CFC Students

Maya Coleman is a sixth-year doctoral student in the clinical psychology program. She received an A.B. in Psychology from Bryn Mawr College and an M.A. in Special Education/Learning Disabilities from American University. She spent a year student-teaching at the Lab School of Washington, a K-12 private day school for children with learning disabilities, where she became interested in psychoeducational and neuropsychological assessment and decided to pursue clinical training. While at Catholic, Maya has been involved in research evaluating atypical eye gaze in adolescents and young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and designing a computerized training environment to teach more normative eye-gaze to young children at risk of an ASD diagnosis. Maya has also received externship-level training in the Pediatric Neuropsychology Program and the Child Development Program at Children’s National Medical Center. She is currently completing her clinical internship at the Veteran's Affairs Health Care System/University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Ranon Cortell is a fourth year doctoral student in the clinical psychology program. He is a graduate of University of Maryland where he majored in Psychology (2000), while at the same time attending Yeshiva College, where he obtained a degree in Talmudic Law (2001). After completing these degrees, he pursued a Masters in Talmudic Law at Ner Israel Rabbinical College (2004), and ultimately received rabbinic ordination. He began his research experience studying children with Fragile X Syndrome who were comorbid with autism at Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, focusing on the differential effects of communication and socialization deficits. Since joining the program at Catholic University, he initially examined suicidal adolescents and their treatment compliance. He is now involved in conceptualizing a parenting intervention designed to increase parental awareness and control over emotions, both of their children and themselves, with the intent of reducing the outcomes of depression and other mood disorders. He is particularly interested in parenting practices, family dynamics, and children's coping skills and emotion regulation.

Raquel Cumba is a second year clinical psychology doctoral student. She graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2004 with a BA in psychology. Her research interests involve the impact of mental illness on family dynamics at a cross-cultural level. She is currently working with Dr. Barrueco to develop and examine a formative evaluation of a family literacy program via the East Coast Migrant Even Start project. Prior to joining CUA, she was a research assistant at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) for two years, where she worked on various research projects examining individuals with bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder.

Marisa Hilliard is a third year clinical psychology PhD student. She received a B.A. in Psychology and Spanish from Georgetown University in May, 2004. Her research interests include child and family functioning, particularly in the face of serious medical trauma and illness, and resilience in children. She is working with Dr. Goeke-Morey to assess marital interactions and child outcomes in African-American families, and with Dr. Streisand at Children's National Medical Center evaluating the effectiveness of intervention and prevention programs on medical regimen adherence and psychological well being in children with Type 1 diabetes and their families. Prior to attending CUA, Marisa worked at the Devereux Foundation, where her research included the development of an assessment of strengths in school-aged children, examining the utility of a strength-based approach to classroom management, and studying the efficaciousness of a social skills intervention on job productivity among adults with mental retardation. While at Georgetown, Marisa was involved with the Georgetown Early Learning Project, investigating memory in infancy.

Laura Kwako is a sixth year doctoral student in Clinical Psychology at CUA. She received her B.S.Ed., magna cum laude, from Northwestern University in 1998, and her M.A. in Psychology from CUA in 2004. She is currently doing her clinical internship at the American University Counseling Center. Prior to that, she was the site supervisor for the Early Growth and Development Study at the Center for Family Research at the George Washington University Medical Center, where she coordinated assessment for a multi-site, nationwide study that used an adoption design to examine the interaction of genetic and environmental influences on early childhood development. Laura is writing her dissertation with Dr. Jennie Noll of the University of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, along with Dr. Goeke-Morey and Dr. Wagner. In it, she will examine the interactions between maternal depression, antisocial behavior, and parenting beliefs, and their impact on children's attachment patterns and cognitive development. The sample she is using includes adult female survivors of childhood sexual abuse and their children, and is the longest-running prospective longitudinal study of childhood sexual abuse in the country.

Ali Mattu is a third year clinical psychology PhD student. He graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2005 with a BA in psychology, and a minor in Asian American studies. He is primarily interested in the interaction of culture, family, and mental health. Currently he is working with Dr. Sandra Barrueco studying the moderating effect of language on marital conflict among English and Spanish speaking populations. Previously, Ali has worked at the NASA Ames Cognition Lab, LEAP Inc. (Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics), the UCLA Marriage and Family Development Study, and the UCLA Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Clinic.

Jessica Parrish is a second year clinical doctoral student. She graduated from Duke University in 2004 with a B.A. in psychology. Her research interests include the role of peers and the family in children and adolescents' psychological functioning. Currently, she is working with Dr. Wagner in developing a parenting program to teach parents how to "coach" their adolescents to better manage emotion. Prior to attending CUA, Jessica was a research assistant in the Emotion Development and Affective Neuroscience branch of the NIMH working on projects using functional neuroimaging to study children with mood and anxiety disorders.

Maisley Jones Paxton is a seventh year clinical doctoral student. She earned a B.A. (1994) from Wellesley College with a double major in English and Education, an Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education (1997) concentrating in Administration, Planning, and Social Policy, and an M.A. from Catholic University (2004) in Clinical Psychology. She recently completed her clinical internship at the John L. Gildner Regional Institute for Children and Adolescents in Rockville, MD. In her earlier research she studied how maternal emotion socialization is related to adolescent psychological functioning. She is currently completing her dissertation with Drs. Wagner and Jobes looking at the potential role of deficits in positive future thinking in adolescent suicidal behavior.

Alicia Santana, a third year clinical doctoral student, obtained her bachelors degree in psychology from Brown University in May of 2005. Currently she is working on a telehealth intervention study with a group of researchers at Georgetown University. The study aims to test an intervention with low-SES, African American women who have fallen victim to intimate partner violence and who are experiencing symptoms of PTSD. Alicia was recently awarded a fellowship through the APA Minority Fellowship Program, which will support her continued research with ethnic minority populations. Prior to beginning CUA, Alicia was a research assistant at Rhode Island Hospital for three years, working on a handful of projects related to child and adolescent substance abuse.

Catherine Schwerzler is a first year clinical psychology PhD student. She graduated from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2005 with a BS in Psychology and a minor in Philosophy. Her research interests include family processes in developmental psychopathology and intervention programs. She is currently working with Dr. Wagner on his Emotion Coaching intervention for parents of adolescents to teach them how to help their children learn to better manage their emotions. Before attending CUA, Catherine was involved in team delivered home-based Ecosystemic Structural Family Therapy with families and their children suffering from emotional and behavioral problems.

Joanna Zimmerman is a sixth year student in the clinical psychology Ph.D. program. She earned an M.A. in clinical psychology from Catholic University in 2005, and a B.A. with high honors in psychology from Brandeis University in 2000. She is currently doing a two-year/half-time clinical internship at the George Mason University Counseling Center. She also is working on her dissertation jointly at the Children's National Medical Center and Catholic University in the area of eating disorders in children and adolescents. For her master's research project she worked with Dr. Wagner and examined observed interactions in the families of adolescent suicide attempters. Her current clinical work is in the areas of individual and group therapy with eating disordered adolescents, and neuropsychological assessment with children, adolescents, and young adults.

Jennifer Collins is a second year Master’s student. She received a B.A. in psychology with a minor in family relationships from Miami University in 2006. She is interested is family dynamics and family relationships and is currently assisting Dr. Goeke-Morey on her study of marital relationships and child outcomes in African-American families. Prior to joining CUA, Jennifer worked at a juvenile detention center administering various mental health assessments.

Michelle DiMeo is a second year Master’s student. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of California, San Diego in 2006, where she received her B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Religious Studies. She is currently working with Dr. Wagner on his research on preventive parenting interventions for promoting adolescent emotion regulation. Her previous work includes substance abuse prevention with adolescents and early intervention work with children with Autism.

Hilary Hoagwood is a second year Masters student at CUA. She received a B.A. in Psychology in 2003 from the University of Texas at Austin. She is interested in children and families, and the relationships within the family system, with a particular interest in pediatric health psychology and the ways in which chronic illnesses, such as diabetes and cancer, affect children and their families. She is currently working with Dr. Goeke-Morey on a study of marital relationships, conflict, and the effects on children among African-American families. She is also working at the University of Maryland Medical Center as a Clinical Coordinator in Pediatric Endocrinology, doing case management work with children with diabetes and growth hormone deficiency and their families, and coordinating two growth hormone database studies. Previous she has worked on research studies involving children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and their families, and the effects of maternal depression on child outcomes.

"I have found that the CFC program has been a great source of collaboration and has provided an excellent opportunity for sharing ideas and obtaining feedback. I was initially drawn, in part, to Catholic University's program by the CFC program and it has truly lived up to my expectations."

“I was drawn to the clinical psychology program at Catholic University because of the program’s strong sense of community and the excellence of the faculty’s teaching and training. My experiences have completely confirmed these initial impressions. The dedicated mentorship of the faculty has played a major role in my growth as a researcher and clinician, while the support and cohesiveness I have felt as part of a small, friendly class has enriched my graduate experience. Within the CFC, I have greatly valued the unique opportunity to explore the role of culture on mental health concepts while gaining complementary clinical training with underserved populations.”

"I have been very happy with the graduate program at Catholic. I find the faculty to be extraordinarily supportive of their students, willing and able to help and meet the needs of their students. The atmosphere at Catholic is very friendly, the coursework is interesting and manageable, and the opportunities to participate in both research projects and clinical work are bountiful."

"As I made my decision to attend CUA, I was especially excited about the opportunity to be a part of a cooperative and supportive group of students and professors with a shared interest in children and families from a multicultural perspective. I have been extremely satisfied with the CFC and have found that this group is extraordinarily interested in sharing ideas, supporting each other's research endeavors, and learning about a wide variety of issues relevant to working with and studying children and families."

"I was primarily attracted to Catholic's clinical psychology program because of its implementation of the scientist-practitioner training model. CUA's program was one of the very few that equally emphasized research and clinical experience. Students here are given enough flexibility to train for careers in academia, clinical practice, or both. The CFC program has been particularly exciting for me. The study of culture and mental health is still a relatively new field. When I was searching for graduate programs I had a very hard time finding schools that offered specific resources for students wishing to study underserved populations. Although I have only been here for a few months, already I have found CFC to be very nurturing and supportive of my unique clinical interests."

“My experience in the General MA program at CUA has been exceptional to say the least. The course offerings are diverse, and the faculty is both respectful and supportive of their students. The program is enhanced by a variety of research and mentorship opportunities in which the atmosphere is one of intellectual stimulation and student/faculty collaboration. This is exemplified by cooperative specialization groups, such as CFC. Within the CFC concentration, students and professors with a shared interest in children, families, and cultures, gather to disseminate and discuss current information relevant to the field, share their thoughts and ideas, and support each other's research. I have found the CFC group to be a tremendous source of inspiration, and it has played an integral role in my growth as a researcher and student of psychology.”

"The faculty and staff in the clinical program at Catholic University are always willing to lend a helping hand. Students are given individual attention in a warm and friendly environment, and we are never left without guidance. There are lots of opportunities to expand on our own research interests, and particularly in the CFC, I like that the faculty and students are able to work hand in hand to develop and discuss our future research ideas. It’s great. We work as part of a team and there is no trace of competition among students."

"The CFC program is terrific. Its strengths include comprehensive coursework related to the research, treatment, and assessment of children and families, the availability and involvement of professors, and the seemingly unlimited training resources in the DC metro area. Furthermore, the small class sizes at Catholic are conducive to strong, supportive relationships among students."

"I really like the variety of courses offered at CUA and the way the General Masters program enables students to either take courses across a variety of content areas, or, once they have identified an area of interest, focus on that area. I think it is great to be able to work so closely with faculty and be involved in every aspect of their research, from instrument selection to IRB submissions, to data collection and analysis."

" I am very happy to be a part of CFC and be able to tailor my masters program to my interests in children and families. Also, the CFC meetings provide very interesting and informative discussions of issues specific to research in this area."