Tiffany Chenneville, Ph.D.

Mark Durand, Ph.D
Donna B. Elliston, Dr.PH.

Robert Fowler, Ph.D.
Vikki T. Gaskin-Butler, M.Div., Ph.D.

Meme Hieneman, Ph.D.

Danielle V. Hilliard, Ph.D.

Jordan Litman , Ph.D.

James P. McHale, Ph.D.

Eric Odgaard , Ph.D.

Michiko Otsuki , Ph.D.
Mark Pezzo, Ph.D.
Susan Toler Ph.D.

Tiffany Chenneville, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Ph.D., School Psychology, University of South Florida

Research Areas: Pediatric HIV; Law, policy, & ethics; Issues facing gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered youth

Dr. Chenneville's primary program of research is in the area of pediatric HIV.She currently is studying the competency of children with HIV to participate in their medical treatment.She also is concerned with other areas related to HIV, including confidentiality and disclosure.Dr. Chenneville also is involved with research investigating the educational and other outcomes for youth who participate in gay-straight alliances during high school.

Representative publications:

Knox, M.D. & Chenneville, T. (2006).Prevention and education strategies.In F. Fernandez & P. Ruiz (Eds.), Psychiatric Aspects of HIV/AIDS. Baltimore, MD: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Chenneville, T. (2005). Confidentiality and the duty to protect clients.In G.P. Koocher, J.C. Norcross, & S.S. Hill, III (Eds.), Psychologists' desk reference, Second edition (pp.584-588). New York: Oxford University Press.

Chenneville, T. (2000). HIV, confidentiality, and duty to protect: A decision-making model. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 31 (6), 661-670.

Wodrich, D.L., Swerdlik, M.E., Chenneville, T., & Landau, S. (1999). HIV/AIDS among children and adolescents: Implications for the changing role of school psychologists. School Psychology Review, 28 (2), 228-441.

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V. Mark Durand, Ph.D.

Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
Professor of Psychology

Ph.D., Psychology, State University of New York at Stony Brook

Research Areas: Autism and related disorders, Severe behavior problems in children, sleep disorders

Major themes in Dr. Durand's research have included functional communication, assistive technology, home-school training, and improving the problem behaviors of children and adults with autism and other severe disabilities. Dr. Durand has also written five books including an abnormal psychology textbook that is used at more than 500 universities world-wide.

Representative Publications:

Lord, C., Wagner, A., Rogers, S., Szatmari, P., Aman, M., Charman, T., Dawson, G., Durand, V.M., Grossman, L., Guthrie, D., Harris, S., Kasari, C., Marcus, L., Murphy, S., Odom, S., Pickles, A., Scahill, L., Shaw, E., Siegel, E., Sigman, M., Stone, W., Smith, T., & Yoder, P. (in press).  Challenges in evaluating interventions for autism spectrum disorders, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

Durand, V.M. & Barlow, D.H. (2006).  Essentials of abnormal psychology (4th ed.).  Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.

Durand, V.M., & Christodulu, K.V. (2004).  A description of a sleep restriction program to reduce bedtime disturbances and night waking.  Journal of Positive Behavioral Interventions, 6, 83-91.

Durand, VM (2001). Future directions for children and adolescents with mental retardation. Behavior Therapy, 32, 633-650.

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Donna B. Elliston, Dr.PH.
Research Assistant Professor

Dr.PH., Public Health, Morgan State University

Research Interests: Pregnancy and Early Family Formation

Dr. Elliston's research interests lie in the areas of adolescent pregnancy prevention and planning, and early parenthood adjustment. She was formerly senior analyst at the Center for Applied Research and Technical Assistance in Baltimore, MD, and brings background and expertise in program evaluation.

Representative Publication:

McHale, J., Alberts, A., Kuersten-Hogan, R. & Elliston, D. (2005). The family collective: Locating infant development within multi-parent socialization systems. Infant Mental Health Promotion, 42, 1-7.

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Robert Fowler, Ph.D.
Professor

Ph.D., Psychology, University of Tennessee

Research Areas: Research methodology and Statistics.

Dr. Fowler has current teaching interests in industrial/organizational psychology and in the psychology of learning, and has published extensively in the area of research methodology and statistics.

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Vikki T. Gaskin-Butler, M.Div., Ph.D.
Visiting Instructor

Ph.D. Clinical & Health Psychology, University of Florida
M.Div., Emory University

Research Areas:  Spiritual, Mental, and Physical Well-being of African Americans, Women, and Clergy

Dr. Gaskin-Butler's current research examines the effectiveness of spiritual formation as a vehicle for sexual ethics training for clergy.  She also maintains interests in the academic success of disenfranchised Americans as it is impacted by biopsychosocial factors.

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Meme Hieneman, Ph.D.

Courtesy Assistant Professor

Ph.D. in Special Education, University of South Florida

Research Areas: Positive Behavior Support (PBS), Factors Affecting Outcomes of Community-Based Behavioral Intervention

Dr. Hieneman directs the Positive Family Intervention Project, a research study evaluating education in PBS plus optimism training for parents of young children with severe disabilities and problem behavior.  Previously, she worked for the Division of Applied Research and Educational Support at FMHI.  Her responsibilities included coordinating training and dissemination for the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on PBS and directing Florida’s PBS Project.

Representative Publications:

Dunlap, G. & Hieneman, M. (2005).  Positive behavior support.  In M. Hersen, G. Sugai, & R. Horner (Eds.), Encyclopedia of behavior modification and cognitive behavior therapy; Volume three: Educational Implications (pp. 1421-1428).  Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

Hieneman, M. & Dunlap, G. (2000).  Factors affecting the outcomes of community-based behavioral support: I. Identification and description of factor categories.  Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 2(3), 161-169.

Hieneman, M., Childs, K. E., & Sergay, J. (2006).  Parenting with positive behavior support: A practical guide to resolving your child’s difficult behavior.  Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes.

Hieneman, M., Dunlap, G. & Kincaid, D. (2005).  Positive support strategies for students with behavior disorders in general education settings.  Psychology in the Schools, 42, 779-794.

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Danielle V. Hilliard, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Ph.D., Psychology, University of South Florida

Research Areas: Psycholinguistics

Dr. Hilliard has current research and teaching interests in psycholinguistics and in research methodology.

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Jordan Litman, Ph.D.
Adjunct Instructor

Ph.D., Cognitive Psychology, University of South Florida

Research Areas: Social-Personality, Motivation and Emotion, Metacognition.

Dr. Litman’s research focuses on the nature and assessment of curiosity, and how individual differences in curiosity, metamemory, and epistemological beliefs contribute to the motivation of knowledge-seeking behavior.

Representative Publications:
Litman, J. A. (in press). Curiosity and the pleasures of learning: Wanting and liking new information. Cognition and Emotion.

Litman, J. A., Hutchins, T. L., & Russon, R. K. (2005). Epistemic curiosity, feeling-of-knowing, and exploratory behaviour. Cognition and Emotion, 19, 559-582.

Litman, J. A., & Jimerson, T. L. (2004). The measurement of curiosity as a feeling-of-deprivation. Journal of Personality Assessment, 82, 147-157.

Litman, J.A. & Pezzo, M.V. (2005). Individual differences in attitudes towards gossip. Personality and Individual Differences, 38, 963-180.

Litman, J. A., & Spielberger, C. D. (2003). Measuring epistemic curiosity and its diversive and specific components. Journal of Personality Assessment, 80, 75-86.

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James P. McHale, Ph.D.
Associate Professor

Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, University of California, Berkeley

Research Areas: Family Theory and Research

Dr. McHale's research program examines the role of coparenting and family group dynamics in families of infant, toddler, and preschool-aged children. He also maintains active interests in infant mental health, community psychology, family diversity, and primary prevention.

To visit the Family Study Center homepage, click on this link: www.stpt.usf.edu/fsc

Representative publications:

McHale, J. & Rotman, T. (2007). Is seeing believing? Expectant parents’ outlooks on coparenting and later coparenting solidarity. Infant Behavior & Development, 30, 63-81.

McHale, J. (2007). When infants grow up in multiperson relationship systems. Infant Mental Health Journal, 28, 1-23.

McHale, J. (2007). Charting the bumpy road of coparenthood. Washington, D.C.: Zero to Three Press.

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Research Areas: Child and adolescent health with a focus on pediatric asthma and health risk behaviors

Dr. Otsuki’s primary research interests focus on identifying factors that promote or hinder adherence to preventive asthma therapy and asthma outcomes among youths, and translating this knowledge to develop and evaluate intervention strategies in the community settings. Another line of her research examines psychosocial predictors of health risk behaviors such as smoking, heavy drinking, and delinquency among adolescents and young adults.  Attention to the roles of culture/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and development is central to her research.

Publications/Manuscripts

Otsuki, M., Butz, A., Hsu, V. D., Bilderback, A. B., Rand, C. S., & Riekert, K. A. (in preparation). Adherence to medication feedback to improve asthma outcomes among inner-city children.

Otsuki, M., Rand, C. S., & Riekert, K.A. (in preparation). A longitudinal relationship between caregiver depressive symptoms and asthma morbidity among inner-city African American children.

Otsuki, M., Clerisme-Beaty, E., Rand, C. S., & Riekert, K. A. (forthcoming). Measuring adherence with medication regimens in clinical care and research. Shumaker, Schron, Ockene, & Riekert (Eds.), Handbook of health behavior change (3rd edition).

Otsuki, M., Tinsley, B. J., & Chao, R. K., & Unger, J.  (under revision for resubmission to Psychology of Additive Behaviors).  An ecological perspective on smoking among Asian American college students: The roles of social smoking and smoking motives.

Otsuki, M. (2002). Issue brief: Youth suicide. In L. Knox (Ed.), Connecting the dots to prevent youth violence: A training and outreach guide for physicians and other health professionals (pp.127-132). Chicago: American Medical Association.

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Mark Pezzo, Ph.D.
Associate Professor

Ph.D., Experimental Psychology, Ohio University

Research Area: Social Psychology

Dr. Pezzo's research focuses on judgmental biases. He examines the interface between motivational and cognitive processes (i.e., self-presentation vs sensemaking)in a number of areas, including hindsight bias, planning fallacy, numerosity judgments, perceptions of offensiveness, and the spread of rumors. His most recent work has been moving toward more applied settings, including medical judgments. 

Link to Dr. Pezzo's homepage here.

Representative Publications:

Pezzo, M.V., & Beckstead, J. (2006).   A multi-level analysis of rumor transmission:  Effects of anxiety and belief in two field experiments. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 28, 91-100.

Pezzo, M.V., & Pezzo, S.P.  (2006). Physician evaluation following medical errors:  Does having a computer decision aid help or hurt in hindsight?  Medical Decision Making, 26, 48-56. 

Pezzo, S.P., Pezzo, M.V., & Stone, E.R.  (2006).   The social implications of planning:  How public predictions bias future plans.   Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 42, 221-227.

Litman, J.L., & Pezzo, M.V. (2005).   Individual differences in attitudes toward gossip. Personality and Individual Differences, 38, 963-980.

Pezzo, M. V.  (2003).  Surprise, Defense, or Making Sense:  What removes the hindsight bias?  Memory, 11, 421-441.

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Susan M. Toler, Ph.D.

Visiting Assistant Professor

Ph.D.,  Clinical Psychology, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana

Research Areas:  Applied clinical research with children

Dr. Toler’s work has included collaborations with primary care pediatricians addressing the mental health needs of children, the training and supervision of medical fellows, residents and psychology interns in a school based program for children unable to function in normal classroom settings, and work with the courts conducting custody evaluations and developing training protocols for the judiciary. She also has served as an expert witness testifying on issues related to child abuse, parental alienation and parental competence.

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