Highlights
Julia Yan, Assistant Professor
Engaging the Child Health, Emotions, and Attachment Research Team (Child HEART) to understand children’s physical and emotional development, children’s relationships with their parents, and how parent behaviors and family dynamics foster emotional skills and protect against biological vulnerabilities in young children.
Jordan Westcott, Assistant Professor
Advancing access to equitable mental health services and outcomes through research and advocacy for marginalized people, especially LGBTQIA+ and older adult populations via community-engaged scholarship in the Counseling for Access, Resilience, and Equity (CARE) Lab.
Heidi Stolz, Professor and Undergraduate Programs Coordinator
Understanding family wellness including parenting practices, father engagement, work-life harmony, and mother-father coparenting while evaluating effectiveness of parenting programs.
Amy Rauer, Professor
Cultivating insights into why some individuals thrive in romantic relationships whereas others either have difficulty establishing and maintaining these close ties or choose to forgo romantic relationships entirely; understanding the role of developmental timing in determining the costs and benefits of romantic relationship processes via the Relationships & Development Lab.
Spencer Olmstead, Professor, Associate Head, and HDFS Graduate Program Coordinator
Examining young adults’ romantic and sexual relationships and experiences to inform sexual and relational education and empower young adults to make informed decisions about their relationships and promote their sexual health and wellness.
Hyunhee Kim, Assistant Professor
Leveraging protective factors that help students thrive in their lives with a special focus on school connectedness, hope, mindfulness, career development, school-family-community partnerships, bullying, and social determinants of health.
Elizabeth Johnson, Professor
Understanding risk and resilience among adolescents who have experienced parental incarceration to recognize the strengths and resources families mobilize in contexts of accumulated adversity while drawing attention to the ways in which demands for such resilience are inequitable.
Megan Haselschwerdt, Associate Professor
Examining intimate partner violence and developing trauma-informed interventions from an interdisciplinary, community-engaged, biopsychosocial perspective via the Family Violence Across the Lifespan research team.
Melinda Gibbons, Professor and Counselor Education Unit Coordinator
Enhancing career and educational development for underserved populations, prospective and current first-generation college students, and students with intellectual disabilities through community engaged programs including PiPES/Imagining Possibilities, ASPIRE, and RAMHP
Jeff Cochran, Professor
Establishing child-centered play therapy as a core to multi-systemic interventions addressing parent-child relationships, teacher-child relationships, teacher wellness, and trauma informed classrooms.
Jamian Coleman, Assistant Professor
Promoting wellness and enhancing the lives of individuals facing co-occurring disorders, substance use disorders, HIV, and psychiatric disabilities in diverse communities.
Casey Barrio Minton, Professor and Head
Advancing the professionalization of counseling and developing a workforce equipped to utilize evidence-based, culturally responsive, and developmentally sensitive skills in their communities and schools.
“I definitely think students find their place here at UT because there are so many opportunities. There’s a place for everyone. Our faculty are engaged in research that speaks to the current moment. Although we all have different populations of focus or clinical issues that we address, our work goes beyond curiosity—we want to make a real change in the world. Our work moves us toward a world where all people have access to culturally responsive and effective mental health services.”
Jordan B. Westcott, PhD, NCC (she/her)
Assistant Professor of Counselor Education