Program Faculty
Sarai Coba-Rodriguez, PhD, CFLE
Sarai Coba-Rodriguez, PhD, CFLE, is an Assistant Professor of Human Development and Learning in the Department of Educational Psychology. Her qualitative research focuses on how ecological context (community), individual, and family factors promote the resilience of low-income, ethnic-minority families and children’s transition from preschool to kindergarten. Challenging notions of dysfunction, Sarai emphasizes families’ strengths and cultural resources, and highlights the active role that low-income families play in preparing their child for school entry. Sarai also explores concrete ways to further enrich home-school collaboration.
Education
PhD, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Human Development and Family Studies
MS, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Human and Community Development
BA, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Sociology; Spanish (minor)
HDL Courses
- EPSY 255: Child Development in Contemporary Society
- EPSY 382: Child, Family and Community
Aisha Griffith, PhD
Aisha Griffith, PhD is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her research focuses on the development and function of supportive relationships between adolescents and non-parental adults within informal and formal learning contexts. She is particularly interested in the critical role of trust within youth-adult relationships and how these relationships support positive adolescent development. More broadly, she is committed to connecting research and practice on out-of-school time programming.
Education
BA, History, Northwestern University
MA, Human and Community Development, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
PhD, Human and Community Development, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
HDL Courses
- EPSY446 Characteristics of Early Adolescence
Marisha Humphries, PhD
Marisha L. Humphries, PhD is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and a licensed clinical psychologist. Dr. Humphries’ research seeks to develop an integrated approach to studying African American children’s normative and prosocial development, and utilizing this basic research to create culturally and developmentally appropriate school-based behavior promotion programs. Her work examines African American children’s emotional and social competence, and the ways in which educational settings can support children’s development in this area. Due to her interest and experience in applied research, Dr. Humphries’ work considers the contextual and cultural factors associated with children, families, and schools.
Education
PhD, Clinical Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago
MS, Clinical Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago
BS, Psychology, Howard University
HDL Courses
- EPSY 255: Child Development & Society
- EPSY 320: Understanding Children’s Social Development & Socialization in an Urban Context
- EPSY 420: Social Development of Urban Children
Catherine Main
Catherine Main is a senior lecturer in the Educational Psychology Department at the University of Illinois in Chicago. She is also the coordinator of the M.Ed program in Early Childhood Education.
Education
BA: Marquette University
M.Ed: University of Illinois at Chicago
HDL Courses
- EPSY 382: Child, Family and Community
- EPSY 482: Forging Collaborations with Family, Community, and Staff
- EPSY 520: Introduction to Early Childhood Curriculum and Practice
Terrell Morton
Dr. Terrell R. Morton is an Assistant Professor of Identity and Justice in STEM Education in the Department of Educational Psychology in the College of Education. Dr. Morton graduated with a B.S. in Chemistry from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, a M.S. in Neuroscience from the University of Miami, and a Ph.D. in Education concentration Learning Sciences and Psychological Studies from UNC Chapel-Hill. Dr. Morton identifies as a Scholar-Activist! His research and work focus on identity as it informs the persistence and engagement of racialized and minoritized students in STEM postsecondary education. He draws from critical race theory, phenomenology, and human development to ascertain Black students’ consciousness and how it manifests in their various embodiments and actions that facilitate their STEM postsecondary engagements.
As a scholar-activist, Dr. Morton works to transform the positioning and understanding of Blackness in mainstream education, specifically STEM, seeking justice and joy for Black women, Black students, and other minoritized individuals given the social-cultural-political-historical positioning of their identities. He advocates for identity, justice, and joy to be fundamental for education. He also works to transform STEM learning environments, creating spaces that are recognized and understood as extensions of students’ identity rather than sites of oppression that perpetuate hostility and exclusion.
Larissa Mulholland
Larissa Mulholland is a Visiting Clinical Lecturer in Educational Psychology. She has been in early childhood education (ECE) for about thirty years in a variety of roles and settings. She has many years of experience in direct service working with diverse children and families. She also has extensive experience supporting the professional development of in-service teachers as a coach and curriculum coordinator and of pre-service teachers as faculty in and director of teacher education programs. Her approach is grounded in the work of Dewey, Erikson and sociocultural constructivism. As an ECE professional committed to social justice and concerned with political implications of dominant discourse around childhood and education, her focus is on supporting the voice, agency, well-being and sense of belonging of both children and teachers and to put those at the center of programmatic and policy decisions.
Bernadette Sánchez, PhD
Bernadette Sánchez is a Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is an expert on mentoring relationships and the positive development of urban, low-income adolescents of color, particularly Latinx and African-American youth. Her research is on the role of formal and natural mentoring relationships in youth’s educational experiences, the resilience and resistance of youth who are marginalized in U.S. society, and the racial and ethnic processes, such as racial discrimination and racial/ethnic identity, that have an impact on the development of youth of color and on youth-adult relationships. Her current research projects are on a) the role of mentoring in adolescents’ science and ethnic/racial identities and b) an evaluation of a racial justice training intervention for volunteer mentors of youth of color. She has received funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF), William T. Grant Foundation, and local foundations for her mentoring research. Bernadette is a member of the Research Board for the National Mentoring Resource Center. She is a first-generation college student and loves teaching and mentoring students at UIC.
Education
PhD, University of Illinois at Chicago, Community & Prevention Research (Psychology)
MA, University of Illinois at Chicago, Community & Prevention Research (Psychology)
BA, Fairfield University, Psychology
Courses
- Community Intervention Strategies in Human Development (ED 394)
Critical Perspectives of Latinx Human Development
Kathleen M. Sheridan, PhD
Kathleen M. Sheridan, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Educational Psychology Department at the University of Illinois in Chicago. She is also the program coordinator of the undergraduate Human Development and Learning program. Kathy is the principal investigator on the Early Math Counts and Early Science Matters grant funded projects.
Education
PhD University of Wisconsin-Madison
MA Ed Washington University
HDL Courses
- EPSY 255: Child Development in Contemporary Society
- EPSY 405: Educational Assessment and Evaluation
- EPSY 426: Child Development, Health and Wellness
- EPSY 429: Constructivist Approaches to Development: Piaget and Vygotsky
- EPSY 370: Early Childhood Education and Curriculum
- EPSY 151: Human Development and Learning Academic Success
Stephanie Torres, PhD
Stephanie Torres, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology. Her program of research focuses on contexts of risk and resilience among low-income, Latinx communities, particularly Latinx families impacted by immigration-related stress. Her research emphasizes the resilience and cultural strengths among the Latinx community. She leads the FLOR (Familias Overcoming stress with Resilience) Lab at UIC, a research group dedicated to developing school-based and community-based programs that promote well-being and mental health while utilizing a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach. To that end, FLOR and The Resurrection Project, a local community agency, have developed and are piloting FIESTA (Familias Inmigrantes Empoderándose contra eStrés Tomando Acción), a 10-week intervention program led by community health workers which aims to address the stress caused by structural racism among Latinx immigrant families.
Dr. Torres also is also interested in trauma-informed care and ways to infuse trauma-informed care in educational spaces. Her clinical work focuses on addressing trauma among minoritized families and she specializes in serving bilingual, Spanish-speaking families. She is also interested in promoting clinician, researcher, and educator involvement in policy and advocacy efforts.
Education
PhD Loyola University Chicago, Clinical Psychology (2019)
MA Loyola University Chicago, Clinical Psychology (2016)
BA DePaul University, Psychology and Latin American/Latinx Studies (2013)
HDL Courses
EPSY 382: Child, Family and Community
Nic Weststrate, PhD
Dr. Nic Weststrate’s research program investigates optimal psychosocial development across the adult lifespan. His research examines human development at the intersection of personal, social, cultural, and historical forces. He is primarily interested in Eriksonian developmental constructs, including personal and collective identity, generativity, ego integrity, and, especially, the development, manifestation, and transmission of wisdom. In recent research, Nic has been exploring the influence of intergenerational storytelling on psychosocial development. He is currently examining this within the context of families and the LGBTQ community.
Nic’s research orientation is informed by lifespan developmental, personality, narrative, and cultural psychology. He incorporates diverse quantitative and qualitative methodologies in his work, with an emphasis on narrative methods that successfully capture the diversity, complexity, and cultural embeddedness of human development.
Education
2017 – PhD, University of Toronto, Developmental Psychology and Education
2011 – MA, University of Toronto, Developmental Psychology and Education
2007 – HBSc, University of Toronto, Psychology and Philosophy
HDL Courses
- EPSY 242 – Introduction to Sexuality Development Across the Lifespan
- EPSY 257 – Adult Development & Aging in Contemporary Society
- EPSY 340 – Self & Identity Development Across the Lifespan