Current & Former Doctoral Students

Current
Doctoral Students
Gequasha "GQ" Collins
Applied Social & Cultural Psychology
Doctoral Student
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An FIU Inclusion Fellowship recipient, GQ entered the doctoral program in Fall 2021. Her work examines cross cultural constructions of various types of mental illness at individual and community levels. GQ will focus primarily on the impact of these values across LatinE peer and familial networks across the United States. Currently, she is developing a quantitative stigma study to assess perceptions of peers with serious mental illness in LatinE emerging adult populations.
EDUARDO DE LA Vega-Taboada
Developmental Psychology
Doctoral Candidate
- Read more about Eduardo
A Tinker Foundation Field Research Grant Fellow, Eduardo is interested in identifying community safe spaces as sites for adolescent health social and emotional development. He has already completed a thesis that examined rural Afro Colombian adolescents' perceptions of safe spaces. Eduardo's disertation, funded by the FIU Doctoral Evidence Acquisition Fellowship extends this work by examining the role of soccer/ futbol youth leaders in creation of safe spaces in Colombia.
Hector Peguero
Applied Social & Cultural Psychology
Doctoral Student
- Read more about Hector
A CASE Dean's Distinguished Doctoral Fellow, Hector entered the doctoral program in Fall 2022. His research examines the intersections of health stigma and identity development among gender and sexually diverse individuals both the United States and India. A former Fulbright Fellow, Hector is building on his foundational research by seeking to identify common points of intervention for addressing stigma while increasing agency through health inequities education.
Juan Sebastian
Castillo Perez
Applied Social & Cultural Psychology
Doctoral Student
- Read more about Juan
Juan entered the doctoral program in Fall 2021. Juan is using mixed methodologies to identify diverse Latino masculity norms and values across the Latin American diaspora, particularly in the United States and Latin America. He is especially interested in the ways in which nationality and ethnic cultural informs ideas about masculinity, and how these shape mental health well being and healthy relationship formation processes across diverse emerging adult Latino populations.
Jeffrey Pierre
Applied Social & Cultural Psychology
Doctoral Student
- Read more about Jeffrey
Jeffrey entered the doctoral program in Fall 2022. His research examines meanings given to discipline cross culturally, with a focus on the role of accultration, national identity, and familial proceses. Jeffrey is particularly interested in exploring the ways contextual stressors experienced by diverse Black populations, such as racisim, acculturation, and language, inform theese phenomena . A Sant La Fellow, his ultimate goal is to identify culturally appropriate approaches that center Haitian cultural values and socio historical realities. .

Former
Doctoral Students
Developmental Psychology
DR. Alexa Barton
- Read more about Dr Barton
Dr. Alexa Barton is a Research Scientist with WestEd, a national education research agency that focuses on improving learning, healthy development and equity in schools and communities. Her dissertation examined the ways in which attitudes towards modes of immigration affect sterotyping beliefs and mental health outcomes. Gathering data from universities in Florida, Texas and California, Dr. Barton identified the importance of considering region, and ethnicity/ race when examining perceptions of immigration. An APA Society for the Study of Social Issues Grant funded Dr. Barton's research.
Developmental Psychology
Dr. Elsa Bravo
- Read more about Dr. Bravo
Dr. Elsa Bravo is a Research Associate in the FIU Office of Retention and Graduation Success, where she oversees mixed methods research projects related to the office's focus. Dr. Bravo's dissertation, funded by the Delores Auzenne Fellowship focused on the influence of cultural values and familial support on Hispanic STEM majors' degree persistence. This mixed methods project included both qualitative and quantitative methods. Additionally, she completed a Psychology Department SEED funded study examining Hispanic women's perceptions of doctoral program experiences.
Developmental Psychology
dr. Claire HelpingStine
- Read more about Dr. Helpingstine
Dr. Claire Helpingstine's research examines the ways in which gender, race and contextual experiences perceptions inform individuals' perceptions of human trafficking across diverse communities. Claire is also interested in identifying the familial and social network processes that shape the experiences and decision making processes of trafficked victims both in the United States and India. She has received a NIH Global Health Pre Dissertation Fellowship to examine these phenomena. She was also awarded an FIU UGS Dissertation Year Fellowship to fund her final year of research.
Developmental Psychology
dr. Shannon kennedy
- Read more about Dr. Kennedy
Dr. Shannon Kennedy is currently an Associate Professor of Psychology at Miami Dade College, where she is also on faculty in the Holocaust Education Program. Her research interests focus on identity development, intimate partner violence, and romantic relationships. Dr. Kennedy's dissertation examined the influence of familial conflict strategies on Hispanic college women’s verbal IPV victimization; it was one of the first dissertations to examine IPV specifically within this population. Further, Dr. Kennedy explored within group differences, paying close attention to the influence of gender role beliefs and Hispanic cultural familial values.
Developmental Psychology
dr. alan meca
- Read more about Dr. Meca
Dr. Alan Meca is currently an Assistant Professor of Psychology at University of Texas at San Antonio . Prior to this, he completed a National Institutes for Health (NIH) funded Post Doctorate position at the University Miami. He began his faculty career as an Assistant Professor position at Old Dominion University, where he helped develop the Applied Health Psycholoogy Program. Dr. Meca's program of research focuses on Hispanic identity development and acculturation in emerging adulthood, as well as their respective impacts on psychosocial functioning and health risk behaviors. He has published numerous research papers and received national funding to support his work.
Clinical Psychology
dr. Jacqueline "Jackie" Moses
- Read more about Dr. Moses
Dr. Jackie Moses was co- mentored by Dr. Stacy Frazier. Her research interests center on the leveraging of naturally- occurring, culturally- relevant resources and protective factors as a means of facilitating positive youth development. She received the FIU Graduate School's Willie E. Williams Award for this work. Dr. Moses is currently a Post Doctoral Researcher at the University of Chicago's Institute for Juvenile Research. She began this position after completing her clinical internship training at the University of San Francisco Health Service Psychology where she engaged in community- based research and policy training focused on Black and Latinx communities.
Developmental Psychology
Dr. Laura Oramas
- Read more about Dr. Oramas
Dr. Laura Oramas is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Georgia Gwinette College; she was formerly on faculty at Indian River College in Central Florida. Her research focuses on the intergenerational transmission of conflict resolution tactics (such as verbal and physical aggression). Dr. Oramas's dissertation was among the first to examine Hispanic parental and young adult daughters' psychological aggression conflict strategies. She published the results in two papers, including "The influence of parental conflict resolution strategies on Hispanic college women’s experiences with verbal aggression."
Developmental Psychology
dr. Ana Lucia Rodriguez
- Read more about Dr. Rodriguez
Dr. Ana Rodriguez is a Post Doctorate Reseacher in the Yale University Institute for Network Science Human Nature Lab. Her disseration, funded by the NIH Fogarty GHES Pre Dissertation Fellowship, utilized network analysis and qualitative methods to identify the multi- layered relationships between beliefs, interpersonal actions and violence outcomes among rural Colombian adolescents. Additionally, she completed a network analysis study examining Black doctoral students' perceptions of graduate school which was funded by the Complex Systems Society's Emerging Researcher Scientific Award. FIU recognized Dr. Rodriguez as a Real Triumphs Graduate.
Developmental Psychology
Dr. hod tamir
- Read more about Dr. Tamir
Dr. Tamir earned his Masters in Mental Health Counseling in 2012 and doctorate in developmental psychology in 2015. He was awarded a National Institutes for Health (NIH) Fogarty Center funded post-doctoral fellowship to study HIV postive South Indian women's social networks. Dr. Tamir then received a Global HIV Implementation Science Research Post Doctoral Fellowship at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health where he focused on implementation science approache to improve health services by turning research findings and evidence-based practices into routine clinical care. Dr. Tamir now has a private clinical practice in New York City.
Developmental Psychology
Dr. ADAM ZIMMERMAN
- Read more about Dr. Zimmerman
Dr. Zimmerman is the Associate Director for Analysis and Information Mangement in the Office of Planning and Institutional Research at Florida International University. Completed in Fall 2017, Dr. Zimmerman's dissertation research examined anonymity, social modeling, and aggression in online environments. He found that individuals are influenced by others' online comments, particularly those posting aggressive content. He has published work examining anonimity influences and online environments in several American Psychological Association journals, including Group Dynamics and Psychology of Popular Media Culture.