties of intra-abdominal
organs. He has also worked in the VCU
Center on Health Disparities with Allison
Vanderbilt,
Ed.D., where
he contribut-
ed to the sta-
tistical anal-
yses for sev-
eral of Van-
derbilt’s collaborative projects.
As the crowning achievement of his under-
graduate career, he recently won a very
competitive scholarship for up to $20,000
for educational and living expenses for the
2013-2014 academic year from the Na-
tional Institutes of Health. In addition to
the scholarship, Popal will receive a paid
10-week position at the NIH research la-
boratory and will work for the NIH for at
least one year after graduation. He was
one of 19 students chosen from more than
250 applicants nationwide for the scholar-
ship.
When Popal has time, he enjoys catching
up on television shows he has missed from
working so hard! He also enjoys reading
and is most interested in fiction, but will
also pick up a biography or history narra-
tive if it sparks his interest.
We congratulate Popal on his stellar aca-
demic performance and look forward to
even greater accomplishments from this
rising star.
Submitted by Samantha Miadich, doctoral student in
the health psychology program
Undergraduate Student Spotlight
Haroon Popal, Class of ‘14
Psychology undergraduate student, chef
and disability activist,
Jenson Larrimore (class of ‘14), was featured in Style Weekly’s popular an-nual feature, “Top 40 Under 40: The Young Standouts Who Are Lifting the Community to Greater Heights.” Read the article.
Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in
Psychology, held an event in November to
spread awareness and raise support for vic-
tims of domestic violence, intimate part-
ner violence and sexual violence. The group
discussed services offered, whom to contact
for information and common
myths about domestic violence.
Hulsey Van Tongeren Green
Karen Kersting, M.A., M.S. , doctoral candidate in counseling psychology, was recently invited to speak at TEDxRVAWomen, the first independently organized TEDxWomen event in the region. Kersting’s ex-periences teaching The Psychology of Women engendered a passion for examining the tough decisions women face when trying to balance career and family. Kersting’s doctoral dissertation, which she suc-cessfully completed in October, examines one of these issues — The Ticking of the “Biological Clock”: Worry about Future Fertility in Nulliparous Women — with findings relevant to the significant number of women putting off motherhood in their 20s and 30s. Prior to graduate school, Kersting worked as a professional journalist at Bloomberg News, National Geographic Channel and the American Psychologi-cal Association’s Mon-itor on Psychology and gradPsych maga-zines. In her spare time, she swims with the River City Magnolias, a vin-tage-style water bal-let team she founded in 2013.
Read about some new findings from our department’s investigators. A sampling of the re-
search questions addressed are:
Taking another look: Can we replicate popular
psychology findings?
How can clinicians promote effective asthma
management and better asthma control
among adolescents with asthma?
How good are we at predicting our future
happiness or sadness regarding hurtful offens-
es in our romantic relationships?
New Research Findings
Hulsey Van Tongeren Green
Nuran E. Korkmaz, Ph.D., was born
and raised in Turkey, where she re-
ceived her bachelor’s degree from
Ankara University in the Faculty of
Divinity. She continued there for her
graduate education and earned two
master’s degrees—one in the history
of sects and the other in the psychol-
ogy of religion. She received her Ph.D. in philosophy and reli-
gious science in 2012. Since 2002, Korkmaz has been working as
a research assistant at Ankara University’s Faculty of Divinity in
the Department of the Psychology of Religion.
Korkmaz’s research interests are cross-cultural relationships
within the field of psychology of religion and more specifically,
the relationships between self-compassion, forgiveness and psy-
chological health. During her visit, she is working with Everett
Worthington, Ph.D., and his Positive Psychology Research Group
(PPRG) on a project examining the relationship between self-
compassion and psychological health in a cross-cultural context.
Korkmaz believes that working with a VCU mentor and partici-
pating in the research group’s endeavors are very important ex-
periences in her academic career. When she finishes her study
at VCU, she plans to publish some articles with Worthington and
other colleagues from the PPRG and to continue to build her re-
lationships with colleagues from various psychology depart-
ments. Korkmaz says she enjoys and gains great benefit from
the interaction among different cultures and religions, noting
that VCU gives her that atmosphere. In her spare time, she en-
joys walking, watching movies with her family, doing illumination
(tezhip), cooking and sampling cuisines from different cultures.
Muzafar Razali, Ph.D., is a senior
lecturer at the Sultan Idris Education
University in Malaysia in the Depart-
ment of Psychology and Counseling
and is faculty of education and hu-
man development. His research ex-
pertise is drug abuse education, pre-
vention and counseling. Razali spent
time at VCU before as a 2009-10 fel-
low in the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program in VCU’s
Institute for Drug and Alcohol Studies under the mentorship of
Wendy Kliewer, Ph.D. He is working with Kliewer anew on de-
veloping a model of drug abuse prevention for adolescents in
Malaysia based on risk and protective factors.
During his visit, Razali will explore the latest prevention models
and techniques related to drug abuse counseling and will work
on writing journal articles for publications. After his year long
visit, he looks forward to continuing the collaborative academic
and research partnership between VCU and the Sultan Idris Edu-
cation University in the area of drug abuse education, preven-
tion and counseling.
Timothy Wilson, Ph.D., Sherrell J. Aston Professor of Psychology at the University of Virgin-
ia, has many of the most cited papers in social psychology over the last several decades. In
fact, he has three papers in the prestigious journal Science over just the last five years! He
has written well-regarded textbooks and wonderfully reviewed popular books on topics
such as the adaptive unconscious and psychological change. Wilson has inspired new fields
in social psychology and is particularly known for work on self-knowledge and the limits of
introspection and how we deal with uncertainty. He was one of the first researchers to
study affective forecasting, which is how we predict our emotional reactions to future
events. It turns out that we typically overestimate how strongly we will feel and how long
we will feel an emotion, whether positive or negative. For example, you may think that
your wedding will make you feel much happier for months, when actually you will feel
somewhat happier for weeks. On the flip side, you may predict that if your partner breaks
up with you, you will feel devastated for years, but you won’t feel as bad as you think, and you will recover more quickly than you
think. This is an important area for all of psychology because if we can’t accurately predict our emotional reactions, then we might
make the wrong choices about what we think will make us happy. - Jeff Green, Ph.D., director of the social psychology program
Special Visitor
International Visiting Scholars
Nuran Korkmaz,Ph.D., and Muzafar Razali, Ph.D.
CONGRATULATIONS,
December 2013 Graduates!
Doctor of Philosophy
Alison Eonta
Tracey Gendron
Leila Islam
Alison Kramer
Aaron Martin
Cassandra Pasquariello
Katherine Taylor
Jason Wiebelhaus
Master of Science
Laura Caccavale
Jennifer Coleman
Nadia Islam
Benjamin Rosen
Meghan Smith
Bachelor of Science
Samaneh Abyar
Emily Adams
Asiah Afsharie
Sobia Ahmed
DeMonica Alexander
Jasalle Allen
Kamar Alsamman
Ashley Atkinson
Kinnera Atluri
Marjorie Baja
Rebecca Barr
Rizelle Baul
Ja'nice Benjamin
Shakeyra Birt
Dora Braxton
Tyra Brogdon
Ayanna Broom
Candace Brown
Edniesha Brown
Brittany Bush
Devin Byrne
Christina Carreiro
Grace Carscadden
Andrew Carter
Jacob Clements
Kelsea Copeland
Maryann Cotman
Clinton Crosby
Alexandra Dahl
Miriam Darby
Bryonna Davis
Kristin Davis
Myrna De Jesus
Molly Dearhart
Justin Delaney
Zumreta Dudic
Eric Dugan
Ashley Dunphy
Mary Elyiace
Marwa Fadlalla
Benjamin Fauber
William Fletcher
Meghann Forshey
Randolph Fuhrman
Ashley Gibson
Danielle Gibson
Mariah Gilbert
Maria Govind
Travis Grammo
Lashaun Greene
Melissa Grignol
Jessica Griswold
Stephanie Gross
Nyra Gumbs
Taylor Hamilton
Jessica Harris
Louis Hartman
Melissa Haslam
Crystal Hermano
Ruth Hewitson
Katherine Huber
Sevindzh Izrailova
Emily Jackson
Britney Jefferson
Cara Jennings
Jennifer Jimenez
Jennica Johansen
Hannah Johnson
Sara Jones
William Kazas
Rebecca Keel
Leah Keuper
Hira Khaliq
Omid Khanzadeh
Rebecca Kiefer
Balin Kim
Erika King
Ryan King
Evan Kirschner
Taylor Lambert
Laurenzee Landicho
Brandon Lette
Caitlyn MacQueen
Hannah Mey
Leah Mirzayan
Tasya Mitchell
Sarah Mizelle
Alexander Moe
Christina Monaco
Attallah Muhammad
Mariam Nadri
Mitali Patel
Tegan Petersen
Alexa Poe
Courtney Proffitt
Kelsey Richardson
Crystal Richmond
Brendan Riley
Karen Rodriguez
Angelo Rose
Lauren Schefflien
Katherine Schihl
Trish Stanley
Ian Staples
Leah Staples
Melvena Talley
Sara Taylor
Megan Theuerkauf
Chelsea Thornton
Amy Trigger
Jessika Turner
Gabriel Anth Villegas-Aloran
Jason Von Unwerth
Kelsey Wash
Jasmine West
Shanthi Wickramasinghe
Melinda Williams
The speaker for the diploma ceremony was our very own Barbara Myers, Ph.D., associate pro-
fessor of psychology and director of our developmental psychology program. Myers is a de-
partment treasure and has been at VCU since 1979. She received her Ph.D. from Temple Uni-
versity in 1981. She is an active teacher, researcher and scholar and currently serves as the
associate editor for the Journal of Child and Family Studies. Myers’ research interests are with
two groups of high-risk children — children with autism and their families, and children and
families affected by incarceration. She has previously served on the Board of Juvenile Justice
for the Commonwealth of Virginia overseeing the policies and practices of juvenile correction-
al centers, detention facilities and group homes across the state. Students know her as a
quintessential teacher.
Virginia Commonwealth University is an equal opportunity, affirmative action university providing access to
education and employment without regard to age, race, color, national origin, gender, religion, sexual
orientation, veteran’s status, political affiliation or disability.
Psychology faculty celebrate our December graduates with James Coleman, dean of the College of Humanities and Sciences.
Kathleen Ingram, Ph.D., left, Micah McCreary, Ph.D., James Coleman, Ph.D., and Bruce Rybarczyk, Ph.D.
Virginia Commonwealth University
College of Humanities and Sciences
806 W. Franklin St.
P.O. Box 842018
Richmond, VA 23284
Phone: 804.828.1193
Fax: 804.828.2237
Email: jlelswick@vcu.edu
Website: psychology.vcu.edu
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