
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.
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CURRENT GRADUATE STUDENTS:
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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
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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
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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
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GRADUATE STUDENTS ON INTERNSHIP:
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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
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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
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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
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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
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