PSYCHOLOGY INTERNSHIP PROGRAM
WESTERN PSYCHIATRIC INSTITUTE AND CLINIC
UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
2009-2010 INTERNS
Leslie H.
Brown, M.A., is a Ph.D. candidate in clinical psychology at the University of
North Carolina at Greensboro. Her primary research interest is examining risk
markers and symptom structure of schizotypy and the schizophrenia spectrum
disorders, particularly social characteristics. Relevant approaches include
improvement of psychometric and high-risk identification of those prone to
developing schizophrenia spectrum disorders. She is also interested in the uses
of the experience sampling methodology (ESM) to evaluate social cognition,
social behaviors, and affective responding in psychiatric samples, and in
developing novel applications of ESM, such as ambulatory intervention modules
for treatment purposes.
Email:
brownlh@upmc.edu
Jay Fournier, M.A., is a Ph.D. candidate in Clinical Psychology
at the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on examining the
efficacy of treatments for adult mood disorders. Jay is primarily interested in
identifying patient characteristics that could be used to guide treatment
recommendations. In addition, his research examines the mechanisms through which
different treatment modalities exert their therapeutic effects. He has also
developed a secondary line of research examining the statistical approaches
available to applied clinical researchers as they attempt to model longitudinal
psychiatric data. His past clinical experiences have focused on cognitive
behavioral treatments of adult mood and anxiety disorders, with an emphasis on
utilizing empirically supported treatments in settings that cater to patients
with complex case presentations and diagnostic comorbidities.
Email:
fournierjc@upmc.edu
Judith
Morgan, M.A., is a Ph.D. candidate in the Clinical Science program at the
University of Delaware. She studies behavioral and psychophysiological
indicators of children’s emotion regulation abilities and how they predict the
development of internalizing behaviors. She is also interested in how emotion
schemas, pairing emotion feelings with specific thoughts, images, and memories,
relate to children’s ability to regulate their emotions and use their emotions
adaptively. Her previous clinical experiences include emotion based
interventions for preschool children, family therapy for children with emotional
and behavioral disorders, and neuropsychological assessment of children with
Autism.
Email:
morganjk@upmc.edu
Sarah
Pedersen, M.A., is a Ph.D. candidate in Clinical Psychology at the University of
Missouri. Her research focuses on etiologic factors for alcohol-related
behaviors in adolescents and young adults. More specifically, she is interested
in individual factors, such as, race, personality traits and cognitions, as they
relate to alcohol use and alcohol-related problems. Recent work has examined
response to alcohol as a marker of alcohol-risk in African Americans and she has
started integrating multiple risk factors into a cross-cultural model of African
American alcohol use. Her clinical interests include motivational interviewing
and cognitive-behavioral treatments for substance use disorders.
Email:
pedersensl@upmc.edu
Patricia
Z. Tan, M.A.., is a Ph.D. candidate in child clinical psychology from The
Pennsylvania State University. Her research is focused on delineating the
clinically-relevant aspects of emotion regulation, especially flexible emotion
regulation. Other interests include understanding the connections among stress,
neurodevelopment, and effective self-regulation and developing interventions
that promote socio-emotional competence by improving attention control among
hard-to-manage young children.
Email:
tanpz@upmc.edu
Sarah
Tarbox, M.S., is a Ph.D. candidate in clinical psychology at the University of
Pittsburgh. Sarah’s primary area of research is in schizophrenia and behavior
genetics. Her specific research interests include the identification of social
and cognitive indexes of liability to schizophrenia that can be utilized to
improve early identification of adolescents and young adults at risk for
psychosis and to develop and implement psychosocial treatments for these
high-risk individuals. Additional clinical interests include neuropsychological
assessment and social-cognitive skills training and rehabilitation.
Email:
tarboxsi@upmc.edu
