ANNOUNCEMENT
Due to the current situation, the Psychology Department will be open, but working on a virtual schedule. E-mail is the best form of initial communication at this time.
- If you are an undergraduate student seeking to contact the main office for advising, please email psycadmin@montclair.edu. We will be happy to help you from there.
- For inquiries pertaining to the clinical and school psychology graduate programs, please email gradclinical@montclair.edu.
- For inquiries pertaining to the I/O and Psychological Sciences graduate programs, please email psycgrad@montclair.edu.
- If you wish to contact a specific faculty member, please use the contact information on our faculty page.
Jump to: Staff, Full-Time Faculty
Department Chair
Yoav Arieh, Chair and Associate Professor, has a PhD in Cognitive Psychology from Bar Ilan University. His research interests include selective attention, sensory integration/multisensory processes and auditory perception. He teaches courses in experimental psychology and quantitative methods.
Staff
Julia Coyne, Director of the School Psychology Program, received a PhD in School Psychology from Loyola University Chicago. She holds New Jersey and national certification in school psychology. Her research interests include post-injury cognitive rehabilitation in learning, supporting learning in multi-tiered systems, crisis intervention and prevention, and international school psychology. She teaches the School Psychology Externship class and oversees psychoeducational assessment services and training at the
Psychological Services Clinic. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship in pediatric rehabilitation research at the Kessler Foundation in West Orange, N.J., where she conducted funded research.
Shawn Lockwood is a Program Coordinator in the Department of Psychology.
Melissa Velez is a Program Assistant for Undergraduate Advising in the Department of Psychology.
Jen Wilenta is a Coordinator for Graduate Student Advancement in the Department of Psychology.
Full-Time Faculty
Paul Amrhein, Professor, received a PhD from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. His research interests include language use in natural contexts (conversations, therapeutic interventions) and how bilingualism contrasts with monolingualism with regard to memory access and production of knowledge representations across the lifespan. He teaches courses in research methodology and statistics.
Meredyth Appelbaum, Assistant Professor, received a PhD in Cognitive Psychology from Stanford University. Her research examines the methods people use to coordinate in face-to-face conversation and how this coordination facilitates mutual understanding. She teaches courses including Introduction to Statistics, Psychology Research Methods, and Psycholinguistics (Psychology of Language).
Kevin Askew, Assistant Professor, received a PhD from the University of South Florida. His research interests include “cyberloafing” and personal computer use at work; and the intersection of psychology and technology. He teaches courses including Quantitative and Statistical Methods, Interventions for Successful Organizations, and Personnel Psychology.
Michael Bixter, Assistant Professor, received a PhD in Cognitive Psychology from Stony Brook University with a graduate certificate in Quantitative Methods. He then completed two postdoctoral research positions, the first at Georgia Tech and the second at Arizona State University. His research interests include decisions about delayed and risky rewards, how decisions are made in small-group situations, and how decision making and other cognitive processes develop across adulthood. He teaches courses in statistics at both the undergraduate and graduate level.
Jennifer Bragger, Professor, has a PhD in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Temple University. Her research interests include leadership development, the job interview, faith at work, work-family conflict, and stereotypes at work. She teaches courses including Leadership Theory and Development, Performance Management, Personnel Psychology, Organizational Psychology, and the cooperative learning course in Leadership Development.
Saundra Collins, Professor, received a PhD from the University of Maryland.
Samantha Coyle, Assistant Professor, received a PhD in School Psychology from Northern Illinois University. Her research interests involve investigating the positive and negative features of peer relationships, specifically social support and bullying victimization in relation to internalizing disorders in adolescent youth; she is also interested in research on assessment, prevention and intervention practices addressing social-emotional, behavioral and academic challenges of children and adolescents. She teaches courses in Cognitive Assessment and Adolescent Psychology.
Jason J. Dickinson is a Professor in the Department of Psychology and Director of the
Robert D. McCormick Center for Child Advocacy and Policy. He received a PhD in Legal Psychology from Florida International University. His research interests include children’s eyewitness testimony, forensic interviewing, and investigative decision-making. His research has been supported by several grants from the National Science Foundation and he regularly consults with the legal community to help translate research into public policy. He teaches courses on forensic psychology, forensic interviewing, statistics and human sexuality.
Anthony D’Urso, Associate Professor, received a PsyD from Rutgers University. His research interests include best practices in forensic psychology, child psychopathology, and victimization/PTSD in children. He teaches courses including Practicum in Assessment I. He co-founded Finding Words – New Jersey, the second certified forensic interviewing academy in the United States by the National Child Protection Training Center. For more than a decade, he served as chair of the Child Fatality and Near Fatality Review Board and as a member of the New Jersey Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect.
Jeremy Fox, Associate Professor, received a PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University at Albany, State University of New York. His research interests include the developmental psychopathology of anxiety and depression, temperament and emotion regulation, screening and early intervention of childhood anxiety, and school-based mental health and dissemination issues. He is a licensed clinical psychologist who teaches courses in abnormal psychology, clinical assessment, ethics, and evidence-based therapy. He is currently the Director of Clinical Training for the Psychology Department and the Director of the PhD Program in Clinical Psychology.
Milton A. Fuentes, Professor, received a PsyD in Clinical Psychology from the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers University. He completed a pre-doctoral fellowship in clinical and community psychology at Yale University and post-doctoral training in epidemiology at Columbia University. He is a founding member and former president of the Latino Psychological Association of New Jersey and the 2012 President of the National Latina/o Psychological Association. His research interests are in the areas of Latina/o and multicultural psychology, child/family psychology, pedagogy, and motivational interviewing. He serves as a consultant to several programs, including the Puerto Rican Family Institute and the Violence Prevention Office of the American Psychological Association, where he directs the ACT Mid-Atlantic Regional Center. He is licensed to practice psychology in New Jersey and New York. He teaches courses including Introduction to Psychology and Systems of Psychotherapy.
Sally Grapin, Assistant Professor, received a PhD from the University of Florida. Her research interests include assessment, prevention and intervention practices for students with reading and other learning disabilities. She teaches courses including Practicum in Assessment I, Practicum in Assessment II, Practicum in School Psychology, and Therapeutic Interventions in the Schools.
Dr. Erin Kang, Assistant Professor, received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Stony Brook University in 2020 with an advanced graduate certificate in Quantitative Methods. Her research focuses on integrating science and practice, via understanding processes that shape clinical presentations in youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), investigating neural mechanisms of clinical phenotypes and plasticity in ASD, and applying these insights to evidence-based interventions for social functioning. Her research incorporates contemporary analytic methodologies including advanced quantitative methods and neuroscience. She is teaching clinically related courses is the graduate and undergraduate programs.
Christopher King, Assistant Professor, received a JD and a PhD in Clinical Psychology from Drexel University. His research and clinical interests include general forensic mental health evaluation, assessment and treatment services for justice-involved individuals and persons with severe mental illness, and law and public policy concerning oft-institutionalized populations. He teaches courses in forensic psychology and developmental psychopathology for family-child forensic evaluations.
John Kulas, Professor, received his PhD from Northern Illinois University in Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Prior to, and continuing within his academic work, he has consulted with organizations on issues of culture as well as selection and measurement. His research interests include the application of interdisciplinary methodologies to organizational contexts, cognitive mechanisms involved with testing and assessment, and the descriptive modeling (and projection) of career trajectories. Dr. Kulas especially loves getting motivated undergraduate students involved in his research projects, so contact him
via e-mail or simply pop by his office if you’re interested in joining his team.
Laura Lakusta, Professor, received a PhD in Cognitive Developmental Psychology/Cognitive Science from Johns Hopkins University. Her research interests include cognitive and language development in infants and children, specifically on the development of spatial concepts and spatial language acquisition. She has published in several peer-reviewed journals including
Cognition, Language Learning and Development, and
Cognitive Science and is the recipient of research funding from the National Science Foundation. She teaches courses in developmental psychology, child psychology, and research statistics.
More information can be found on her website.
Sandra Lewis, Professor, received a PsyD from Rutgers University/GSAPP and is currently Director of the
African American Studies program at Montclair State. Her research interests include racial microaggressions and the role of culture in health, mental health, and well-being, particularly among black women. She teaches courses in introductory research and clinically-oriented courses. She has served on the New Jersey Amistad Commission since 2006.
Carrie Masia Warner, Professor, received a PhD in Clinical Psychology from West Virginia University. Her research interests focus on how to improve child and adolescent mental health services, specifically the implementation and evaluation of evidence-based interventions for anxiety and mood disorders in schools and pediatric medical settings. She teaches courses related to clinical externship, abnormal psychology and evidence-based interventions. Masia Warner has published extensively in top journals and has had great success securing external funding. Previously, she served on the faculties of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, NYU Langone Medical Center and the Department of Psychology at William Paterson University. She also completed a post-doctoral NIMH research fellowship at Columbia University.
Jennifer Pardo, Professor, received a PhD in Cognitive Psychology from Yale University. She is the director of the Speech Communication Laboratory. Her research centers on the production and perception of spoken language, with an emphasis on understanding variation and convergence in phonetic form. She teaches courses in cognition, perception, and psycholinguistics. Publications resulting from her research have appeared in Journal of Memory & Language, Frontiers in Psychology, and Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics.
Dr. Shannon O’Connor, Assistant Professor, received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Michigan State University in 2018, she then completed a post-doctoral fellowship on the NIMH-funded Midwest T32 for Eating Disorder Research at the University of Chicago from 2018 to 2020. Dr. O’Connor’s research interests center on how key environmental risk factors interact with genetic risk for eating pathology (e.g., binge eating, weight preoccupation, etc.). Her work primarily examined the interaction between genetic risk and peer and parent influence and the role of food insecurity as an environmental risk factor for eating disorders. She is teaching clinically related courses is the graduate and undergraduate programs.
Alan L. Pehrson, Assistant Professor, received a PhD in Biological Psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University and completed postdoctoral fellowships with the Center for Neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh and at Lundbeck. His research interests focus on understanding how glutamate neurotransmission is regulated by neuromodulatory systems, and how these mechanisms can be used to improve the cognitive impairments associated with psychiatric disease. He teaches courses in Experimental Psychology and Physiological Psychology. Pehrson has published over 40 peer-reviewed articles in a variety of respected neuroscience journals and was a key player in the development of the antidepressant vortioxetine (Trintellix).
Ruth Propper, Professor, received a PhD in Cognitive Neuropsychology from the University of Toledo. She is the director of the
Cerebral Lateralization Laboratory. Her research interests include the contributions of the cerebral hemispheres to mood, cognition and perception and the mechanisms by which hemispheric activity can be altered, thereby altering emotions, cognition and perception. She teaches courses focusing on neuroscience and research methodologies.
Deborah Fish Ragin, Professor, received a PhD in Psychology from Harvard University. Her research interests include health psychology with emphasis on health disparities and health policy, research methods, and data analysis. She is the author of Health Psychology: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Health, 3rd edition, by Taylor & Francis (2017). She teaches courses including Health Psychology, Introduction to Psychological Research, and Introduction to Psychology.
Jazmin Reyes-Portillo, Assistant Professor, received a PhD in Clinical Psychology from Rutgers University. Her research interests include: examining the use of digital health technology to reduce mental health disparities among racial/ethnic minority youth as well as examining ways to improve the implementation and dissemination of evidence-based practices in schools and community clinics. She teaches courses including Abnormal Psychology and Professional Issues in Multicultural Psychology. Reyes-Portillo has been successful in obtaining external funding and has published in journals such as Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Cognitive and Behavioral Practice.
Joshua Sandry, Assistant Professor, received a PhD from New Mexico State University. His research interests include understanding how attention and memory interact to create new long-term memory representations in both healthy and neurological populations. He teaches courses including Experimental Psychology, Introduction to Statistical Methods in Psychology, Perception, Physiological Psychology, Human Learning and Memory, and Cognition. Sandry’s lab is called the
Cognition and Neurocognitive Disorders Research Lab.
Ofelia Rodriguez-Srednicki, Associate Professor, received a PhD in Clinical Psychology from Seton Hall University. Her research interests include clinical psychology, multicultural psychology, Latino/a issues, issues of diversity, bereavement, addiction, trauma, sexual abuse, and women issues. She teaches courses including Clinical Psychology and the Psychology of Women. She is a licensed psychologist and a certified School Psychologist.
Valerie Sessa, Professor, received a PhD in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from New York University. Her research interests include leadership development in college students and continuous learning at the individual, group, and organizational levels. She teaches courses including Leadership Theory and Development, Groups in Organizations and Work Attitudes and Motivation. She is the author of three books: Executive selection: Strategies for success, Jossey Bass (with Jodi Taylor, 2000), Continuous learning in Organizations: Individual, group, and organizational perspectives, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. (with Manny London, 2005), Work group learning: Understanding, improving, and assessing how groups learn in organizations, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. (edited with Manny London, 2008), and has one book in progress: College Student Leadership Development: Learning from Experience, Taylor and Francis.
Daniel Simonet, Assistant Professor, received a PhD in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from the University of Tulsa. His research interests include dysfunctional leadership, negotiation, emotional intelligence, team dynamics, and advanced psychometrics. He teaches courses including Personnel Selection and Organizational Psychology. He is also the director of the
Leadership, Emotion, and Personality (LEAP) lab.
Kenneth Sumner received a PhD from Bowling Green State University and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Acting Associate Provost for Academic Affairs. His research interests include leadership, attitudes, and psychometrics. He supervises the Industrial and Organizational internships.
Peter Vietze, Professor, received his PhD from Wayne State University. He teaches classes in developmental psychology, developmental disabilities, and research methods. His research program focuses on autism spectrum disorder and other developmental disorders, as well as parent-infant relationships. He has published his research widely in scientific journals, including Child Development, Developmental Psychology, and Pediatrics.
John Paul Wilson, Assistant Professor, received a PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Toronto. His research is broadly focused on the interplay of perceiver and target identities in social perception. It also focuses on first impressions, face memory, and social judgments. He teaches courses in social psychology.
Yingying (Jennifer) Yang, Assistant Professor, received a PhD in developmental/cognitive psychology from the University of Alabama. Her research interests include a variety of cognitive development phenomena (such as attention, learning, memory, and problem solving with a focus in spatial processes) in typical and atypical development (such as people with intellectual or developmental disabilities). She teaches courses in statistics, research methods and developmental psychology. Yang has also been successful in attracting external funding and has published in journals such as Journal of Experimental Child Psychology and Research in Developmental Disabilities.
Tina Zottoli, Assistant Professor, received a PhD from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY Graduate Center. Her primary research interests lie in adolescent decision making and legal competencies. She teaches courses including Forensic Psychology, Forensic Assessment and Developmental Psychopathology. She has co-authored several publications, including “The feedback related negativity (FRN) in adolescents,” Psychophysiology (with J. Grose-Fifer) and “A first look at the plea deal experiences of juveniles charged in adult court,” International Journal of Forensic Mental Health (with T. Daftary-Kapur).
