Note: The Ciesla lab
seeking to admit new graduate students this incoming year!
Current Students in the Lab:
Jennifer
Cooks 
Jennifer Cooks
Adult Psychopathology
M.A., Clinical Psychology,
2017
Kent State University
B.S., Psychology, 2012
Sam Houston State
University
Jennifer is a sixth-year
student in Dr. Ciesla’s lab currently on internship.
Her research interest generally focuses on cognitive, personality, and social
factors that influence the etiology and maintenance of depression. She is
interested in understanding how aspects of social media use may influence
experience of depressive symptoms, and whether social media use could be
reinforcing or adaptive for depressed individuals. An additional interest
regards how perfectionism and failure to meet the needs of others is associated
with stressful experiences and other factors that may present risk for
depressive symptoms.
When not in the lab, you
can find Jennifer catching up on missed television, spending time with friends,
daydreaming, and debating with lab-mates about her peculiar food preferences.
Luke
Heggeness
Adult
Psychopathology
M.A.,
Clinical Psychology, 2018
Kent
State University
B.A.,
Psychology, 2012
University
of Miami (FL)
Luke
is a fifth-year graduate student in Dr. Ciesla's
laboratory. Broadly, his research interests focus on emotion regulation processes
and transdiagnostic risk factors for emotional disorders. In
particular, Luke is interested in substance (ab)use, and the mechanisms
underlying its associations with anxious and depressive symptomatology.
Ultimately, Luke hopes that by highlighting the importance of cognitive and
behavioral flexibility, his research will help in the development of clinical
interventions and the identification of vulnerable populations.
During
his free time, Luke is typically making music with his bass guitar, taking
pictures of his Great Dane, or playing golf (i.e., shanking balls into the
woods).
Christian
Bean
Adult
Psychopathology
B.S.,
Psychology & Philosophy, 2017
College of
William & Mary
Christian is
a third-year graduate student in Dr. Ciesla’s lab. A proud
native of Falls Church, VA, he is broadly interested in the role of rumination
and stress in the etiology and maintenance of depression. Christian is
currently working on a research project examining the relationships between
sleep, mood, and rumination.
When not in the lab, Christian could be found
in the gym, watching Naruto while pretending to work out, or exploring every
rest stop along the great Pennsylvania Turnpike. Guilty pleasures include Ed
Sheeran, Taylor Swift, Gilmore Girls, This is Us, and
interrupting Luke when he is trying to get work done.
Michael
Pellicane
Adult
Psychopathology
M.A.,
Clinical Psychology, 2019
Teachers
College, Columbia University
B.A.,
Psychology, 2016
Hamilton
College
Michael is a
first-year student in Dr. Ciesla’s lab. His research
broadly focuses on cognitive mechanisms of depression in sexual and gender
minority populations. Specifically, he is interested in how minority-specific
processes (such as minority stress) and general cognitive and emotion regulation
processes (such as rumination) impact the development of depression in these
populations.
When not in
the lab, he can be found working out at the campus gym, listening to political
podcasts, binge-watching episodes of South Park, or playing video games (very
badly).
In the finest tradition of F.D.C. Willard, even
our pets are academics:
Layla Heggeness
B.S., Psychology, 2016
Pet State University
Layla is a visiting scholar from Texas. Her research
interests include individual difference factors related to being
a good girl, prevention of separation anxiety, behavioral predictors of
treat-reception, and structural equation modeling.
Graduated
students:
Katie J.
Horsey, Ph.D.
Nicholas L.
Anderson, Ph.D.
Vivek
(Venugopal) Pillai, Ph.D.
Laura
Reilly, Ph.D.
David
Kalmbach, Ph.D.
Kelsey S.
Dickson, Ph.D.
Kate Zelic,
Ph.D.
Mansi Mehta,
Ph.D.