Ph.D in Applied Developmental Psychology from the University of New Orleans (2007)

My research interests are aimed at investigating why anxiety aggregates in families and elucidating the association between parent and child anxiety by studying the familial, social, and interpersonal risk factors associated with the development of anxiety in children and adolescents. Specifically, I’m interested in how parental anxiety, parental adult attachment beliefs to their partner, youth attachment beliefs (i.e., insecurity) to their parents, and parenting behaviors (i.e., rejection, criticism, control) relate to the development of anxiety in youth and help to explain the association between parental and child anxiety. Moreover, I’m interested in how these processes affect the treatment of child and adolescent anxiety disorders.

Upon completing my doctoral studies, I spent 3 years at Virginia Tech working with Dr. Thomas Ollendick.