Full Vita

Education

BA    (1990)    University of Utah ? Music
MS   (1997)    University of Maryland – College Park ? Family Studies/MFT
PhD (2002)    Brigham Young University ? Marriage, Family, & Human Development

Experience

Associate Professor      Utah State University
Associate Professor      University of Kentucky
Private Practice               Center for Relationships, Lexington, KY
Assistant Professor       University of Kentucky
Family Therapist             Project Reality, Provo, UT

Courses Taught

My undergraduate teaching includes classes in adolescence, parenting and child guidance, and research methods. My graduate teaching has included courses on family theories and research, family stress, ethics and professional issues, sex therapy, family therapy practicum, couples therapy, play therapy, and gender and ethnicity.

Research Interests

I conduct research primarily on couple processes, including conflict and its outcomes on child and adolescent well-being, readiness for change, and healthy couple processes. Some of the work I have been involved with include:

• Community Healthy Marriage Initiatives:  Providing healthy relationship education to couples through community partners. The problem of intimate partner violence (IPV) is of particular interest.
• Parenting and Parenting Education: Providing healthy parenting education to at-risk parents/caretakers and their children.
• Adolescent Well-being: Investigation of adolescent outcomes relative to parenting and other family processes.\

I would welcome working with students who share my interest in the investigation of relationship processes among couples, and parenting processes as they relate to youth and child outcomes.