2007-2008 Faculty Advisor Research Grant Winners' Biographies
Read abstracts of these award winning papers here.
Leslie Cameron, PhD is currently an associate professor at Carthage College. She received MA and PhD degrees in psychology (Center for Visual Science) from the University of Rochester (NY). Prior to her Carthage appointment, she was a research associate and adjunct professor at New York University. She was awarded a National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Research Service Award postdoctoral fellowship at NYU.
Dr. Cameron studies the effects of attention on early visual processing and inhomogeneities in processing information across the visual field. More recently, she has begun a research program investigating the effects of pregnancy on the sense of smell. She has a paper forthcoming in the journal Chemical Senses entitled “Measures of Human Olfactory Perception During Pregnancy”. A Faculty Advisor Research Grant allowed her to continue this line of research, and she will be completing a sabbatical leave at the University of Pennsylvania’s Smell and Taste Center this fall.
Lorinda B. Camparo, PhD, received her PhD in developmental psychology from UCLA and is an associate professor in the Psychology Department at Whittier College. Her research focuses on two areas: the efficacy and developmental appropriateness of various techniques for interviewing children about forensically relevant information and the development of prejudice and stereotypes. Dr. Camparo has published in a wide range of journals and has presented research nationally and internationally.
Dr. Camparo is a member of the executive committee for APA’s Division 37, Society for Child and Family Policy and Practice. She has served Division 37 as program chair and editor of its newsletter, The Advocate (three 3-year appointments). Dr. Camparo also provides seminars on child development and interviewing children for lawyers, judges, police officers, and social workers, and has served as an expert witness on cases involving children alleging sexual abuse.
Jennifer L. Lucas Hughes, PhD, is an associate professor of psychology at Agnes Scott College. She received her PhD in industrial/ organizational psychology from Kansas State University and joined Agnes Scott College in 1998. Her primary research area involves investigating the psychological and physical impact of commuting to and from work. Her recent research assessed commute stress by measuring commuters’ salivary cortisol levels before and after they commuted. Some of her other current projects include examining gender differences of commuters, examining the personality of commuters as predictors of commute stress, and looking at how work conditions and job involvement affect perceptions of the commute. Dr. Hughes is the faculty advisor for Agnes Scott’s Psi Chi chapter and enjoys conducting research with her students. She encourages her students to present their research at the SEPA conventions and in the Psi Chi Undergraduate Journal of Research.
Debra B. Hull, PhD, is a professor of psychology and chair at Wheeling Jesuit University, where she has been for the past 26 years. She holds a BA from Alma College (MI), and a MA and PhD in clinical psychology from Kent State University (OH). She completed internships at Akron Child Guidance Center and Brecksville Veterans Administration Hospital.
At Wheeling Jesuit, she teaches courses in experimental design , senior seminar, abnormal, sexuality, organizational behavior, and child psychopathology, and coordinates internships for students. She especially enjoys creating class demonstrations and assignments that foster experiential learning. Her research interests center around assessing teaching methods and characteristics of good teachers, and measuring the development of empirical skills in students.
She has been faculty advisor for the local chapter of Psi Chi, founded in 1968, for six years. Recently she piloted a program pairing Psi Chi member mentors with first year students, the goal being to assist new students in their transition to college and to the major. Members of Psi Chi have also developed a special relationship with a new school for children with autism that uses ABA methods. In her free time, Dr. Hull is an EMT with the local volunteer fire department. She tries to use as a personal guide the mission of Wheeling Jesuit University —leadership, life-long learning, and service among others.
Lori E. James, PhD, earned her PhD in cognitive psychology from the Claremont Graduate School in Claremont, CA, and then held a postdoctoral position at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is currently an assistant professor in the Psychology Department at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. Her primary research interests include memory, language, and age-related changes in these abilities. Dr. James' current projects include many experiments testing young and older adults’ learning and memory for proper names, comparisons of communication abilities in young and older adulthood, and an exploration of the ability to detect and describe errors across the lifespan. Dr. James teaches undergraduate courses in cognitive psychology and research methodology, and graduate courses in cognitive psychology and aging. She has served as her department’s Psi Chi chapter faculty coadvisor for 5 years.
Kathryn A. Morris, PhD, is an associate professor of psychology at Butler University, where she has been teaching courses in social psychology, psychology of gender, prejudice and stereotyping, research methodology, and general psychology since 1996. She earned her BA in psychology at Gettysburg College and her MA and PhD in social psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Morris organized the effort to bring a Psi Chi chapter to Butler University in 1997 and has served as the faculty adviser for the past 10 years. Her research interests focus on intergroup bias. She is specifically interested in disparagement humor and gender issues in the workplace.
Carla J. Reyes, PhD, is an assistant professor at the University of Utah in the counseling psychology doctoral program. She received her PhD in 1996 at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in counseling/clinical/school psychology with an emphasis on child clinical. In the Rocky Mountain region, she served two terms as the Vice-President of Psi Chi, was named Psi Chi Regional Faculty Advisor Award Winner in 1999, and was a founding and now current member of the Psi Chi Diversity Task Force. In 2006, she was awarded the Early Career Award from the RMPA. Her major areas of interests include resiliency, child sexual abuse/childhood trauma, multicultural counseling issues, working with ethnic minority children and families, prevention and intervention for at-risk children, play therapy, and treatment outcomes. She teaches courses in human diversity and multicultural counseling, as well as introductory counseling skills. She also provides low cost mental health services to children and families that have no other means to pay for this service. On top of her academic duties, she is a mother with two small children. She loves to spend time traveling with her family and playing outdoors.
Mark G. Rivardo, PhD, is an assistant professor of psychology at Saint Vincent College. He received his BS in psychology from Saint Vincent College and his MA and PhD in experimental psychology from Bowling Green State University (OH). He teaches introduction to psychology for psychology majors, introduction to psychology, research methods in psychology and laboratory, cognitive psychology, honors seminar in cognitive psychology, and learning. Dr. Rivardo routinely involves 2-4 students in his research projects. Since joining the faculty in 1999, Dr. Rivardo has served as the faculty advisor for the Psi Chi chapter and the psychology club. He has chaired the Institutional Review Board since 2000.
Dr. Rivardo’s research interests lie in applied cognitive psychology. Recent research topics have included effects of cellular telephones on driving performance, the effectiveness of a stereotype threat intervention on women’s math performance, and the effectiveness of a three-day Spanish course for law enforcement personnel.
Miguel Roig, PhD, received his PhD in cognitive studies from Rutgers University Newark (NY) in 1989. That same year, he joined the faculty of St. John's University, Staten Island Campus, where he is currently an associate professor of psychology at the Staten Island campus. Since the early 1990s, Miguel has been carrying out research with his students in the area of academic integrity with an emphasis on the growing problem of student plagiarism. He frequently presents his work at the annual meeting of the EPA. In recent years, Miguel has expanded his research interests to include the study of plagiarism as a form of scientific misconduct, as well as the study of other authorship issues falling within the scope of the Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR).