Graduate Student Alumni
Carter Davis
Carter Davis, Ph.D is an advanced research fellow in geriatrics at VA Palo Alto and Stanford University School of Medicine. His research focuses on adapting ACT for older adults, particularly to address the interaction of mood and cognition. Dr. Davis received his Ph.D. from Utah State University in 2024 and completed his predoctoral internship at VA Palo Alto.
Dissertation: Storytelling to Promote Mental Health: A Conceptual Analysis and Application with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Depression |
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Julie PetersenJulie Petersen, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Lab for Youth Mental Health at Harvard University. She obtained her Ph.D. in clinical/counseling psychology from Utah State in 2024 after completing a predoctoral internship in child/adolescent psychology at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx. Her research is centralized around increasing the effectiveness, efficacy, and accessibility of transdiagnostic cognitive-behavioral treatments for children and adolescents, with a focus on acceptance and commitment therapy. Additionally, she has specialized interest in understanding the impact of anxiety disorders, OCRDs, and misophonia on youth and families.
Dissertation: Telehealth Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Adolescents With Transdiagnostic Health-Related Anxiety: A Randomized Controlled Trial |
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Jen Barney
Jen Barney, Ph.D. is a clinician working in an outpatient private practice specializing in the treatment of Eating Disorders, OCD, and common co-occurring conditions located in Columbus, OH. She received her PhD from Utah State University in 2023 after obtaining her MS in Psychology from Drexel University and completing her predoctoral internship at Park Center, Inc. in Fort Wayne, IN. Jen's clinical interest and expertise is in the implementation of evidence-based therapy processes/interventions to treat eating disorders and related mental health struggles. Similarly, her research interests focus on exploring why therapeutic processes and mechanisms of change work or don't work within eating disorder treatments for specific individuals/groups to improve treatment efficiency and efficacy. Jen also works with the National Alliance for Eating Disorders as a co-facilitator for their free, weekly clinician-led support groups for individuals navigating eating disorder recovery - most consistently their groups for Larger-Bodied individuals and LGBTQIA+ community members - and engages in various education and advocacy-related activities focused on challenging weight stigma and anti-fat biases.
Dissertation: Exploring Body Image Related Cognitive Fusion as a Maintenance Mechanism of Eating Disorder Pathology |
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Jeremy FrugeJeremy Fruge, Ph.D., is a clinician working in a primary care setting at the VA hospital in Omaha, Nebraska. He completed his Master’s of Science in Psychology and Doctorate at Utah State University. Jeremy’s clinical interests are utilizing ACT and behavioral interventions in treating anxiety, grief, and depression in a primary care setting. His research interests are focused on improving treatment outcomes with Veterans struggling with grief, anxiety, and/or depression in brief intervention settings. In addition, he is interested in finding ways to adapt commonly used ACT metaphors/exercises to the Veteran population to improve treatment engagement and outcomes.
Dissertation: ACT and Veterans: A Multiple Baseline Study Using ACT To Treat Anxiety Disorders in U.S. Military Veterans |
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Jennifer Krafft
Jennifer Krafft, Ph.D. is an assistant professor at Mississippi State University. She obtained her Ph.D. in Psychology from Utah State in 2022 after completing a predoctoral internship at the Salem VA Medical Center in Virginia. Her research focuses on employing novel methods to improve the treatment of hoarding disorder, OCD, and anxiety, using mindfulness and acceptance processes. Much of her research involves developing and testing self-help interventions to help overcome barriers to treatment including cost, availability, location, and mental health stigma.
Dissertation: Testing an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Website for Hoarding: A Randomized Waitlist-Controlled Trial |
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Clarissa Ong
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Clarissa Ong, Ph.D. is an assistant professor and clinic director at the University of Toledo. She received her Ph.D. in Psychology from Utah State University in 2021 and completed her predoctoral internship at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Her research interests include process-based therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, measurement, and perfectionism. Her overarching research goal is to understand how treatments work to improve well-being and reduce suffering for specific people in specific contexts.
Dissertation: Treatment of Clinical Perfectionism Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy |
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Woolee An
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Woolee An, Ph.D. is a clinical health/primary care psychology postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. She received her master's degree in clinical psychology from Missouri State University and her Ph.D. in clinical/counseling psychology from Utah State University. She completed her APA-accredited internship at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Dr. An has worked with clients with a broad range of depression, trauma and stressor-related issues, and anxiety and anxiety-related issues including, Obsessive Compulsive Disorders (OCD), OCD-related disorders, and specific phobias among college students, Division 1 student-athletes, and adults in the community. Dr. An deeply cares about multiculturalism in her clinical and research work. Her primary research interest is cross-cultural perspectives on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy with various populations.
Dissertation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in South Korea |
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Brooke Smith
Brooke Smith, Ph.D. is an assistant professor at Western Michigan University in the Clinical Psychology program. She received her Ph.D. in Psychology from Utah State University in 2019 and completed her clinical internship at the VA Puget Sound, American Lake Division. Dr. Smith’s research interests include therapeutic processes of change and their translation from basic behavioral principles to applications in mindfulness, exposure, and acceptance-based psychotherapies, particularly Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. She is also interested in novel methodological approaches to measuring processes of change. Dr. Smith grew up in Lake Tahoe, CA and spent much of her childhood skiing, hiking, and camping, activities she still enjoys.
Dissertation: Physiological, Behavioral, and Self-Report Outcomes of Acceptance and Regulation Approaches to Exposures for Intrusive Thoughts |
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Ben Pierce
Ben Pierce, Ph.D. is a clinician at the Wise Mind Centre in Vancouver, BC. He completed his Master of Science in Psychology from Utah State University in 2015 and his Doctorate in 2019. Ben’s clinical interests include the integration of acceptance-based, behavioral interventions with relational approaches to therapy and queer identity development. Ben’s research interests include the development and application of statistical methods for clinically-oriented research, longitudinal measurement and modeling of change mechanisms, and mental health equity from a social justice lens.
Dissertation: Tacting of function in college student mental health: An online and app-based approach to psychological flexibility |
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Eric Lee
Eric Lee, Ph.D. is an assistant professor at Southern Illinois University. He received his masters degree in clinical psychology from University of Houston – Clear Lake, and graduated from the clinical/counseling psychology program at Utah State University in 2019. He completed his internship at Baylor College of Medicine and postdoctoral fellowship at the Anxiety Disorders Center at the Institute of Living. Eric is interested in clinical research related to process-based cognitive behavior therapies and the mechanisms of action that lead to meaningful improvements in people’s lives. He has particular interest in anxiety and obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders.
Dissertation: Telepsychotherapy for the Treatment of Trichotillomania: A Randomized Controlled Trial |
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Sarah Potts
Sarah Potts, Ph.D. is a Staff Psychologist and Director of Behavioral Health at Partnership Health Center in Missoula, Montana. She is currently collaborating with the community to broaden access to mental health resources for the Missoula County and surrounding community. She graduated with her Ph.D. in Clinical/Counseling Psychology from Utah State University in 2018. Dr. Potts specialized in Behavioral Pediatrics while completing her APA-accredited clinical internship and postdoctoral fellowship at the Boys Town Center for Behavioral Health in Omaha, Nebraska. Dr. Potts is passionate about working with children and families with a variety of internalizing and externalizing behavior concerns, medical co-diagnoses, and family challenges and she specializes in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, self-compassion, and applied behavior interventions.
Dissertation: Putting Weight in Context: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) Guided Self-Help for Weight Self-Stigma |
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Ellen Bluett
Ellen J Bluett, PhD is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine in Behavioral Science for the Family Medicine Residency of Western Montana at the University of Montana. She earned her doctorate in Clinical/Counseling Psychology from Utah State University in 2017 and completed her clinical internship at the West Virginia School of Medicine. During that time her interest piqued in integrated behavioral health and rural mental health care service. Following her time in West Virginia, she completed her Clinical Health Psychology postdoctoral at the Salt Lake City VA in 2018. Currently, she is developing an integrated behavioral health clinic at Partnership Health Center (PHC), where she provides evidence-based services and transdisciplinary collaborative care to adults in primary care. She plays a large role in training the family medicine residents in behavioral health assessment and interventions, as well as leading the resiliency curriculum. Clinically, Dr. Bluett specializes in exposure therapy, mindfulness-based cognitive behavioral therapies, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and brief-evidenced based practices in primary care. Her research interest focuses on understanding the mechanisms of change in evidenced-based practices and mindfulness-based interventions. In her free time, Dr. Bluett loves exploring the Mountain West and practicing yoga.
Dissertation: Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as a Treatment for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Moral Injury |
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Kate Morrison
Kate L. Morrison, Ph.D. is the owner of Juniper Mental Health, a telehealth independent practice in Salt Lake City, Utah which focuses on treatment, consultation, and training in the areas of anxiety, OCD, and related disorders. She graduated from USU in 2017. Dr. Morrison completed her doctoral internship at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System-Seattle Division, where she also completed the Mood and Anxiety Disorder postdoctoral fellowship.
Dissertation: Effects of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Impulsive Decision Making |
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Kendra Homan
Kendra Homan, Ph.D., is a pediatric pain psychologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and assistant professor Clinical Pediatrics at University of Cincinnati. She eared doctorate degree in Combined Clinical/Counseling/School Psychology from Utah State University in 2015 and completed her Medical Psychology Fellowship at Mayo Clinic in 2017. Clinically, Dr. Homan specializes in the assessment and treatment of pediatric chronic pain. She sees both outpatients and inpatients with chronic pain working in the Functional Independence Restoration program (FIRST Program) and the Headache Center at Cincinnati Children’s. Her research interest focuses on outcomes of child and adolescent with chronic pain attending an inpatient pain rehabilitation program, the impact on parent intervention on their children’s chronic pain, and adolescents with chronic pain and comorbid eating disorders.
Dissertation: Five-Year Prospective Evaluation of the Development of Borderline Symptoms in Psychiatrically Hospitalized Adolescents Who Engage in Deliberate Self-Harm and Suicide-Related Behaviors |
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Michelle Woidneck Kieffe
Michelle Woidneck Kieffe, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist in private practice at Woidneck Psychological in Omaha, Nebraska. She completed her doctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship at the Boys Town Center for Behavioral Health. Prior to entering private practice she was a staff psychologist for several years at the Boys Town Center for Behavioral Health, where she helped start the Trauma Recovery Clinic and co-developed an adolescent Dialectical Behavior Therapy Program. Presently, she provides individual and family therapy for adults and adolescents with diverse clinical presentations. She additionally is a Peer-Reviewed ACT trainer. Her specialized clinical and research interests are within the areas of acceptance- and mindfulness-based cognitive-behavioral interventions, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, trauma and posttraumatic stress, OCD and related conditions, and evidence-based practice.
Dissertation: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for the Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Among Adolescents |
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Jesse Crosby
Jesse M. Crosby, Ph.D., is an Assistant Psychologist at McLean Hospital, and an Instructor in Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He was the founding director of the Office of Clinical Assessment and Research at the OCD Institute. He currently provides supervision for psychology interns and teaches a seminar on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. He also works in private practice in clinical and consulting psychology in Lexington, MA. He has specialized clinical and research experience with perfectionism, OCD and related disorders, anxiety, and behavioral addictions. His program of research is focused on identifying important processes and techniques for effective treatment with a focus on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive and Behavioral Therapy.
Dissertation: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for the Treatment of Compulsive Pornography Use: A Randomized Clinical Trial |
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Andrew Armstrong
After finishing at Utah State in 2011, Dr. Andrew Armstrong interned at the University of Missouri Counseling Center. He worked five years in the Counseling Center at Western Washington University where he provided therapy to students, supervised pre-doctoral interns, taught ACT seminars, and served as the program's Training Director. He now owns a thriving full-time private practice in Bellingham, Washington.
Dissertation: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Adolescent Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder |
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