People

Kristen Jastrowski Mano, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Psychology, Director of Clinical Training (DCT) & Co-Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cincinnati.  She received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee.  She completed her predoctoral internship in clinical child/pediatric psychology at the University of Washington before returning to Wisconsin to complete a postdoctoral research fellowship in pediatric chronic pain at the Medical College of Wisconsin/Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin.  

Dr. Jastrowski Mano's research examines the cognitive and emotional mechanisms associated with the development and maintenance of pediatric chronic pain, with a particular interest in the associations among anxiety, executive functioning, and pain. She also conducts collaborative research addressing the experiences of pediatric patients with pain and their families; experiences of stigma and pain in sickle cell disease; and the co-occurrence of chronic pain and pediatric overweight and eating disorders.

Dr. Mano's teaching interests include health psychology, child psychopathology, measurement, and clinical supervision. 

Cherish Heard, M.A. is a fifth-year doctoral student in Clinical Psychology at the University of Cincinnati. She completed her Bachelor of Arts degree at West Virginia University and developed her skills in clinical research through being a research assistant at West Virginia University Medicine's Ruby Memorial Hospital in the Pediatric Oncology and Gastroenterology Center. While at WVU Cherish conducted a study evaluating the effects of celiac disease on GI-specific anxiety and other psychological factors.

Cherish's research interests center on understanding community factors associated with pediatric health, understanding how pediatric patients with chronic health conditions view their diagnoses, and identifying factors that contribute to the development of anxiety among diverse youth. As a graduate student in the CAHRL, Cherish is particularly excited to conduct research in collaboration with researchers at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

Elana Abelson, M.A. is a sixth-year doctoral student in Clinical Psychology at the University of Cincinnati. She recently defended her dissertation (Entitled: Exploring experiences of stigma in sickle cell disease: A developmental perspective) and completed her APA-accredited internship at Indiana University School of Medicine. 

Prior to UC, she completed her Bachelor of Arts degree at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota where she created an individual major in Disability Studies. After graduating from St. Olaf, Elana developed her research and clinical skills by working as a research assistant at Gillette Children’s Hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota. While at Gillette Children’s, she focused primarily on projects related to pain and coping, contributing to translational research efforts to implement virtual reality (VR) in the hospital setting as a pain management tool. Elana continues to engage in pain-focused research at the University of Cincinnati and has expanded her interests to explore the psychosocial functioning of children and families in medical settings. She received a University of Cincinnati Research Council (URC) grant to explore experiences of discrimination within healthcare settings for youth with sickle cell disease, a genetic condition often characterized by periods of intense pain. Elana’s research interests are primarily translational in nature–her collaborations with investigators at Cincinnati Children’s provide opportunities to improve the patient experience for youth with sickle cell disease and her research with Adams County, a rural Appalachian community in Ohio, centers on providing a template for other rural communities to implement multi-tiered mental health telehealth services and increase the ability of local providers to conduct suicide assessments and reduce access to lethal means (i.e., Counseling on Access to Lethal Means).

Clinically, Elana has provided individual therapy to children, adolescents, and young adults in addition to family therapy and couples therapy. She has experience in administering forensic and diagnostic neuropsychological assessments through a private practice and is currently providing assessment services to youth with potential learning disabilities. Her interests focus on providing evidence-based treatment to youth with mental health conditions and collaborating with caregivers to enhance parent­–child relationships. She has engaged in a variety of intervention practicums at Cincinnati Children’s through the Center for Adherence and Self-Management, the Headache Clinic, and the Eating Disorders Program. She also gained valuable experience providing individual and family therapy to a predominantly rural and Appalachian population in Adams County, Ohio. There, she contributed to program development and the creation and implementation of summer treatment groups to address anxiety and psychosocial stressors in children and adolescents. She continues to collaborate with Adams County to increase community engagement and implement a speaker series to provide accessible parenting education to caregivers.

Emily Beckmann, Ph.D. is currently a pediatric psychologist in the interdisciplinary gut-brain health program at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Her research centers on comorbid disorders of the gut brain interaction and eating disorders in children and adolescents. Emily completed a postdoctoral fellowship and predoctoral internship at Alpert Medical School of Brown University. 

Prior to her graduate training at the University of Cincinnati (UC) she completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology and a certificate in Spanish for Social Work and Health Care Sciences at UC.  As a member of the CAHRL lab, she studied psychological comorbidities in pediatric chronic pain. Specifically, Emily was interested in comorbid eating disorders (AN, ARFID) and functional gastrointestinal pain among youth.  Emily's dissertation was a qualitative research study aiming to understand clinicians' experiences with youth with comorbid pediatric chronic pain and restrictive eating disorders. Participants included physicians and clinical psychologists from several disciplines and academic medical centers across the nation who participated in individual, semi-structured interviews.

While at UC, Emily provided assessment and treatment services in outpatient pediatric and school settings. She gained experience working as an interventionist for behavioral-focused interventions aimed at improving social skills and executive functioning in teens with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) at the Kelly O’Leary Center for ASD within the Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at CCHMC. She served as an interventionist for an emotion coaching therapy group for parents of teens with Anorexia Nervosa (AN) in the Eating Disorders Program at CCHMC. In the Eating Disorders Program, she was also an interventionist for a dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) group for teens with eating disorders and conducted individual Family-Based Treatment with teens with AN and their families. She also completed a clinical practicum placement at the Dyslexia Assessment and Diagnostic Services in the UC Behavioral Health Center, where she evaluated children for learning disorders.

Robert "Bobby" Gibler, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kansas. He earned his PhD in Clinical Psychology at the University of Cincinnati after completing his internship in Behavioral Medicine at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC). He then stayed at CCHMC for a 2-year T32 postdoctoral fellowship in Child Behavior & Nutrition Research under the mentorship of Drs. Susmita Kashikar-Zuck and Scott Powers, where his research focused on physical and psychological functioning among children and adolescents with chronic pain conditions such as juvenile fibromyalgia and migraine. As a fellow, Dr. Gibler served as an interventionist for the Fibromyalgia Integrative Training for Teens (FIT Teens) multisite clinical trial, which is the largest trial of behavioral interventions for treatment of pediatric chronic pain to date, and a study examining neural mechanisms associated with cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for children and adolescents with migraine.

Dr. Gibler's research examines biopsychosocial factors affecting pediatric pain, with a focus on the roles of fear of movement, gait variability, and physical activity promotion among youth with chronic pain and complex medical comorbidities such as obesity. He is also interested in the roles of social factors, such as stigma and school-related anxiety and functioning, that influence the pain experience in children and adolescents. The long-term goal of his line of research is to identify key treatment targets that inform the development of behavioral interventions tailored to meet the needs of youth with chronic pain who are traditionally underrepresented in research.

Emily M. O’Bryan, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Endicott College in Beverly, Massachusetts. She earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Cincinnati in 2019 after completing her clinical internship at the Institute of Living in Hartford, Connecticut. Following graduation, Dr. O'Bryan stayed at the Institute of Living and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Anxiety Disorders Center, where she conducted research and provided evidence-based interventions for anxiety disorders.  Dr. O'Bryan's research interests primarily center on understanding risk factors for health anxiety in order to advance theoretical models and identify targets for improving interventions.

Maya Collins is now a graduate student in School Psychology at the University of Cincinnati. She completed her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology with a minor in Early Childhood Education and Development at the University of Cincinnati in April of 2023. Maya has worked at Empower Learn Create UC for almost two years and specializes with the preschool age classrooms. She also has been involved with Cincinnati Squash Academy’s summer camp program as their Academic Advisor, as well being an Academic Counselor for the Summer Treatment Program (STP) for Children with ADHD through Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. 

In CAHRL, Maya worked on Emily Beckmann's dissertation project, which was a qualitative research study aimed at understanding clinicians' experiences with youth with comorbid pediatric chronic pain and restrictive eating disorders. Maya was also involved with research and field observations conducted at Milford Elementary, tasked with implementing the BOSS (Behavioral Observation of Students in Schools) data collection sheet and Teacher Observation sheet. Her research interests include working more with children’s learning, the classroom environment, and collaborating with teachers on learning strategies.

Maxwell (Max) Charlton is an undergraduate student in Psychology at the University of Cincinnati. In CAHRL, Max worked on Emily Beckmann's dissertation project, which was a qualitative research study aimed at understanding clinicians' experiences with youth with comorbid pediatric chronic pain and restrictive eating disorders.

Zoey Bass, B.A. completed her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology at the University of Cincinnati in 2020. While an undergraduate at UC, she was a McNair Scholar, a volunteer for A Voice For the Innocent, and the 2019-2020 President of UC's Psi Chi chapter. Zoey is currently a Clinical Research Associate at the Cincinnati VA Medical Center.

Kaydi Dodd, MSW, LSW graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a Bachelor of Science degree in Neuroscience and Psychology in 2016. Kaydi completed her MSW degree in social work at the University of South Carolina in 2018, and she is currently a licensed social worker.

Sarah Ely, B.S., B.A. received her Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts degrees in Psychology from the University of Cincinnati in 2019. After graduation, Sarah worked as a Qualified Mental Health Specialist at Child Focus, Inc. where she provided school-based case management services to children with mental health diagnoses such as PTSD, ADHD, and anxiety disorders. While in the lab, Sarah was involved in projects focused on school and health anxiety. Sarah is currently studying I/O Psychology at Xavier University.

Jazmin Harris, B.A. completed her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology with a certificate in Deaf Studies at the University of Cincinnati. In addition to her work in CAHRL, Jazmin was involved in Psi Chi and the Psychology Club, and she was a student ambassador for UC's Psychology Department. 

Zach Koopman, B.S. completed his Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology with a minor in Chemistry at the University of Cincinnati in 2018. He was a two-year member of the UC Rowing Club, and finished a pre-med curriculum with an interest in pediatrics and abnormal psychology. He is looking to attend either Medical School or work toward a Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology.   

Brian Rozumny, B.S. completed his Bachelor of Science degree in Neuroscience with a concentration in Neuropsychology in 2019. While at UC, Brian was involved at UC as a Peer Leader and a mentor with the Transition and Access Program. His interests include intellectual and developmental disabilities, anxiety disorders in at-risk populations, and assessment of Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Xiao Song, M.A. completed her Master of Arts degree in Psychology at the University of Cincinnati in 2018. Prior to coming to UC, Xiao graduated from the University of California, Davis with a B.S. in Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior. She also pursued research as a post-baccalaureate research fellow at the National Institutes of Health, where she studied cognitive and motor fatigue among patients with chronic fatigue syndrome. While at UC, Xiao assisted with projects examining relationships among executive functioning, emotional regulation,  and pain perception. Currently, Xiao is working as a clinical research coordinator.

David Suchanek, B.S. completed his Bachelor of Science degree in Neuroscience with an emphasis in Neuropsychology at the University of Cincinnati in 2020. While at UC,  David was a member of Alpha Lambda Delta, the Psychology Club, and Rise UC Chapter. His interests include neuropharmacology in relation to pain, forensic psychology, and developmental psychology. David is currently a Clinical Data Coordinator at MedPace.