Laboratory Personnel
Director
Julia Buckner is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at LSU and the Director
of LSU's Anxiety and Addictive Behaviors Laboratory & Clinic. She is also a Clinical
Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at LSU-Health Sciences Center
and a Visiting Professor at the London South Bank University School of Applied Sciences.
She is also a licensed clinical psychologist. Dr. Buckner's program of research primarily
focuses on: (1) psycho-sociocultural causal and maintaining factors implicated in
substance use disorders and co-occurring anxiety-substance use disorders; and (2)
development and evaluation of empirically-informed treatment and prevention protocols
for substance use disorders, including treatment for co-occurring anxiety-substance
use disorders. Dr. Buckner has had over 190 publications and she has utilized a variety
of methodological procedures in her research, including ecological momentary assessment,
affect and craving induction paradigms, attentional processing paradigms, technology-based
interventions, and randomized clinical trials. She has been involved in several NIH
grants as PI, co-PI, consultant, and sponsor and is currently Project Director on
a graduate education training grant from the US Department of Health & Human Services'
HRSA. She has also received awards from organizations such as the American Psychological
Association, College on Problems of Drug Dependence, Anxiety Disorders Association
of America, and Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) Addictive
Behaviors & Anxiety Disorders Special Interest Groups.
Graduate Students
Paige Morris received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Temple University in 2017.
She joined LSU’s Clinical Psychology program in 2020. Her research interests include
examining sex differences in substance use behaviors and identifying psychosocial
factors, such motivational and context-specific differences in substance use that
predict problem severity and treatment outcomes, especially among cannabis users.
She will complete her pre-doctoral internship at the Southeast Louisiana Veterans
Health Care System in New Orleans.
Caroline Scherzer received her Bachelor of Science degree in Human Development from Virginia Tech in 2018. She joined LSU’s Clinical Psychology program in 2021. Her research interests include improving treatment outcomes for adults with substance use disorders (especially opioid use disorders) by identifying mediating and moderating factors involved in the onset, experience, and maintenance of maladaptive behaviors in order to translate this information into evidence-based interventions.
Katie Thomas received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Cognitive Science from Rice University in 2019. She joined LSU’s Clinical Psychology program in 2023. Her research interests include the interaction of traumatic stress on substance use patterns as well as identifying protective factors that reduce risk for the development of substance use disorders.
Luke Vargo joined LSU’s Clinical Psychology program in 2023 after receiving his Master of Arts
degree in Psychological Research from Texas State University the prior spring. His
research interests pertain to the transdiagnostic mechanisms between substance use
(particularly cannabis use) and anxiety disorders in hopes of refining available evidence-based
psychological treatments.
Alumni
Sonia Shah Blauvelt, Ph.D.
Clinical Assistant Professor, OLOL-LSUHSC Psychiatry Residency Program
Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Bluefield Wellness
Predoctoral Internship: Medical College of Georgia/Charlie Norwood Veteran's Affairs Medical Center
Dissertation: Personalized Normative Feedback for College Student Condom Use
Kimberlye Dean, Ph.D.
Clinical Psychologist and Co-Founder, Triad Psychotherapy
Predoctoral Internship: VA Boston Healthcare System, Substance Abuse Division, Boston MA
Postdoc: Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital
Dissertation: The Impact of Experimentally-Induced Perceived Discrimination on Substance Use and Related Problems
Anthony Ecker, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine
Investigator, Behavioral Health & Implementation Core, Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness and Safety, Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center
Predoctoral Internship: VA Connecticut Healthcare Service, West Haven
Postdoc: South Central Mental Illness Research, and Clinical Center Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, Houston, Texas
Dissertation: The Impact of Experimentally Manipulated Post-Event Processing on the Relationship between Social Anxiety and Cannabis Craving and Use
Mara Ferrie, Ph.D.
Staff Psychologist
PTSD-SUD Clinic, Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System in New Orleans
Predoctoral Internship: Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System in New Orleans
Dissertation: A Novel Online Personalized Feedback Intervention to Reduce Alcohol Use and Negative Affect
Emily Jeffries, Ph.D.
Staff Psychologist, Edward Hines Jr. Veterans Administration Hospital
Predoctoral Internship: VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System
Dissertation: Hatha Yoga as an Aid to Smoking Cessation for Smokers with Anxiety and/or Depression: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Katherine Walukevich-Dienst, Ph.D.
Acting Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington
Predoctoral Internship: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Postdoc: F32 Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Washington School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry
Dissertation: Development and Initial Psychometric Properties of the Cannabidiol Outcome Expectancies Questionnaire (CBD-OEQ)
Dr. Walukevich-Dienst's Website
*Celebrating Mardi Gras (due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Walukevich-Dienst did not attend graduation).