Melissa Tarasenko

Melissa Tarasenko, PhD

Melissa's research interests focus on individuals with serious mental illness (SMI).  More specifically, she is interested in investigating the neurocognitive and social cognitive influences on the social functioning of people with SMI.  She is also interested in exploring the broader environmental and programmatic factors that influence treatment response of individuals within this population.  Currently, Melissa is working as a psychology extern at the Community Mental Health Center (CMHC), where she sees clients for individual therapy and administers psychological evaluations.

Melissa graduated from North Dakota State University, with a major in Psychology and a minor in English. She has worked in several research labs during her undergraduate years. She completed an honors thesis assessing the efficiency of a Behavioral Skills Training approach to teaching abduction prevention skills to school aged children. She has also conducted ERP research to determine how proprioceptive cues interact with auditory attentional processes. Melissa has also worked as an RA in NDSU’s Cognitive Aging Lab, where she analyzed how selective attention processes differ between younger and older adults. Prior to coming to UNL, Melissa gained clinical experience at a residential treatment facility that provided intensive interventions to behaviorally challenging clients.

This year, Melissa placement is at the Community Transition Program at the Heather.

Email Melissa: mtarase1@huskers.unl.edu

Publications & Posters

Tarasenko, M., Reddy, F., & Spaulding, W. D. (2010, November). Different Neurocognitive Abilities Moderate the Relationship between Affect Perception and Community Functioning Among Subpopulations of People with Serious Mental Illness. Poster presented at the 44th Annual Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies. San Francisco, CA.

Tarasenko, M., Kleinlein, P., Choi, K., Davidson, C. A., Cook, E., & Spaulding, W. (2009, November). Emotion Perception and Social Functioning in Serious Mental Illness: Differential Relationships Among Inpatients and Outpatients. Poster presented at the 43rd Annual Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies. New York City, NY.

Cook, E. A., Johnson, R. W., Wynne, A., Tarasenko, M., & Spaulding, W. D. (2009, November). The Comprehensive Inventory of Mental Health and Recovery and Rehabilitation Services (CIMHRRS): A One Year Case Study. Poster presented at the 43rd Annual Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies. New York City, NY.

Johnson, R. W., Wynne, A., Tarasenko, M., Choi, K. H., & Spaulding, W. D., (2007, November). Examining inter-rater reliability for the Comprehensive Inventory of Mental Health and Recovery and Rehabilitation Services (CIMHRRS). Poster presented at the 41st ABCT Annual Convention, Philadelphia, PA.