Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program

Nancy Anderson, J.D.
Alabama Disabilities Advocacy ​​

  • Research Interests/Expertise:  Coordination of individual case and systems-change work; Disability rights; Representation of youth; Mental health access; Special education; Juvenile justice; Medicaid    

College of Nursing

Michael Callihan, Ph.D.
Capstone College of Nursing ​

  • Research Interests/Expertise:
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​Mercy N. Mumba, PhD, RN, CMSRN
​Capstone College of Nursing

  • Research Interests/Expertise: substance abuse among nurses and their psychosocial wellbeing, self-efficacy and functional status in older adults and how these relate to healthy aging and wellness
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  • CV

Robin Bartlett, Ph.D.
Capstone College of Nursing

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Risk behaviors in adolescents, developmental issues, risk and protective factors associated with behavior trajectories and health outcomes, parenting, health disparities, interdisciplinary research, intervention research, health systems research, analysis of existing data, community-based research
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Jessica Johnson, Ph.D.
Capstone College of Nursing

  • Clinical Interests/Expertise: Growth and Development Throughout the Lifespan and Family-Centered Care; Obstetrics (Labor and Delivery, Postpartum, High-Risk Pregnancies, Women's Care, and Newborn Nursery); Pediatric Experiences (Neurology, Cardiac, and Endocrine)
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Sara Kaylor, Ed.D.
Capstone College of Nursing

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Assessment of Leadership and Learning Needs/Styles; Innovative Teaching Strategies for Millennial Generation Nursing Students; Health Assessment; Fundamentals of Nursing; Pharmacology for Nursing Practice
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Michele Montgomery, Ph.D.
Capstone College of Nursing

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Health Disparities in Rural and Underserved Populations; Childhood Obesity; Diabetes; Cardiovascular Risk Factors; Innovative Teaching Strategies
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Haley Townsend, MSN, RN, FNP-BC 
Capstone College of Nursing

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Sexual and Reproductive Health Education; Risk Taking Behaviors; STI Prevention,; HPV Vaccination
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College of Arts and Sciences

Joan Barth, Ph.D.
Institute for Social Sciences Research

  • Research Interests/Expertise:Social-Emotional Development; Gender Differences in Science and Math Education Experiences; Adolescent Risk Behaviors; Children's Decision Making Skills; Education Contexts; Neurocognitive Development in Young Children
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Kim Caldwell, Ph.D.
Department of Biology

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Gene Function; Diseases of the Nervous System; Gene and Drug Discovery to Advance Therapeutic Development
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Matthew Cribbet, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Early Life Adversity; Cardiovascular Disease Risk; Close Relationships; Health;Cardiovascular Psychophysiology; Sleep Assessment (Self-Report, Behavior, EEG); Stress Assessment; Multilevel Modeling/Dyadic Data Analysis; Cellular Aging​
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Jenny Cundiff, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology

  • Research Interests/Expertise:Socioeconomic Status; Stress; Health; Social Relationships; Cardiovascular Risk; Interpersonal Behavior; Dominance;Health Disparities; Latent Mixture Modeling; Meta-Analysis
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Jason DeCaro, Ph.D.
Department of Anthropology

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Culture; Child Social Ecology; Psychophysiology; Stress and Health; Multi-Generational Approaches; Qualitative Data Analysis; MLM; Adrenocortical Assessment; Autonomic Assessment; Daily Experience Tracking (e.g., ESM, Diaries, Actigraphy)
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Ryan Earley, Ph.D.
Department of Biology

  • ResearchInterests/Expertise: Animal Behavior; Behavioral Variation Among Individuals of a Population; Neurobiology; Gene Expression; Metabolism; Hormones
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Peter Castagna, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Executive Functioning; Emotion Regulation; Self-referential Processing; Computational Modeling; Neuroimaging (EEG, fMRI); Child and Adolescent Psychopathology (anxiety, depression, conduct problems/callous-unemotional traits)
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Matthew Jarrett, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology

Rajesh K. Kana, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology
  • Research Interests/ Expertise: ADHD; Attention; Anxiety; Neuropsychology; Intervention; Children; Child Psychopathology; Child Intervention; Child Assessment
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  • CV
  • Research Interests/ Expertise:  Autism, Neuroscience, Neuroimaging, Social Cognition, Language processing
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Bronwen Lichtenstein, Ph.D.
Department of Criminal Justice

  • Research Interests/Expertise: HIV Stigma; Social Determinants of Mortgage Foreclosure
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Evie Malaia, Ph.D.
Department of Communicative Disorders

  • Research Interests/Expertise: ASD; ADHD; Visual Cognition; Sensory Perception; Complex Systems Approach to Brain Disorders; Neural Response to Interventions; Network Modeling; Complex Systems Modeling; EEG (Frequency-Domain, Microstate, and Network Analyses); fMRI (Includig Resting State and Network Analysis); Machine Learning; Language (Including Sign Language and Bilingualism)
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Kristina McDonald, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Peer Relationships; Aggression; Social Cognition; Emotion Regulation; Latent Class Models
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Jeff Parker, Ph.D.
Institute for Social Sciences Research

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Bullying; Health and Wellness; Children's Experiences and Adjustments with Friends and Other Peers; Bullying Reduction 
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Laura Reed, Ph.D.
Department of Biology

  • Research Interests/Expertise:Quantitative Genetics; Population Genetics; Drosophila Model for Metabolic Syndrome; Evolutionary Genetics of Speciation
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Lesley Reid, Ph.D.
Department of Criminal Justice

  • Research Interests/Expertise:Neighborhood Effects; Criminal Victimization; Fear of Crime; Immigration and Crime; Analytical Expertise in Multilevel Modeling; Longitudinal Analyses; Hard to Sample Populations; Managing Longitudinal Data Collection
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Karen Salekin, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology

  • Research Interests/Expertise:Intellectual Disability and the Death Penalty; Assessment of Intellectual Disability in Atkins Cases; Forensic Assessment with Offenders with Intellectual Disability; Mitigation in Death Penalty Cases; Perceptions of Individuals with Intellectual Disability in the Criminal Justice System
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Randy Salekin, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology

  • Research Interests/Expertise:Psychopathy; Callous Unemotional Traits; Treatment of Psychopathy; Treatment of Interpersonal Callousness
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Ted Tomeny, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology

  • Research Interests/Expertise: ASD; Risk and Protective Factors for Family Members of Children with ASD; Developmental Disabilities; Outreach and Service Delivery to Low-Resource Families
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Alexa Tullett, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Objectivity; Belief Systems and Motivated Cognition; Research Practices and Meta-Science
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Katie E. Garrison, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology
  • Research Interests/Expertise: self-control; emotion regulation; attention; mental effort and fatigue; motivation; electrophysiology (EEG/ERPs)​
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College of Education

Lucy Barnard-Brak, Ph.D.
Department of Special Education and Multiple Abilities

  • Research Interests/Expertise:Measurement and assessment issues for individuals with ASD; educational experiences and outcomes of individuals with disabilities; item response theory models; comparison of ROC curves to data from special populations
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Greg Benner, Ph.D.
Department of Special Education and Multiple Abilities

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Intervention; Prevention; Academic success of students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD)
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Teresa Granger, Ph.D., CRC
Department of Educational Studies in Psychology, Research Methodology, and Counseling

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Disabilities; Vocational Rehabilitation; Wellbeing; Career Development; Behavioral Activation​

Rick Houser, Ph.D.
Department of Educational Studies in Psychology, Research Methodology, and Counseling

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Low Current Brain Stimulation to increase Statistical Calculations; Use of Low Current Brain Stimulation to Study the Effect of Ethical Decision Making
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Kristine Jolivette, Ph.D.
Department of Special Education and Multiple Abilities

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Applied Behavioral Analysis; Youth Behavior; Special Education

Joni M. Lakin, Ph.D.
Department of Educational Studies

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Educational Measurement; Individual Differences; Cognitive Abilities and Intelligence; Advanced Academics; Gifted Education; Student Motivation for Learning; Career Identity Formation 
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Jewoong Moon, Ph.D.
Department of Educational Leadership, Policy, & Technology Studies

  •  Research Interests/Expertise: Digital game-based learning; Inclusive and immersive e-learning design;  Multimodal learning analytics; Adaptive learning system design; Computer science & Artificial intelligence education (computational thinking)
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June Preast, Ph.D.
Department of Special Education and Multiple Abilities

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Multi-Tiered Systems of Support; Response to Intervention; Systems-Level Consultation; Teacher Teams and Data-Based Decision Making
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Sara Sanders, Ph.D.
Department of Special Education and Multiple Abilities

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  • Research Interests/Expertise:
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Michael L. Sulkowksi,
​Ph.D., NCSP
Educational Studies in Psychology,
Research Methodology, and Counseling 
  • Research Interests/Expertise: School safety, school mental health, cognitive-behavioral therapy. 
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Stephen Thoma, Ph.D.
Department of Educational Studies in Psychology, Research Methodology, and Counseling

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Moral Psychology; Creation and Validation of Psychometrics in Social/Moral Domain
Robin-McWilliam, Ph.D. 
Department of Special Education and Multiple Abilities
  • Research Interests/Expertise: early intervention (birth to age 6), specifically models of service delivery, working with families, and child engagement
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Amy Hutchison, Ph.D. 
Department of Curriculum and Instruction​

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Use of digital technologies to support students with disabilities; Computing science, coding, and media literacy for special populations; Digital innovations to support reading and writing; Teacher professional development
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Macarena Suarez Pellicioni, Ph.D.
Department of Educational Studies in Psychology, Research Methodology, and Counseling
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  • Research Interests/Expertise: Underlying brain mechanisms explaining the effect of affective factors (i.e. math attitudes) on math performance, and how they interact with cognitive or social factors.
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College of Engineering

Jeff Gray, Ph.D.
Department of Computer Science

• Research Interests/Expertise: Computer Science Education; College Preparation in STEM Fields; Robotics; Software Modeling; Domain Specific Languages; Mobile Computing
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Steven Jones, Ph.D.
Center for Advanced Public Safety

  • Research Interests/Expertise:Traffic Safety; Risky Driving; Drunk Driving; Aggressive Driving;Transportation Planning; Transportation Engineering; International Development
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College of Human Environmental Sciences

Deborah Casper, Ph.D.
Department of Human Development and Family Studies

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Adolescent and Emerging Adult Peer Relationships; Peer Group Play; Aggression and Bullying
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Linda Knol, Ph.D.
Department of Human Nutrition and Hospitality Management

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Preschool Children; Obesity; Mindful Eating; Weight Loss Interventions; Dietary Intake
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Robert Laird, Ph.D.
Department of Human Development and Family Studies

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Parenting; Adolescence; Parent-Child Relationships; Delinquency; Monitoring; Peer Relations; Longitudinal Methods; SEM; Discrepancies; Difference Scores
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Jason Scofield, Ph.D.
Department of Human Development and Family Studies

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Children's Language Development; Social Learning; Moral Cognition
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Stuart Usdan, Ph.D.
Department of Health Science

  • Research Interests/Expertise:Substance Abuse Prevention; Alcohol Assessment and Measurement; Internet-Based Interventions
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Bridget Weymouth, Ph.D.
Department of Human Development and Family Studies

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Adolescent Development; Social Anxiety; Substance Use; Conflict in Families; Parent-Adolescent Relationships; Physiological Stress Reactivity;Parent-Adolescent Conflict; Interparental Conflict; Structural Equation Modeling; Latent Profile/Class Analyses; Meta-Analysis​
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Tricia Witte, Ph.D.
Department of Human Development and Family Studies
  • Research Interests/Expertise: Interpersonal Violence; Dating Violence; Sexual Assault; Trauma; Substance Use; Prevention; Treatment
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College of Communication and Information Sciences

Anneliese Bolland, Ph.D.
Institute for Communication and Information Research

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Hard-to-Reach Populations and Factors that Affect Them; Large Longitudinal Data Sets
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Becky Britt, Ph.D.
Journalism and Creative Media

  • Research interests/Expertise: Health Disparities; Communication; Social Support; Online Communities; Computational Methods; Large Scale Web Data; Health Misinformation; Population Health
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Steven Holiday, Ph.D.
Department of Advertising and Public Relations

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Children and Media; Advertising to Families; Advertising Literacy; Selfies; Nontraditional Advertising; Advertising History
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Leah LeFebvre, Ph.D.
​Department of Communication Studies

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Interpersonal Communication; Personal Relationships; Relationship Dissolution; Emerging Technology; Social Media; Mobile Dating Applications; Research Methods; Mixed Methodology
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Joshua Pederson, Ph.D.
Department of Communication Studies

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Communication; Relationships; Coping; Social Support; Personal Networks; Surveys; Observations; Conversation Analysis; Regression Modeling; Qualitative Analysis
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College of Community Health Sciences

Joy Bradley, Ph.D.
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine

  • Research Interests/Expertise:
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Marissa Giggie, M.D.
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Violence Prevention; Student Mental Health; Physician Mental Health
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John Higginbotham, Ph.D.
Institute for Rural Health Research

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Racial and Ethnic Disparities Related to Cancer and Other Health Issues that Impact Rural Areas
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Mercedes Morales-Aleman, Ph.D.
Department of Community Medicine and Population Health and Institute for Rural Health Research 

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Adolescent Latinas; Health Disparities; Sexual Health; Health Care Access & US South; Qualitative Methods; Program Evaluation; Community-Based Participatory Research
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Thaddeus Ulzen, M.D.
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Disruptive Behavior Disorders; Incarcerated Adolescents; Paranoid Spectrum Disorders; Mental Retardation and Mental Health Consultation to Primary Care Physicians and Underserved Geographical Locations; Use of Telemedicine in Education and Clinical Service
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Lea Yerby, Ph.D.
Institute for Rural Health Research

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Community Medicine; Health Disparities; Population Health; Health Disparities in Rural Children; Medicaid Innovation
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Culverhouse College of Business

Russell Matthews, Ph.D.
Department of Management

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Work-Family; Workplace Safety; Employee Well-Being; Burnout; Interpersonal Relationships; Workplace Mistreatment; Structural Equation Modeling; Longitudinal Designs; Dyadic Data; Factor Analysis
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School of Social Work

Jill Beck, J.D.

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Management of Working on Womanhood Program (WOW); Inpatient and Outpatient Programs for Youth in Juvenile Justice Facilities
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Catherine Carlson, Ph.D.

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Child Welfare; Community-Based Participatory Research; Implementation Science; International Social Work; Violence Against Women and Children
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Leah Cheatham, Ph.D.

  • Research Interests/Expertise: “Youth Aging Out”; Disability Issues Among Youth in Care; Understandings of Disability in Social Welfare Service Provision; Attitudes Toward Disability (Measurement Validation); Transitions to Adulthood Among Youth with Disabilities
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  • CV​

Laura Hopson, Ph.D.

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Evidence-Based Practice; School Climate; Social Work Services in School
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Sebrena Jackson, Ph.D.

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Child Welfare; Field Education; Foster Care; Social Work Online Education
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 Brenda Smith, Ph.D.

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Child Welfare Policy and Services; Organizational and Policy Contexts of Practice; Policy and Service Disparities
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Amy Traylor, Ph.D.

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Children and Youth; Mental Health; Substance Abuse
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Lindamarie Olson, Ph.D., LCSW

  • Research Interests/Expertise: Interconnection of Neuroscience; Adolescent Development; Trauma Among Justice-Involved Youth
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​Alabama Life Research Institute

Chuong Bui, Ph.D.

  • Research/Expertise: Mixed-effect models, structural equation modeling, survival analysis, latent class/profile analysis, grouped-based trajectory, and growth mixture modeling