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, MA

PhD Student, Clinical Psychology

American University

Email: cl6675a@american.edu

Crystal is a third-year PhD student in American University's Clinical Psychology program. She graduated with her BA from Emory University and conducted research examining emotion regulation in adolescents with anxiety and/or depression in her post-baccalaureate position. Her current research interests include dyadic, interpersonal, and process factors with the long-term goal of improving precision care in psychotherapeutic contexts, especially for historically underserved communities.

Maria Abapolnikova, MA

PhD Student, Clinical Psychology

American University

Email: ma8684b@american.edu

Maria "Masha" Abapolnikova is a second-year PhD student in the Clinical Psychology program. She graduated summa cum laude from the George Washington University in 2008 with a BFA in Interior Design. Her master's thesis examined empathy as a determinant of prosocial behavior, focusing on the moderating effects of positive and negative affect on prosocial decisions. Her current research interests include therapist effects, interpersonal processes in psychotherapy, alliance rupture and repair, and the role of therapist empathy in facilitating adaptive change during psychotherapy.

Arianna Cifone, BA

PhD Student, Clinical Psychology

American University

Email: ac9957a@american.edu

Arianna is a second-year PhD student in the Clinical Psychology program. She graduated with her BA in psychology and sociology from the University at Albany, SUNY, in 2021. In her post-baccalaureate position at Temple University, she conducted research examining the onset of depression and mania in adolescents. Her research interests involve the role of client-clinician matching, process and outcome of psychotherapy, and severe mental illness. Across all these areas, she is especially interested in how these factors intersect with marginalized identities and influence treatment experience and effectiveness. Currently, she is working on her master’s thesis which utilizes machine learning to determine which subgroups of patients (based on constellations of their baseline characteristics) stand to have a larger post-treatment improvement when treated by consistently highly effective therapists.

Leila Graham, BA

MA Student, Psychology 

American University

Email: lg1653a@american.edu

Leila is a second year Masters student on the Clinical Science track. She graduated from McGill University in 2019 with a BA in Psychology and Behavioral Science. Prior to joining the OPT Lab, she worked as a research coordinator at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia where she worked on a portfolio of projects related to pediatric traumatic stress and community violence prevention. Leila's MA thesis is examining therapist accuracy in identifying their own strengths and weaknesses in treatment. She’s interested in pursing a PhD in Clinical Psychology with a focus on transdiagnostic and community-based interventions for youth with internalizing disorders. In the OPT lab, Leila is primarily focused on the PATH Brief Intervention Study where she is one of the study interventionists and oversees study recruitment and procedures. 

Lillian Glushka, BA

Research Assistant 

Email: glushka@american.edu

Lillian Glushka was a post-baccalaureate research assistant in the OPT Lab at American University (2023-2025). She graduated from McGill University in 2022 with a BA in Psychology. After completing her research assistant position in the OPT Lab, she was accepted for the clinical psychology PhD program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Congratulations, Lillian! We look forward to continuing to collaborate in the future!