Kris Berlin: I have broad interests in the field of behavioral pediatrics and pediatric/health psychology. These interests include: interventions to improve regimen adherence, illness disclosure, coping/adjustment, measure development and the various sequelae of acute and long-term childhood illness. Current and previous research has focused on families and children with type 1 and 2 diabetes, neurofibromatosis-1, cystic fibrosis, and families of children with feeding disorders. Additional interests include utilizing Functional Analytic Psychotherapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy approaches to parents and individuals with medical conditions. Please see my home page for additional information.

Lisa Clifford: My primary areas of interest involve issues relating to special needs adoptions as well as factors of risk and resiliency that influence the process of child development. Currently I am involved in an investigation into the unique and specific challenges that families involved in special needs adoptions encounter. Specifically, we are working to identify the service needs of these families and to understand the barriers they confront when attempting to access these services.

Alexandra Dolhun: I am a Masters student specializing in Health Psychology and I am interested in researching post adoption resources in special needs adoptive families throughout Wisconsin. Currently, I am using quantitative instruments to assess reported parental social support and specific parenting stress around the functioning of high risk, special needs adopted children. By integrating the stress measures and qualitative interviews, I hope to highlight significant risks for parents adopting special needs children and reinforce the critical importance of adequate support services necessary for such families.

Kristen Jastrowski: My research interests focus on, most generally, the emotional and social development of children. Specifically, I am interested in peer relations, social information processing, and childhood social anxiety. I am currently investigating the behavioral, affective, and social-cognitive characteristics of adolescents exhibiting different types of socially withdrawn behavior. I am also interested in the variables that predict loneliness and social difficulties during early adolescence.

Michael McCart: I am a clinical psychology graduate student specializing in child development and statistical methodology. My main area of interest includes studying the psychological effects of community and family violence among youth. I am also involved in research related to child sexual abuse, juvenile sexual offending, and pediatric chronic illness. In addition to my research, I am involved in two violence intervention programs designed to curb the effects of violence among children. The first, entitled Project UJIMA, is a program providing Emergency Room based support and follow-up to victims of violent crime. This program is housed at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, located in Milwaukee. The second program is called Safe Start and is located in the Office of Violence Prevention in the Chicago Department of Public Health. Safe Start is a federally funded program designed to prevent and reduce the impact of exposure to violence among children ages 0-5.

Lori Phelps: I'm interested in how families cope with community violence. I've used a qualitative approach to assess difficulties experienced by the mothers of children who have been assaulted in Milwaukee's central-city, and I'm currently examining the ways in which mothers deal with those difficulties. Ultimately my research will lead to the development of an instrument that assesses coping effectiveness among low-income African-American mothers dealing with stressors associated with community violence.

Dan Sass: My primary areas of interests are peer relationship and family factors that influence children's psychological development. Variables of central interest are peer status, parent/child relationships, peer aggression, self-esteem, identity formation, and social adjustment in adverse conditions. I am also interested in research methodologies and statistical procedures that enhance our understanding of behavior. Visit my web page for more information.

Amy Sato: My clinical and research interests are in the field of pediatric, child health, psychology. In particular, I am interested in psychosocial issues related to children and adolescents’ experiences with chronic and recurrent pain. This includes pain-related quality of life and the relationship between pain experiences and the family environment. Currently, I am investigating the relationship between pediatric chronic pain and school attendance. My involvement in other past and current research projects includes areas such as celiac disease, type I diabetes, childhood feeding disorders, and school refusal.

Jennifer Specht: I am a clinical psychology student specializing in child development and counseling. My clinical interests involves working with children who have experienced trauma, including child abuse and neglect. The project that I am currently working on utilizes the Behavioral Analytic Model proposed by Goldfried and D'Zurilla (1969) to develop an assessment measure for children exposed to mass trauma. Specifically, I am looking at children’s reactions to the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001. Initially, I collected reactions of children as reported by their parents shortly after the attacks. I am currently utilizing these reactions and interviewing parents asking them how they would deal with their children if they experienced these reactions. In my clinical work, I have been involved in conducting interviews and assessments of adjudicated juvenile sexual offenders and their families, providing therapy and assessment services to children placed in foster care, and Project Ujima, a program that provides therapy and other services to adolescent victims of interpersonal injury and their families.

Kristina Vollmer: My clinical interests are in the area of studying and profiling serial offenders: serial killers, serial sex offenders, pedophiles, and stalkers. I am also interested in victimology, victim's rights, and trauma counseling. My personal interests include watching and playing sports (esp. the Vikings and Brewers), nature (fishing, camping, hiking, animal conservation), and movies (James Bond, Jackie Chan, Schwarzenegger, Monty Python, etc.). I am also a big fan of the 3 Stooges, Lucille Ball, and Elvis!