Faculty & Staff

My research program contains two complementary lines of research. First, I investigate the dynamics and complexities of students’ classroom experiences of motivation, emotion and engagement in K-16 STEM settings. Second, because motivation is a dynamic process, I seek to advance the use of intensive longitudinal methodologies for research and intervention in educational contexts. The goal of these lines of research is to advance motivation theory in order to inform practice and support students in their pursuit of academic goals, particularly in STEM domains.

I am a clinically and quantitatively trained investigator, nationally recognized expert in children with special health care needs research (CSHCN) and child health measurement. My publications have employed structural equation models, multilevel models, and modern test theory to advance the methodological science used to identify CSHCN, investigate the correlates of CSHCN’s and their families’ well-being, investigate health disparities, and provide data for evidence-based practice and policy. My work has also addressed identifying and evaluating variation in the delivery of care and policy that influences CSHCN’s outcomes. Additionally, my work seeks to better understand individual and contextual variables’ influences on health and health disparities at individual, local, state, and national levels. I have worked extensively in developing and evaluating pediatric PROMIS measures.

Tony Chemero got his Ph.D. in Philosophy and Cognitive Science from Indiana University in 1999. From then to 2012, he taught at Franklin & Marshall College (F&M), where he was Professor of Psychology. In 2012, he became Professor of Philosophy and Psychology at the University of Cincinnati. 
Currently, Tony is University Distinguished Research Professor of Philosophy and Psychology at the University of Cincinnati (UC), and a primary member of both the Center for Cognition, Action, and Perception and the Strange Tools Research Lab. His research is both philosophical and empirical; typically, it tries to be both at the same time. He focuses on questions related to nonlinear dynamical modeling, ecological psychology, complex systems, phenomenology, and social cognition. He is the author of more than 100 articles and the books Radical Embodied Cognitive Science (2009, MIT Press) and, with Stephan Käufer, Phenomenology (2015, Polity Press; second edition, 2021). He is currently writing a book tentatively titled Intertwinings: The embodied cognitive science of self and other (Columbia University Press). His first book was a finalist for the Lakatos Prize for Philosophy of Science. He has recently received the University Distinguished Research Award, the Latino Faculty Association Excellence in Research Award , and the Rieveschl Award for Scholarly Achievement at UC.

For more information, see Tony's pages at academia.edu or google scholar

C.-Y. Peter Chiu is an Associate Professor in Psychology with a secondary appointment in the Dept. of Communication Sciences and Disorders. He graduated from the University of Toronto (B.Sc., M.A.) and Harvard University (PhD), with training in cognitive neuroscience. His work focuses on the neural mechanisms of a variety of cognitive domains including risky decision making, behavioral economics and consumer behaviors, executive functions, social cognition, and attention, memory and language. At UC, he has taught a variety of courses such as Choice and Decision Making, Research Methods in Cognition, and Cognition.

Currently, Sarah Cummins-Sebree’s research focuses on development of postural control and other aspects of perception in children, as well as self-regulated learning in college students. She primarily teaches the Human Development sequence.

My research focuses on psychological processes that are associated with resistance to oppression and increasing the realization of human rights in different contexts. I collaborate with grassroots community organizations to conduct mixed-methods research, exploring how structural changes in communities such as women’s ownership of land, and women’s participation in educational workshops and cooperative enterprises impact women’s empowerment and well-being. I have also recently begun projects on neoliberal ideology and refugee rights. I teach courses in community and social psychology at the graduate and undergraduate levels. 

Jeffery Epstein’s research focuses on ADHD-related cognitive deficits, examining the efficacy of pharmacological, behavioral, and cognitive treatments for patients with ADHD, and the promotion of evidence-based ADHD care in community settings.

Stacie Furst-Holloway is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and current director of the MA Psychology program.  A self-described organizational scientist-practitioner, Dr. Furst-Holloway’s work focuses on the development of healthy work environments that promote employee engagement, well-being, and retention.  Her areas of expertise include virtual and flexible work practices, organizational development and change, and the impact of leader-follower relationships on individual-, team-, and organizational outcomes. Furst-Holloway’s research has been funded by the Society for Human Resource Management, the National Science Foundation and the National Institute for Health. Her work is published in leading management and I/O psychology journals, including the Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, Leadership Quarterly, and the Academy of Management Executive. She frequently works with public- and private-sector organizations locally and nationally as a consultant in the areas of organizational change, HR analytics, and leadership development.   

Jay Holden’s research focuses on elementary cognitive activities, such as reading and decision-making. He has experience teaching Applied Cognitive and Statistics courses such as Ecological & Cognitive Task Analysis, Human-Computer Interaction & Display Design, as well as Undergraduate and Graduate Linear and Nonlinear Statistics.

Research program focused on partnering with communities to develop interventions to promote health equity. Current projects target Latino immigrant health and participatory research with immigrants and refugees in Cincinnati. For complete list of publications, see Google Scholar profile: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=YALiPW8AAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate
 

Kristen Jastrowski Mano examines the cognitive and emotional mechanisms associated with the development and maintenance of pediatric chronic pain, with a particular interest in the associations among anxiety, attentional control (e.g., working memory), and pain. Current research projects are also focused on school-related anxiety and functioning. She also conducts collaborative clinic-based research addressing the presenting problems of pediatric pain patients and their families, co-occurring psychological (e.g., anxiety) and medical (e.g., obesity) conditions of pain patients, predictors of treatment outcomes, and the effectiveness of psychological interventions. 

Her teaching interests include health psychology, child psychopathology, measurement, and clinical supervision.  

Research website:  https://sites.google.com/view/uccahrl/home
 

General - Tamara Lorenz is an Associate Professor at the University of Cincinnati. She is jointly affiliated with the Department of Psychology, the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computation Science and the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering. Tamara Lorenz received her diploma (Dipl.-Ing., equivalent to a MSc.) in Mechanical Engineering from Technische Universität München (TUM)  in 2008 and her Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences at Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU) in Munich, Germany in 2015. During her Ph.D. she was affiliated with both the General and Experimental Psychology Department at LMU and the Institute of Information-Oriented Control at TUM. For her dissertation she explored emergent coordination and adaptation during human joint action and during human interaction with robots in order to create models for safe and acceptable HRI.

Dr. Mano is a clinical neuropsychologist with research and clinical interests in learning disorders (e.g., dyslexia), cognition-emotion interactions, and childhood reasoning abilities. Ongoing projects involve (1) statistical learning and reading, (2) application of Cattell’s Investment Theory to reading development across the lifespan, and (3) effect of cognition-emotion interactions on functional outcomes. Research participants range from preschoolers to university students. He relies primarily on methodologies from clinical and experimental neuropsychology (e.g., standardized tests, computerized tasks). To learn more about his research activities, please visit the Laboratory for Cognitive & Affective Neuropsychology. Dr. Mano also conducts clinical research within the Dyslexia Assessment & Diagnostic Services, of which Dr. Mano is the Director. The ultimate purpose of his research program is to develop novel neuropsychological tests and treatments for learning disorders.

Lab website

Monica Mitchell’s research investigates child and family coping with chronic illness, and their relation to health status and outcomes, particularly in African-American populations. She also conducts community engagement projects with schools and non-profit agencies to ensure evidence-based practice related to mental health, obesity and school readiness.

Paula Shear’s research interests are in the neuropsychological effects of  neuropsychiatric disorders; affective and social cognition; neuropsychology of epilepsy; and cognitive assessment.  Her teaching interests are in clinical psychology, psychopathology, psychological assessment, and neuropsychology.

Kevin Shockley focuses primarily on haptic perception, interpersonal postural coordination, affordance perception, and nonlinear time series analysis methods. His teaching experience covers undergraduate courses such as Research Methods in Perception & Action; and graduate classes such as Computational and Ecological Approaches to Perception, Computer Programming for Psychological Research, and Nonlinear Dynamics.

I received a Bachelor's degree in Physical Therapy from Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais - UFMG (Brazil) in 2000, a Master's degree in Rehabilitation Science also from UFMG in 2002, and a PhD degree in Experimental Psychology from the University of Connecticut in 2009. I also received formal training and a Certificate in Quantitative Methods from the University of Connecticut. I am currently an Associate Professor and Co-director of graduate training in the Psychology Department of the University of Cincinnati. I am also one of the primary faculty of the Center for Cognition, Action & Perception at the University of Cincinnati. 

I study human performance, both functional and dysfunctional, from the perspectives of complexity science and ecological psychology. My research primarily focuses on (a) the action strategies that individuals of different ages, with and without pathological conditions, employ when performing a variety of tasks, and (b) the perceptual capabilities that supports adaptability of action strategies to particular circumstances. I have three complimentary aims. The first is to examine and advance general theoretical principles to explain the coordination and perceptual regulation of biological movement that support successful performance in diverse circumstances. The second is to reveal and explain changes in action coordination and perceptual capabilities associated with pathological conditions. The third is to apply these principles in the design of methods to assess and enhance resilience of individuals with movement-related disability and those at risk for sports injury. My overarching goal is to promote effective cross-fertilization between theory and clinical practice in the fields of rehabilitation and sports medicine.

Complete list of Journal Publications:
https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&view_op=list_works&gmla=AJsN-F4CL3SrNy-iuSs5Alrk3OIvDRJyO6g0425q3xOwib09l8oZuCyFj6trqtE2ih84Yr_PXU2qhJk6m_AzKfgdeaAI7dnnZMnAKj4tMbYyrhHmA_RAoRU&user=z9FExgcAAAAJ
 

The Solomon laboratory overall research efforts are directed towards understanding sex differences in the neurobiology of stress related disorders including depression. We are also interested in understanding sex differences in the pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease.  For more information about our laboratory please visit: www.solomonlaboratory.com
 

Cathy Stough is a pediatric psychologist with clinical and research interest in child eating behaviors, nutrition, obesity, and health equity. Dr. Stough is also director of the Healthy Bearcat Families Lab. Her research interests include weight management and eating behaviors of young children, including preschoolers, toddlers, and infants. Dr. Stough's program of research develops and tests the efficacy of obesity prevention programs for young children, including children at risk for health disparities. Her work also seeks to increase food access and promote health equity through use of community-engaged approaches. Her research is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

To learn more about research projects being conducted in the Healthy Bearcat Families Lab, please visit the lab website at: https://sites.google.com/view/odarcc-healthy-kids-lab/home

My climate justice research aims to bring visibility to, and work against the inequitable impacts of climate change, socially and geographically. Specifically, my research is driven by the questions, “What psychosocial and structural factors facilitate or impede processes of transformative social change?” and “How can research contribute to enabling transformative social change?” My work draws upon theories within and beyond social psychology (e.g., social movement theories; socio-ecological systems frameworks), employs community-engaged, participatory, and action research methods, and aims to center the voices and experiences of those most affected by climate disruption and environmental injustice. Broadly speaking, my research program aims to advance climate justice and societal change across three primary domains: (1) Community-Led Climate Justice Action; (2) University-Community-Policy Partnerships for Sustainable Futures; and (3) Psychologies for Climate Justice. ​To date, I have published more than 30 peer-reviewed journal articles and 5 book chapters, presented at numerous national and international conferences, and I am currently co-editing a book on psychology and climate justice to be published in 2025.
 

Paris Wheeler’s research agenda is focused on cultural and structural factors related to drug use disorders, treatment for drug use disorders, and associated health disparities. Her work seeks to identify cultural strengths that can facilitate treatment effectiveness, retention, and overall improvement of treatment approaches in the context of structural barriers that disproportionately affect Black Americans.

 

Dr. Whitton's research aims to better understand modern couples and families and to help them build and maintain the types of strong, stable relationships that promote health and well-being.  She focuses on understudied and marginalized groups, particularly sexual and gender minorities. Dr. Whitton conducts basic research to identify factors that promote strong relationships in the face of adversity, and uses the findings to develop couple-based interventions to promote individual, couple, and family health. among groups facing stigma and other stressors. See https://sites.google.com/view/tcf

Dr. Megan Church-Nally is an Associate Professor- Educator in the Department in Psychology. She holds a Master’s in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Xavier University and a PhD in Educational Leadership and Organizational Development with Concentration in Human Resources from University of Louisville. Her research interests include occupational stress and job satisfaction, graduate school well-being and persistence, and bettering the employee-employer experience in non profit realm. She has served as a methodologist on variety of studies ranging from entrepreneurship, safety, and franchising.

Dr. Church-Nally worked outside of academia for five year as a compensation consultant for five years at Mercer. She was the research associate on the Bridging the Talent Gap initiative in 2015, which sought to minimize the gap between employers’ needs and employee’s skill set in numerous cities. She has served as a statistical consultant for numerous dissertations and theses. She previously taught as an adjunct at Bellarmine University, St. Catherine College, Spalding University, and University of Louisville. Dr. Church-Nally also taught for the U.S Army in the University of Louisville and US Army partnership, where she earned a ROTC medal of Excellence.  She also conducted several site visits of military universities during this time.
Dr. Church-Nally is heavily involved with service learning at UC. She won the Jack Twyman Award for Service Learning in 2020 and has been nominated for Cohen Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2020 and 2022.

M. Sima Finy is an Associate Professor - Educator in the Department of Psychology. She received her Ph.D. in Clinical/Community Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign after completing a Clinical Internship in Child Psychology at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. She is interested in how psychological processes (e.g., psychosocial stress, self-regulation) interact with the immune and neuroendocrine systems to contribute to physical health and illness. 

Brian Metcalf, PhD, is an Associate Professor-Educator in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cincinnati.  Prior to August 2017, he was an Associate Professor of Psychology at Hawaii Pacific University in Honolulu, HI (since 2000). Originally from Stevens Point, WI, he previously taught and conducted research at Morris Brown College, and before that, at the University of Georgia, where he earned his MS and PhD in biopsychology. He was invited in 2012 by renowned psychologist, Dr. Philip Zimbardo, to be a member of his "Z-Team", a name coined as the antithesis of "The A-Team,"  those tip of the spear, first-in special forces that enter dangerous situations which often creates PTSD. The mission of The Z-Team is to research, document, publish articles and books, and educate people about: the importance of the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI) as a psychological scale, Temporal Theory, and Time Perspective Therapy. Brian also collaborates with Phil on his Heroic Imagination Project, training his students the skills and awareness needed to create lasting positive change in their own lives and the lives of others around them. Since 2016, he is also a consultant for AETAS Mind Balancing Apps at timeperspectivetherapy.org.

With a background in psychology and neuroscience, Brian earned his PhD from the Univerisity of Georgia Department of Psychology in the Biopsychology (since renamed Behavioral and Brain Sciences) Program.  His teaching experience and interests, however, are wide-ranging.  Specializing in teaching courses in Introduction to Psychology, Psychobiology, Sensation & Perception, and Personality (most frequently-taught courses), he has also taught Introductory Statistics in Psychology, Research Methods in Psychology, Advanced Statistics in Psychology, Social Psychology, and "capstone" courses including History & Systems of Psychology and Research Methods in Social Psychology.  Since 2012, he has regularly taught online and hybrid course sections as well as the traditional course sections he has been teaching since 1993.
  
Brian has been awarded by his peers with three "Golden Apple Awards for Excellence" in Mentoring, Service to Students, and the Reflective Use of Technology in his online and traditional courses.  A long-time faculty advisor to multiple-award-winning student organizations including the Psychology Club and Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in Psychology, Brian has also earned "Advisor of the Year," "Western Regional Psi Chi Chapter Advisor" awards, and was nominated for Psi Chi's "Florence Denmark National Faculty Advisor Award."  Psychology Club groups and officers he has mentored have earned University numerous "Club of the Year," "Most Distinguished Club," "Event of the Year," "Best Outreach," "Most Spirited," and "President of the Year" awards over the years.  The Psi Chi chapter and student officers he advised received "Model Chapter" status (7 consecutive years), "Western Regional Chapter of the Year," "Research Conference Grants" (5 consecutive years), and student, Caitlin Macy, received the "Kay Wilson Leadership" (National President of the Year) award.  

Licensed clinical psychologist focused on training students in psychology. Primary responsibilities include administration and clinical operations of the Behavioral Health Center, an internal training clinic in the department of psychology, which provides therapy services. Courses taught include graduate level clinical courses, such as Introduction to Psychotherapy and Cognitive Assessment. 

Dr. Shyan-Norwalt is an Educator Associate Professr of Psycholgy in the College of Arts and Science of Arts and Sciences at the University of Cincinnati . Shereceived her Doctorate in Experimental Psychology at the University of Hawaii in Comparative Cognition. After a two-year postdoctoral fellowship on research in primate cognition at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston, she taught for two years at Southwest Texas State University, and then moved to Butler University in Indianapolis, where she taught experimental methods, learning, and cognition for 13 years. She has been a college professor, published scientist, animal shelter manager, and animal behaviorist. Primary research interests include student study skills enhancement, animal welfare, the human-animal bond, and animal cognition.

I received a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Experimental and Theoretical Psychology from the University of Ghent (Belgium), and a PhD in Educational Sciences from the Universities of Leuven and Antwerp (Belgium). I also obtained a Master of Teacher Training in Psychology from the University of Leuven (Belgium). More recently, I completed an undergraduate certificate program in violence prevention at the University of Cincinnati. Before joining UC, I worked as a researcher at the University of Leuven (Belgium) and the University of Bristol (UK). At UC, I am teaching Introduction to Psychology, Social Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Cognitive Development and an honors course on Death and Dying.

LinkedIn URL

Rick Tillman is an educator and research psychologist with a variety of interests in psychology and cognitive science including language, social cognition, psycholinguistics, statistics, embodied cognition, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. Above all, educating our next great minds, and creating an exciting and fruitful learning environment for all students, is of utmost importance! 

I am an Assistant Professor Educator at the University of Cincinnati, where I am focusing on the technical education of PhD students in Psychology Department. My research interests are broad, spanning human-computer/robot interaction, visual control of motion, and self-organized systems.

My work co-founding the FreeMoCap Project (https://freemocap.org) has lead me to be interested in software & product development in spatial computing.

Debjani Sinha's clinical practice interests lie in cognitive behavior therapy, health and wellness, adult ADD, mood and anxiety disorders, industrial injuries, and recovery of function after traumatic brain injury and other neurological conditions.  She has been teaching a variety of courses including cognitive neuropsychology, brains on drugs, psychological testing and measurement, abnormal psychology, and child and adolescent development.  Dr. Sinha is currently a member of the OPA Ethics Comittee.  She is past President and Ethics Chair of the Cincinnati Academy of Professional Psychology.

Meera Rastogi, PhD, APIT/ PSYPACT, ATR-BC, LPAT is a licensed psychologist, board certified and registered art therapist, and psychology professor at the University of Cincinnati, Clermont College. She teaches in the psychology program and directs the University’s Pre-Art Therapy Certificate Program. Dr. Rastogi received the 2023 Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching, the 2021 Faculty Excellence Award for Teaching Outside of the Classroom, and the 2019 Lucille Pederson Hardgrove Exemplary Educator Award from the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Southwest Ohio. She has a secondary appointment with the Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation and is an affiliate of the UC Psychology Department. In addition to teaching, Dr. Rastogi runs art therapy groups for people with movement disorders and multiple sclerosis at the University of Cincinnati Gardner Neuroscience Institute and sees individual clients through a telehealth company.

Kathy Burlew is a substance abuse researcher. Her current and recent projects include (1) the development  and testing of  culturally tailored interventions to reduce HIV risk among substance abusing males and females and  (2) the evaluation of interventions  for  African American substance abusers and (3) the evaluation of the long term benefits of participation in family therapy for substance using adolescents.

The current research interest of Charles Ginn focuses on the adoption of alternative course content systems including e-texts, publisher platforms, and open resource materials. For his teaching, he has repeatedly received the Excellence in Teaching Award as well as the Senior Class award for Inspiring Students. In 2011 Dr. Ginn received an Ohio Innovator Award from the Ohio Board of Regents for his efforts to reduce content costs for students.

Christine Hovanitz’ research interests are the psychological mechanisms underlying regulation and dysregulation of physiological states; the theological and philosophical origins of the mind/body dualism; and the psychophysiological, affective, and motivational mediators of psychological and physical disorders. Her teaching interests lie in Health Psychology, Personality, and personality assessment.

Kenneth King is a psychobiologist with a particular interest in how small primitive areas in lower brain regions exert great influence over higher mental functions. In addition to Introductory Psychology and Statistics/Methods, his courses include Psychobiology, Psychopharmacology, Brains on Drugs, and Broken Brains.

Daniel Langmeyer’s research interests are in social psychology, focused on organizations and teams. He has had experience in organizational consultation and program evaluation, and s the former Director of Undergraduate Studies. Currently he is coaching the incoming director of undergraduate studies and directing the advising functions of the Psychology department.

Catherine Strathern’s current research is a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning project: a participatory action research group investigating scholarly teaching issues. Her teaching expertise covers the following topics: establishing rapport in the classroom, active learning, classroom management and writing across the curriculum.  She also gives workshops in the community on the grieving process, communication issues and conflict resolution. 

Research interests of Purcell Taylor include stress and its psycho physiological effects and phenomenology.  Dr Taylor is also interested in the treatment of chemical dependency, sex offenders, HIV?AIDS  and their victims.  Also cyber sex among college students and the development of chemical dependency screening instruments.Visit the Declare Therapy Center.