2019 ABCT Convention

In late November, many of our CYDI students and faculty alike attended the ABCT Convention held in Atlanta, GA. We are so proud of all who presented and received awards at this great convention!

​All graduate students and one undergraduate student in Dr. Susan White's lab attended the conference, including Grace Lee Simmons, Alexis Brewe, Nicole Capriola-Hall, Josh Golt, and Jessica Smith. All of Dr. Brad White's graduate students also attended the conference: Breana Dede, Meagan Heilman, and Rebecca Revilla.

Check out the list below to see what everyone was up to:

3rd year graduate student in Dr. Susan White's Lab, Grace Lee Simmons presented at the Special Interest Group Expo. Her poster was entitled "Social Cognition and Social Anxiety as Predictors of Functional Impairment in Youth with Neurodevelopmental Disorders." Grace Lee also served as chair for the symposium "Participatory Action in Research: Building Interventions From the Ground Up."

Alexis Brewe, 2nd year student in Dr. Susan White's Lab, presented at the Special Interest Group Expo. Her poster was entitled "Client-Therapist Alliance and Its Relationship to Treatment Outcomes in Clients with Autism."

Jessica Smith, senior undergraduate student in Dr. Susan White's Lab, presented her poster entitled "To Adhere or Not to Adhere: The Importance of Standardized Confederate Behavior" at the Special Interest Group Expo. 

Rebecca Revilla, 1st year graduate student in Dr. Brad White's Lab, presented her poster entitled "Social Information Processing Biases and Aggression in Young Adults: Moderation by Implicit Aggressiveness."

Nicole Capriola Hall, 4th year doctoral student, both presented her work and received an award at ABCT. Nicole received the Autism Special Interest Group "Student of the Year" Award. Nicole also presented a poster entitled "Associations Between Social Anxiety Severity and Visual Attention Towards Eye Regions of Emotional Faces: Insights from Eye-tracking."

Breana Dede, graduate student in Dr. Brad White's Lab, presented at the Convention on her work "Emerging Psychopathic Traits in Youth: What Roles Do Fearless Temperament and Specific Parenting Behaviors Play."

Meagan Heilman, graduate student in Dr. Brad White's Lab, presented a poster about "Psychopathic Tendencies and Facial Emotion Recognition."

Dr. Brad White, faculty member at the CYDI, also presented his work "A Preliminary Investigation of Facial Affect Sensitivity Training for Young Children with CU Traits."

CYDI Director, Dr Susan White, was honored with the Autism Special Interest Group "Mentor of the Year" Award and presented at many symposia during the conference. Some of the topics she presented on included a clinical roundtable discussion "Adaptations for Assessments and Increased Impact of Evidence Based Treatments for Individuals With Autism Spectrum and Co-Occurring Disorders," "Act Well Your Part: Using Theater to Disseminate Evidence-Based Practices to Treat Core Deficits in Autism Spectrum Disorder," and "Participatory Action in Research: Building Interventions From the Ground Up." She also served as a discussant of the "The Treatment of Anxiety in Autism Spectrum Disorder (TAASD) Trial: Clinical Characteristics and Outcomes" symposium. 

All in all, we had a great time in Atlanta and enjoyed presenting our research and learning about others! Check out our Facebook to see more pictures and highlights.