Personnel

Alice E. Coyne, PhD

Email: coyne@american.edu

Dr. Alice Coyne is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at American University. Dr. Coyne completed her PhD at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and completed her postdoctoral training at Case Western Reserve University. 

Broadly speaking, Dr. Coyne’s research program aims to identify and develop ways to capitalize on patient, therapist, and dyadic characteristics and processes that can enhance the effectiveness of mental health care (MHC). More specifically, she studies personalized pathways to therapeutic change through answering the broad questions of how, for whom and in what contexts, and when delivered by whom does psychotherapy work? Across these interrelated foci, she draws on diverse research designs and methods, including longitudinal process-outcome research (with advanced analytic methods, such as multilevel and dynamic structural equation modeling), experimental comparative effectiveness trials, meta-analyses, community-based research (with diverse MHC stakeholders), and qualitative studies (with various analytic methods, such as consensual qualitative research). She has conducted this work in the context of various treatments (e.g., cognitive behavioral therapy [CBT], interpersonal psychotherapy [IPT], and prolonged exposure [PE]), for a broad range of conditions (e.g., depression, generalized anxiety disorder [GAD], and posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD]). Across these treatment-patient contexts, she is keenly interested in bridging the science-practice gap by increasing the effectiveness and precision of therapeutic interventions, including when delivered in routine practice settings that can reach historically underserved and marginalized populations.

For more information, please check out her Google Scholar and/or Research Gate profiles to get a better sense of the types of research being conducted in the OPT lab.

Crystal Liu, BA

PhD Student, Clinical Psychology

American University

Email: cl6675a@american.edu

Crystal is a first-year PhD student in American University's Clinical Psychology program. She graduated with her BA from Emory University and completed her post-bacc working primarily on a study examining emotion regulation in adolescents with anxiety and/or depression. Her current research interests include improving precision care and developing personalized approaches in psychotherapeutic contexts, especially for historically underserved communities.

Maria Abapolnikova, MA

Master's Student, Clinical Psychology

American University

Email: ma8684b@american.edu

Maria "Masha" Abapolnikova joined the lab in 2023 as a Master's student. She earned her BFA in Interior Design from the George Washington University in 2008, graduating summa cum laude. Her MA thesis explores empathy as a determinant of prosocial behavior and the moderating role of positive and negative affect in helping decisions. In 2023, Masha completed a summer internship at the National Institute of Mental Health, where she worked on a project exploring the cognitive and affective traits and comorbidities in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. Her current research interests include the role of empathy, alliance, interpersonal factors, and patient-therapist matching in increasing the effectiveness of psychological interventions.

Lillian Glushka, BA

Research Assistant 

Email: glushka@american.edu

Lillian Glushka is a post-baccalaureate research assistant in the OPT Lab at American University. She recently graduated from McGill University with a BA in Psychology and plans to pursue graduate studies in Clinical Psychology. Lillian is most interested in interpersonal, personality, and dyadic factors that influence psychotherapeutic processes and outcomes, particularly as they relate to treatment of affective disorders.