Our Team

This is our current OSU research team. Also listed are  alumni that Dr. Morris mentored in the past. If you are interested in becoming part of our team, please click here for more information. If you are an alum and would like to update your information, please send us an email. 

Amanda Sheffield Morris, PhD
Director

Dr. Amanda Sheffield Morris, PhD, is the George Kaiser Family Foundation Chair in Developmental Neuroscience at Oklahoma State University. She is a developmental scientist with research interests in parenting, socioemotional development, and infant and early childhood mental health.  Her research focuses on the role of emotion regulation in children and adolescents' adjustment and the ways in which children learn successful regulation skills. Another focus of her work is child and family resilience, and she is particularly interested in how early experiences shape later development with an emphasis on the parent-child relationship. Dr. Morris  is the director of the CAD-Lab, and currently oversees projects focused on emotion regulation during adolescence, adolescent brain and cognitive development, and the evaluation of community, outreach, and parenting programs and their effects on children's development. 
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About Dr. Morris

Jennifer Hays-Grudo, PhD

Dr. Hays-Grudo, PhD, is Regents Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at OSU Center for Health Sciences, where she directs the Center for Integrative Research on Childhood Adversity (CIRCA), now in its sixth year of a 10-year, $20M award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She is also one of the principal investigators of the Healthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD), the NIH-funded study that will follow pregnant women and their children for 10 years to investigate the effects of prenatal substance exposure on children’s development. She is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Adversity and Resilience Science, published by Springer/Nature. With Dr. Amanda Morris, she is co-author of Adverse and Protective Childhood Experiences: A Developmental Perspective, published in 2020 by the American Psychological Association, and Balanced Parenting: A Roadmap to Resilience for Babies, Children, Adolescence, and their Parents (coming in 2023), a guide for parents wanting to raise resilient children and become more resilient themselves in the process. Before joining OSU-Center for Health Sciences in 2018, she was department head and professor of Human Development and Family Science at OSU-Stillwater, a George Kaiser Family Foundation Chair of Community Medicine at OU-Tulsa School of Community Medicine, and an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Director of Health Promotion at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
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Julie Croff, PhD

Dr. Croff, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Rural Health at Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences. She currently serves as the Associate Director for the Center for Integrative Research on Childhood Adversity. She has served in other administrative roles on the OSU campus, including in the National Center for Wellness and Recovery, the Center for Family Resilience, and the Master of Public Health program. Dr. Croff’s research focuses on periconceptional and perinatal health behaviors among diverse cohorts of women. She was a research project lead in phase 1 of CIRCA and is currently the Principal Investigator of two studies funded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse.
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Lana Beasley, PhD

Dr. Beasley, PhD, is a licensed clinical child psychologist and Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Science at Oklahoma State University. She is a mixed-methods researcher with a focus on child abuse prevention within home visitation models. She also has research interests in cultural adaptation of treatments, family environment of children exposed to maltreatment, and foster children. Clinical interests include child trauma, anxiety, parent training, pediatric disorders, and the use of Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy  (TF-CBT), and other empirically supported treatments for children and families. 
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Devin Barlaan, PhD

Dr. Barlaan, PhD, is a post-doctoral research fellow through the Department of Psychology at Oklahoma State University. She completed her doctorate in Clinical Psychology at The University of Tulsa in Tulsa, Oklahoma and her pre-doctoral internship at Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis, Minnesota within the child track emphasis area. Dr. Barlaan is interested in prevention-intervention research, with a particular focus on disrupting the impact of adverse childhood experiences on later mental health outcomes. Clinical interest includes child trauma and mood disorders, parent management training, and pediatric sleep, and using empirically supported treatments to promote optimal health and wellbeing for children and their families. 
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Jens Jespersen, PhD

Dr. Jens E. Jespersen, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Oklahoma State University. Dr. Jespersen’s primary research focuses include parenting, socio-emotional development, and infant mental health, particularly considering how early relationships and experiences influence social and emotional development in young children. Dr. Jespersen is also interested in both the implementation and evaluation of parent education programs and family interventions.

Jenny Watrous, MS

Jennifer N. H. Watrous, MS, is a doctoral student in the Department of Psychology at Oklahoma State University under Dr. Morris. In 2022, she completed her Master of Science in Leadership studies at Northeastern University and examined the effects of physical activity on cognition in youth. Her research interests include childhood factors that contribute to or prevent mental illness later in life and multi-modal neuroimaging techniques to assess brain development.
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Alumni 

Past Post-Docs and Doctoral Students
Dr. Amy Treat
Dr. Tolonda Age
​Dr. Katie Aucoin, Acadian Care, Louisiana
Dr. D'Lee Babb
Dr. Cara Bosler, Oklahoma State University
Dr. Brenda McDaniel , University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Dr. Lixian Cui, New York University, Shanghai
Dr.Benjamin Houltberg, Search Institute, Minnesota
Dr. Aesha John, Texas Christian University
Dr. Rachel Kaufman
Dr. Angela Keyes, Tulane University
Dr. Mumbe Kithakye, Oklahoma State University
Dr. Sonya Myers, Louisiana Office of Public Health: Maternal and Child
Dr. Elisabeth Ponce-Garcia, Cameron University
Dr. Brittany Reyes
Dr. Lara Robinson, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Dr. Martha Zapata Roblyer, OSU Research Scientist
Dr. Andrew Terranova, Coastal Carolina University
​Dr. Erin Ratliff
Past Masters Students (let us know your current position)
Amber Biesley
​Cheryl Delk, OSU doctoral student
Sally Eagleton
Tammy Lee
Antoinette London-Johnson​, Florida State University doctoral student
Jordan Love, OSU, Project Coordinator and Lab Manager
Monica McCann
Meagan Meadows​
Chandra Prevost
Amy Smith, Florida State University doctoral student
​Julie Staton, OSU doctoral student
​Nicole Stevenson
Jerri Stewart
Amy Treat, OSU doctoral student
Kim Whitty, Oklahoma Health Department, Child Development Specialist
Past Undergraduate Students (Let us know where you are! If you want your name added to the list, let us know.)
​Yvette Abbott
Rebecca Cassel
Daniel Chadburn
Libby Jennings
Megan Johnson
Katy Gestland
Marie Land
Richard Laurent
Dzintra Leimane-LeBlanc
Simmone Miller
Mark Pitre
Alecia Reavis
Tiffany Reed
Malena Rodriguez
Caitlyn Russell, Colorado State MFT program
Sara Simpson
Amy Smith, OSU MS, Florida State doctoral student
Tracy Staten
Julie Staton​, OSU MS
Past Research Staff
Heather Means
​Veronica Camp
Heather Doss
Patricia Gosnell
Rebecca Hubbard
Ava Armstead
Jamie Bechtelheimer
Amy Huffer
Melissa Shell
​Mallory Schmidt

In Memorium

Julie Staton

Julie was a second generation OSU student (Go Pokes!) completing her PhD in Developmental and Family Science. She married  her high school sweetheart and they have two amazing children. She worked with children and families for over 20 years and loved working with Early Childhood teachers as well. Julie enjoyed getting to know families in our area and being able to connect with them each year through her work in the CAD Lab. 
The Human Development and Family Science department has established an award in Julie's memory, the Julie Branch Staton Outstanding Graduate Student Award. It will be awarded each year to a student who embodies the character, service, and academic excellence that Julie displayed each day during her career at OSU.