OPAGS Board

Chair: Ashley Murray, Wright State University

Ashley is a third year clinical psychology doctoral student at Wright State University. She obtained her B.A. in psychology, graduating with Cum Laude and departmental honors from the University of Cincinnati. Ashley’s interests include chronic illness, treatment adherence, neuropsychological disorders, and developmental disorders in children. Her dissertation will be looking at the effectiveness of Group Theraplay on caregiver-child interactions in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. She has had experience conducting early interventions for young children identified as at risk for developing conduct disorders, conducting neuropsychological assessments in a hospital setting, providing individual and group therapy at a community mental health center, and working in a partial hospitalization program with children. In addition, she has worked on several research projects at Wright State University which include evaluating a therapeutic model at a juvenile detention center, determining common factors within suicides in Dayton, Ohio, and conducting research on the behavioral and mental health needs of children in a primary care setting. These have all produced several conference presentations. She is currently a graduate student affiliate of APA.

Chair Elect: Terri Pelley, University of Cincinnati

Terri Pelley is a Clinical Psychology doctoral study at the University of Cincinnati. Clinically, she is interested in working with children who suffer from serious mental illness. She is also passionate about working with minorities in community settings to help children gain access to mental health treatment.  Likewise, her research focuses on community and pediatric psychology. Currently, she is working on a study that examines the stress, resilience, and coping of Latino youth in an untraditional location. Terri was looking for a way to get involved involved in the field of psychology beyond her day-to-day clinical and research work and this is why she joined the OPAGS board this year. She is looking forward to serving Ohio graduate students both this year as chair-elect and next year as chair.

Diversity Chair: Rachel Juran, Xavier University

Rachel Juran is a doctoral student at Xavier University’s Clinical Psychology program.  Her clinical interests include geropsychology, neuropsychological assessment, and mindfulness, the latter of which also factors strongly into her dissertation research.  Her clinical experiences have strengthened her sensitivity to diversity issues and motivated her to pursue this position as a means of promoting cultural and individual diversity at the state level.

Advocacy Chair: Amanda Trice, Xavier University

Amanda is a third year Psy.D. student at Xavier University in Cincinnati, OH. Her focus is on child and adolescent clinical work. although she also has had meaningful experiences with college and adult populations. She had extensive experiences with advocacy activities prior to her graduate work at Xavier, including serving as the Director of Business and Community Advocacy at the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. Through this position. She directly advocated for issues related to education, economic development and project funding to state and federal legislators. This experience informs her efforts to engage students in advocacy work and to work cooperatively with OPA to influence public policy.

Social Responsibility Chair: Hether Cook, University of Akron

Hether Cook is a doctoral student in the University of Akron’s Collaborative Program in Counseling Psychology.  Counseling Psychology, at its core, promotes awareness, social justice and multiculturalism through individual counseling, teaching, research and political/social advocacy, which is why she is thrilled to be a part of the OPAGS Committee for Social Responsibility.  Her research interests narrow on race relations and how Whiteness confers power. She looks forward to working with OPA to foster awareness of our responsibility–as (budding) psychologists who have power–to others with less power.

Communications Chair : Demaree Bruck, University of Cincinnati

Demi is a Clinical Psychology doctoral student at the University of Cincinnati. Her clinical interests include chronic illness, treatment adherence, and severe mental illness in children and adolescents. Her research addresses obesity and type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents, utilizing community-based participatory research methods to work with under-served, at-risk populations.

Continuing Education Chair: Steven Beyer, University of Akron