Each first-year graduate student is matched with a core faculty member who will serve as an advisor and research mentor to the graduate student during the initial years of the program. Upon entering the program, the faculty mentor works closely with each student to develop and guide their research projects. To facilitate this pairing, we require that each applicant select one or two core faculty members in the Clinical Psychology Program based on shared research and clinical interests, and describe in their application why they would like to be part of these research teams. Although a close fit between student and faculty interests is not always possible given the focus of the program and the number of core faculty, all faculty have experience working with students whose interests may not specifically align with theirs. In these instances, the faculty strive to support students in developing an excellent program of research. Below is a list of the core faculty members who will be accepting one or more new students for the 2022-2023 academic year.

Carolyn A. Corbett, Ph.D., Professor - Dr. Corbett's current research interests are in the areas of mental health issues of minority deaf individuals, ethical issues important when conducting research in small communities, and psychological stress in sign language interpreters.Dr. Corbett's research team has projects including:

  • High risk behaviors in Deaf adolescents
  • Emotional experiences of Deaf college students
  • Psychological stress in sign language interpreters

Lori Day, Ph.D., Professor - Dr. Day's current research interests include the adaption of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) to make it accessible for deaf individuals, adaptations of psychological measures for deaf individuals, and removing biases in training for graduate students from diverse backgrounds. Students on Dr. Day's research team have recently completed or are in the process of developing their projects on the following topics:

  • Adaptation of PCIT for deaf families
  • Applications of PCIT for signing children and parents
  • Use of WISC-V with deaf children
  • Emotional regulation and communication in deaf families

Cara Miller, Ph.D., Assistant Professor - Dr. Miller joined the core faculty in fall 2018. Her research interests include trauma and post-traumatic growth; grief/bereavement; applications of research and science on the psychology of human-animal interaction; gender and sexuality; disability and psychosocial identity; and social and multicultural psychology. Dr. Miller's research team has projects including:

  • Psychologist’s knowledge of human-animal interactions
  • Developmental disability identities
  • Asian-American Deaf identity formation

Lawrence Pick, Ph.D., ABPP, Professor & Director of Clinical Training - Dr. Pick's research and clinical interests include neuropsychological syndromes and disorders experienced by deaf, hard of hearing, and deafblind individuals across the lifespan; the development, adaptation, and translation of accessible and appropriate assessment tools for culturally and linguistically diverse people; anxiety disorders; and interpersonal violence. Students on Dr. Pick's research team are working on a variety of projects including the following: 

  • Prevalence of psychopathology among deaf, hard of hearing and deafblind (DHHDB) college students
  • Development of a childhood trauma ASL screening measure for use with DHHDB adults
  • Sexual assault experiences, and disclosure behaviors among deaf and hard of hearing women, men, and refugees (qualitative and quantitative approaches)
  • Development of an ASL cognitive screening instrument for deaf and hard of hearing adults.

Kathryn Wagner, Ph.D., Assistant Professor - Dr. Wagner joined the core faculty in fall 2019. Her current research interests include:

  • Qualitative research on the lived experience of deaf/HH and blind psychotherapists
  • Accessibility and interviewing practices within qualitative research
  • The barriers that LGBTQ+ people face when trying to access healthcare resources, especially transgender people of color or those who identify as having a disability or deaf/HH
  • Transference and countertransference issues that arise in supervision when one member of the dyad is d/Deaf and one is hearing