Our Team
Joah L. Williams, Ph.D.
Dr. Williams is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at The University of Memphis and is Director of the STEPS Lab. He received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from The University of Memphis in 2013. Dr. Williams also completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in child and adult trauma research and treatment at the Medical University of South Carolina's National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center. Prior to joining the Department of Psychology at The University of Memphis, Dr. Williams was on the faculty in the Department of Psychology and Counseling at The University of Missouri - Kansas City. He has broad research and clinical interests in the area of traumatic stress, extending this work into the related areas of community violence and traumatic grief. His program of research focuses on psychosocial and health consequences of trauma exposure and the development of traumatic stress prevention and early intervention programs. He is also a licensed psychologist in the state of Missouri and is actively involved in clinical training and consultation.
Current Graduate Students
Vivian Gleason, MA
Vivian Gleason is a second year PhD student. She is interested in the assessment, prevention, and treatment of traumatic stress and other negative mental and physical health consequences following exposure to extreme adversities related to natural disasters, war, violence, and sudden loss. She is also interested in researching constructs such as self-regulation, self-agency, meaning-making, and posttraumatic growth in individuals impacted by trauma.
Emily Velandia, BA
Emily Velandia is a second-year student in the Clinical Psychology doctoral program at The University of Memphis. She graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 2019 with Bachelor of Arts degrees in Psychology and English. Emily worked as a Staff Research Associate at the Child and Adolescent Services Research Center in San Diego, CA for 3 years. Her research interests revolve around how strengths can be transmitted across generations, particularly within families with young children who have experienced intergenerational trauma or adversity.
Izzy Watters, MS
Izzy Watters is a first-year student in the Clinical Psychology doctoral program. She graduated from Avila University with a Master of Science in Psychology with a research concentration. Her research focuses on stress and trauma, with particular interest in physiological reactivity to stress and the perception of stress. She is also interested in exploring research related to grief.
Graduate Student Alumni
Madeleine Hardt, Ph.D.
Madeleine Hardt is a 2023 graduate of the Clinical Psychology Program at The University of Missouri - Kansas City. She researches underlying mechanisms and perpetuating factors within grief and trauma, and how these inform assessment and intervention development. She examines emotion regulation and health behaviors in bereaved individuals. She is interested in constructs of yearning, avoidance, rumination, and reward sensitivity in Prolonged Grief Disorder. Madeleine is currently completing a T32 postdoctoral fellowship in the Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, NY.
Aisling Henschel, Ph.D.
Aisling Henschel is a 2023 graduate of the Clinical Psychology Program at The University of Missouri - Kansas City. Her research interests include emotion regulation in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Prolonged Grief Disorder. Aisling is also interested in how substance use changes following the death of a loved one. Aisling is currently completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the Cincinnati VA Medical Center in Cincinnati, OH.
Jasmine Jamison-Petr, Ph.D
Jasmine Jamison-Petr is a 2021 graduate of the Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program at The University of Missouri - Kansas City. Her research interests include Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Prolonged Grief Disorder symptom structure. Jasmine is also interested in network theory and its utilization in understanding psychopathology. She is also investigating the role of microaggressions in bereaved African Americans. Jasmine is currently a staff psychologist at the Dwight D. Eisenhower VA Medical Center in Leavenworth, KS.
Undergraduate Lab Assistant Alumni
Samadia Saquee
Samadia graduated from the University of Missouri - Kansas City with a psychology major and a sociology major with an emphasis in cultural anthropology. She is specifically interested in working with minority women and adolescents as well as helping foster culture and diversity within schools and workplaces.
Willow Carr
Willow Carr graduated from the University of Missouri-Kansas City as a psychology major. Her research interests include sexual assault, domestic violence, and emotion regulation.
Rachel Johnson
Rachel Johnson graduated from UMKC with a major in psychology and a minor in business. Her interests include the behaviors and dynamics in families and marriages. More specifically, how to encourage and promote healthy communication, growth, and mindfulness among struggling families dealing with challenges, loss and/or grief.
Tori Humiston
Tori Humiston is a second-year master's student in the Clinical Psychology Program at Eastern Michigan University. Her research interests include disruptions in children's stress-response systems due to varying psychopathologies as well as children exposed to trauma. She is also interested in evidence-based interventions for these populations as well as the influence of the family system on their health outcomes.
Madison Sutton
Madison Sutton is currently employed at an ABA center. Her research interests include criminalization among juveniles. More specifically, the impact of socio-economic distress on criminalization. Madison is also interested in the relationship between mental illness and substance abuse in juveniles.