Meet some current Educational Psychology students
Psychological Foundations QME School Psychology Special Education
CSPP
Aimee Arikian
ariki002@umn.edu
Aimee received a liberal arts
B.A. with a major in Psychology and minor in Spanish from Hamilton College.
She moved to Minnesota and committed to work in the field of eating
disorders research and therapy. She completed her M.A. in CSPP and is
progressing through the Ph.D. program while holding a research assistantship
in Psychiatry. She also fulfilled a Prevention Science Minor at the
UMN. Her research interests are in the promotion of healthy body image
in pre-adolescent children and Latino populations. Aimee’s counseling
psychology internship is at The Emily Program, a specialized outpatient
eating disorders clinic.
Ryoka (Yang-Hyang) Kim
kimx2115@umn.edu
Ryoka received her B.A. in Health
Sciences from Waseda University in Tokyo, and her M.S. in
Mental Health Counseling from Western Washington University.
Her clinical experience has been mainly with an adult
population at community settings, and she is excited to
start working with college students for her advanced
practicum this fall. Her research interests include burnout
prevention, counselor development, and health disparities.
Adam Sumner
sumn025@umn.edu
Adam received a B.A. in history from
the University of Arizona and an M.S. in counseling from South Dakota
State University. Prior to coming to the University of Minnesota, he
worked as a social services case manager and a community-based mental
health counselor for children and families. His research interests include
developing culturally relevant approaches to mental health service and
exploring social justice advocacy among counselors, psychologists, and
other helping professionals. Currently Adam teaches for Student Academic
Success Services at the University of Minnesota and he will be working
as an advanced practicum counselor at Hamline University.
Psychological Foundations
Virginia Clinton
clintove@umn.edu
Virginia researches the cognitive processing
of texts: specifically, the effects of inconsistent texts on comprehension
and individual differences in inference generation. To address
her research questions, she uses various methodologies such as reading
times, eyetracking, verbal protocols, and neuroimaging.
Her dissertation will examine the influence on interest on learning
from texts. Prior to entering her Ph.D. program, Virginia worked
as a practitioner in the education field and received an M.A. in Teaching
English to Speakers of Other Languages from New York University and
taught in New York City, South Korea, and Italy.
Chase Fehr
fehrx017@umn.edu
Chase has a diverse educational background.
He received a B.S. in Zoology from Miami University and conducted cancer
research at the University of Arizona, earning a M.S. in Molecular and
Cellular Biology. He shifted his efforts towards education and received
a M.A. in Educational Psychology with a Physical Education emphasis
from the University of Arizona. His current research with his advisor
Mark Davison is centered on early literacy in at-risk groups, with a
focus on the importance of vocabulary knowledge for reading comprehension.
Maria Pabon
pabo0002@umn.edu
María C. Pabón obtained her Ph.D. in 2010 in Educational
Psychology-Psychological Foundations. She has a B.A. in
Psychology from the University of Puerto Rico. María
currently work as a product and program developer at a
non-profit Latina organization. Her research interests are
varied with a main focus on Latino communities. She has done
research on the areas of ethnic identity development, eating
disorders, learning disabilities, domestic violence, and
participatory action research.
Quantitative Methods of Education
Audbjorg Bjornsdottir
bjrns001@umn.edu
Auja has a diverse educational background
starting with a B.A. in Anthropology with a minor in Biology, a M.A.
in Sociology and a post graduate teaching licensure diploma all from
the University of Iceland. She recently received her M.A. in Educational
Psychology with emphasis in Statistics Education from the University
of Minnesota. Before coming to the US to work on her Ph.D, she
worked along with her studies doing sociological research, especially
in the field of criminology in Iceland. There she worked both for the
University of Iceland and the National Commissioner of the Icelandic
Police. Her research interests are in teaching statistics and using
cooperative learning and assessment in statistics courses taught online
and in-class. In 2009-10, Auja taught EPSY 3264, Basic and Applied Statistics,
both the online and in-class sections.
Danielle Dupuis
dupui004@umn.edu
Danielle Dupuis is a doctoral student with
an emphasis in measurement. Her research interests include
classroom assessment and grading practices, survey design
and analysis, polytomous item response theory, and
hierarchical linear modeling. Her substantive research
interests involve mathematics education, specifically
curricular effectiveness and post-secondary performance.
Danielle received her Master’s degree in 2008 from
Educational Psychology (Psychological Foundations). Her
thesis focused on the role of social awareness in aggressive
behavior in preschool children. She received her Bachelor’s
degree in 2005 from the University of Vermont with a major
in Psychology and a minor in Communication Sciences. As a
graduate student Danielle has taught courses in introductory
statistics (EPSY 3264 & 5261), survey analysis, and survey
design. Danielle has also spent the last three years as a
research assistant on the Minnesota Mathematics Achievement
Project, investigating the role of high school mathematics
curricula on college mathematics performance. In addition to
teaching and research, Danielle spent two years as chair of
the Graduate Student Advisory Committee and continues to
serve as Vice President and Grants Coordinator for Graduate
Students in Education and Human Development.
Julio Cabrera
cabre031@umn.edu
Julio Cabrera is a doctoral student
in the measurement track of the Quantitative Methods in Education program.
His research interests include classroom assessment, differential item
functioning, equating, linking, longitudinal data analysis, scale design,
survey data analysis, and survey design. His substantive research interests
include unconscious processes, group/ethnic differences, immigrant education/assimilation,
and CAT procedures in minority populations. Julio received his master’s
in 2007 with a concentration in general psychology. During his master’s
program, Julio realized the dearth of Latino students seeking advanced
degrees and began questioning the reasons as to why this was happening.
As a result, he’s been a member of the Minnesota Network of Latinos
in Higher Education (MNLHE) for two years, serving for one year as the
graduate student representative. Julio has also been involved in a Robert
Wood Johnson Foundation project regarding the prevention of partner
violence in immigrant communities and is developing a community capacity
scale to gauge the amount of community capacity that Latinos in the
east side of Saint Paul hold. Julio has also had the opportunity to
intern at both major testing companies, Pearson PLC and ETS, where he
has had the chance to gain practical experience, putting his book-based
knowledge into practice. In his free time, he thoroughly enjoys salsa
dancing and has been part of several salsa performing teams.
School Psychology
Damien Cormier
cormi013@umn.edu
Damien received his B.A. in Psychology from the University of
Manitoba. He recently completed a Certificate in Disability Policy
at the University of Minnesota, and continues to work toward his
Ph.D. in Educational Psychology in the School Psychology Program.
Damien has a great deal of interest working with adolescents
and individuals with high functioning Autism, which is
why he has focused on these populations during his practicum
experiences. Damien’s research interests are currently
centered on cultural and linguistic biases in cognitive assessment
and he works as a Research Assistant at the National Center on
Educational Outcomes (NCEO). During his time with NCEO, he has
contributed to a number of reports, peer-reviewed publications, and
conference presentations related to issues in large scale assessment
for students with disabilities, instructional and assessment
accommodations, and educational policy.
Jenny Hodgson
hodg0118@umn.edu
Jenny received her B.A. in Psychology from the University of
MN and is working toward her Ph.D. in Educational
Psychology, in the School Psychology Program. Prior to
graduate school, Jenny worked as a direct service
professional for adults and children with disabilities in
residential settings. Jenny is currently working as a
research assistant at the National Center on Educational
Outcomes (NCEO). At NCEO, she works on projects related to
the participation of students with disabilities in
large-scale assessments, including alternate assessments and
accommodations. Jenny is also interested in effective
assessment and intervention practices in the area of
reading, specifically reading comprehension.
Peter Nelson
nels6964@umn.edu
Peter received his B.A. in psychology from St. Olaf College and
M.Ed. from the University of Mississippi. As a Ph.D. student in the
School Psychology program, his current work includes a mathematics
intervention study under Dr. James Ysseldyke and Dr. Mathew Burns,
as well as a study under Dr. Gail Bernstein in Child Psychiatry
comparing the clinical characteristics of PANDAS and childhood OCD.
Prior to working on his Ph.D., he served as a high school Biology
teacher in the Mississippi Delta.
David Parker
parke384@umn.edu
David earned a B.A. in Psychology and Spanish, and after
undergrad he worked as a behavior therapist at an autism treatment
center. As a Ph.D. student in the School Psychology Program his
current interests focus on assessment and intervention for
struggling learners in reading and writing. He works with Dr. Matt
Burns as a Research Assistant at the Minnesota Center for Reading
Research and Dr. Jennifer McComas on a partnership program between
Minneapolis Public Schools and the University of Minnesota to
improve educational and cultural practices in a local school. He
also works with Dr. Kristen McMaster on research related to
effective writing assessment and instruction.
Shawna Petersen-Brown
pete6786@umn.edu
Shawna received her B.A. in Psychology (along with a B.S. in
Marketing) from the University of Pennsylvania in 2005, where she
focused on child development. After working as a marketing manager
for a few years, she came to the U to continue studying psychology.
Her current research interests include academic interventions for
high-risk populations, specifically literacy interventions.
Currently, she is a Research Assistant for the Urban Indian
Education Partnership (this partnership aims to improve outcomes for
Native American students).
Special Education
Breanne Byiers
byier100@umn.edu
Breanne is a graduate of the University of Manitoba undergraduate program in Psychology. Her research interests include language development and functional analysis of challenging behaviors. She is
currently working as a research assistant for a grant project assessing the effectiveness of several preschool curricula for young children with autism spectrum disorders
Chantel Burkitt
burki005@umn.edu
Chantel is a graduate of the Saint Mary’s University (Nova
Scotia) undergraduate program in psychology. She moved to
Minnesota in 2009 to start her Ph.D. in Special Education.
She is committed to research which explores and improves
outcomes for individuals with intellectual disabilities who
experience chronic pain. She is currently working as a
research assistant for a grant project at Gillette
Children’s Specialty Heathcare with children with cerebral
palsy. The study assesses the promise of biomarkers of pain
in saliva and cerebral spinal fluid and how those measures
correlate with behavioral measures of pain, such as parent
interview and physical examinations.
Mary Lindell
brod0188@umn.edu
Mary has spent more than 25 years focused on improving
outcomes for people with disabilities and their families in
inclusive settings. She has taught students in rural,
suburban and urban public school settings. She earned her
master’s degree at George Washington University and taught
general and special education preservice teachers at George
Washington University, Bethel University, and the University
of Minnesota. Currently, Mary contributes to a research
project exploring the effectiveness of schema-based
instruction on mathematical learning of middle-school
students (with and without disabilities) in inclusive
classrooms. She is also studying to identify practices that
meet the academic needs of students with and without
disabilities in general education classes while also
studying effective teacher education practices.
Tim Moore
moore6180@umn.edu
After earning his M.S. in Applied Behavior Analysis at Northeastern University in 2002, Tim completed his Ph.D. in Educational
Psychology at the University of Minnesota in 2010. His primary research interests are in behavior analysis and positive behavior
supports for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their caregivers, specifically capacity building
around children and adults with severe problem behavior and adherence to recommended treatments. Tim will begin a 12-month post-doctoral
fellowship in the U of M LEND program in the summer of 2010.
Fumio Someki
somek048@umn.edu
As a licensed Clinical and School Psychologist, Fumio worked with children with mild disabilities
for 8 years in Japan before she started a Ph.D. program in Special Education. She chose Special Education
program because she wishes to make a bridge between psychology and education to support children in the
most efficient way possible. After enrolling in the program, she also earned Special Education teaching
license in Minnesota, which provided her with significant insights about educational practice. Her primary
focus of research is children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), and her dissertation topic will
be characteristics of children with FASD in relation to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).