Meet the authors.
Yasmeen NealYasmeen completed her Ph.D. in clinical psychology with an emphasis in health psychology in 2015 from Alliant International University in San Diego, CA. She completed a formal APA internship in neuropsychology at the VA-VU Consortium in Nashville, TN and is presently a postdoctoral fellow at Vanderbilt University Medical Center where her training encompasses clinical research and neuropsychological assessment. Dr. Iqbal’s interests broadly include neurocognitive disorders and the aging brain. In addition to her clinical and research responsibilities, she represents the Alzheimer’s Association as Ambassador for the Middle-South chapter. She is also a large advocate of women in science and healthcare and has affiliation with Tennessee Women in Medicine. Having spent a large portion of her doctoral experience in southern California, she has expertise in using sunshine and the great outdoors as a Jedi trick to magically pacify stress. Also a wine enthusiast, you can find her on a given day in Nashville enjoying a glass of Rosé or hanging out with her husband and their dog-daughter, Bisou, who is an adorably ill-behaved 7 year-old Coton de Tulear.
Victoria Tsze
Victoria graduated from the University of Arizona in 2011 with a BA in Psychology and Minors in Sociology and Chinese Studies. She is entering her third year of her Masters in Social Work program at Arizona State University, Tucson Campus.
She has worked in the fields of Child and Family Welfare and Community Mental Health for the past five years. Much of her experience has been advocating on behalf of children that are in the Department of Child Safety custody. She focuses on assessing for imminent risk of harm to vulnerable children, understanding dependency law, and working with interdisciplinary teams to meet the needs of children and their families. Her current passion is focused on infant mental health and developing healthy bonding and attachment between children and their parents through early childhood interventions and Child-Parent Psychotherapy. 
AmyJane McAuley
AmyJane McAuley is approaching her sixth year in an Experimental Psychology PhD Program. She defended her master’s thesis the day after she was due with her first born child (she went into labor the following week). She has advanced to doctoral candidacy and plans to graduate in the spring of 2018. She looks forward to being a contributing member to this blog and sharing some of the ups and downs of having a child in graduate school.
Miriam ThompsonMiriam Eady Thompson earned her Ph.D. in School Psychology (with concentrations in Special Education and Learning Disabilities) at the University of Arizona in 2016. During her graduate career at the University of Arizona, Dr. Thompson worked as a Master Level tutor for the Strategic Alternative Learning Techniques Center (SALT) and worked as a tutoring graduate assistant at the THINK TANK. For two summer semesters, Dr. Thompson served as a graduate tutor coordinator for the New Start Summer Program, which is a summer “bridge” program to help students from low-income and underrepresented backgrounds transition from high school to college.
In 2016, Dr. Thompson completed her APA-accredited pre-doctoral internship at the Multidisciplinary Evaluation & Consulting Center (MDC) at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. At MDC, Dr. Thompson was trained according to the Scholar-Practitioner model, which emphasized application of evidence-based research and clinical practice. Within that framework, Dr. Thompson was trained to provide comprehensive psychological services to rural and low-income school districts; conduct individual and group psychotherapy using evidence-based curriculum; participate in specialty rotations in Autism Spectrum Disorders Clinic and Attention Disorders Clinic; provide Spanish language mental health services to children in the Migrant Education Program; and provide supervision to graduate students. Currently, Dr. Thompson is completing a postdoctoral fellowship in the neurodevelopmental assessment of young children at the Brenner Center at William James College in Newton, Massachusetts. At the Brenner Center, Dr. Thompson conducts neuropsychological assessments in Spanish and English on young children between the ages of 2 and 7, who are referred for ADHD, ASD, speech/language problems and specific learning disorders. Other referrals include assessments for trauma as well as mood and anxiety disorders. In September 2017, Dr. Thompson will be working as a Clinical and Research Fellow in Psychology at the Juvenile Court Consultation Program (JCCP) at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. Her main responsibilities will include working with children and families involved in the juvenile court system. She will be conducting forensic evaluations such that involve status offense petitions, delinquencies, and child abuse and/or neglect. When Dr. Thompson is not writing reports, reading, or testing, she enjoys embarking upon exciting adventures in the Boston area. Within the year of her arrival to Boston, she has gone kayaking, paint balling, and snow tubing. Lastly, Dr. Thompson describes herself as a “social introvert,” a self-proclaimed “gastronomical enthusiast” and “foreign language fanatic.” 
Alyne RodriguesAlyne is a native Brazilian, first-generation college student dedicated to supporting and enhancing diversity in academia. She graduated from Southern Connecticut State University in 2014 with a BA in Psychology and Minor in Women’s Studies. After graduating, she trained as a post-baccalaureate fellow at Yale University, where she coordinated an NIH funded longitudinal study examining stress and substance use.
Alyne is a second-year student at Syracuse University’s Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program. She is interested in social cognition (e.g., the ability to accurately perceive and intercept other’s social cues) and its association with different forms of psychopathology. She is currently examining social cognition in cannabis users to further our understanding of the processes by which cannabis use in young adults leads to short and long term psychological and behavioral change. Alyne was recently awarded a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Fellowship where she is enthusiastic to be a representative for both women and underrepresented students in STEM fields. Her main goal is to bring awareness of STEM career possibilities to underrepresented groups and to support students in knowing that their contributions to academia and graduate education are desired and valued. 
Page BeukelmanPage Beukelman is a fourth year Audiology doctoral student at the University of Arizona. She is currently completing her clinical training at Boston Children's Hospital. She plans to specialize in pediatrics and has always had a love for children. When she is not studying or working with little ears, she loved to spend time outdoors hiking, snowboarding or playing soccer.
Courteney JohnsonOriginally from Long Island, NY Courteney is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. She is currently completing her pre-doctoral internship as part of Louisiana School Psychology Consortium, an APA-accredited internship program. Her research primarily focuses on internalizing disorders in minority youth. Specifically, she is interested in learning more about the stigma of mental illness in minority communities, providing accessible mental health supports for minority students, and developing culturally responsive assessment and intervention practices. She recently received the National Association of School Psychology's 2017 Graduate Student Research award for her dissertation on the development and evaluation of a culturally adapted social-emotional learning program for African American adolescents. Her passion for improving the outcomes of minority youth developed from her experience working as a special education teacher in the NYC public school system.
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Will LesterWilliam just finished his Master’s degree in Multidisciplinary Studies for International Education from SUNY Buffalo State in 2017 and he prefers it if you call him Will. Will completed his Bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education with emphases in Social Studies and Geography from Arizona State University in just shy of a decade. Other majors included Math Education, Pharmaceuticals, and Philosophy. Will currently teaches Secondary Humanities, Geography, World History, and Business Management at the Fukuoka International School in Fukuoka, Japan.
Will found a passion for education and working with youth while traveling as a volunteer teacher in Kenya and the Dominican Republic. He also has worked in internet marketing and as an outdoor education specialist in Europe where he was able to unite both his passions. This combined with his experiences as a ‘middle-of-the-road’ student has made him determined to find a means of education that gives his students an experience in the classroom to learn aspects of individuality and community. Will’s interests include rock climbing, rugby, baseball, guitar, photography, watercolor and he can canoe a canoe. He enjoys reading about, researching and discussing new trends and methods for preparing students for education that are alternatives to summative examination of what a student can do with limited resources, limited time, and limited space. 
Angela MallardAngela Mallard is a doctoral student at The University of Tennessee studying biological anthropology as a member of the Osteometric Variation Analysis Lab. Her research centers around the evaluation of gene flow in ancient and historic human populations using skeletal measurements. She is a native Arizonan, born and raised in Mesa. She earned her BA in 2008 from the University of Arizona, double majoring in Anthropology and History and focusing her research on zooarchaeology - the study of animal remains at archaeological sites. After a research internship at the Illinois State Museum, she entered the graduate program in Human Skeletal Biology at New York University, earning her MA in Biological Anthropology in 2011. Deciding she needed a break from being a graduate student, she moved back to Arizona and began teaching human evolution at the community college level. Teaching reignited her passion for anthropology, and in 2015 she returned to graduate school to start her doctorate.
Angela currently lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, where there is lots of greenery but a sad shortage of cactus. She is still trying to figure out her work-life balance, but in her spare time she enjoys cooking, road trips, and watching old movies. She loves dogs but doesn’t have one, and she has spent the past two summers teaching biological anthropology and human evolution to high schools students at the Governor’s School in North Carolina. 
Meg Beardmore
Megan’s academic journey was ignited and inspired by her younger sister Emily, who has a diagnosis of autism. Throughout her childhood, she realized that a disability is not a definition. Thus, she set out to assist children with developmental disabilities in achieving their full potential.
Megan is originally from a small town in Iowa. She completed her undergraduate studies in Psychology, Counseling, and Education at the University of Iowa. With a whole lot of zest, passion, and excitement, she moved to Tucson to pursue her career in School Psychology. Currently, Megan is a fourth-year Ph.D. Candidate at The University of Arizona. She is actively involved in two major research grants through the College of Education and Banner University Medical Center: one involving Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education programs in primary schools, and another working with children and families affected by Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus. In addition, she spends her time providing psychotherapy, as well as Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) services, in private and clinical settings. In her ever-dwindling free time, Megan enjoys being outside immersed in nature, which contributes to her sanity preservation efforts. She is notorious for her abilities to summit mountains and whisper to bighorn sheep and rattlesnakes. 
Savannah WrightSavannah earned her Ph.D. in School Psychology in 2017. During her graduate program at the University of Arizona, Dr. Wright gained experience at the Pima County Juvenile Detention Center administering court ordered psychological and psychoeducational assessments to juveniles. She also completed an externship at the University of Arizona Medical Center providing individual and family therapy for children and adolescents admitted to the outpatient clinic. Additionally, the majority of her practicum hours were spent in the school setting. S he completed her internship in Tempe Elementary School District working primarily at a special needs preschool.
Savannah currently lives in Tucson, AZ with her husband and their 3-year-old son. Baby brother will join the family in August 2017. She will be working in Tucson Unified School District as a School Psychologist for the 2017-18 school year. She looks forward to officially beginning her career journey and contributing to this blog! 
Deija McLeanOriginally from a small town in Ohio, Deija obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Early and Middle Childhood Studies from The Ohio State University (Go Bucks!). From there, she hoped to continue building a career involving service to children. With the desire to impact populations with learning and developmental disabilities, Deija chose to pursue a career as a psychologist.
Currently, Deija is a third-year doctoral student in School Psychology at the University of Missouri. While completing her PhD, Deija is also obtaining her Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) credential. Her primary research and clinical interests are Autism Spectrum Disorder and Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). In her down time Deija enjoys reading, cooking, spending time with friends and family, and attempting to train her cats Braxton and Blair. So far, success with training has been dismal. 
Andrew TubbsAndrew is an MD/PhD student at the University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson with an interest in psychiatry and neuroscience. He is currently pursuing his PhD in neuroscience as part of the Sleep and Health Research Program at the University of Arizona. As part of his medical education Andrew helped found the MIND Clinic, an outpatient psychiatry clinic run by medical students and volunteer psychiatrists. He also served as Co-President of the Psychiatry and Mental Health Interest Group and President of the Christian Medical Society at COM-T. In his spare time, Andrew likes to cook (not bake), watch movies, and write short fiction.
Mallory HaneyMallory received her master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from The University of Alabama in 2014, completing her internship at the University’s Women and Gender Resource Center where she provided counseling services for women who experienced sexual assault, childhood abuse, and domestic violence. She has worked as a Professional Counselor in the partial hospitalization program at Rogers Behavioral Health in Nashville since March of 2015, specializing in the treatment of OCD and anxiety disorders. Mallory will be leaving her position at Rogers soon to pursue private practice, employing her skills in CBT with exposure and response prevention to provide care to individuals with OCD and anxiety disorders in the outpatient level of care. Mallory is a marathon runner and encourages clients to incorporate exercise into their routines in order to decrease anxiety and improve mood. She is a cat lady mother of two rescues, soon to combine households with her fiancé, father of a dog and a cat, creating their own love-filled zoo.
Molly ScanlonMolly M. Scanlon, PhD, FAIA, FACHA is an Environmental and Occupational Health Research Scientist, as well as a licensed and certified Healthcare Architect conducting research at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona. She has 25+ years of planning and design experience for healthcare settings to create environments benefiting the health, safety, and welfare of patients, nurses, physicians, and staff. Dr. Scanlon’s research involves examining the built and natural environments impact on human health with an emphasis in health care settings. She recently contributed as an author and content developer for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC)’s Legionellosis Prevention and Response Online Training Grant. Additionally, Dr. Scanlon is participating on research teams focusing on reducing hospital-associated infections through analysis of occupational stress risk factors for healthcare personnel.
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More Fabulous Author Bios Coming Soon-ish!
Jessica and Lauren are excited about this project, and have selected a wonderful group of colleagues to share their tips and advice from their training experiences. The ideas expressed within each individual post are solely those of the author(s), and are not (necessarily) consistent across all individuals and experiences. If you have questions about the content of any particular post, Jessica & Lauren encourage you to contact the author(s) to keep the conversation going!
