Crisis and Trauma Clinical Interventions Research Area
Dr. Stephanie Bell’s research focuses on the effects of sexual assault on college students, more specifically post-traumatic stress disorder. Her other interests include: trauma-informed counseling and supervision, using humor as a teaching tool, and engaging students outside the classroom with a book club. In 2022, she published two articles in peer-reviewed journals, one relating to college student coping and COVID-19, and the other on female victims of acquaintance rape in college. Dr. Bell received the “Research Professional of the Year” award from the Mississippi Counseling Association in 2021 and 2022. Additionally, Dr. Bell has co-authored several book chapters on college counseling and career counseling.
Dr. Stephanie Chalk has research experience in the fields of counseling, human factors, and neuroscience. Her current research interests include trauma, posttraumatic growth, disability, multiculturalism, and international counseling. Dr. Chalk is the co-principal investigator of research being conducted as part of the HRSA Scholars program, and on the experiences of students who have completed the Global Study course. Dr. Chalk is also partnered with professionals in the fields of counseling and human development to formulate separate research projects on multiculturalism and child development, and cyberbullying/cyber-victimization amongst mental health professionals.
Dr. Jamie Ho’s research agenda focuses on empathy and social justice in counselor preparation. Overall, she is pursuing two major goals: (a) investigating how individuals’ internal empathy process and external expression impact counseling relationships, and (b) amplifying the voices of historically marginalized populations to thicken narratives of the underrepresented experiences. Her research team was previously awarded a research grant for racial disparity from the Association for Assessment and Research in Counseling. Dr. Ho’s current research project aims to validate a theory-driven empathy competence scale to study factors contributing to counselors’ empathy competence.
Dr. Lisa Jackson Cherry has over 25 years of clinical mental health counseling experience which she integrates into her research agenda. Her research focuses on ethical and legal issues in counseling, mental health with military & first responders, risk assessment, global mental health approaches, and religious and spiritual issues with clients. She is the Primary Investigator for a HRSA Grant to increase mental health counselors working with medically underserved populations and settings. She is the co-author of texts Crisis Assessment, Intervention, and Prevention (4th edition, June 2023) and co-author of Practicum and Internship: A handbook for competent clinical practices.
Dr. Chanel S. Rodriguez’s research focuses on the following areas: (1) health disparities in the Latine and Hispanic communities, (2) complex trauma, (3) children, adolescents, & their families that are refugees and asylum seekers, (4) bilingual counseling and research (Spanish & English), and (5) Intersectionality Theoretical Framework. Dr. Rodriguez is the 2022 VFIC – Mednick Memorial Fellowship Program Recipient & received another 2022 research grant from the American Counseling Association – AMCD division.
