Clinical Psychology Training Programs
Research Placement Rotations
Information on the Research Placement Program and the Internship Grant Program.
Research Placement Rotations
Information on the Research Placement Program and the Internship Grant Program.
Research Placement Program
Cynthia Battle, PhD, Coordinator
Research and grant writing are a major activity of many psychologists in academic settings. The training program provides three possible research experiences. Two are optional and one is required. One option is that clinical psychology residents may choose to participate in research that is being conducted as part of the ongoing clinical programs. This could be integrated into part of their clinical duties. A second option is that clinical psychology residents may choose to independently investigate a research question under faculty supervision.
Participation in the Research Placement Program, which is required, provides clinical psychology residents with opportunities to work on programmatic faculty research; typically grant funded projects. Research sites have been developed within each of the four training tracks. Clinical psychology residents are assigned to a project based upon their previous experience in an area, research interests, training needs, and availability of training supervisors. Clinical psychology residents are assigned to a research site for the full internship year and spend approximately four to six hours a week at that placement. Clinical psychology residents may participate in research team meetings and have responsibilities that could include, but are not limited to, research design, data collection, coding and analysis, and manuscript preparation.
View specific Track (Adult, Child, Health Psychology/Behavioral Medicine, & Neuropsychology) for a listing of faculty offering potential research placements this recruitment year.
Adult Track Faculty offering Research Placements
Cynthia Battle: Dr. Battle’s research focuses on women’s mental health, with particular focus on the perinatal period. She has developed and tested a variety of nonpharmacologic interventions for depression and related conditions during pregnancy and the postpartum period including use of nontraditional approaches such as yoga and physical activity based interventions. Currently Dr. Battle is completing work on a Fitbit-based walking intervention to help reduce cannabis use during pregnancy. Also, with collaborators, she is conducting a longitudinal prospective EMA study that is tracking women’s cannabis use patterns over the perinatal transition. In addition, Dr. Battle is currently part of a team implementing a novel perinatal telepsychiatry program to promote better access to specialized care for mental health and substance use services during the perinatal period. Opportunities for clinical psychology residents may include collaboration on various ongoing projects, including potential involvement in practical elements of project implementation, data analysis, manuscript preparation, and/or development of new grant proposals.
Madeline Benz & Brandon Gaudiano: Drs. Gaudiano and Benz’s research focuses on the development, testing, and implementation of psychosocial interventions for patients with a variety of difficult-to-treat conditions (including psychosis, mood disorders, comorbid substance use, and suicidality). They also have expertise in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and technology-assisted interventions. Representative projects for the upcoming year include grant-funded clinical trials testing a multi-modal mHealth intervention for patients with severe mental illness during an acute care transition, an ACT-based video intervention for older adults with chronic pain in primary care, and a suicide prevention intervention for adolescents and young adults following an emergency department visit.
Rachel Gunn & Jane Metrik: This placement has several available areas of research focus. The overall aim of this research placement is to provide training opportunities in the area of alcohol and cannabis co-use and related risk behaviors. Our NIH-funded program of research utilizes several levels of data collection including laboratory and field-based methods. Opportunities to collaborate on the following current and recently completed studies are as follows: 1) a human laboratory study examining acute effects of cannabis on alcohol craving and consumption; 2) an ecological momentary assessment study focused on assessing effects of cannabis on driving-related impairment; 3) an ambulatory assessment study of the impact of simultaneous alcohol and cannabis use on alcohol consumption and consequences using alcohol biosensors to measure alcohol use in the field; 4) a mixed-methods (laboratory and ecological momentary assessment) study of simultaneous alcohol and cannabis use, including examination of the impact of multiple cannabinoids (THC versus CBD) on drinking behaviors; and 5) a longitudinal study examining cannabis use and comorbidity with heavy drinking and affective disorders in returning Veterans. Opportunities for learning applied aspects of the human laboratory studies involving cannabis and alcohol administration are a major part of this placement, as well as integration of data from multiple levels (e.g., person- and event-level). Multiple other opportunities are available for collaboration on various projects including data analysis, manuscript preparation, and development of grant proposals.
Morganne Kraines: Dr. Kraines is a Psychologist at Butler Hospital in the Behavioral Medicine and Addictions Research (BMAR) group and an Assistant Professor (Research Scholar Track) within the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior.. She is also Primary Faculty at the Mindfulness Center at Brown (MC@B). Dr. Kraines’ research has two main focuses: 1) affective-cognitive factors that serve as mechanisms and predictors of change in mood disorders and health behaviors (e.g., depression, anxiety, substance use); and 2) adapting evidence-based mindfulness interventions for at-risk populations (e.g., first responders, caregivers of patients with cancer, dermatology patients). She uses mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative approaches), as well as mixed-method assessment (self-reports, clinical interviewing, computer-based tasks, etc.). Current and recently completed projects include (but are not limited to) examining affective executive functioning as a mechanism of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), the development of an implicit measure related to mindfulness, and qualitative interviews with caregivers of patients with cancer.
Robert Miranda: The Vista Clinical Research Group at Brown University has several research opportunities available for a research placement. This research program focuses on how biobehavioral mechanisms that confer liability for addiction influence treatment responsiveness. The overarching goal of this work is to translate findings from the human laboratory and natural environment to improve treatment initiatives. Several recently completed (and ongoing) clinical trials investigated the combined effects of pharmacotherapy and psychosocial interventions for treating alcohol and cannabis misuse among adolescents and young adults. An innovative methodological strategy employed across much of this work involves the systematic pairing of experimentally controlled human laboratory paradigms with ecological momentary assessment (EMA), whereby participants use handheld electronic diaries to monitor their behavior as well as sensitivity to alcohol and other drugs in real time in their natural environment. Additionally, in each study a broad spectrum of psychopathology was assessed, as well as myriad domains of temperament and cognitive function. Multiple opportunities are available for collaboration in analyzes these large datasets, including manuscript preparation and the development of grant proposals. In addition, newly funded studies afford the opportunity for collaboration in various aspects of ongoing data collection. Individual and group research supervision will be provided by Dr. Robert Miranda.
Jessica Peters: Dr. Peters’ current research focuses on the menstrual cycle and the role of ovarian steroid hormones in triggering or exacerbating psychiatric symptoms, including in the context of borderline personality disorder and premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Upcoming projects include applying a range of modeling techniques to daily symptom and hormone data across the cycle in ongoing studies and existing datasets. Prior experience with advanced quantitative methods and coding (e.g., R, Mplus) is helpful.
Ana Rabasco & Lauren Weinstock: This research placement provides exposure to intervention development, piloting, full-scale evaluation, and implementation within the areas of suicide prevention and treatment of serious mental illness. Drs. Weinstock and Rabasco have additional expertise in these areas within the context of high-risk care transitions (e.g., from criminal legal settings to the community, from inpatient to outpatient treatment, and after emergency department discharge). As the internship schedule allows, opportunities might be available to become involved in the Brown Consortium for Research Innovation on Suicide Prevention (CRISP) and the National Center for Health and Justice Integration for Suicide Prevention (NCHATS), for which Dr. Weinstock is MPI.
Hayley Treloar Padovano: Dr. Treloar Padovano (she/her) is a licensed psychologist and member of the training faculty for the Brown Clinical Psychology Internship Training Program, offering a research placement in the Adult Track. She is co-chair of the department’s Trainee Support committee and jointly appointed as Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior in the Division of BioMed and Associate Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences in the School of Public Health. She serves as Associate Director of Inclusive Excellence for the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies and Associate Director of Team Science for the Center for Addiction and Disease Risk Exacerbation. Dr. Treloar Padovano’s clinical research program evaluates the development, prevention, and treatment of alcohol and cannabis use disorders through longitudinal designs, personalized interventions, and assessments in daily life and in communities. Her recent and ongoing clinical trials seek to intervene earlier for metabolism- and alcohol-associated liver disease in primary-care and specialty clinics serving uninsured adults in Rhode Island. Another line of her research program pairs laboratory paradigms and ecological momentary assessment to identify multifaceted determinants of changing substance-use choices and wellness during early-to-mid adolescence. As of 2021, Dr. Treloar Padovano implements all studies for which she is the primary researcher in Spanish and English. Her research team seeks to welcome and actively support trainees with distinctive perspectives or expertise.
Child Track Faculty offering Research Placements
Clinical Child Psychology
Anastacia Kudinova: Bio-behavioral mechanisms of youth suicide risk focussing on self-referential cognitive-affective processes (e.g., self-criticism, self-compassion) and sleep and circadian timing. The current studies integrate ecological momentary assessment technology, neuroimaging techniques, circadian phase and sleep biology measures, and self-report interview and questionnaire assessment modes.
Christopher Houck: Emotion regulation and its relationship to adolescent health risk behaviors (e.g., sexual risk, partner violence, and substance use) including behavioral interventions to promote ER.
Dave Barker: Pairing individual participant data from clinical trials with causal analysis to better understand what works for whom. Secondary data analysis with modern analytic techniques to address a variety of questions in clinical child psychology.
Elizabeth Thompson: Psychosis-spectrum disorders in adolescence, with a focus on screening and assessment across settings, intervention development, and co-occurring suicidality.
Jared Saletin: Adolescent sleep research and cognitive neuroscience. Our current focus is on impact of sleep and sleep loss on cognition, brain function, and the underpinnings of mental health in early adolescents. We are particularly interested in ADHD as a lens of vulnerability to sleep loss. The lab blends sleep and circadian science with neuroscience techniques of EEG and fMRI, and cognitive and mental health probes of relevant functional domains (e.g., learning, attention, impulsivity). Our team is embedded in the Sleep for Science Lab and collaborates closely with Prof. Mary A. Carskadon, PhD.
Laura Stroud: Biobehavioral & epigenetic mechanisms of stress, mood, and substance use. The BAMBAM lab focuses on two sensitive periods of development: perinatal-fetal-infant transition and the adolescent/pubertal transition. Within the perinatal-fetal-infant period, we focus on the impact of perinatal stress, mood, and substance use on maternal, fetal and infant health and development. Within the adolescent period, we have focused on neural and neuroendocrine biomarkers of risk for adolescent depression. Opportunities for psychology residents typically include secondary analysis of existing data for manuscript submission and/or conference presentations, grant writing, and hands-on exposure to perinatal research.
Jennifer Freeman, Kristen Benito & Josh Kemp - Pediatric Anxiety Research Clinic (PARC): Assessment and treatment of childhood and adolescent obsessive-compulsive disorder and anxiety disorders; development of new treatments/augmentation strategies, including neuromodulation; dissemination and implementation of exposure treatment for anxiety, including development of innovative service models and technology to support implementation.
Jennifer Wolff & Katherine Tezanos: Improving the identification and treatment of suicidal youth in various settings. Current research involves: 1) implementing evidence-based care in community settings for juvenile justice youth at risk for suicide, 2) developing a valid assessment of suicide for pre-adolescents, 3) bridge treatment for youth presenting in the emergency department with suicidal ideation, and 4) examining patient perspectives and outcomes in inpatient psychiatric treatment.
Lindsay Huffhines: Early childhood development in the context of family and social risk; study of community dissemination of evidence-based preventive interventions for young children and families.
Petya Radoeva: Neural mechanisms of depressive symptoms in youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD); broader interests include risk and protective factors for mood problems and disorders and for suicidality in youth with ASD (including sleep, nutritional factors, cognitive flexibility).
Jared Saletin: Adolescent sleep research and cognitive neuroscience. Our current focus is on impact of sleep and sleep loss on cognition, brain function, and the underpinnings of mental health in early adolescents. We are particularly interested in ADHD as a lens of vulnerability to sleep loss. The lab blends sleep and circadian science with neuroscience techniques of EEG and fMRI, and cognitive and mental health probes of relevant functional domains (e.g., learning, attention, impulsivity). Our team is embedded in the Sleep for Science Lab and collaborates closely with Prof. Mary A. Carskadon, PhD.
Pediatric Psychology
David Barker: Pairing individual participant data from clinical trials with causal analysis to better understand what works for whom. Secondary data analysis with modern analytic techniques to address a variety of questions in pediatric psychology.
David Barker, Elizabeth McQuaid & Daphne Koinis-Mitchell: Using qualitative and quantitative data from a recently completed implementation trial along with medical records and insurance claim data to understand the impact of a community-based asthma treatment program implemented in Greater Providence, RI. The program was focused on communities with the highest asthma burden.
Katherine Darling: Addressing weight stigma and weight-related health behaviors for children and adolescents; weight bias and stigma in adolescence; behavioral lifestyle interventions for adolescents; pediatrician interventions to decrease weight bias and improve weight-related health communication
Christopher Houck: Emotion regulation and its relationship to adolescent health risk behaviors (e.g., sexual risk, partner violence, and substance use) including behavioral interventions to promote ER.
Barbara Jandasek & Elizabeth McQuaid: Pediatric Cardiology: Program Evaluation and QI focused on assessment and treatment of psychosocial and behavioral health issues amongst youth presenting to Outpatient Cardiology. Current research includes: 1) standardized assessment, evaluation, and enhancement of behavioral health services in the Pediatric Heart Center, 2) program development (e.g., for parents of children with Congenital Heart Disease),3) Evaluation of Heart Camp.
Barbara Jandasek & Jack Nassau: Hasbro Children’s Partial Hospitalization Program: Research and Program Evaluation focuses on treatment of children with complex medical and psychiatric diagnoses treated at Hasbro Children’s Partial Hospitalization Program. Current research includes: 1) understanding health care utilization patterns prior and post HCPHP treatment course, 2) program outcomes, and 3) integration of standardized assessment and program outcomes.
Elissa Jelalian: Adolescent weight control; community-based interventions; and weight gain prevention.
Daphne Koinis-Mitchell: Risk and resilience in urban children with chronic illness; pediatric health disparities in asthma and sleep; asthma and immune function.
Melissa Pielech: Pediatric pain, substance use, implementation science, and mixed methodologies. Current research involves: 1) RCT of a novel intervention targeting acute pain coping and substance use behaviors among youth after oral surgery; 2) Examination of pain experiences in youth who use substances; 3) Addressing barriers to family involvement in opioid use disorder treatment for adolescents and young adults; 4) Increasing access to evidence-based pain and substance use treatment.
Jared Saletin: Adolescent sleep research and cognitive neuroscience. Our current focus is on impact of sleep and sleep loss on cognition, brain function, and the underpinnings of mental health in early adolescents. We are particularly interested in ADHD as a lens of vulnerability to sleep loss. The lab blends sleep and circadian science with neuroscience techniques of EEG and fMRI, and cognitive and mental health probes of relevant functional domains (e.g., learning, attention, impulsivity). Our team is embedded in the Sleep for Science Lab and collaborates closely with Prof. Mary A. Carskadon, PhD.
Juvenile Justice Behavioral Health
Christopher Houck: Emotion regulation and its relationship to adolescent health risk behaviors (e.g., sexual risk, partner violence, and substance use) including behavioral interventions to promote ER.
Kathleen Kemp: Mental health screening and treatment in the juvenile justice system; suicide prevention with juvenile justice-involved youth; substance use interventions; dissemination and implementation of evidenced-based treatment in juvenile justice settings.
Robert Miranda: Pharmacotherapy and psychosocial intervention development research for adolescents with alcohol, cannabis, and other substance use disorders; ecological momentary assessment methods; psychophysiological and other laboratory-based methods.
Lauren Micalizzi: Early-life substance exposure; just-in-time adaptive interventions for perinatal substance use; self-regulatory and mental health correlates of substance use.
Kaitlin Sheerin: Development and evaluation of family-based behavioral health treatments for youth involved in the juvenile legal system. Family- and systems-level factors associated with behavioral health services use and access.
Health Psychology/Behavioral Medicine Faculty offering Research Placements
Carly Goldstein: Behavioral obesity treatment; digital health; optimization designs; implementation science; cardiovascular disease prevention and treatment; interventions delivered through integrated care.
Stephanie Goldstein: Applying digital health tools (like ecological momentary assessment [EMA], wrist-worn sensing, geolocation, just-in-time adaptive interventions [JITAIs]), innovative research methods (like optimization designs and behavioral phenotyping), and novel statistical approaches (like machine learning) to advance precision interventions for weight-related behaviors implicated in cardiovascular disease risk. Studying adherence, diet, and eating behaviors in the context of lifestyle modification programs.
Sharon Lee: Biobehavioral mechanisms linking stress and trauma with cardiovascular health risk; psychophysiology of stress reactivity; stress measurement via laboratory paradigms and ambulatory assessment methods (e.g., wearable devices, ecological momentary assessment); resilience and posttraumatic growth
Elena Salmoirago-Blotcher: stress reactivity and acute coronary syndromes; psychosocial determinants of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD); heart failure and cognitive dysfunction; mind-body interventions to promote cardiovascular health.
Laura Stroud: Intergenerational transmission of stress, trauma, psychopathology, and substance use. Biobehavioral & epigenetic mechanisms of stress, depression, tobacco, and substance use. Perinatal and women's health & health disparities; Tobacco, marijuana and new tobacco products (hookah, e-cigarettes); Stress response/HPA stress reactivity in infants/children/adolescents. Opportunities for psychology residents typically include secondary analysis of existing data for manuscript submission and/or conference presentations, grant writing, and hands-on exposure to perinatal and substance use research.
Graham Thomas: Technology for health behavior assessment and intervention; Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA); wearable devices/passive sensing; just-in-time adaptive interventions (JITAI); engineering-inspired treatment optimization methodologies; behavioral obesity treatment.
Lisa Uebelacker: Study of physical activity, yoga, and integrated primary care interventions for depression and/or chronic pain, including in the context of HIV or opioid use disorder.
Jessica Unick – Remotely-delivered behavioral interventions for promoting physical activity and weight loss; understanding variability in treatment response and adherence; development and implementation of adaptive interventions; interrelationships between yoga, weight, and eating behaviors; ecological momentary assessment (EMA).
Neuropsychology Faculty offering Research Placements
Jennifer Davis, PhD, ABPP-CN & Seth Margolis, PhD, ABPP-CN: Researching Everyday Activities of Living (REAL) Lab (Rhode Island Hospital). Drs. Davis and Margolis co-direct the REAL Lab research placement. REAL Lab studies center on functional and psychosocial aspects of cognitive impairment in adults and older adults. Current interests relate to neuropsychological and psychosocial aspects of medication adherence, predictors of functional decline and compensatory strategy use in MCI and mild dementia, the ecological validity of cognitive testing, neuropsychological side effects of medications, individual factors related to driving safety, as well as psychosocial adjustment to illness and disability more broadly. There will be opportunities to be involved in grant funded projects aimed at testing new neuropsychologically informed interventions (i.e., beta and feasibility testing of an internet-based anti-stigma intervention for people with epilepsy; health behavior promotion among mid-life adults at risk for cognitive decline in both English and non-English speaking individuals).
Preeti Sunderaraman, PhD: Research in Characterizing Everyday Financial decision making & financial exploitation using a novel online money management simulated technology task (Butler Hospital). Dr. Sunderaraman received the NIH/NIA’s K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award in 2019. The grant is titled, 'Modernizing the Assessment of Financial Decision Making: Development and Evaluation of a Simulated Online Money Management Task in Older Adults.' For this project, Dr. Sunderaraman developed a de-novo simulation technology-based online money management (OMM) credit card task to assess financial decision making in individuals across the spectrum of cognitive aging. The ultimate goal of the project is for this novel tool to be used by clinicians such as neuropsychologists during a comprehensive evaluation. The first two aims of the project seek to establish the reliability and validity of the OMM task in cognitively healthy older adults via psychometrically rigorous approaches. The third and fourth aims are to track OMM performance over time and in relation to cognitive changes, and to study the contributors and correlates of financial decision making and one’s awareness of such decision making. There is baseline and longitudinal data available for this project. Previously, Dr. Sunderaraman has studied cognitive (e.g., numeracy, executive functioning) and neural markers (e.g., cortical thickness, white matter integrity, functional connectivity) of these constructs. Supervision for advanced statistical methods is available, although basic proficiency in statistics is expected. The clinical psychology resident will be expected to conceptualize their idea/s by working closely with Dr. Sunderaraman. They will have the opportunity to publish their work in peer-reviewed journals and present their work at local, national, and international conferences. There will also be opportunities for the resident to participate in other projects led by Dr. Sunderaraman by doing literature reviews, data processing, data analysis, manuscript preparation, etc.
Preeti Sunderaraman, PhD & Edward (“Ted”) Huey, MD: Research in Neuropsychiatric symptoms in neurodegenerative disorders (Butler Hospital). This research placement will focus on a better understanding of the neuroanatomical bases of neuropsychiatric and behavioral symptoms in patients with neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer’s disease, Frontotemporal dementia, Huntington’s disease, and primary progressive aphasia. Interns will utilize behavioral data in conjunction with neuroimaging and psychophysiological data to determine patterns of data associated with degeneration of specific brain circuits across different neurodegenerative illnesses. The intern will work with a team of psychologists, psychiatrists, statisticians, and research coordinators to analyze collected data with the goal of developing a publication or presentation.
Brian Kavanaugh, PsyD, ABPP: Research in Accelerated iTBS targeting of working memory versus inhibitory control in adolescent ADHD. This research placement focuses on using non-invasive brain stimulation (intermittent theta burst stimulation [iTBS]) to modulate the neural dynamics underlying working memory (WM) and inhibitory control (IC) in adolescent ADHD. Our group utilizes brain imaging (e.g., structural and resting-state functional MRI), electrophysiological activity recording (e.g., task-related EEG), non-invasive brain stimulation (e.g., iTBS), and behavioral paradigms to develop a new treatment for executive functioning deficits. This involves an ongoing clinical trial, an experimental research study, and data from our recently completed TMS-ADHD research studies. The clinical psychology resident will have opportunities to be actively involved in active study procedures, EEG/MRI data analysis, and literature reviews on related topics. There is also access to our pediatric neuropsychology dataset. Prior experience with analysis of EEG, TMS, or MRI data is strongly encouraged.
Louisa Thompson, PhD: Digital cognitive assessment tools and their applications in ADRD clinical practice and research (Butler Hospital). The research placement in the Digital Assessment for Neurodegenerative Disease Detection Improvement Lab (DANDI) and Butler Memory & Aging Program will focus on evaluating digital cognitive assessment tools (tablet or smartphone modalities) across different settings. Current studies are using digital tests in the development of protocols for routine cognitive screening in primary care practices, as well as for longitudinal monitoring of change in observational studies of aging and Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (AD/ADRD). Quantitative and qualitative data are available for investigating research questions related to the acceptability, feasibility, and appropriateness of using novel digital assessment tools in clinical care. Other types of data for evaluating digital assessment validity may be available from longitudinal observational studies including biomarker, functional assessment, and self-report data from symptomatic and asymptomatic older adults.
Brown University Department of Cognitive and Psychological Sciences
David Badre, PhD & additional supervisor TBD Neuropsychology Faculty: Basic cognitive neuroscience of cognitive control and executive function. Behavioral, fMRI, EEG, and brain stimulation methods.
Internship Grant Program
The Internship Grant Program was created to provide the opportunity for clinical psychology residents to apply for 'seed money' for small research projects during the internship year. This research is generally an outgrowth of the research placement, with the research placement supervisor serving as a mentor. There is a small amount of funds available per internship year.