Lab Members
Dr. Cixin Wang
Dr. Cixin Wang is an assistant professor of School Psychology in the College of Education at the University of Maryland, College Park (Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education). She received her Ph.D. in School Psychology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2011. She then completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at Kennedy Krieger Institute/Johns Hopkins University in 2013. Her research interests focus on bullying prevention and mental health promotion among children and adolescents. Her research seeks to: (1) better understand different factors contributing to bullying/ victimization and mental health difficulties, including individual, family, school, and cultural factors; (2) develop effective prevention and intervention techniques to decrease bullying at school; and (3) develop school-wide prevention models to promote mental health among students, especially among culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students. Arianna Lashley Scott, M.A.
Arianna Lashley Scott is a post-intern and graduate of the school psychology program at UMD. Her research interests include bystander behaviors, bullying prevention, and socioemotional skills. Arianna completed her APA doctoral internship through Loudoun County Public Schools during the 2017-2018 school year and currently works as a school psychologist in Loudoun County Public Schools. She received her Bachelor's degree in 2012 from Andrews University and her Master's from the University of Maryland in 2016. Outside of graduate school, Arianna likes to attend plays and musicals, visit museums and historical reenactments around the area, and spend time with her husband and two cats. Julia Barlis
Julia Barlis is a post-intern and graduate of the School Psychology doctoral program at UMD. Julia received her B.S. in Psychology and Education from Davidson College. Her research interests focus on ways to promote mental health literacy and increase access to mental health services among racially and ethnically diverse youth. Kristen Frese
Kristen Frese is a fifth-year doctoral student in the School Psychology program at UMD who is currently out on internship. She earned her B.S. in Applied Developmental Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh. Her research interests include parental knowledge of mental health disorders and the utilization of school-based mental health services by racially and ethnically diverse students. Ana Ross
Ana Ross is a fifth-year doctoral student in the School Psychology Program at UMD who is currently out on internship. She earned a B.S. in Psychology and a B.A. in Political Science from Penn State. Ana is in interested in research evaluating how school-based mental health services can be enhanced, reach more students in need of services, and possibly mitigate some of the barriers youth face when seeking community-based services. She is currently working on a project looking at teachers' mental health literacy and perceptions of school-based mental health services. Kate Sullivan
Kate Sullivan is a fourth-year doctoral student in the School Psychology Program at UMD. She earned her B.A. in Psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research interests include bullying and aggression and increasing access to school-based mental health services. Jocelyn Yao
Jocelyn Yao is a third-year student in the school psychology program at UMD. She earned her B.S. in Psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research interests include bullying prevention among children and adolescents and school climate.
Qianyu Zhu
Qianyu Zhu is a third-year doctoral student in the School Psychology Program at UMD. She earned her B.S. in Psychology and an M.A. in Mental Health Education from Beijing Normal University. Qianyu worked for 6 years as a psychological teacher in a high school in China. Qianyu is in interested in school climate and school-based mental health services. Mazneen Havewala
Mazneen is a second-year doctoral student in the School Psychology program. Mazneen earned her first Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology in 2008 in India, after which she worked as a Clinical Psychologist for two years. She moved to the United States in 2011, and got her second Master’s degree in Personality and Social Psychology from the American University, Washington, DC in December 2012, after which she worked as a research assistant in various capacities. In 2016, she started working at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP) as a research coordinator for Dr. Julia Felton for a study investigating the effects of distress tolerance and daily life stressors on internalizing symptoms in adolescents. She then worked as a clinical interviewer for the Temperament Over Time Study in Dr. Nathan Fox’s Child Development lab. She is very interested in studying the effects of parental influences and culture on child development, with a specific focus on child and adolescent internalizing symptoms. Xinyi Zhang
Xinyi Zhang is a second-year doctoral student in the School Psychology program at UMD. She earned her Master of Education in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard Graduate School of Education. She received her undergraduate education from the University of Hong Kong and Yale University (as a visiting international student). Her research interests include cross-cultural parenting and youth mental health. She is currently working on a project looking at ethnic-racial socialization among Chinese Americans. Diksha Bali
Diksha is very excited to be a first-year in the School Psychology PhD program here at UMD this year. Ethnically Indian, she grew up in the United Arab Emirates and moved to Philadelphia to study for her BA and BS degrees in Business and Creative Writing, and then her MS degree in Quantitative Methods and Human Development, all at the University of Pennsylvania. Her past research includes designing surveys, running qualitative and quantitative analyses for community-based research projects, and analyzing large datasets such as the National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE). Her research interests include work to promote understanding and decrease violence/bullying in society, and improve equity and outcomes for underserved youth through SEL and employment programs. She tries to keep equity and compassion as her overarching frameworks, trying to make at least a small positive impact in the world today. Finally, Diksha has been practicing meditation and mindfulness since she was a toddler. She is interested in introducing others to mindfulness philosophy and techniques, to promote their well-being. She is acutely aware of how mindfulness principles do not belong to any one people, movement, or religion, and encourages people to practice at their own pace in whatever way suits them best. Sara Gliese
Sara Gliese is a first-year doctoral student in the School Psychology program at UMD. Sara received her B.S. in Psychology from UMBC, and her Master’s in Clinical Psychology from UMD. Her research interests include youth mental health, parent-child communication, and peer relationships.
Dr. Yeram Cheong
Dr. Yeram Cheong received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology at the University of California, Riverside. Dr. Cheong's research seeks to address the importance of understanding individuals' development in cultural and social context. Dr. Cheong’s research interests include the cultural context and family processes in children’s development and learning among historically underrepresented and immigrant families. She also explores the ways in which first-generation college students (i.e., students who are first in their family to complete college) draw support from family and peers in their academic adjustment and identity development. As a Calvin J. Li postdoctoral fellow, she hopes to extend her research program to understand socialization processes among Asian immigrant families and to engage in community-based research that has implications for improving home-school relationships and wellbeing of the Asian American children and families.