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The following faculty members are considering accepting new MAPR applicants into their research programs. Please review their profiles and identify 1 to 3 faculty member in the MAPR Department Application Form (Section 2) with whom you would like to conduct research. In your Essay (Section 3C, Prompt 2), please elaborate on why you selected each faculty member.

Fall 2026 Potential Mentors Accepting Students

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Barbara Caplan, Assistant Professor
Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
Clinical Psychology
I study families of children with autism and other developmental disabilities and the delivery of evidence-based interventions and practices in community settings. My research seeks to promote equity in care for children with disabilities and their families by studying the use of culturally responsive and research-supported practices with traditionally underserved populations (e.g., families from low income and/or racial/ethnic minoritized backgrounds). To achieve this, I use community-partnered approaches and implementation science methods and frameworks.  I have a particular interest in researching best practices for engaging families in their child’s care. Visit the for more information.
 

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Gino Galvez, Associate Professor
Ph.D., Portland State University
Industrial-Organizational Psychology
Broadly, my research projects have focused on examining interventions that broaden participation in the STEM fields. More specifically, I have used mixed-methods to examine brief writing interventions, underrepresented student success, undergraduate research training programs, the role of mentoring (/���DZ����𲵱�-�Ǵ�-�Բ��ٳܰ�����-��������Գ����-���Ի�-�����ٳ�𳾲��پ�����/����ٰ���…), and the development of noncognitive factors (e.g., science identity).

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Araceli Gonzalez, Associate Professor
Ph.D, San Diego State University/University of California, San Diego Joint Doctoral Program
Clinical Psychology
I am broadly interested in the assessment and treatment of anxiety, depression, and related mental health concerns in children, adolescents, and young adults. My current on-campus research focuses on attitudes toward mental health services, and factors that influence mental health help-seeking (e.g., stigma, stress), as well as assessment of anxiety and related constructs (e.g., emotion regulation, depression) in college students.

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Brenda Gutierrez, Assistant Professor
Ph.D., University of California, Santa Cruz
Developmental Psychology
In my research program, I am interested in understanding how diverse adolescents and emerging adults form their attitudes about gender (e.g., sexism, gender stereotypes, gender values). I consider the roles of family, peers, cultural context, and identity (e.g., ethnic identity, gender identity) in developing attitudes. In addition, I am interested in exploring how youth view their ethnic culture and the role these views play in their developing attitudes. My research primarily considers youth that navigate multiple cultural contexts (e.g., Latiné-heritage youth in the US).

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May Ling Halim, Professor
Ph.D., New York University
Developmental Psychology
In my primary line of research I study how, across different cultural groups, children’s gender and ethnic identities develop from preschool to early elementary school. I also investigate what factors lead to differences in gender and ethnic identities, as well as what consequences are associated with them (e.g., intergroup gender attitudes, psychological adjustment). In my secondary line of research I study how forms of group-based discrimination (ethnic, gender, language) interact with one’s identity in affecting health and well-being. Visit the website for more information.
 

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Briac Halbout, Assistant Professor
Ph.D., Ruprecht-Karls University of Heidelberg
Behavioral Neuroscience
My research investigates the neurobiological basis of motivated behaviors and decision-making, particularly how these processes are altered in pathologies such as drug addiction and other mental health disorders. The laboratory uses animal models to study the function of neuronal populations and circuits involved in reward-related behaviors. My research aims to refine and enhance sophisticated behavioral tasks that enable the examination of distinct psychological processes in reward learning and seeking. These tasks are then integrated with pharmacological or viral-based strategies to manipulate or monitor the activity of specific neuronal populations, thereby elucidating their contributions to well-defined normal or pathological reward-related behaviors.

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Danielle Kohfeldt, Associate Professor 
Ph.D., University of California, Santa Cruz
Social Psychology
My research investigates the neurobiological basis of motivated behaviors and decision-making, particularly how these processes are altered in pathologies such as drug addiction and other mental health disorders. The laboratory uses animal models to study the function of neuronal populations and circuits involved in reward-related behaviors. My research aims to refine and enhance sophisticated behavioral tasks that enable the examination of distinct psychological processses in reward learninga nd seeking. These tasks are then integrated with pharmacological or viral-based strategies to manipulate or monitor the activity or specific neuronal populations, thereby elucidating their contributions to well-defined normal or pathological reward-related behaviors. 

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William Pedersen, Professor
Ph.D., University of Southern California
Social Psychology                                                       
My research is focused on factors that impact aggressive behavior and violence. I am interested in a variety of personality factors including trait rumination, narcissism, impulsivity, and religiosity. I have also investigated a variety of situational factors that impact aggression including collective rumination, priming aspects of religion, resource inequality, alcohol priming, personal control, and social exclusion.  Please see my for more information.

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Yada Treesukosol, Associate Professor
Ph.D., Florida State University
Behavioral Neuroscience
Taste cues and feeding behavior.  My research takes advantage of animal models to ask questions related to how oral signals (e.g. taste, smell, texture) send information to the brain to control feeding and drinking behavior.  My approach is to use physiological procedures (e.g. pharmacology, electrophysiology, genetic manipulations) combined with behavioral measures (e.g. meal patterns, detection thresholds, preference).  This allows us to begin to tease apart the relative contributions of oral stimulation, post-ingestive cues and reward-related mechanisms to eating behavior.  Such studies contribute to efforts to reveal how the system is organized and in turn may also identify potential targets for therapeutic interventions for eating disorders and obesity-related complications.  

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Guido Urizar, Jr., Professor
Ph.D., University of Florida
Health Psychology
My research in the area of Health Psychology has focused on how chronic stressors (e.g., discrimination, poverty, family instability, immigration stress) can lead to the intergenerational transmission of adverse health outcomes during critical periods of development, such as pregnancy. As such, my area of expertise is in behavioral medicine, with specializations in maternal and infant health, psychoneuroendocrinology, and disease prevention in underserved populations. Specifically, my research has examined how chronic stress and its biomarkers (e.g., cortisol, genetic markers) impact the health of low-income, ethnic minority parents and their infants. The central goal of this research is to reduce health disparities by identifying groups at risk for stress-related disorders and designing, testing, and disseminating effective health promotion interventions (e.g., stress management, exercise) aimed at regulating biological markers of stress in these underserved communities. Students in my PRO-Health research group are trained in salivary bioscience, developmental psychoneuroendocrinology, health disparities, and health behavior interventions as they continue on to doctoral programs and research careers. For more information about my PRO-Health research group, please refer to the following . 

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Christopher Warren, Professor
Ph.D., Tulane University
Industrial-Organizational Psychology
The first domain of research I conduct involves individual performance, specifically counter-productive or other deleterious behaviors such as sexual harassment. I also do a little work in psychometrics focusing on ways to best measure concepts such as creating and validating measurement scales. I also do applied work which mostly involves the assessment of educational programs, vocational guidance, and educational strategies but recently has included investigations into the barriers individuals face due to stereotypes or other systematic pathways of job segregation or unemployment.

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Amy Wax, Professor
Ph.D., Georgia Institute of Technology
Industrial-Organizational Psychology
My research interests broadly include diversity in the workplace, teamwork, and social network analysis.  Currently, my stream of research investigates women’s issues and LGBTQ issues at work. Refer to the more information.
 

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Arturo Zavala, Professor
Ph.D., Arizona State University
Behavioral Neuroscience
Areas of interest include animal models of drug addiction and developmental neuropsychopharmacology. Specifically, my research investigates the short- and long-term neurochemical and behavioral effects of exposure to psychostimulant drugs across development (neonatal, adolescence, and adulthood), the impact that early exposure to drugs may have on the susceptibility to abuse drugs later in life, and on the role of serotonin in modulating the effects of drugs of abuse.  My laboratory combines neurochemical, molecular, and pharmacological approaches with animal behavioral models to understand the neural basis of addiction.