LABORATORY DIRECTOR
Christopher Beevers, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, The University of Texas at Austin
E-mail: beevers@psy.utexas.edu
Curriculum Vita: [PDF]Christopher Beevers, Ph.D., director of the Mood Disorders Laboratory, received his doctorate in adult clinical psychology from the University of Miami in 2002. He completed his internship and post-doctoral training at Brown Medical School in Providence, Rhode Island and joined the psychology department at the University of Texas in January 2005. He has received the President's New Researcher Award from the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy and was a Beck Scholar at the Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research. Dr. Beevers' primary research interest focuses on the cognitive etiology and treatment of major unipolar depression. He is particularly interested in the interplay between biology (e.g., genetic variants), cognitive risk factors for depression, and reactivity to transient mood states. Finally, he is interested in developing interventions/approaches (e.g., attention training) that modify factors thought to maintain depression.
GRADUATE STUDENTS
Jenna Baddeley, M.A.
Email: jenna@mail.utexas.eduJenna is a student in the Clinical and Social/Personality Psychology areas at UT. Jenna received a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2002 and an M.A. from Connecticut College in 2006. She joined the Mood Disorders Lab in fall 2006. Her research focuses on the social consequences of psychological pain (including depression, bereavement, and other stressful life events) and disclosure. Jenna also writes a blog for Psychology Today.
Peter Clasen, B.F.A.
Email: clasen@mail.utexas.eduPeter graduated from Boston University with a BFA in Theatre Studies in 2003. After graduating, he taught Shakespeare in a prison in Kentucky. In 2006, he started a post-baccalaureate degree at Columbia University and joined Walter Mischel's lab as a research assistant. In 2008 he started his graduate degree at UT under the supervision of Dr. Beevers. Peter’s research focuses on how biological, cognitive, personality, and social factors interact to predict the onset of depression in adolescents and adults. His current research projects include behavioral and neuroimaging projects that investigate how individual differences (personality and genetic) predict aspects of cognitive control when people engage with emotional material. Future projects will continue to explore these relationships in the context of social stress.
Seth Disner, B.A.
Email: seth.disner@gmail.comSeth G. Disner received his BA in Psychology from Duke University. Following graduation, he worked as Lab Manager and Assistant Research Scientist in the Division of Brain Stimulation and Therapeutic Modulation at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York, NY, where he helped investigate novel treatments for depression, schizophrenia, and autism amongst other conditions using novel forms of brain stimulation technology. Seth's research interests include investigating cognitive substrates of depression and identifying biomarkers that might facilitate treatment response. He joined the Mood Disorders Lab in Fall of 2009.
Alissa Ellis, M.A.
Email: alissa.ellis@mail.utexas.eduAlissa graduated from the University of Southern California in 2004. She spent the following year working as a project coordinator for Dr. Peter Finn, at Indiana University, in his Biobehavioral Alcohol Research Lab. She joined the MDL in the fall of 2005. Her research interests include the subjective, physiological, and behavioral components of emotion regulation in depression.
Tony Wells, M.A.
Email: wells@mail.utexas.eduTony received his B.A. in psychology in 2001 from the University of Texas in Austin and his M.A. in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2003. He joined the Mood Disorders Lab at UT in June 2005 and expects to receive his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 2011. Tony’s research interests include the etiology and maintenance of depression with a current focus on genetic and cognitive risk factors. He is also interested in using research on maintaining factors to develop novel treatment approaches for depression (e.g., attention training).
RESEARCH STAFF
Cristina Benavides, B.F.A.
Research Associate
Email: cristinabenavides@mail.utexas.eduCristina graduated in 2000 with a B.F.A. degree from the California Institute of the Arts. She spent several years working in Los Angeles as a camera and lighting assistant in the commercial film industry before completing coursework in psychology at UT Austin. Since joining the Mood Disorders Lab in 2007, Cristina has conducted and managed behavioral and neuroimaging studies focused on depression. Cristina is currently pursuing a Master’s of Science in Social Work degree at UT Austin.
Emily Wade, B.A.
Laboratory Manager
Email: eewade@austin.utexas.eduEmily earned a B.A. degree in 2001 from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. Since then, she has managed longitudinal studies in clinical psychology, developmental psychology, and social work, with particular focus on depression and eating disorder prevention trials for adolescents and assessment of low-income and minority populations. Emily joined the Mood Disorders Lab in May, 2009.
