Below are a number of faculty within the department who have interests in diversity issues within their scholarship and research. Please click on the links to their labs for more information.
Arthur "Trey" Andrews III, Ph.D.
Dr. Andrews directs the Latino Mental Health and Treatment Outcomes (LMHT) Lab. His research focuses on understanding mental health disparities among Latino populations, particularly immigrant and Spanish-speaking populations. He is particularly interested in understanding what contributes to lower utilization of numerous healthcare services and worse mental health treatment outcomes. As examples, his studies have examined the roles of poverty, discrimination, trauma exposure, and linguistic status as some potential variables that may explain these disparities. By identifying these mechanisms, Dr. Andrews then evaluates strategies for reducing disparities, such as interprofessional service delivery and technological adjuncts to care.
Latino Mental Health and Treatment Outcomes Lab
Eve Brank, J.D., Ph.D.
Some of Dr. Brank’s research focuses generally on older adults within the law. In particular, she and her graduate students have examined older eye witnesses and the legal requirements of elder caregiving, especially informal and family caregiving.
Lisa Crockett, Ph.D.
Lisa Crockett's research interests focus on adolescent development. She conducts research in two primary areas: adolescent risk behavior, with an emphasis on sexuality; and ethnic differences in parenting and adolescent adjustment.
David DiLillo, Ph.D.
Women are disproportionately affected by interpersonal violence (e.g., sexual assault and intimate partner violence) and experience greater vulnerability to negative outcomes such as PTSD. With this in mind, the mission of the trauma, violence, and abuse (TVA) lab is to conduct high quality research on trauma and violence against women that ultimately can be used to inform prevention, intervention, and treatment efforts. Recent projects have focused on testing effect of bystander behaviors on reducing sexual aggression, using virtual reality to assess sexual assault risk behaviors, and examining post-trauma resiliency factors among women who have experienced sexual assault.
Trauma, Violence, and Abuse Lab
Sarah Gervais, Ph.D.
Dr. Gervais has a dual PhD in Psychology and Women's Studies and examines how gender powerfully shapes how we see and interact with others. Her research examines the causes and consequences of seeing and treating people's bodies as objects and explores the legal and health consequences of objectification and related dehumanization.
Kathryn Holland, Ph.D.
My research focuses on gender and sexuality. For instance, I study sexual violence, harassment, and discrimination, and how these experiences affect women and LGBTQ people. I also study social norms, roles, and stereotypes associated with gender and sexuality, and ways in which these expectations affect people’s health and wellbeing.
Sexual Assault and Sexual Health Lab
Debra Hope, Ph.D.
Dr. Hope is the director of the Rainbow Clinic, a specialty service within the Psychological Consultation Center. Dr. Hope's research on stigma and discrimination is primarily focusing on the work through Trans Collaborations, our joint community-based collaborative with the transgender and gender non-conforming communities, Richard Mocarski at the University of Nebraska-Kearney and our collaborators at University of South Dakota and University of Alabama.
Hope Lab and the Rainbow Clinic
Timothy Nelson, Ph.D.
Dr. Nelson studies pediatric health with an emphasis on disparities in the development of critical health behaviors, cognitive abilities and psychopathology. He is interested in how sociodemographic and cultural context contributes to disparities and in developing innovative approaches to reducing disparities, particularly among children from low-income families.
Richard Wiener, Ph.D., M.L.S.
Dr. Wiener conducts research in multiple areas of legal discrimination including sexual harassment, age discrimination and discrimination against ex-offenders. His work examines the roles of emotion and motivation in legal decision making and the bias that can sometimes result. Wiener’s discrimination research appears in major peer reviewed journals and has received funding from both the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Justice.
Cynthia Willis-Esqueda, Ph.D.
Dr. Esqueda's research interests are focused on the motivations for and cognitive processes about "race" and ethnic bias, particularly against America's indigenous populations (Mexican Americans and American Indians). Dr. Esqueda and her students maintain an interest in the manifestations of bias at the individual (internalized stigma, self-conceptions, self-esteem), cultural (images, stereotypes, cultural traditions), and structural (law, education, political) levels. The research focuses on race and ethnic bias and the impact for legal process, legal outcomes, and health and well-being.
Race and Ethnic Psychology Lab