DIRECTOR: Shireen L. Rizvi, PhD, ABPP, is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (GSAPP) at Rutgers University, where she also holds affiliate appointments in the psychology department, School of Public Health, and the Department of Psychiatry. She completed her internship and postdoctoral fellowship at the VA Boston/National Center for PTSD. Her research interests include improving outcomes, training, and dissemination of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) for the treatment of complex and severe populations. Dr. Rizvi has received funding from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), Rutgers University, and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) for her research. Her work has resulted in over 70 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, as well as a sole-authored book entitled Chain Analysis in Dialectical Behavior Therapy and a co-edited volume, DBT in Clinical Practice (2nd edition). Dr. Rizvi is board certified in Behavioral and Cognitive Psychology and in Dialectical Behavior Therapy. She is currently on the Board of the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) and is a Past President of the Board of ISITDBT. Dr. Rizvi has trained hundreds of students and practitioners from around the world in DBT. She received the Spotlight on a Mentor Award from the ABCT in 2017 and was awarded Fellowship status for the same organization in 2021.
Clinicians and Research Associates 2022-2023
Kai Kellerman is a fourth-year Clinical Ph.D. student at Rutgers. He completed his B.A. in Psychology and Government at Claremont McKenna College. Before joining DBT-RU, he gained clinical experience as a clinical extern in the Gender and Sexuality Service in the Child Study Center at NYU Langone. At Rutgers, he is a member of the Kleiman Lab (PI: Evan Kleiman, Ph.D.) where he studies risk and protective factors among high-risk LGBTQIA+ youth.
Joanne Kim is a fifth-year Clinical Ph.D. student at Rutgers. Before coming to Rutgers, she received her B.A. in psychology from Dartmouth College and worked as a clinical research coordinator/lab manager for the Suicide Prevention Research Laboratory at Stanford University, and as a Research Associate at 23andMe. Joanne is a member of the Emotion and Psychopathology Lab (PI: Edward Selby, Ph.D.). Her research interests include emotion regulation, non-suicidal self-injury, and disclosure of suicidal thoughts and behaviors.
Damilola Kolade, PsyM, is a 4th-year clinical psychology doctoral student at GSAPP. Prior to GSAPP, she received her B.A. in English Literature and Rhetoric. She later completed her post-baccalaureate at the College of Staten Island while conducting suicide-focused research pertaining to Guyanese youths under the mentorship of Dr. Ellen-ge Denton. Her clinical and research interests include community and minority mental health, trauma, and suicidology. In 2020, she co-founded the Coalition for the Advancement of Nigerian Mental Health (CANMH), which aims to promote the mental health of Nigerians in Nigeria and the diaspora.
Febrian (Annie) Moten is a fourth year Clinical Psy.D. student at GSAPP. She received her B.A. from Pomona College and M.S. in clinical-counseling psychology from Illinois State University. Before coming to DBT-RU, she gained previous clinical experiences as a Substance Abuse Counselor at Chestnut Health Systems in Bloomington, IL, a Social Emotional Learning Facilitator for the New Brunswick Board of Education, and a counselor at The Haven at Piscataway High School. She has also trained at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx and is concurrently serving on a DBT team at the Behavior Health College Partnership at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, NY. Her interests include borderline personality disorder, attachment, and childhood trauma.
Kierra Pean is a second-year Clinical PsyD student, and a proud alum, of Rutgers University. She received her B.A in psychology and Communication with a focus in health. Before joining the DBT-RU lab she was a practicum student at Rutgers CAPS and the Psychological Services Clinic at Rutgers. Her clinical interests are in treating low-income populations who need access to mental health care.
Hannah Pucker is a second-year clinical Psy.D. student at GSAPP. She received her B.A. in psychology from Bowdoin College in 2019. Previously, she participated in the Post-Baccalaureate Clinical Fellowship at McLean Hospital, working as a community residence counselor on a short-term, residential unit for adolescents (ART) and as a clinical educator at a DBT-adherent residential program for adolescent boys (3 East). She also conducted research on BPD with Dr. Mary Zanarini in the Laboratory for the Study of Adult Development. Her research and clinical interests include suicide and NSSI, emotion dysregulation, BPD, and improving access to treatments like DBT.
Allison K. Ruork, Ph.D. is a postdoctoral associate at GSAPP. Allison received her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Nevada, Reno and completed her internship at Duke University Medical School. Her research focuses on emotion dysregulation, suicide, non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and trauma. Her interests include environmental interventions, as well as leverging technology-driven assessment and intervention, to improve outcomes for patients struggling with NSSI and suicidal behaviors. She is the recipient of the 2019 ISITDBT Student Researcher Award for her work using ecological momentary assessment to examine the transactional model of emotion dysregulation.
Melanie Rosen is a third-year clinical Psy.D. student at GSAPP. She received her B.A. in psychology from Appalachian State University and her M.A. in clinical psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University. She currently works as a clinician at both DBT-RU and the Anxiety Disorders Clinic at Rutgers University. Prior to joining the DBT-RU team, Melanie gained clinical experience working at The Haven at Piscataway High School and the Center for Psychological Services at Rutgers University. Melanie’s research and clinical interests include means reduction approaches to suicide prevention, cognition and suicide/NSSI, emotional dysregulation, and serious mental illness.
Thanharat (Poojah) Silamongkol is a second-year clinical Psy.D. student at GSAPP. She received her B.A. in Psychology from Macalester College in 2018. She is currently completing her practicum at DBT-RU, and continuing to see clients at the Center for Psychological Services at Rutgers. Her prior clinical experiences include working as a clinician at Rutgers’ Counseling, Alcohol and Other Drug Assistance Program & Psychiatric Services where she conducted weekly individual CBT treatment sessions and co-led Cultivating Calm and Unified Protocol Workshops, as well as running weekly groups on mindfulness, emotion regulation, decision-making, and impulse control with middle school students through the Haven clinic. Prior to coming to GSAPP, she worked as a research coordinator at the Research in Adolescent Depression Lab at the University of Minnesota. Her clinical and research interests include suicide, self-harm, emotion regulation, and attachment in adolescents.
Molly Stern is a fourth-year clinical Psy.D. student at GSAPP. Upon receiving her B.A. in Sociology and Economics from Wesleyan University in 2014, she moved out to San Francisco, where she worked for a non-profit foundation and the Crisis Support Services of Alameda County before going back to school to study psychology at U.C. Berkeley. During her time at GSAPP, she has worked with individuals of all ages and backgrounds with a variety of anxiety disorders and as part of a multidisciplinary team within a primary care setting. Molly is interested in psychological impacts of health crises, emotional dysregulation, anxiety disorders, and how mindfulness-based treatments affect outcomes.
April Yeager is a third-year clinical Psy.D. student at GSAPP. She received her B.A. in psychology from Rutgers University. She currently works as a clinician at DBT-RU and at the Anxiety Disorders Clinic. Her prior clinical experiences include working as a clinician at Rutgers CAPS and at the Center for Psychological Services. She has gained research experience through DBT-RU and the Kleiman Lab. Her research interests include BPD, suicidal behaviors, and emotion regulation.
Qing Yin is a fourth-year clinical psychology Ph.D. student at Rutgers University. She received her B.S. in psychology from University of Washington and M.S. in clinical behavioral psychology at Eastern Michigan University. Her interest centers around translating science to clinical practice to improve behavioral interventions for emotion dysregulation and suicide. Her research interests include emotion dysregulation, suicide thinking and behavior, process of change in DBT, repeated measure designs, and novel approaches of DBT implementation.
Research Assistants 2022-2023
Hannah Krall serves as a Project Coordinator for DBT-RU. After receiving her B.A. in Psychology from Skidmore College, she worked as a Research Assistant in the Cognition, Emotion, and Life Experiences (CEL) lab at Butler Hospital/Brown University. Her research interests include identifying acute risk factors for suicidal thoughts/behavior and reducing stigma and other barriers to increase access to treatment. In addition to DBT-RU, she also works as a Project Coordinator under Dr. Evan Kleiman (Psychology Dept., School of Arts & Sciences). In the future, Hannah hopes to pursue her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology.
Moazima Ahmed is a senior majoring in Psychology with a minor in South Asian Studies at Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences. She is interested in closely studying how cultural and religious trauma exacerbates the development of personality disorders in children and adolescents. After her time at Rutgers University, she plans on pursuing a PsyD degree in Clinical Psychology.
Samantha Hernandez is a first-year clinical Psy.D. student at GSAPP. She received her B.A. in psychology from the University of Pennsylvannia. Previously, she worked at the National Center for PTSD doing implementation research on CBT and CPT. Currently, she is a clinician at CAPS at Rutgers University. Her research and clinical interests include trauma, substance use, and community-based research partnerships.
Kaileigh Conti is a research coordinator for DBT-RU. She received her B.A. from Boston College in 2020 and her M.A. from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in 2022. Kaileigh also currently works as a research coordinator for Dr. Evan Kleiman (Psychology Dept., School of Arts & Sciences). Her research interests include severe mental illness and emotion dysregulation in children and adolescents, as well as treatment methods for this population.