The members of the Culture, Community, and Mental Health lab include both graduate and undergraduate students. All students are involved in both the ongoing lab research, as well as the development of their own substantive research programs.

Esteban V. Cardemil
Professor, Department of Psychology
ecardemil@clarku.edu | Curriculum vitae
Dr. Cardemil received a B.A. from Swarthmore College in 1993 and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1994 and 2000, respectively. He was subsequently at Brown University, where he completed his predoctoral internship in 2000, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship. He is currently Professor and Department Chair in the Frances L. Hiatt School of Psychology at Clark University, where he has been since 2002. He is also the Editor of the Journal of Latinx Psychology.

Current Doctoral Students

Jessica L. O’Leary 
Jessica O’Leary earned her BA in Child Development and Sociology from Tufts University. Following graduation, she taught middle school students in Los Angeles as a Teach For America corps member. During that time, she earned her MA in Elementary Education from Loyola Marymount University and developed an interest in examining the risk and resilience of children and adolescents.  Her Master’s work explored the role of guilt and shame in explaining the association between parental emotion socialization practices and youth outcomes.

Emily He
Emily He received her B.A. from UC Davis in Psychology with honors and her M.A. from Teachers College, Columbia University in Psychology with an emphasis on Research Methods and Quantitative Methods. Prior to coming to Clark, Emily worked in research labs aimed at understanding and reducing mental health care disparities for ethnic minorities and other marginalized populations. Emily’s master’s thesis investigated help-seeking for psychosis risk and its associated stigma in Chinese and Taiwanese Americans. Emily hopes to develop effective prevention and intervention programs to improve outcomes for individuals with or at-risk for chronic and severe mental illness.

Néstor Noyola
Néstor Noyola received his B.S. in Psychology with honors from Brown University. Prior to his doctoral work at Clark, Néstor worked as Clinical Research Coordinator at the Disparities Research Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital. Overall, Néstor’s research interests include understanding the mental health of sexual, gender and racial minorities from an intersectional perspective, with a particular interest in risk for suicide and non-suicidal self-harm. Néstor’s master’s thesis explored the stress that sexual minority Latinxs experience in different areas of their life, including heterosexism and racism, as well as their efforts to cope with that stress.

Sarah Hartman
Sarah Hartman received a bachelors in Community Health and Anthropology from Tufts University and a master of science in Global Mental Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and King’s College London. Prior to coming to Clark, she worked in Chiapas, Mexico with Partners In Health Mexico/Compañeros En Salud on their mental health team. Her current research explores functional impairment, mental health, and the relationship between the two in rural Chiapas. Broadly, her research interests include the barriers and facilitators to quality mental health care in low-resource settings, particularly among Spanish-speaking populations in the United States and rural Mexico. 

José Rosario
José Rosario obtained his B.A. in Psychology and B.S. in Chemical Dependency and Addiction Studies (CDAS) from Rhode Island College. During his undergraduate training, José completed his clinical placement at the nation’s first neuropsychiatric facility for children and served on the research teams for concurrent behavioral research programs for HIV in adolescents and later served as a senior RA for an NIH-funded pilot study providing intervention for smoking cessation and simultaneous weight loss. Prior to commencing his graduate studies, José worked as a clinical Coordinator of Disability Services at Rhode Island College where he additionally provided expressive arts curriculum to individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder and chronic mental health conditions.Broadly, José is interested in the assessment and intervention for collective trauma considering the dimensions of ethnicity, sexuality and ability. 

Current Undergraduate Students

 

Recent Doctoral Students

– Kristen Keefe, Ph.D., 2019, Postdoctoral Fellow, Washington DC, VA
– Tamara Nelson, Ph.D.. 2017, Visiting Professor, Lesley University
– Monica Sanchez, Ph.D., 2016, Staff Psychologist, San Francisco VA
– Oswaldo Moreno, Ph.D., 2015, Assistant Professor, Virginia Commonwealth University
– Rachel Zack Ishikawa, Ph.D., 2013, Psychologist, Mass General Hospital
– Ingrid Sarmiento, Ph.D., 2012, currently at McLean Hospital
– Alisha Pollastri, Ph.D., 2010, Director of Research & Evaluation; Think:Kids, Mass General 
– Tatiana M. Davidson, Ph.D., 2010, Associate Professor, Medical University of South Carolina
– Rahael Kurrien, Ph.D., 2008, Assistant Professor, Mount Sinai Hospital
– Ellen O’Donnell, Ph.D., 2008, Associate Psychologist, Mass General Hospital
– Saeromi Kim, Ph.D., 2007, Assistant Director, UCLA Counseling Center

Some Recent Undergraduate Students

– Naysha Shahid, B.A., 2015, currently working at Massachusetts General Hospital
– Matt Thompson, B.A., 2014, enrolled in Ph.D. program at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
– Natalia Jaramillo, B.A., 2010, currently working towards Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at UCSB
– Victor Figuereo, B.A., 2010, currently working towards Ph.D. in Social Work at Boston College
– Robert Rosales, B.A.,. 2010, Ph.D. in Social Work at Boston College; currently Postdoctoral Fellow at Brown Medical School