arc lab members
director
Dr. Peter Mezo
For more information on Dr. Peter Mezo, please visit his bio page.
Graduate Student Researchers
Noelle Warfford, M.A.
- Degree: B.S., Psychology (Roanoke College), M.A., Clinical Psychology, (University
of Toledo)
- Degree in Progress: Ph.D. Clinical Psychology
- 2019-2024
- Graduate Student
- Email: Noelle.Warfford@rockets.utoledo.edu
Noelle earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology with a second major in music from
Roanoke College in 2019. Prior to joining the ARC Lab, she was a research assistant
in the Psychology Department at Roanoke and defended her honors senior thesis titled
“Reliability of the Computerized-Trail Making Test, Two Alternative Cue Choice Task,
and Computerized-Circle Bisection Task."
Noelle’s primary research interests broadly include psychological assessment and psychometrics,
as well as serious and chronic mental illness, especially schizophrenia-spectrum disorders.
She is interested in studying ways of assessing self-regulation and self-monitoring
skills in populations with serious mental illness.
Publications & Presentations
More Information
Jake Avendano, M.A.
- Degree: B.S. Psychology (University of Dayton), M.A. Clinical Neuropsychology (University
of Texas at Tyler)
- Degree in Progress: Ph.D. Clinical Psychology
- 2023-2028
- Graduate Student
- Email: Jacob.Avendano@rockets.utoledo.edu
Jake earned his bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Dayton in 2021
and his master's degree in clinical psychology from the University of Texas at Tyler.
Prior to joining the ARC lab, Jake was a research assistant in the Holisitic Emotion
Attention Lab (UTTyler Psychology Department) and a lab leader in the Aging Neuropsychology
and Technology Lab (UTTyler Psychology Department). Jake was a collaborator on a publication
entitled "Resilience, mindfulness, anxiety, and depression within a dual-continua
model of mental health approach", published in Frontiers.
Jake's primary research interest focuses on emotion/regulatory flexibility, more specifically
the constructs of context sensitivity and emotion regulation repertoire. Other research
interests include measuring emotion dysregulation and suicidality using ecological
momentary assessments. His career goal includes gaining employment at a research hospital.
Caroline Born, M.A.
- Degree: B.A. Pre-Medicine & Psychology (Bowling Green State University), M.A. Clinical
Psychology (University of Dayton)
- Degree in Progress: Ph.D. Clinical Psychology
- 2023-2028
- Graduate Student
- Email: Caroline.Born@rockets.utoledo.edu
Caroline earned her bachelor's degree in psychology from Bowling Green State University
in 2021 and her master's degree in clinical psychology from the University of Dayton.
Caroline's primary research interest focuses on adaptive regulation/coping skills
in populations with severe mental illness, specifically psychotic and related disorders;
crisis-related interventions; suicidality and third-wave CBT modalities. Post graduation
she hopes to obtain employment working with an inpatient population specifically at
a hospital or behavioral health center.
Onefuwa Akande
Onefuwa is a senior pursuing her bachelor's degree in psychology. She joined the ARC
Lab with the desire to develop her knowledge concerning various subtopics within abnormal
psychology as well as potential interventions. Her interests reside within maternal
mental health, self-management, and cognitive therapy. Onefuwa's current plans after graduation are to pursue a career in medicine as a psychiatrist,
and provide mental health support in marginalized communities.
Graduate alumni
Post-doctoral Fellows & Residents
- Hannah Herc, Ph.D. (2022)
- Justin Leiter-Mcbeth, Ph.D. (2022)
- Kelsey Pritchard, Ph.D. (2021)
- Current Placement: Post-doctoral Fellow (Clinical Health Psychology), Louis Stokes
Cleveland VA Medical Center, Cleveland, OH
Undergraduate Alumni and former members
Joshua Cahill, B.A. (2022)
Grayling Keune, B.A. (2021)
Nicholas Maricic, B.A. (2021) - University of Akron, Master's program in Clinical Mental Health Counseling
Nicholas' work in the ARC Lab focused on better understanding the role of hope and
optimism in ameliorating depressive symptoms. In the past, he volunteered with Big
Brothers Big Sisters of Northwest Ohio and worked with foster children and African
refugee children within Cuyahoga County. Since graduation, Nicholas is furthering
his education in graduate training to pursue a career as a clinical mental health
counselor.
Mackenzie Cooper, B.A. (2021) - University of Toledo, Master's program in Social Work
Mackenzie joined the ARC Lab to gain experience in the laboratory setting. After graduation,
she is now pursuing a career in social work to one day become a therapist. She plans
to work with adolescents and adults with an emphasis on work dedicated to communities
of color.
Kellyann Navarre, B.A. (2020) - Cleveland State University, Master's program in Clinical Psychology
During Kellyann's lab ensure, her primary research interests involved emotion regulation
in the context of borderline personality disorder, self-injury, and suicide. Her secondary
interests included disability-related issues, including treatment accessibility,
barriers to treatment, and stigma/ableism. Kellyann was involved in the execution
and dissemination of studies and their data at multiple local and national conferences.
Kaylynn Frantz, B.A. (2020) - Industry employment
Kaylynn joined the ARC Lab to be more involved in the psychology community at the University
of Toledo and to explore the field of psychology outside of the classroom. Her primary
interest involved combining her passion for sports and helping others to one day become
a sports psychologist.
Madiana Rangel, B.A. (2020) - Clinical Practice
Madiana joined the ARC Lab to acquire research experience with mindfulness. She hopes
to work as a clinical psychologist with SMI patients in state facilities. Het interests
included severe mental illnesses (SMI; e.g., schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Kelsey Fairchild, B.A. (2020) - Clinical Practice (Psychiatric Nursing)
Prior to joining the ARC Lab, Kelsey worked for Ramapo for Children, a non-profit
organization, as a program coordinator for the Staff-Assistant Experience Program.
Her role included implementing daily structures for the residential transition-to-independence
program designed to assist young adults with social, emotional, or learning challenges.
Kelsey assisted in running participants in studies and helping with literature reviews.
Sarah Herr, B.A. (2020) - Clinical Practice
As a long-time research assistant in the ARC Lab, Sarah was involved in the execution
and dissemination of studies and their data. She has co-authored several posters which
include, "Type of mindfulness meditation and emotion regulation deficits predict state
mindfulness outcomes post meditation."
Rippa Sehgal (2019) - University of Toledo, Ph.D. program in Biochemistry
Rippa's interests included learning more about the research processes and experimentation.
Her contributions to the ARC Lab included recruitment of community participants, conducting
thorough literature reviews, and developing databases to organize such literature.
Ethan Radatz, M.A. (2019) - Clinical Practice
Ethan's interests included emotional regulation and the development of effective coping
strategies. His other research interests include humor, prejudice, aggression, and
nonviolence. He co-authored several research posters, including is lead-author poster
titled "Mindfulness as a mediator to influence social support in students with social
anxiety" (Radatz, Pritchard, & Mezo, 2019).
Rana Al-Nahhas (2019) - Howard University, Master's program in Occupational Therapy
At the ARC Lab, Rana's interests were in the effects of avocational interests and physical activity
in the regulation of anxiety and depressive disorders. Her contributions include her
recruitment of community participants, conducting thorough literature reviews, and
developing databases to organize such literature. Outside of the lab, she utilized
her skills in Applied Behavior Analysis.
Taylor Shook (2019) - University of Toledo Medical School, M.D. program
As another long-time undergraduate of the ARC Lab, Taylor was involved in several
aspects of building research studies and training in physiological measurement and
data processing. She co-authored several research posters, in addition to her lead-author
poster titled "Self-regulation in emotional affect and self-esteem" (Shook et at.,
2017).
Hannah Marshal (2018) - Kent State University, Ph.D. program in Cognitive Psychology
Hannah served as one of the initial long-time members of the ARC Lab, contributing
to the lab through literature reviews, creating study materials, piloting studies,
and training in physiological measurement. She assisted in producing several research
posters, with her most important contribution being her poster titled "Social support
mediates the effects of mindfulness on depression" (Marshal et al., 2018), which was
awarded as the top poster presentation at the UToledo Department of Psychology first
annual Research Showcase.
Raghad Hassabelnaby (2018) - William Paterson University , Psy.D. program in Clinical Psychology
Raghad contributed to the ARC Lab through her initial recruitment of study participants,
reviewing critical literature, and assisting in creating study materials. She also
co-authored the research poster "Evaluating the validity of the Self-Control and Self-Management
Scale in a midwestern student sample" (Herc et al., 2018).
Ben Harrison - Industry Employment
Ben joined the ARC Lab to explore the relationship between emotions, abnormal behaviors,
and personality. His contributions to the lab include recruiting student and community
participants, processing psychophysiological data, and disseminating findings from
the ARC Lab's studies. This includes his initial poster titled "Perceived social support
mediates mindfulness and positive affect" (Harrison et al., 2019).
Kajuan Willis - Industry Employment
Kajuan's time in the ARC Lab was guided by her passion to improve the lives of others.
Her contributions include creating test materials, reviewing literature, and piloting
studies.
Anna Wagenhauser - Industry Employment
Anna's primary research interests in the ARC Lab involved the intersections between
psychology and economics. During her time in the ARC Lab, she assisted with the collection
and review of research literature, developed materials for use during studies, and
presented her own research poster entitled "Understanding promotion versus prevention
focused behavior and related self-regulatory processes" (Wagenhauser et al., 2017).
Kaylee Finch - Industry Employment
Kaylee's research interest during her time with the ARC Lab included her focus on
depression and emotion regulation, In particular, she contributed to the ARC Lab's
initial research poster and she independently completed a review project titled "Emotion
Regulation and Depression: An Annotated Bibliography."
Dani Bolovan (2015) - Industry Employment
Dani engaged in several tasks during the foundation of the ARC Lab at UT, including
assisting with creating the ARC Lab's initial research presentation entitled "The
intersection of self-management with emotion regulation and mindfulness" (Mezo et
al., 2016).
