Graduate Students

Jennifer Krafft

Jennifer Krafft is a seventh-year graduate student in the combined clinical and counseling psychology PhD program at Utah State University and a predoctoral intern at Salem VA Medical Center. She received her BA from Carleton College in 2010. She is interested broadly in processes of change and assessment in mindfulness and acceptance-based treatments.  Her research focuses on application of acceptance and commitment therapy to anxiety, OCD, and hoarding, how mindfulness and acceptance processes impact stigma, the utility of self-help interventions, and assessing mindfulness and acceptance processes with greater precision.

Jeremy Fruge

Jeremy Fruge is a fifth-year graduate student in the Combined Clinical and Counseling Psychology PhD program at Utah State University. Prior to completing his undergraduate degree he served 5 years in the U.S. Navy which led to an interest in helping veterans and service members. He completed his B.A. in psychology at the University of Nevada, Reno in 2017. He is primarily interested in clinical work. His broad clinical and research interests are in treating military members and veterans, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, trauma, anxiety disorders, and rural psychology.

Jen Barney

Jen Barney is a fifth-year graduate student in the combined clinical and counseling psychology PhD program at Utah State University. She received her BA in Psychology and Human Development and Family Studies from the University of Connecticut in 2013 and her MS in Psychology from Drexel University in 2017. Her primary clinical and research interests are in improving eating disorder treatment efficacy, implementing acceptance and values based interventions for eating disorders and other difficult to treat populations, and assessing therapeutic mechanisms of change.

Julie Petersen

Julie Petersen is a fourth-year doctoral student in the combined clinical/counseling program at Utah State University. She received her B.S. in psychology from Haverford College in 2016. Before coming to USU, she worked as a research assistant at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety. Her research interests are centralized around the treatment of obsessive-compulsive and anxiety disorders, particularly for kids and teens.

Carter Davis

Carter Davis is a fourth-year doctoral student in the Clinical/Counseling Psychology program at Utah State University. He received a BFA in Printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2015 and a MS in Psychology from USU in 2021. Carter previously worked as a research assistant at Butler Hospital and Brown University. He has studied and helped develop mindfulness and acceptance-based interventions for mood, anxiety, and psychotic disorders. Carter's work currently focuses on novel ACT approaches for depression, including self-help and storytelling modalities.

Guadalupe Gabriel San Miguel

Guadalupe Gabriel San Miguel is a third-year doctoral student in the Combined Clinical/Counseling Program. In 2017, he received his bachelor's in psychology from the University of Houston. Prior to attending USU, he worked as a research assistant at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, specifically in the Center for Neurobehavioral Research on Addiction. His primary interest are in insomnia and treatment for OCD and other anxiety disorders. In addition, he works in an audiology lab exploring internal barriers to hearing aid uptake and adherence

Korena Klimczak

Korena Klimczak is a third-year graduate student in the Combined Clinical and Counseling Psychology PhD program at Utah State University. She received her BA in Psychology from Old Dominion University in 2019. Her research interests include clinical applications of technology, such as utilizing machine learning to make predictions about clients, mobile modes of therapy, and virtual reality as a form of exposure.

Leila Capel

Leila Capel is a second-year doctoral student in the combined clinical/counseling program at Utah State University. She received her B.A. in psychology and government from Smith College in 2016. Before coming to USU, she worked as a research assistant at the Massachusetts General Hospital Neuropsychology clinic and as a Clinical Residence Counselor at the McLean Hospital Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Institute. Her research focuses broadly on acceptance-based treatment of obsessive-compulsive and anxiety disorders.

Marissa Donahue

Marissa Donahue is a second-year doctoral student in the Combined Clinical/Counseling Program at Utah State University. She received her M.A. in Forensic Psychology from Roger Williams University in 2017. Prior to attending USU, Marissa worked as a research assistant at The Miriam Hospital/Brown University and then in the Department of Health Education and Behavior at the University of Florida. Her research interests include the examination of acceptance-based interventions on the promotion of coping, wellbeing and adherence among those living with chronic illnesses.

Miriam Mukasa

Miriam N. Mukasa is a first-year doctoral student in the combined Clinical and Counseling Psychology program at Utah State University. She received her B.A in psychology from Southeastern Louisiana University in 2013 and an M.S in ABA Psychology from the University of Southern California in 2021. She has worked as a behavioral therapist at First Steps for Kids Inc. where she provided ABA therapy to children with developmental disabilities. Prior to that, she worked as an in-country Head of Operations at Washington University in St. Louis’s ICHAD where she conducted several NIH funded research projects working with vulnerable populations in Uganda. Her research interests are in using technology to increase access to mental health services in limited resource communities, implementing acceptance and commitment therapy interventions for depression, and promotion of coping among those living with and providing care to individuals with chronic illnesses.