Dellanira Valencia-Garcia

NIMH PreDoctoral Fellow

Dellanira is in her fifth year of the Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program.  She received a Master's Degree from Boston University in Psychology in June 2000. Dellanira's work has focused mainly on aspects of health and community psychology in ethnic minority women and marginalized populations.  Her interests include socio-cultural issues in psychopathology, clinical evaluations and assessments, treatment efficacy in racial and ethnic minority populations, and improving traditional therapeutic interventions to enhance their cultural relevance.

Before coming to the University of Washington, she served as Project Director for two NIH (NIMH) grants at the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, University of California San Francisco (UCSF/CAPS) which included, the Female Condom Intervention Trial study which focused on increasing female condom use in a multicultural sample of women, and the Gender Economic Model Study examining the synergism between economic context, acquiescence to traditional gender roles and HIV risk among Latina and African-American women. Dellanira has co-authored two book chapters focusing on Latinas, HIV and contextual issues. She also has other publications and various presentations at professional conferences.

For her dissertation, Dellanira was granted a four year National Research Service Award (NRSA, F31) from the National Institute of Mental Health to examine social capital and mental health among Latinas of Mexican ancestry.

Keren Lehavot

Fourth Year Clinical Psychology Graduate Student

Broadly, my research interests span feminist psychology and the influence of gender and sexuality on health. More specifically, I am interested in identifying and examining barriers to improving the mental health of sexual minority women. My dissertation project seeks to explore the relationships among minority stressors, coping, and health-related consequences affecting lesbian and bisexual women, and to further examine the role of gender expression. My eventual goal is to use the results of my research to inform specifically tailed prevention and intervention efforts that reduce vulnerability to stress, enhance coping, and reduce mental health problems in this population. I can be contacted at: klehavot@u.washington.edu

David Huh

Third Year Clinical Psychology Graduate Student

My general interest is in quantitative methodology in randomized controlled trials.  I am particularly interested in the analysis of outcome data typically viewed as problematic (e.g., non-normal distribution).  My most recent research examined the use of bootstrapping in conjunction with longitudinal analysis for analyzing HIV medication adherence data.  I am also currently interested in the application of Bayesian statistical techniques as an alternative to classical statistics for analyzing data from randomized trials.

Second Year Clinical Psychology Graduate Student

I have broad interests in supporting marginalized individuals confront the many barriers they face to physical and mental health.  Specifically, I am interested in the impact of the criminal justice system on health among prisoners and the communities to which 97% of prisoners return.  I am particularly interested in working with juvenile and female offenders, and in looking directly at HIV and Hepatitis C infection and treatment during and following reentry into home communities. My email address is samyard@u.washington.edu.

Kimberly Nelson

First Year Clinical Psychology Graduate Student

My main research interests are in the development of culturally appropriate behavioral interventions for HIV prevention. In June of 2008 I received my Masters in Public Health (MPH) from the University of Washington Department of Epidemiology.  Using the information gained from my MPH and the UW Clinical Psychology Program I hope to develop behavioral interventions to help at-risk people protect themselves from acquiring or transmitting HIV infection.  I can be reached at knelson6@u.washington.edu.

Michele Andrasik

Third Year Postdoctoral Fellow

Michele is currently a postdoctoral research fellow splitting her time between Jane's lab and Bill George's lab.  She earned her Doctoral degree in Clinical Health Psychology from the University of Miami and two Masters Degrees (Counseling Psychology and Health Education) from Columbia University, Teachers College.  Her research has focused largely on identifying and reducing barriers to HIV prevention, with an emphasis on understanding how community, contextual, and societal factors such as dissemination of information, discrimination, and social support contribute to prevention and risk.  Prior to beginning graduate training, Dr. Andrasik worked for four years with community based organizations (CBOs) in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Manhattan.  During her work as a substance abuse counselor, a program director, and later the Director of AIDS Services, she worked to help individuals, families, and communities overcome the devastating effects of poverty, drug and alcohol addiction, and HIV infection.  In her search for effective interventions and treatment strategies she became increasingly aware of the absence of dialogue between individuals working at the community level and researchers studying sexual transmission, treatment outcome, and intervention efficacy.  Creating a dialogue between academic researchers and the staff within CBOs continues to be a primary focus.  Dr. Andrasik is also a co-chair for the Seattle based Black Leadership Council on HIV/AIDS (BLC).

Former Lab Members

David Pantalone, Ph.D., graduated from the UW Clinical Psychology program in 2007 and is currently Assistant Professor at Suffolk University: http://www.suffolk.edu/college/29363.html

Mary Plummer, Ph.D., graduated from the UW Clinical Psychology program in 2007 and is in private practice in Seattle, WA.

Alison Wilhelm, Ph.D., Seattle, WA.

Dissertation: Sexual Satisfaction among Lesbian and Heterosexual Women: An Ecological Model.