Dr. Joni Williams Splett is an Associate Professor of School Psychology at the University of Florida. Her research aims to improve the social, emotional, and behavioral health outcomes of all school-aged children and youth through two lines of inquiry: (1) school-wide service delivery models of behavioral and mental health promotion, prevention, and intervention services; and (2) school-based interventions to reduce student aggression and increase prosocial responses. Dr. Splett’s work leverages systems and implementation supports to address persistent health disparities in the school setting.

Email: splett@ufl.edu

Dr. Cathy Corbin is an Assistant Research Professor in the Prevention and Intervention Network (PIN) at the University of Florida. Their research aims to promote teachers’ and students’ social-emotional development and well-being by understanding and enhancing: (1) student-teacher relationships, (2) teachers’ social-emotional competencies and occupational health, and (3) the effective implementation of Tier 1 (i.e., universal, delivered to all students) social, emotional, and behavioral programs. Dr. Corbin is also interested in the potential of school-based de-implementation (i.e., the discontinuation or reduced use of low-value and harmful practices) to make resources available for educators’ to successfully implement evidence-based/informed practices. These interrelated lines of inquiry are progressed using advanced quantitative methodology, with a particular emphasis on developing and/or refining measures for research and practice. Dr. Corbin’s work is motivated by a future in which all students and educators have access to the skills, opportunities, and services that will facilitate their school and life success.

Email: cm.corbin@coe.ufl.edu
Preferred Name: Cathy

Dr. Megan Worth (Faculty Affiliate)

Dr. Megan Worth is an Assistant Research Scientist in the Prevention and Intervention Network (PIN) at the University of Florida. A former special educator, Dr. Worth’s research is grounded in her experience supporting students with significant emotional and behavioral challenges and the educators who serve them. Her work focuses on improving access to evidence-based social, emotional, and behavioral interventions. Dr. Worth is particularly interested in promoting social-emotional learning and resilience in students with and at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders, prioritizing feasibility, social validity, and sustainability. Her current work uses mixed methods and collaborative inquiry to center the voices of educators, families, and communities in intervention development and refinement. Dr. Worth’s long-term goal is to help build school systems that empower all students and educators—especially those facing the greatest challenges—with the skills and opportunities they need to thrive in the classroom and beyond.

Email: m.worth@ufl.edu 

Dr. Katie Trainor (Faculty Affiliate)

Dr. Katie Trainor is a licensed psychologist and nationally certified school psychologist and serves as the program manager and graduate supervisor for the Gator Connect program. After graduating with her PhD from the UF School Psychology program, she completed her post-doctoral research fellowship at the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s National Center for School Mental Health. Katie has spent the past decade working in schools as a teacher, researcher and clinician and is passionate about increasing access to culturally responsive, evidence-based mental health care for youth and families. As a former teacher, Katie brings her school-based expertise to champion teachers and staff to support their students and their personal well-being through education, consultation, and systems-change.

Email:  ktrainor@coe.ufl.edu 

Christopher J. Anthony is an Associate Professor of School Psychology at the University of Florida. He is interested in promoting comprehensive student social, emotional, and academic success. He focuses on two particular areas of students competence: social and emotional skills (e.g., relationship skills, self-awareness) and academic enablers (e.g., motivation, study skills, classroom engagement). He especially focuses on using advanced methodology to develop more efficient, technically sound assessments of these competencies. He has been a lead author on several assessments used to promote student success across the country and for research across the world. He also utilized sophisticated statistical techniques to examine how these factors can be promoted and improved in schools. Through these avenues, Dr. Anthony hopes to foster students’ comprehensive success in schools and beyond.

Email: canthony@coe.ufl.edu 

Dr. Joy Gabrielli (Faculty Affiliate)

Dr. Joy Gabrielli is a clinical child psychologist and assistant professor in the Clinical and Health Psychology Department. She obtained her PhD from the University of Kansas Clinical Child Psychology Program and did postdoctoral research training through the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health at Dartmouth College. She has clinical and research interests in prevention of health risk behavior in adolescents and is currently working on parental media literacy as a means to prevent substance use in youth. Dr. Gabrielli also has interests in work with underserved, under-researched populations (e.g., youth in foster care), and she has examined early life adversity as a predictor of risk trajectories in youth.

Email: jgabrielli@ufl.edu

Sarah D. Lynne is an Associate Professor in the Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences at the University of Florida. A primary goal of her research is to promote positive health and well-being using the tools of developmental psychology and prevention science. Applying advanced quantitative statistical methods, Dr. Lynne conducts developmental research on pathways to substance use and related mental, physical, and behavioral health problems complimenting original data collection with evaluations of large archival longitudinal datasets. She takes an ecological perspective, focusing on the interplay between individual characteristics, interpersonal relationships, and context across childhood and adolescence, with primary expertise in the biopsychosocial changes of adolescence.

Email: sarahlynne@ufl.edu

Dr. Mercedes Machado (Faculty Affiliate)

Mercedes M. Machado is a Clinical Assistant Professor and the Practicum & Internship Coordinator in the Counselor Education program. She is also a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC). Mercedes is a proud Gator Alumna and received her Bachelor of Science, Masters of Education, Educational Specialist and Doctoral degrees from the University of Florida. Mercedes has practiced in various settings supporting children, adolescents, and adults with a wide range of presenting concerns including, but not limited to: anxiety, depression, conflict resolution, relapse prevention, PTSD, grief and loss, and extensive trauma. She is skilled in many treatment modalities, including individual therapy, group therapy, family therapy and small-group and large-group classroom interventions. Furthermore, she utilizes evidenced-based, and creative clinical interventions in her work with clients. In addition, Mercedes has extensive experience teaching and supervising. She has provided individual and small-group supervision for counselors-in-training pursuing specialties in community mental health, school counseling and marriage and family therapy. Her model of supervision is integrative with an emphasis on person-centered theory and the Integrative Developmental Model (IDM).

Email: mmachado@ufl.edu

Dr. Kathrin Maki (Faculty Affiliate)

Kathrin E. Maki, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of School Psychology at the University of Florida. She is interested in promoting academic skill development through prevention and intervention efforts within multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS). Her work includes two interwoven lines of research to examine (1) data-based decision making to develop, implement, and modify academic interventions and (2) the identification of specific learning disabilities in school settings. She uses an ecological perspective to identify factors influencing student academic skill development, to prevent academic difficulties, and to promote academic skill proficiency. Through prevention and promotion efforts, Dr. Maki’s work seeks to ensure all students receive appropriate academic supports in schools.

Email: kathrin.maki@coe.ufl.edu

Dr. Melissa Mariani (Faculty Affiliate)

Melissa Mariani, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Counselor Education, specializing in School Counseling. Dr. Mariani’s research and scholarship focus on student success, school climate, school counseling interventions, outcome research, school safety and crisis response, and collaboration between higher education and K-12 institutions. Throughout her career, Dr. Mariani has served as a Project Manager for three Elementary and Secondary School Counseling grants, where she played a pivotal role in assisting various districts in the development, implementation, and maintenance of comprehensive school counseling programs based on the American School Counselor Association’s (ASCA) National Model. Several of these programs earned Recognized ASCA Model Program (RAMP) status.

Email: mmariani1@coe.ufl.edu

Dr. Sara Jean-Philippe (Faculty Affiliate)

Sara Jean-Philippe is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the School of Human Development and Organizational Studies in the College of Education at the University of Florida. Dr. Jean-Philippe earned her bachelor’s in early childhood development from Maryville College, her master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling with a graduate certificate in Grief, Loss, and Trauma from the University of Tennessee, and her doctorate from the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. Dr. Jean-Philippe’s clinical work began within the psychiatric treatment residential facility (PTRF) setting, with a primary focus on counseling adolescents. Her practice has since expanded to include adults as well as integrating tele-health modalities. Her areas of knowledge and work experience spans a multitude of diagnosis and behavioral concerns as well as serving diverse populations in terms of race, gender, sexual identity, socioeconomic status, and more. Dr. Jean-Philippe’s current research focuses on help-seeking attitudes within the African American/Black community. In particular, her interest is rooted in understanding the role of stigma (self, social, and public) and the trends across generations within the Black community on mental health service utilization.

Email: sarajeanphilippe@ufl.edu

Dr. Laura Shannonhouse (Faculty Affiliate)

Laura Shannonhouse is an Associate Professor in the Clinical Mental Health and Doctoral programs in Counseling. She has provided counseling and therapy services in various clinical settings: a cancer center, a crisis center, college counseling centers, private practice and hospitals. She has been deployed to work with disaster-impacted populations both domestically and internationally. Therefore, her research centers on crisis intervention and disaster response; she is curious about how people make sense of suffering through their faith. Specifically, she conducts community-based research to prevent suicide (suicide first aid), and with disaster-impacted populations in fostering meaning-making through one’s faith tradition (spiritual first aid). Her work aims to understand and improve system level responses and outcomes for those struggling with suicidality (i.e. aging, school, university systems) and improve responses and outcomes with those impacted by disaster.

Email: lshannonhouse@coe.ufl.edu

Dr. Sondra Lori Smith (Faculty Affiliate)

I am an associate professor in Counselor Education in the School of Human Development and Organizational Studies in Education. My research agenda is focused on K-12 effective school counseling and school counselor preparation. Broadly, my scholarship centers on promoting child and adolescent mental health through systemic prevention and targeted relational intervention strategies in school settings. I am particularly committed to examining how the parent-child relationship affects educational and social-emotional childhood outcomes, and how schools work to facilitate effective family-school relationships. In my research activities, I examine school-based, play-based, and family-centered models for counseling youth placed at-risk. I have studied parent-child relationships as part of a social-ecological model to predict youths’ outcomes, including behavioral, social-emotional, and academic achievement outcomes. My recent works include exploring the use of Theraplay® Groups with adolescents, bullying prevention in middle schools, and school counselors’ role in bullying prevention.

Email: ssmith@coe.ufl.edu