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 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. Her current interests are centered around what roles internal factors, such as coping styles and psychological comorbidities, and external factors (e.g., substance use and peer groups) play in adolescents' response to community violence and how to assess these factors in order to promote resilience. Presently in the Risk and Resilience Lab, she is helping implement the cross-age peer mentoring project in low-income neighborhoods in Chicago. In her spare time, she enjoys playing social sports, learning new languages, and traveling.
Amzie Moore II 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.
Jenny Phan is a doctoral student in the adolescent and child clinical psychology program. She received her B.A. in Psychology from Boston College in 2014. After college, she worked as a research assistant for two years in the Refugee Trauma and Resilience Center at Boston Children’s Hospital, which focuses on understanding and promoting the healthy adjustment of refugee youth in North America. Currently, in the Risk and Resilience Lab, her interests include understanding how factors (such as mental health interventions or mentoring programs) can promote youth resilience in the face of exposure to community violence. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, baking, running, practicing yoga, and trying new restaurants in the city of Chicago.
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Catherine Rice 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 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.
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Research Assistants
Kevin M. Miller is 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. He is also an adjunct professor of sociology at Dominican University. He intends to enroll in a doctoral program in social work, and will pursue a career in research and teaching. He is interested in using community-based participatory action research to empower youth exposed to community 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 to promote critical dialogue that influences policy makers through community-based participatory action research. As a member of the lab since 2015, Kevin is excited to continue working with youth in North Lawndale, as well as to contribute to additional academic publications and presentations. In his leisure time, Kevin enjoys cooking, reading, and traveling.
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.
Sidra Newman
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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
Gabriel Brown is a post baccalaureate research assistant in the Risk and Resilience Lab, and a Loyola alumni. He earned his B.S. In Psychology from Loyola University Chicago in 2014. Currently volunteering as a research assistant with Dr. Maryse Richards, and her graduate students, he helps contributes to the ongoing youth peer mentoring intervention in Chicago Public Schools. He's confident his participation in these research projects will help him reach his goal of being accepted into a graduate clinical psychology program in the future. From there, he wants to add to the existing psychological literature concerning disadvantaged black youth living in low income communities. Outside of the lab he works as a personal-trainer, helping his clients to adopt a healthier lifestyle. If Gabriel's not in the lab, or working with clients, he enjoys strength-training, reading, free-writing, drawing, and watching his favorite television shows.
Daisha Hill is a University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign alumna from the class of 2017, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology. Aside from being a research assistant in the Risk & Resilience Lab, Daisha is currently completing a year of service via an AmeriCorp program where she functions as a mentor/tutor to 7th and 8th grade students on the south side of Chicago. Her research interests lie in African-American children and adolescents who reside in low-income areas and the effects that their neighborhoods have on their mental health and interventions that work to combat childhood trauma for healthy youth development. In her spare time, Daisha enjoys spending time with friends and family, writing, volunteering & watching YouTube videos.
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