Lab Alumni

Montgomery Owsiany, Ph.D. Montgomery is broadly interested in depression and suicide in adults, with a particular emphasis on older adults. Specifically, he is interested in masculine depression, age and gender differences in its symptom presentation, and how it may be associated with suicidal ideation and behavior. He is also interested in investigating the association between anger and suicidal ideation and behavior. Montgomery is currently a staff psychologist in the Homeless Department at VA Detroit Health Care System.

Jeongwi An, Ph.D. Jeongwi An is interested in interdisciplinary approaches to chronic illness, anxiety, fear, insomnia, and cognitive bias. She is particularly interested in interpretation bias in patients with chronic pain and its relations with pain-related variables (e.g., pain intensity, depression, and avoidance behavior). She is also interested in administering Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) across various populations. Jeongwi is currently a Behavioral Medicine Fellow at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Erika Fenstermacher, Ph.D. Erika is primarily interested in depression and suicide in late life. In particular, she's interested in risk and protective factors among older adults, such as functional limitations, health problems, and social support. She is also interested in caregiver burden and how that may contribute to mental health outcomes. Erika is currently a postdoctoral fellow in Professional Geropsychology at the VA Pittsburgh Health Care System.

Ruifeng (Richard) Cui, Ph.D. Richard completed an Advanced Fellowship in Mental Illness Research and Treatment at VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System. He is currently a Technical Writer for West Virginia University’s department of ophthalmology and department of otolaryngology where he assists faculty, residents, and fellows with analyzing data and writing manuscripts and grants.

Julie Lutz, Ph.D. Julie is currently a Health Science Specialist at the Palo Alto VA in the Sierra Pacific MIRECC. She is the Project Director of a multi-site clinical trial of psychotherapy treatments to reduce suicide risk in older Veterans. She is also funded by the GRECC to develop a program teaching older Veterans how to use mobile devices and VA mobile mental health apps to reduce suicide and other mental health risk factors.

Merideth Smith, Ph.D. Merideth is the Director of Clinical Services for PSIMED Corrections Inc. Merideth provides clinical services to inmates with severe behavioral and mental health problems throughout WV prison and jails. She also gets to supervise psychology students from WVU and Marshall, one of her favorite parts of her job! As Director of Clinical Services, she is responsible for developing comprehensive correctional mental health services for the WV prisons, jails, and juvenile system. Her projects range widely depending on the needs of the state and patients, but most often include evaluation and improvement of suicide assessment and protocols in prisons and jails, development of programming for patients with serious mental illness and personality disorders, and developing systems of care to help patients successfully transition back to their communities.

Elizabeth (Lizzy) Price, Ph.D. Elizabeth started a new role as Assistant Professor in the department of Palliative, Rehabilitation, and Integrative Medicine at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center this year. She is looking forward to serving as a health psychologist and publishing research on integrative medicine approaches to improve the physical and mental health of individuals with cancer. She continues to be interested in Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy, sleep, older adult mental health, and exploring ways to increase the number of older men who benefit from mind-body interventions.

Sarra Nazem, Ph.D. Sarra is the Deputy Director at the National Center for PTSD Dissemination & Training Division at the Palo Alto VA. Sarra’s research program utilizes innovative methods (e.g., development of pioneering assessment tools, leveraging of technology) to provide empirical data informative to both upstream and downstream suicide prevention approaches. Sarra is also the Training Director of the Dissemination & Training Division Advanced Fellowship Program.

Jay Gregg, Ph.D. Jay is currently the Director of Clinical Training for the Pre-Doctoral Psychology Internship Program at the Durham VA Health Care System. He also has an academic appointment in the Department of Geriatric Medicine at Duke University and serves on the Planning Committee for the VA Geriatric Scholars Program, which focuses on post-licensure geropsychology training for VA psychologists. Jay’s clinical duties and research efforts within the VA and at Duke are focused on innovations in assessment and treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder in later life.

Patricia (Patty) Bamonti, Ph.D., ABPP Patty is a clinical psychologist in the Geriatric Mental Health Outpatient Clinic and Track Coordinator of the Geropsychology Training Program at VA Boston Healthcare System. She is board-certified in Geropsychology. She provides individual and group psychotherapy and serves as a major supervisor within the Geropsychology training program. She holds an academic appointment as Assistant Professor of Psychology within the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Bamonti’s research and clinical interests include adjustment to chronic illness, and disability and she conducts research in the New England Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center. She is the recipient of a VA Career Development Award-2 providing five years of funding to develop and test Step-CBT, an integrated physical activity and mental health intervention for Veterans with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and clinically significant depression and/or anxiety symptoms and low physical activity.

Rebecca (Becky) K. Henning, Ph.D. Becky completed her internship and postdoctoral fellowship at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System. Becky is currently in private practice in Omaha, NE. Becky's primary research interests include dementia, depression in late life, and psychological comorbidities associated with Parkinson's disease.

Alisa O'Riley Hannum, Ph.D. Alisa is currently working for Colorado College and has started a private practice. In January 2023, she was appointed to the Colorado governor’s Natural Medicine Advisory Board for Colorado Proposition 122, which is a bill that will develop regulations for licensed facilities to conduct psilocybin assisted psychotherapy in Colorado. She anticipate that she will undergo Colorado senate confirmation for this board in the next two weeks.

Michael R. Nadorff, Ph.D. Michael is currently a Professor of Psychology and directs the clinical psychology PhD program at Mississippi State University. Michael finished his term as the president of the Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine and was soon after elected Financial Officer of the Mississippi Psychological Association. Michael had two grants funded in the last year: a one year suicide prevention grant from the State of MS $166,398 to do suicide prevention work statewide and another from SAMHSA for $2.3 million for psychosis identification and treatment.