OUR TEAM
Scientific Minds
KARIN G. COIFMAN, PHD
Lab Director
Karin grew up in southern Connecticut and attended Yale University where she completed an undergraduate degree in English. From there, she worked for several years for a community health and education agency in NY where she got her first real taste of the field of psychology. In 2001, Karin went to graduate school at Columbia University and worked under the mentorship of George Bonanno, completing a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology in 2008. Karin stayed on at Columbia for a two year post-doctoral fellowship, under the mentorship of Geraldine Downey and Eshkol Rafaeli. She has been on the faculty in the Department of Psychological Sciences, as part of the Clinical Psychology Program at Kent State University since 2010. Karin currently lives in Akron, OH with her husband, two daughters and their dogs.
GRADUATE STUDENTS
BEN MITCHELL
6th Year Graduate Student
Ben is a sixth-year doctoral student at Kent State University. He is currently completing his Predoctoral Internship at Baylor College of Medicine working on the OCD and Related Disorders Track. At Kent State, Ben's primary research has focused on understanding the role of discrete emotions—particularly disgust—in the etiology and maintenance of anxiety-related disorders. He has used laboratory and intensive sampling methods (i.e., ecological momentary assessment) to investigate the function of disgust, its learning mechanisms, and how it differs from other negative emotions, like fear. Ben hopes to use this knowledge to design methods for enhancing evidence-based treatments for anxiety-related disorders.
BRITTANY BAUGHER
5th Year Graduate Student
Brittany is currently a fifth-year graduate student in Clinical Psychology. She graduated from Ohio State University in 2018 with a major in Psychology and a minor in Neuroscience. After her bachelor’s degree, Brittany received a master's degree in Experimental Psychology at Villanova University where she primarily studied early life stress and sex differences in stress resilience within rodent models. Brittany then worked as a research coordinator at the Cleveland Clinic while working part-time as an adjunct professor. Brittany has always been interested in how experiences throughout the lifespan shape risk and resilience in the development of psychopathology. Her current projects within the lab focus on the role of positive and negative early life experiences in shaping emotional reactivity in adulthood.
EMILY GAWLIK
5th Year Graduate Student
Emily is currently a fifth-year graduate student in Clinical Psychology. She graduated from the University of Mississippi with a B.A. in Psychology in 2019, where she completed a senior honors thesis under Dr. Stefan Schulenberg that examined correlates of posttraumatic stress in a hurricane-exposed community sample. Following graduation, Emily worked as a research assistant at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill Institute for Trauma Recovery as part of the AURORA Study. Broadly, her research interests include risk and protective factors in the development of psychopathology after stressful life events–and, in particular, what factors might contribute to greater wellbeing and effective coping. She is also interested in how individual differences in interpretation and beliefs about emotions might impact emotion regulatory processes.
MEGAN KORHUMMEL
3rd Year Graduate Student
Megan is currently a third-year graduate student in Clinical Psychology. She graduated from San Diego State University with a B.A. in Psychology with an emphasis in Neuroscience in 2023. Megan completed a senior honors thesis under Dr. Vanessa Malcarne that examined sociodemographic factors as moderators of the association between cancer fatalism and health-related quality of life in Hispanic-American adults. Broadly, her research interests include the development of psychopathology in the context of chronic stress, focusing on factors that promote psychological well-being and adaptive coping. She is particularly interested in how emotional self-efficacy and health behaviors influence psychological outcomes over time.
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER
BRANDON BORING
Postdoctoral Researcher
Brandon is a post-doctoral scholar working on the Student Life Study. He recently graduated from Texas A&M University with a Ph.D. in Social and Personality Psychology, where he studied the role of the self in pain experiences. He previously earned an M.A. in Experimental Psychology from Towson University and a B.A. in Biochemistry from McDaniel College. Before earning his Ph.D. he worked in pain laboratories at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland, Baltimore. His research interests include biopsychosocial factors that both contribute to and are impacted by the experience of pain, self-conscious emotions, and existential concerns of the self.
KAYLA SCAMALDO
Postdoctoral Researcher
Kayla is a postdoctoral scholar at Kent State University. She received her B.A. in Psychology in 2017 and her M.A. in Clinical Psychology in 2019 from Cleveland State University. She recently completed her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Toledo. Her research interests concentrate on emotional, social, and physical factors that precipitate or occur as a consequence of dysregulated emotions and behaviors among individuals with psychopathology (e.g., borderline personality disorder pathology). She is also interested in sleep disturbance as a transdiagnostic mechanism..
JULIE SCHUPBACH
SLS Project Coordinator
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Julie began working for the CAS lab in the summer of 2022 while completing her undergraduate degree. She graduated from Kent State University in May 2023 with her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. From March 2023 to September 2023, Julie worked as the project coordinator for the Resilience and Adaptation to Injury (RAI) Study. After that, Julie undertook a new position as project coordinator for the Kent State Student Life Study. When she isn't managing research, Julie enjoys spending time with family and friends, exercising, cooking, and watching movies.
Ashley is Project Coordinator for the Resilience and Adaptation to Injury (RAI) Study. She graduated from Kent State University in 2015 with a B.S. in Psychology. Her future goals include enrollment in a Clinical Psychology Doctorate program. Her research interests focus on the credibility and clinical utility of dimensional models of psychopathology.
RAI Project Coordinator
ASHLEY HALADAY
RESEARCH ASSISTANTS
Addi Thompson
Allison Hlad
Amelia Pecic
Andrew Bowser
Brendan Schall
Cashyra Walker
Claire Carnahan
Dominic Chifulini
Elizabeth Gampolo
Ellie Brandt
Grace Meuleman
Jenna Onesko
Jillian Thomas
Jonny Delegram
Kate Brown
Kayla Dixon
​Landon Burton
Madeleine Nolte
Madeline Irwin
Maryam Bonchu
Masiella Grob
Maya Spitz
Megan McGrath
Mickalla Carlson
Patrick Straits
Rielly Fabrizo
Samual LaRAce
Simran Hundal
Tanushree Varsha Ujjineni
William Doering