Our amazing team
CURRENT GRADUATE STUDENTS
Brianna Boggs, MA
Brianna Boggs is a graduate student in the Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program at Virginia Commonwealth University on the Child/Adolescent track. Brianna graduated from Spelman College in Atlanta, GA with a B.A. in Psychology and received her M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University in New York, NY. Recently, she has worked as a Research Coordinator for the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. She is interested in increasing the feasibility and sustainability of evidence-based programs for the prevention and treatment of mental health challenges in marginalized youth. She hopes to design new and innovative strategies to decrease barriers to care and to increase the successful implementation of evidence-based interventions in marginalized communities. Outside of her education, Brianna enjoys fitness-related activities, watching various shows/movies on streaming services, and lounging in the sun. She joined the lab in fall 2023.
Juliet graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.S. in Biopsychology, Cognition, and Neuroscience and received her M.P.H. in Health Behavior from UNC Chapel Hill. Recently, she completed an M.S. in Child and Adolescent Psychology and worked as a Research Associate for the American Institutes for Research in the Youth, Family, and Community Development division. She is interested in community based participatory research and the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based mental health interventions for youth. She joined the lab in 2022.
Juliet Wu, BS, MPH, MS
Natalie graduated from Cornell University in 2013 with a B.S. in human development. Before joining Dr. Southam-Gerow's lab in 2017, Natalie worked for the Child & Adolescent Services Research Center at the University of California San Diego. She is interested in studying the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based practices for youth in community mental health settings.
Natalie Finn, MS
CEP-VA ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR/ ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
Dr. Sale graduated from the school psychology program at the University of Texas at Austin, where she trained under Dr. Sarah Kate Bearman. In 2020, Dr. Sale completed her internship in pediatric neuropsychology at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior. Her educational background also includes a master’s degree in adult clinical psychology, and she has maintained licensure to practice as a Licensed Psychological Associate (#4553) in North Carolina since 2013. Dr. Sale’s research interests include clinical supervision, as well as access and acceptability of EBPs to families who have been historically excluded from mental healthcare services.
Gaby received her bachelors in psychology with a minor in behavioral neuroscience in 2017. She is curious to understand various perspectives of mental health, gaps in comprehension of care and where they stem from, and factors that may be relevant to the access and efficacy of treatment, particularly for youth experiencing acute symptoms during critical periods in their development. She joined the lab in 2020.
Gabriela Aisenberg, BS
Rafaella Sale, Ph.D. (she/her)
LAB ALUMNI
Alyssa M. Ward, Ph.D. (VCU, 2007)
Alyssa graduated from the VCU Clinical Psychology program in 2007 after completing her thesis and dissertation projects with Dr. Southam-Gerow. While at VCU, she was the recipient of the Deborah Braffman Schroeder Award for Research in 2005, as well as both the Outstanding Student in Clinical Psychology and the Outstanding Graduate Student Teacher Awards in 2006. In 2007, she completed her pre-doctoral internship in clinical child and pediatric psychology at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and was awarded the Martin S. Wallach Award for Clinical Psychology Intern of the Year. Dr. Ward completed a post-doctoral scholarship working with Dr. Bruce Chorpita at University of Hawaii and UCLA as a project co-director and clinical supervisor for a MacArthur Foundation-funded research network designed to study the dissemination of evidence-based child therapies in public health settings. Dr.Ward also served as the Training Director for PracticeWise, LLC. As a part of the MAP training team, she trained and consulted with over a 1,000 therapists and supervisors in the Managing and Adapting Practice System of evidence-based clinical care. Dr. Ward is currently an affiliate faculty member in Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine and provides clinical services within the Department of Pediatrics. She is also the Behavioral Health Clinical Director for Virginia's Department of Medical Assistance Services, the agency that administers the Medicaid program. Dr. Ward is the agency lead for the Commonwealth's Behavioral Health Enhancement project, which is an unprecedented inter-agency collaboration that seeks to transform the Medicaid behavioral health system to one focused on evidence-based, trauma-informed, prevention-oriented and person-centered care.
Ruth C. Brown, Ph.D. (VCU, 2011)
Ruth is originally from Nashville, TN. She received her Master of Psychological Science from James Madison University under the mentorship of Dr. Steve Evans. Her thesis involved the development of a measure of adherence to a parent behavior management program. She received her PhD from VCU Clinical Psychology program in 2011 under the mentorship of Dr. Southam-Gerow. Her dissertation involved the development of a measure of common factor therapist competence. She completed her clinical internship at Pinecrest Supports and Services Center in Louisiana where she developed an interest in intellectual and developmental disabilities. She is currently an assistant professor at VCU in the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics. Her program of research aims to address the mental healthcare disparity experienced by people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. To this end, she is working on the development of evidence-based assessment, including the use of epigenetic biomarkers, of psychopathology in people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It is her hope that the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based assessment for this population will lead to improved detection, prevention, and treatment of traumatic stress, anxiety, and depression.
Dr. Quinoy received her B.S. in psychology and minor in Spanish for native speakers from the University of Florida in 2005. She completed her psychology internship at Children’s Hospital Colorado in 2015 and received her doctoral degree in clinical psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2015. Dr. Quinoy completed her postdoctoral fellowship in medical psychology at University of Florida Health, Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Quinoy is currently a pediatric psychologist at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA), Scottish Rite. Dr. Quinoy works in the pediatric inpatient rehabilitation program and Day Rehabilitation Program. She is also an adjunct associate professor of rehabilitation medicine for Emory University School of Medicine. Her clinical interests include pediatric rehabilitation psychology, chronic illness/pain, pediatric primary care psychology, complex trauma/PTSD, emotion regulation, parent training, cognitive behavior therapy, and anxiety and related disorders. In addition to her clinical interests and responsibilities, she is involved in developing policies and clinical pathways for treatment within rehabilitation services pertaining to systematic behavior modification, spinal cord injury, and traumatic brain injury. In addition, Dr. Quinoy sits on various committees for CHOA’s behavioral and mental health initiative, assisting in creating policies and infrastructure to support new behavioral and mental health service lines.
Alexis M. Quinoy, Ph.D. (VCU, 2015)
Carrie B. Tully, Ph.D. (VCU, 2015)
Dr. Carrie Tully grew up in Ithaca, NY, received her BA in political science from Boston University in 2006, and her PhD in Clinical Psychology from VCU under the mentorship of Dr. Southam-Gerow in 2015. Dr. Tully completed internship at the APA-accredited program at Texas Children’s Hospital/Baylor College of Medicine, and a two-year clinical research fellowship in pediatric psychology research in 2017 at Children’s National Hospital. Currently, Dr. Tully is a Pediatric Psychologist at Children’s National Hospital and an Assistant Professor with appointments in the Departments of Psychology and Behavioral Health, Surgery, and Pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences. She provides clinical services to children and families after medical trauma, and she has a research program focusing on improving family coping and adherence after pediatric injury or chronic illness diagnosis. In addition, Dr. Tully participates in clinical training through supervising psychology interns and externs at Children’s National.
Dr. Shannon Hourigan is an Instructor in Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a Pediatric Psychologist at Boston Children's Hospital where she provides outpatient clinical care to children and families struggling to manage emotional or behavioral aspects of a chronic or acute medical condition. She works with families in the Departments of Psychiatry, Cardiology, and Gastroenterology, and she is also a member of the training faculty of the Psychology Internship Program.
Shannon E. Hourigan, Ph.D. (VCU, 2012)
Cassidy Arnold, Ph.D. (VCU, 2015)
Cassidy graduated from the University of Colorado at Denver in 2006 with a Bachelor’s of Arts in Psychology and, prior to joining Dr. Southam-Gerow's lab, spent a number of years working with children and adolescents in wilderness therapy, residential treatment, and an inpatient psychiatric settings. His research background has included projects addressing assessment evaluation, treatment efficacy, early literacy intervention, and treatment integrity. Cassidy's current research interests are in defining and evaluating evidence-based assessment, evaluating the current state of assessment practices, and disseminating evidence based practices to community clinics.
Adriana Rodriguez, Ph.D (VCU, 2016)
Julia Revillion Cox, Ph.D. (VCU, 2019)
Originally from Los Angeles, California, Julia graduated from Seattle University in 2009 with a B.S. in Psychology. Before joining Dr. Southam-Gerow’s lab, she worked as a Research Coordinator at the University of Washington, School of Medicine in the Division of Public Behavioral Health and Justice Policy. Broadly, her research interests lie in the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based mental health treatments for youth, as well as child maltreatment and posttraumatic stress. Julia joined the lab in the Fall of 2012.
Echo was rescued from a life in the wilds of Cumberland Co., VA. He has degrees in Cuddling, Bug-Eating, and Over-Excited Greetings. His enthusiasm has shown no upper bound. He joined the lab in the fall of 2016.
Adriana Rodriguez received her B.A. in psychology and minor in ethnic studies from the University of California, Berkeley in 2008. She completed her psychology internship at Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School in 2016 and received her doctoral degree in clinical psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2016. Dr. Rodriguez completed a two-year research postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) where she focused on the implementation of evidence-based practices for underserved youth and families, as well as the evaluation of mental health disparities and best training practices for mental health providers in community mental health. She has extensive experience in mixed-method analyses, data-driven policy, and program evaluation within large behavioral health systems. Dr. Rodriguez is currently the senior clinical training manager with the Division of Population Behavioral Health at UCLA in partnership with the Los Angeles County (LAC) Department of Mental Health where she oversees large scale trauma-and resilience-informed training implementation efforts for the LAC workforce. She is a licensed bilingual and bicultural psychologist in California and regional trainer for the Bounce Back Program, a trauma-informed evidence-based school intervention for elementary aged children. Dr. Rodriguez has clinical experience conducting psychodiagnostic evaluations and delivering empirically-supported individual and parent-mediated interventions to children and adolescents with a variety of internalizing and externalizing mental health disorders.
Sandra Yankah, Ph.D. (VCU, 2022)
Sandra Yankah is originally from Accra, Ghana and received B.S. degrees in Psychology and Sociology from Western Carolina University's Honors College in 2014. After graduating, she completed a master’s degree in clinical psychology at Valdosta State University in 2016. She joined the doctoral program in clinical psychology at VCU in 2017. Broadly speaking, her research interests lie in the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based mental health treatments for ethnic and cultural minority youth, as well as the development of emotional self-regulation skills in early childhood. She earned her PhD in 2022.
LAB CANINES
Emmy Southam-Gerow
Emmy earned a degree in Running, one in Eating, and a third in Hunting. She had several rodent kills on her CV, sadly including a hamster from a local middle school. She was expert at bending humans to her will. She joined the lab in the winter of 2008. Though she passed on in late 2021, Emmy remains forever a member of the lab.
