Adam Schmidt, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

• Ph.D., Psychology, University of Minnesota
• B.A., Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin
• My background is in the area of pediatric neuropsychology and clinical psychology. I began my research examining the long-term impact of lead toxicity and then iron deficiency on brain development using animal models. This work gave me a profound appreciation for translational science and emphasized the need to integrate animal studies into one's thinking about human conditions. My postdoctoral research examined the impact of traumatic brain injury (TBI) on social cognition and how these outcomes were influenced by a child's family environment. This work emphasized to me the importance of context in shaping outcomes following an insult to the developing brain and provided a natural bridge to my work as an independent investigator.

CURRENT GRADUATE STUDENTS:

Alexandra Bammel 

• B.S., Psychology, University of Wyoming
• M.A., Psychology, Texas Tech University 
• Bio: Alexandra Bammel earned her B.S. degree in psychology from the University of Wyoming, along with minors in Spanish, statistics, and the Honors program. She earned her M.A. degree in psychology from Texas Tech University. She has experience working in a residential treatment setting for women with substance use disorders and their children. She currently serves as a youth member on Wyoming's State Advisory Council on Juvenile Justice, provides cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) at Texas Tech University's Psychology Clinic, and assists with ADHD and learning disability assessments as well as forensic competency to stand trial evaluations.
• Research Interest(s):Alexandra is broadly interested in research aimed at improving juvenile justice policy and bolstering outcomes for at-risk and justice-involved youth. She is particularly interested in the roles that neuropsychology, psychopathology, and trauma play in delinquency and has a special interest in outcomes of traumatic brain injury (TBI) related to impulsivity, health risk behaviors, and juvenile offending.
• Master's Thesis: The Impact of Adolescent Traumatic Brain Injury on Health Risk Behaviors
• Email: abammel@ttu.edu

Victoria Dennis 

• B.A., Psychology, Texas Tech University, Lubbock  
• M.A., Psychology, Texas Tech University, Lubbock
• Bio: Victoria Dennis earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with minors in both Forensic Science and Philosophy from Texas Tech University in 2020. While earning her B.A. she worked as a senior research assistant under both Dr. Robert Morgan in the Criminal Risk and Inmate Mental Health (CRIM) Lab and Dr. Adam Schmidt in the Pathways to Resilient Youth Development (PRYDe) Lab.  
• Research Interests: Currently, Victoria's research interests include examining how protective factors in combination with justice-involved youth's risk factors can be assessed and subsequently considered during intervention with the end goal of improving outcomes and decreasing recidivism among adolescents. She is also interested in examining criminogenic/antisocial thinking among youth and how these cognitive processes contribute to initial justice system-involvement.
• Senior Honors Thesis: Mental Health Treatment Effectiveness among Adolescent, First-Time Offenders: An Analysis of Mental Health and Risk Improvement
• Master's Thesis: Childhood Maltreatment and Psychopathology within Justice-Involved Youth: The Moderating Role of Executive Function 
• Email: victoria.e.dennis@ttu.edu 

McCown Leggett

• B.S., Psychology, Missouri Western State University
• M.A., Counseling Psychology, Texas Tech University
• Bio: McCown Leggett graduated from Missouri Western State University (MWSU) in 2018 with a B.S. in Psychology and a minor in Criminal Justice. While at MWSU, McCown became involved in the school's chapter of the Student American Correctional Association (SACA), which gave her the opportunity to tour various correctional facilities in the area. This experience, in addition to her collaboration with Dr. Jon Mandracchia on her senior honors thesis (Examining the Relationship Between Criminogenic Thinking, Differential Identification, Motivation, and Risk-Taking Behavior in Emerging Adults), solidified her interest in working with justice-involved persons with mental illness. Prior to joining the PRYDe lab, McCown was a member of the Criminal Risk and Inmate Mental health (CRIM) lab at Texas Tech University.   
• Research Interest(s): Treatment of justice-involved persons with mental illness; the relationship between criminogenic risk and mental illness; factors that influence recidivism
• Master's Thesis Equivalent: Examination of the Mental Illness-Criminalness Relationship
• Email: McCown.Leggett@ttu.edu

Tucker Short

• B.A., Psychology, Brigham Young University-Idaho, Rexburg, ID 
• Bio: Tucker Short earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with an emphasis in Health Psychology from Brigham Young University-Idaho in 2017. 
• Research Interests: Currently, Tucker's research interests include the effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) across many different domains. For example, his doctoral dissertation is examining how parental ACE exposure may confer intergenerational risk upon cognitive outcomes in their offspring. 
• Master's Thesis: Examining the Effects of Early-Life Threat and Deprivation on Working and Episodic Memory Performance in a Young Adult Population
• Qualifying Examination: Neurobiological Consequences of Adverse Childhood Experiences 
• Dissertation: Parenting Factors Influencing Child Language Outcomes: Implications for Risk and Protective Factors 
• Email: tucker.short@ttu.edu

Angelica Galdamez-Avila

• B.S., Psychological Science, University of Arizona, Tucson
• Bio: Angelica earned her Bachelor of Science in psychological science from The University of Arizona in 2021. During her time at UA, she worked as a research coordinator under Dr. Lee Ryan in the Cognition and Neuroimaging Lab where she investigated neurofilament light chain (NfL) - a blood-based biomarker related to cognitive impairment in multiple contexts. She served as the lead coordinator on a clinical drug trial that aimed to identify longitudinal NfL values and investigate whether the substance angiotensin (1-7) is safe and effective for improving cognitive impairment in heart failure patients. She also worked on studies investigating how respiratory symptoms after recovering from COVID-19 and circulating levels of NfL may impact cognitive performance. Her work at UA focused on identifying and exploring the factors that moderate healthy cognitive aging and highlighted the need for interventions earlier in life. This has fueled her desire to work with a younger population and enriched her passion for working with youth from marginalized communities.
• Research Interests: Angelica's current research interests center around assessing brain health in a developmental context. She is interested in examining how adverse childhood experiences impact brain development and brain health across the lifespan. She is also interested in examining what factors moderate the relationship between childhood adversity and its impact on mental health symptoms.
• Email: angaldam@ttu.edu

GRADUATE STUDENTS ON INTERNSHIP:

James Barnett

• B.A., Psychology, Humboldt State University (2014)
• B.A., Communication Studies, Humboldt State University (2014)
• M.A., Psychology, Humboldt State University (2017)
• Bio: James Barnett earned his Bachelors of Arts and Master of Arts from Humboldt State University. After graduating, James was a social worker for the California foster care system where he worked directly in bolstering the outcomes of rural at-risk children. James left social work for Texas Tech University to develop the skills necessary to work with children in a clinical context. During his doctoral training, James received clinical certifications in the provision of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), the Unified Protocol for Children and Adolescents (UP-C; UP-A), Group Triple P: Positive Parenting Program for Children and Adolescents. Additionally, he is in the process of completing his clinical certification for Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT). James aspires to work as a child clinical psychologist within an academic medical setting where his passion for clinical care and supervision coincides with clinical-based research.
• Research Interest(s): He is broadly interested in areas pertaining to outcomes of cumulative trauma across the lifespan, as well as specific and cumulative effects of childhood adversity across developmental and clinical outcomes. In his doctorate studies, James has focused on identifying transdiagnostic mechanisms that confer risk to diverse comorbid psychological outcomes following childhood adversity. James has also been actively involved in treatment-based research by providing therapy for youth participating in a study to examine the utility of a modular protocol to address distress and functional impairment following peer victimization experiences.
• Master's Thesis: Multiple Maltreatment and Adverse Childhood Experiences: Exploring Cumulative Threats to Attachment Quality
• Qualifying Examination: A Review of Transdiagnostic Theory and Mechanisms Underpinning Comorbidity of Mental Health Symptoms: Outcomes Following Adverse Childhood Experiences
• Dissertation: Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adult Psychopathology: An Examination of Transdiagnostic Mechanisms
• Email: James.E.Barnett@ttu.edu

Becca Bergquist

• B.A., Psychology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
• B.A., Criminal Justice, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
• M.A., Forensic Psychology, George Washington University
• Bio: Becca Bergquist graduated from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 2016 with a BA in Psychology and a BA in Criminal Justice. She then went onto receive her MA in Forensic Psychology from the George Washington University in 2018, where she further developed her research interests in the reliability and validity of juvenile risk assessments and the role of protective factors in the assessment and treatment of juvenile offenders. During that time, she worked as the lab manager for Dr. Jennifer Woolard's Georgetown Community Research Group, where she gained experience working with justice-involved youth and developed an increased interest in this population. This expanded into a desire to better understand the the importance of developmental assets that may help this population to desist from offending. The accumulation of these research interests led her to Texas Tech University, where she hopes to further explore and contribute to the literature examining the intersection of psychology and law.
• Research Interest(s): Risk assessments; risk and protective factors for juvenile offending; resiliency
• Master's Thesis: Adverse Childhood Experiences and Juvenile Justice Outcomes: The Moderating Role of Individual and External Protective Processes
• Qualifying Examination: Risk and Protective Factors Among Justice-Involved Youth
• Dissertation: Neuropsychological Profiles of Justice-Involved Youth: Implications for Risk and Protective Factors
• Internship: Utah State Hospital, Forensic Track
• Email: Becca.Bergquist@ttu.edu

Amber Morrow

• B.A., Psychology, University of Oklahoma
• M.A., Psychology, Texas Tech University
• Bio: Amber earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with a minor in General Business from the University of Oklahoma. Prior to her graduate training at Texas Tech, Amber worked under Dr. Jane Silovsky and Dr. Susan Schmidt at the Center on Child Abuse and Neglect and Child Studies Center at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Through her training at TTU, Amber has gained clinical and psychological assessment experiences at the TTU Psychology Clinic, TTU Health Sciences Center – Center for Superheroes, Burkhart Center for Autism Education and Research, Spendlove, Driskill, and Bates Psychology Private Practice, and TTUHSC's Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Clinic. Her clinical interests include implementing evidence-based treatments with a focus on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), particularly Trauma-Focused CBT (TF-CBT) and Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), through which she has become certified PCIT Therapist and Within-Agency Trainer (WAT). She also obtained certifications in the United Protocols for Children and Adolescents (UP-C, UP-A), in addition to co-leading Triple P Parenting groups. Amber served as the Project Manager on the PRYDe lab's CH Foundation grant funded study working with local Head Start centers and served as PRYDe lab manager. In service to the Department of Psychological Sciences, Amber served for two years as Clinical Graduate Student Council Co-President (a liaison between the clinical students and faculty) as well as secretary. Finally, Amber will be completing her training on internship at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) in Nashville, Tennessee on the Child & Adolescent track for the 2023-2024 school year.
• Research Interest(s):  Currently, Amber's research interests include examining executive functions and externalizing behavior problems in preschool-aged children, as well as parent discipline behaviors (i.e., spanking) and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). More specifically, she is interested in examining these variables in Head Start populations. Amber was awarded the Covenant Health and Social Services Graduate Fellowship from the Graduate School for each school year, from 2019-2024. She was also awarded a Dissertation Fellowship for the 2022-2023 school year from the TTU Graduate School for her dissertation project, in addition to obtaining funding for her dissertation project from the Graduate Student Research Support Program.
• Master's Thesis: Examining Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Spanking in Head Start Children
• Qualifying Examination: The Role of Executive Function in the Development of Externalizing Behavior Problems in Young Children
• Dissertation: Parental Adverse Childhood Experiences and Preschooler's Externalizing Behavior Problems: Identifying Risk and Protective Factors
• Email: amber.morrow@ttu.edu 

Kymmalett Ross 

• B.S., Psychological Science, Austin Peay State University 
• M.S., Experimental Psychology, University of Central Missouri 
• M.A., Counseling Psychology, Texas Tech University 
• Bio: Kymmalett Ross graduated from Austin Peay State University (APSU), in 2016 with a B.S. in psychology. Kymmalett's research as an undergraduate focused on lie detection. She then went on to receive her M.S., in Experimental Psychology at the University of Central Missouri (UCM) in 2018, where her research focused on women's body image, suicide prevention, and women sexual offenders. These experiences led her wanting to pursue a career in correctional and forensic psychology and she joined the Criminal Risk and Inmate (CRIM) lab at Texas Tech University under Dr. Robert Morgan. She recently joined the PRYDE lab in 2021 and looks forward to expanding her experience with justice involved juveniles. 
• Research Interest(s): Treatment of justice-involved persons with mental illness; the treatment and evaluation of sex offenders; forensic assessment including risk prediction and malingering
• Master's Thesis: The Effect of Body Competent Images on Womens Self-Reported Body Competence
• Email: kymmalett.ross@ttu.edu

Chelsy Simmons

• B.S., Psychology, University of Texas at Austin
• M.A., Psychology, Texas Tech University
• Bio: Chelsy Simmons earned her Bachelor of Science in Honors Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin. Chelsy worked in a psychiatric hospital in Austin before coming to Lubbock to pursue her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Texas Tech University. She is gaining neuropsychological assessment experience in a private practice clinic working with foster children and juveniles in the justice system. Additionally, Chelsy enjoys providing therapy to children, adults, and families at the Texas Tech Psychology Clinic and working in a multidisciplinary team at the Southwest Cancer Center.
• Research Interest(s): Influence of childhood adversity on executive functioning, psychopathology, and treatment-related variables (e.g., cognitive reappraisal/positive reframing) in children and adults. She is broadly interested in how adverse childhood experiences affect factors relevant to psychopathology and treatment. Through her research, Chelsy hopes to use assessment to gain insight into how childhood adversity affects emotional, cognitive, and behavioral development. Chelsy is excited to be on her clinical child psychology internship at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center from 2021 to 2022.
• Master's Thesis: Executive Function, Intent to Exercise, and Consideration of Future Consequences: A Mediation Model
• Dissertation: Examining Positive Reframing, Executive Function, and Adverse Childhood Experiences in relation to Internalizing Symptoms

Alexandra “Allie” Gibson

• B.A., Psychology, West Virginia University
• M.A., Psychology, Texas Tech University
• Bio: Allie earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with a minor in French from West Virginia University (WVU) in 2012. At WVU, Allie was a research assistant under Dr. Cheryl McNeil and Dr. Claire St. Peter, where she assisted with research on Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) and applied behavior analysis in educational settings, respectively. Allie earned her Master of Arts in Psychology from Texas Tech University. Her thesis examined a 1-hour online training focused on commonly used behavioral principles used for child behavior management. In 2018, Allie joined the PRYDe lab and served as a Project Manager for the first phase of the lab's CH Foundation Head Start grant. This project investigated the impact of a classroom behavior management program, the Good Behavior Game, on the externalizing and prosocial behaviors of six Head Start children.
• Research Interest(s): Investigating prevention-interventions for preschoolers with disruptive behaviors and the use of functional behavior assessment to inform behavioral interventions.
• Dissertation (Defended in October 2019): Examining a Positive Variation of the Good Behavior Game in Head Start Children
• Predoctoral internship: Clinical Child Intern at Children's Mercy Kansas City. During this internship she has completed rotations in ADHD and Behavioral Pediatrics, Feeding and Elimination Disorders, and Special Needs populations, including ASD and Down syndrome.
• Post-doc Information: After internship, Allie will begin her postdoctoral training as the Clinical Child Fellow at Children's Mercy Kansas City starting in August of 2020. She will continue to receive specialty training in the assessment and treatment of disruptive behaviors, ADHD, and ASD, in addition to working in a primary care setting focusing on behavioral pediatrics.

Jenny Chong Hutchinson

• B.B.A., Marketing, University of Texas at Austin 
• M.A., Psychology, Texas Tech University
• Bio: Jenny Chong Hutchinson earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing with minors in Management and Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin. After graduating, Jenny worked as a research laboratory coordinator in the Parenting Research Laboratory at Southern Methodist University. Through her doctoral education and training, Jenny developed a broad interest in studying the impact of trauma exposure, neuropsychological functions, and family factors on mental health outcomes in children and adolescents. Jenny recently received a Graduate Student Research Support Award through Texas Tech University to pursue her dissertation project focused on parental alcohol use problems, positive parenting behaviors, and internalizing symptoms during adolescence. Jenny will soon be a certified PCIT therapist (after completion of her internship in June) and will be eligible for TF-CBT therapist certification once she is a licensed psychologist. Jenny looks forward to becoming a certified PCIT trainer. 
• Research Interest(s): Impacts of trauma exposure, neuropsychological functions, & family factors on mental health outcomes in children and adolescents
• Thesis: Girls' Rumination and Maternal Rejection: Independent, Combined, and Specific Relations to Girls' Depression versus Anxiety 
• Dissertation: Prospective-Longitudinal Associations of Parental Alcohol Use Problems and Parental Warmth with Anxiety and Depression from Early to Late Adolescence
• Predoctoral Internship: Jenny has been completing her internship at the UC Davis Children's Hospital - CAARE (Child and Adolescent Abuse Resource and Evaluation) Center. Her primary responsibilities include implementing PCIT, PC-CARE, and TF-CBT with child and adolescent victims of trauma and their families, conducting child welfare and psychological testing evaluations, and providing training and supervision to junior trainees as well as other professionals in the community.
• Post-doc Information: Jenny will be continuing her postdoctoral fellowship at the UC Davis Children's Hospital - CAARE Center during the 2020-2021 academic year.

LeRoi Hill

• B.A., Psychology, University of California, Berkeley
• M.A., Psychology, Texas Tech University
• Bio: LeRoi Hill earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley. Before relocating to Texas Tech University to pursue graduate training, LeRoi worked with adolescents at-risk for housing instability, substance abuse, and juvenile justice involvement. His research interests are anchored in developmental psychopathology as influenced by acute and chronic traumatic childhood experiences. Additionally, he is interested in the development and delivery of evidence-based, trauma-focused treatments for children and adolescents. His dissertation examines the influence that a history of trauma and time served in detention has on recidivism for justice-involved youth with a history of child welfare involvement. In service to the Department of Psychological Sciences, LeRoi served as the student/faculty liaison for the TTU chapter of the national psychology honor society, Psi Chi, and as the Clinical Psychology Program's representative on the department's Diversity Committee. LeRoi is also the 2018-2019 Major General Vincent Luchsinger Scholarship recipient.
• Research Interest(s): Racial microaggressions and psychological distress; relationships between childhood trauma, adversity, maltreatment, and development of psychopathology in the justice-involved juvenile population; resilience to and treatment for childhood adversity
• Dissertation: The Effects of Child Protective Services Involvement, Childhood Trauma, and Time in Detention on Crossover Youth Recidivism 
• Predoctoral Internship: LeRoi has been completing his internship at Monterey County Children's Behavioral Health, in Salinas, CA. He has administered child and family mental health assessments as well as provided therapy services to transitional aged youth with serious mental illness.
• Post-doc Information: After internship, LeRoi hopes to transition to training in the assessment and treatment of juveniles or recieve training within the criminal justice system. 

Kelsey Maloney

• B.S., Psychology, Mississippi State University (2014)
• M.A., Clinical Psychology, Sam Houston State University (2016)
• Bio: Kelsey Maloney is a senior graduate student and one of the lab managers in the PRYDe lab. In service to the Department of Psychological Sciences, Kelsey has served as the Clinical Council co-president (2017-2019), and in service to the greater community, she served as student representative for the South Plains Association of Psychologists (2018-2019). She has gained clinical experience from the SHSU and TTU psychology clinics, TTU Institute for Forensic Science forensic assessment practicum, Lubbock-Crosby County Community Supervision and Corrections Department, TTU Health Sciences Center - Center for Superheroes, and University Medical Center Department of Pediatrics, as well as various assessments for juvenile justice and community neuropsychology populations.
• Research Interest(s): Kelsey's research interests are rooted in the intersection of forensic psychology and neuropsychology, especially neuropsychological assessment in juvenile forensic populations. Other research interests include developmental trajectories of mental health outcomes (especially trauma and disruptive behavior disorders) in juvenile-justice populations, traumatic brain injury, vicarious trauma to forensic mental health providers and assessors,  the relationship between executive functioning deficits and forensic questions (e.g., adjudicative competency/developmental incompetency, risk assessment, juvenile waiver to criminal court), public policy and dissemination of evidence-based treatments in juvenile justice settings, and the development of normative data for neuropsychological assessment in juvenile-justice populations. Along with Dr. Schmidt, she currently serves as Co-Principal Investigator on a REID Grant from the American Psychology-Law Society entitled “Exploring Epigenetic Influences of Aggression, Risk, and Resilience in Justice-Involved Youth.”
• Master's Thesis: Disruptive Behavior Disorders, Traumatic Brain Injury, and the Effect on Executive Functioning Abilities
• Qualifying Examination: Neurocognitive Factors and the Trajectory of Justice-Involved Youth
• Dissertation: Neuropsychological Assessment and Comorbidities within Justice-Involved Youth
• Kelsey is completing her APA-approved internship at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center (UTHSC) Professional Psychology Internship Consortium in 2020-2021.
• Kelsey has accepted a position as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Child Welfare and Trauma-Informed Care at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) Center of Excellence for Children in State Custody.      

Alli Morton

• B.A., Psychology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• M.A., Psychology, Texas Tech University
• Bio: Alli Morton earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2014. Prior to pursuing her graduate training at Texas Tech, Alli worked at an emergency shelter for youth involved with child protective services or the juvenile justice system and volunteered as a research assistant in Dr. Hansen's Project Sexual Abuse and Family Education lab. Alli currently serves as the president of the student special interest group for the Association for Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies (ABCT). She has gained clinical experience through the Texas Tech Psychology Clinic, StarCare, Lubbock County Juvenile Justice Center, and the Center for Superheroes. Alli was recently awarded the Helen DeVitt Jones Graduate Fellowship through Texas Tech University.
• Research Interest(s): Throughout her doctoral training, Alli's research and clinical interests have begun to center around evidenced-based, trauma-informed assessments and therapeutic interventions for youth in foster care or the juvenile justice system. More specifically, she is interested in the relation between trauma exposure, externalizing behavior problems, and juvenile justice involvement as well as mechanisms of change. She aspires to utilize methods to identify and critically evaluate evidence-based practices.
• Professional Goals: Alli's professional goals center around children and adolescents and obtaining additional training to become proficient in the implementation of evidence-based practices, with specialized training in treating individuals who have experienced trauma or are involved in the justice system. Further, she aspires to pursue a career that allows her to provide evidence-based clinical services to underserved populations, conduct clinical research, inform public policy, and help as many children and families as possible.
• Masters Thesis: The Relation Between Parental Psychological Control and Youth Internalizing Symptoms Moderated by Parenting Constructs
• Dissertation: An Examination of Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Externalizing Behavior Problems in Adolescents
• Alli will be completing her APA approved pre-doctoral internship at University of Arkansas Medical Sciences in 2020-2021.