Collaborators
Katherine Tyson McCrea, Ph.D., Professor, earned B.A. and M.Div. degrees from Yale University, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Chicago, School of Social Service Administration. She received a Doctorate, Honoris Causa, from Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania, in June, 2015. Recognized as a Master Teacher by the Council on Social Work Education since 1994, she developed social work curriculum about child treatment, philosophy of research, and global social work practice. A Fulbright Senior Specialist, she taught seminars for social workers from the U.S. and abroad (Korea, Lithuania, Italy, Greece, Finland, and Thailand), in-person and through video-conference methods. Her publications have focused on 1) improving services for disadvantaged persons, especially children and homeless adults, and 2) a practitioner-relevant philosophy of research for the social and behavioral sciences with a focus on participatory action methods. The founding Editor-in-Chief of Illinois Child Welfare, she developed the journal so that it has become international and multidisciplinary, with a practice-oriented emphasis (see www.illinoischildwelfare.org).
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Since 2006 she has been the Principal Investigator for the participatory-action–based Empowering Counseling Program (ECP), which provides clinical social work and after-school services (see www.standuphelpout.org) for disadvantaged children and youth in Chicago’s Bronzeville and Woodlawn communities. The Empowering Counseling Program has received over $500,000 in funding from After School Matters, the Illinois Violence Prevention Program, the McCormick Tribune Foundation, and the Gabe W. Miller Memorial Foundation. The ECP has educated 38 masters and doctoral level social workers, and served over 500 disadvantaged children and youth. ECP research has yielded two dissertations, several journal articles, and local, national, and international presentations. As Empowering Counseling Program PI, Prof. McCrea is a Co-Principal Investigator, in partnership with Prof. and PI Maryse Richard's Risk and Resilience Lab, in a $1 million Department of Justice award, studying the development of resilience via cross-age mentoring for youth living in high-poverty, high-crime Chicago communities.
Professor Tyson McCrea’s current research foci are 1) improving clinical social work models for traumatized, disadvantaged children and youth, 2) the development of compassion in disadvantaged youth through processes such as cross-age mentoring, 3) global social work with a focus on child welfare, and 4) participatory action research. She lives in Chicago with her husband and three children. 
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Graduate Students
Cara DiClemente, M.A. is a doctoral student in child and adolescent clinical psychology at Loyola. She received her B.A. in Psychology from Franklin and Marshall College in 2013. After college, she spent two years as a research assistant implementing a working memory intervention for adolescent marijuana users and running investigational drug treatment studies for opioid dependence and alcohol abuse. She defended her Master's Thesis in Fall 2017 on how coping strategies play a role in reducing or exacerbating delinquency and aggression in early adolescents exposed to community violence. Presently in the Risk and Resilience Lab, she is helping organize and analyze data from the cross-age peer mentoring project implemented in low-income neighborhoods in Chicago, as well as facilitating data collection for an evaluation of TF-CBT for adolescents in DuPage County. Cara is also in the process of developing her dissertation to evaluate the process and impact of Restorative Justice practices in Chicago Public Schools. In her spare time, she enjoys playing social sports, learning new languages, and traveling.
Amzie Moore II, A.M. is a professional academic advisor and an adjunct professor of African American Studies and Sociology at Chicago State University. He received his bachelor’s degree from Hampton University, his master’s degree from the University of Chicago, and is currently a doctoral student at Loyola University Chicago’s School of Social Work. His academic areas of interest are social policy, labor markets, urban poverty, and poverty and inequality. As a working subject for his dissertation, Amzie is interested in understanding barriers to human capital accumulation among the urban poor youth, as well as the relationship between psychological capital and human capital accumulation among urban poor youth. Amzie is a trained social worker, and has worked in the field of social services for the past 11 years, specifically working with the youth in the inner city of Chicago.
Kevin M. Miller, M.A. Kevin M. Miller is a Ph.D and MSW student at the Loyola University Chicago School of Social Work. He is also a recent graduate with a M.A. in sociology from Loyola University and graduated summa cum laude from Dominican University, with a B.A. in sociology and criminology. Additionally, he is an adjunct professor of sociology at Dominican University. Kevin is the Director of the Empowering Counseling Program, in which he facilitates a participatory, psycho-educational, rights-based after school program in West Englewood called, Law Under Curious Minds (LUCM). Funded by After School Matters, LUCM teaches youth about their human, legal, and civil rights. The youth utilize their knowledge to create community oriented instruction materials, which teach their friends, families, and other community members on the south side of Chicago about their rights. His research interests include examining psychosocial factors associated with violence within schools and how trauma-informed violence prevention interventions that utilize a Positive Youth Development framework can prevent youth violence. He is also interested in how structural violence, particularly public school closures, harms communities and how youths experience structural and authority-caused violence. He is interested in using community-based participatory action research to empower youth exposed to violence and to advance the human rights of children. Kevin is interested in public education and aspires to change dominant social narratives that perpetuate oppression and promote critical dialogue that influences policy makers through community-based participatory action research.
Heather Watson, M.S.W. is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who earned a Bachelors of Art in Sociology from The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Heather later obtained her Master of Social Work (MSW) from Loyola University Chicago with a focus in Children and Families as well as non-profit management. Upon completion of her MSW, she worked with children and adolescents ranging in age from 9-22 with severe mental health issues at a residential facility in Chicago. She has also volunteered mentoring disadvantaged children of color in several venues. Last year Heather was the Senior Clinical Supervisor for social work interns in a federally-funded grant serving disadvantaged youth of color. Currently, Heather is a PhD student in the School of Social Work at Loyola University Chicago. She is the Clinical Supervisor for the Empowering Counseling Program of the School of Social Work, and also works with the Risk and Resilience Team of the Department of Psychology. Her research interests include using mixed methods to study and improve mental health care and reduce disparities in social services and mental health care for young citizens of color. She enjoys teaching and clinical supervision and practice, especially working with disadvantaged youth and families and advancing social justice.
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Catherine Rice Dusing, M.A. is a doctoral student in the adolescent and child clinical psychology program. She received her B.A. in Psychology and Theology from the University of Notre Dame in 2015, where she worked with mothers and children exposed to intimate partner violence, examining how experiencing violence can affect women's coping strategies. Her interests involve child adjustment and family processes, and in particular how families can foster resilience in children growing up in a stressful, traumatic environment. At Loyola University, Catherine's work has focused on evaluating and implementing mentoring programs in high violence, low income communities in Chicago. Outside of school, she enjoys reading, running, and spending time with her family and friends.
Cynthia Onyeka, M.A. is a doctoral student in the clinical psychology program at Loyola University Chicago. She received her B.A. in Plan II Honors and Psychology in 2015 from the University of Texas at Austin. During her time at UT Austin, Cynthia actively participated in undergraduate research, working as a research assistant in the Laboratory for the Study of Anxiety Disorders, the Holtzman Inkblot Technique Project, and the Body Project. Additionally, she worked as a student coordinator in programs surrounding sexual violence prevention, interpersonal and relationship violence awareness, and mental health promotion on campus. Following graduation, Cynthia worked as a research assistant evaluating the effectiveness of an intervention promoting higher-order reasoning approaches to learning among low-income junior high students. Her research interests include factors that promote resilience as related to people of color, psychosocial buffers toward community violence exposure in adolescents, and the relationship between social environmental stressors and mental well-being in marginalized communities. As a member of the Risk & Resilience Lab, Cynthia is helping examine and implement a cross-age peer mentoring program for African and Latino-American youth in high-violence neighborhoods in Chicago. In her leisure time, Cynthia enjoys reading, cooking, watching/performing improv comedy, and listening to podcasts.
Kaleigh Wilkins, B.S. is a doctoral student in the clinical psychology program at Loyola University Chicago. She received her B.S. in Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2018 and, after, continued to remain loyal to her Illinois roots by joining our program. At UIUC, she split her time studying the effects of alcohol use as an emotional reward in social drinkers in one lab and studying the effects of racial discrimination on internalizing psychopathology in another lab. At Loyola and in our lab, she finds great interest in learning about the multi-dimensional, psychosocial effects of exposure to violence on youth in underrepresented, low-income communities on the South and West sides of Chicago. She is interested in taking her knowledge learned here to help inform both her future clinical practice as well as her research interests on generational effects of trauma in ethnic minorities, specifically among African-American populations. While not in the lab or in class, you can find her listening to all types of music, scrapbooking, hanging out with family/friends and occasionally traveling wherever she can!
Cassie Chesney, M.S.W. is a recent Loyola University Chicago MSW graduate with a specialization in mental health. She received her B.S. in Sociology including two minors in Criminal Justice and Health and Physical Education from Murray State University in Murray, KY. She received a full-ride D1 volleyball scholarship and continues to stay active with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. In the fall of 2019, she will be returning to Loyola University Chicago to pursue her CADC and will be undertaking an internship at Lutheran Social Services of Illinois assisting M.A.D. (medically assisted detox) patients, amongst other responsibilities. One of her goals is to become an LCSW as well as a CADC. Further into the future, she would like to also pursue her CEDS. Her ultimate goal is to help those who suffer from these so often co-occurring disorders. Dual-diagnosis treatment is of great interest to her. It is fairly new in the scheme of treatment history that disorders are looked at interrelatedly instead of through a separate lens. Cassie firmly believes that to fully treat a person you must deeply understand each individuals story. Things are improving, however there is still a long way to go and she would like to advocate for these individuals that are suffering so greatly while not being treated properly, and in many cases are made worse. Cassie has been a part of the lab since September 2018 and will be leaving April 30, 2019. It has been too short, however an invaluable learning experience and opportunity that she appreciated greatly. She enjoys the company of her two dogs, staying active, music, being by or in water, and spending time with her small circle of friends and family.
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Research Assistants
Annika Pentikainen is a sophomore undergraduate at Loyola University Chicago working on her B.S. in Psychology, with minors in Sociology, Spanish, and Women/Gender Studies. She is interested in entering a school psychology graduate program after graduation. She hopes to study school environments and research methods to encourage engaged learning which caters to the needs of individual students. In her free time, she enjoys swimming, biking, and watching movies with friends.
Jamie McDowell is a sophomore at Loyola University Chicago, and she is working towards a B.A. in Psychology. She is on the pre-med track, so she plans on applying to medical school as she gains more experience during her gap year. As a member of the Risk and Resilience Lab, Jamie works on many lab duties including data collection, tracking, entry, and interpretation. Some of her hobbies and interests include reading, tutoring, bike riding, and spending time with family and friends.
Kassie Gillis-Harry, B.A. is a post-bac and currently participating in the Risk and Resilience Lab to gain experience in the field of clinical psychology. She received her B.A. in Psychology and Sociology from Montclair State University in 2015. With hopes of applying to a clinical psychology doctoral program next year, Kassie has gotten a lot of practice with data collection, data entry, and data tracking. In her free time, she enjoys playing with her dogs, singing, and hanging out with family and friends.
Liz Harris, B.S. is a post-baccalaureate in the Risk and Resilience Lab. She earned her B.S. in Humanities and Social Sciences from Shimer college in 2016. Liz joined the lab in order to learn its data collection and data entry processes, in preparation for a PhD in psychology. Throughout her time in the lab, she maintained a strong interest in research, particularly as it relates to black youth in high crime, low income neighborhoods. She also decided to become a clinician. To this end, Liz will be starting a dual master’s program in Policy and Social Work at The University of Chicago in the fall. In her free time, Liz enjoys long walks, reading and cooking.
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Neha Patel is going to be a senior at Loyola University Chicago, and she is working towards a B.A. in Biology and Neuroscience. She is on the pre-med track, so she plans on applying to medical school the next cycle as she gains more experience during her gap year. As a member of the Risk and Resilience Lab, Neha works as an Intervention Coordinator for Herzl Elementary School in the North Lawndale area. Some of her hobbies and interests include tennis, badminton, reading, playing the violin, and superhero movies
Vincent Sarna is a Junior at Loyola University Chicago, who is working on his B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Italian. As a member of the Risk and Resilience Lab, Vincent works on data collection, data entry, data cleaning, and coding with the program impact team. In the future Vincent plans to purse a PHD in Social Work and work with the LGBT+ Community. He has worked with Loyola’s Student Diversity & Multicultural Affairs office and the Academic Diversity of the Provosts Office to create a networking event for LGBT+ students, faculty, and staff. In the future he hopes to continue his work with the LGBT+ community with the Interdisciplinary Fellowship through Dr. Michael Dentato and Dr. Maryse Richards.
Chana Matthews, B.A. is a former educator who has spent significant time teaching students from various urban communities. Her time in the education field fueled a passion leading her on a journey to learn more about the psychological, social and cultural influences on learning, and its overall impact on education. As a member of the Risk and Resilience lab, Chana helps in the facilitation and evaluation of several programs in Chicago whose focus is on fostering resilience in at risk youth from various marginalized African, Latino and Asian communities. She plans to use the time in the lab to help her examine internal and external barriers to learning and education. As she pursues her M.A. in Cultural and Educational Policy at Loyola University’s School of Education, her previous degrees in Elementary Education and Psychology, as well as time spent in the Risk and Resilience lab will help to inform her research. She specifically wants to examine the implications of cultural capital in existing educational policies. When she is not engaged in tutoring, volunteering or research in the lab, Chana enjoys family and friends, traveling both locally and abroad, and indulging in music art and fashion.
Will Donnelly is a current undergraduate senior working towards a B.A. in psychology. He plans on applying to a Forensic Psychology grad program on the east coast. He hopes to become a practicing clinician and work towards legal reform. In his free time, he likes to go out to eat, bike, and watch movies with his friends.
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