Current Lab Members
Lucia Ciciolla, Ph.D., Director
Dr. Lucia Ciciolla is an Associate Professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Psychology at Oklahoma State University. Dr. Ciciolla earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis in child and family science and quantitative science from Arizona State University (ASU), and completed an APA-accredited internship at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill School of Medicine in the Child-Community track. Dr. Ciciolla was trained as a clinical scientist with specializations in infancy and early childhood, perinatal and maternal mental health, parenting, trauma, and longitudinal methodology.
Dr. Ciciolla is passionate about the health and well-being of women, children, and families. She is an advocate for research, education, and treatment promoting family well-being through the following organizations:
Graduate Students
Sam Addante, M.S.
Sam Addante is a sixth-year graduate student in the Oklahoma State University (OSU) clinical psychology Ph.D. program under the mentorship of Lucia Ciciolla, Ph.D. Prior to attending OSU, Sam completed her bachelor’s degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Sam’s research focuses on examining family emotion-related processes from a developmental psychopathology framework. Sam is specifically interested in understanding the intergenerational transmission of trauma and its effects on a family’s psychosocial functioning. In addition, Sam is interested in investigating factors that may protect against the negative effects of transmission of trauma, such as emotion regulation skills.
Gina Erato, M.S.
Gina Erato is a fifth-year graduate student in the Oklahoma State University Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program working with Dr. Lucia Ciciolla. (Go Pokes!) Gina obtained her bachelor's degree in Psychology and Italian Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2016. She was a member of the Child Stress and Coping Lab led by Dr. W. Hobart Davies and completed a senior thesis examining the relationships between mindfulness, parenting, and child behavior problems. After graduation, she worked as a Clinical Research Coordinator at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in the Pediatric Gastroenterology Clinic. Ultimately, Gina is interested in researching maternal mental health as it relates to reproductive life events and pregnancy. Specifically, she plans to research miscarriages and stillbirths as traumatic events, as well as psychological outcomes of women that experience pregnancy loss.
Ashley Quigley, M.S.
Ashley Quigley is a fourth-year graduate student in the Oklahoma State University Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program where she works with Dr. Lucia Ciciolla. Ashley graduated with her Bachelor's Degree and Master's Degree from Western Kentucky University before attending OSU. She was a research assistant in the Children and Families Lab under Dr. Diane Lickenbrock and completed a Master's Thesis examining the influential roles of infant temperament and parent psychopathology on infant emotion regulation. Broadly, Ashley's research interests include how parenting and child factors can impact socioemotional development and how it is related to risk and resilience.
Kristin Fields
Kristin Fields is a third-year graduate student in the Oklahoma State University Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program working under Dr. Lucia Ciciolla. Kristin graduated from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville with a Bachelor’s in Psychology and minor in Child and Family Studies. She was a research assistant in the Child and Adolescent Development Lab led by Dr. Jenny Macfie and the Relationship, Aggression, and Addictive Disorders Lab under Dr. Gregory Stuart. She is currently working on her master’s thesis examining the role of maternal emotion dysregulation on the relationship between maternal ACEs and infant social-emotional outcomes. Kristin is broadly interested in how factors like parental psychopathology and adverse parent-child relationships affect the family system as well as adaptive and maladaptive development in children.
Elizabeth Hinckley
Elizabeth Hinckley is a first-year graduate student in the Oklahoma State University Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program working under Dr. Lucia Ciciolla. Elizabeth graduated with honors from the University of Michigan in 2018 with a BA in Biopsychology, Cognition, and Neuroscience (BCN) and Spanish. As an undergraduate student, she completed her honors thesis under Dr. Ethan Kross and examined mothers use of self-distanced language as an emotion regulation strategy during stressful encounters with their children. After graduating, Elizabeth worked as a clinical research coordinator at the University of Michigan and then Vanderbilt University using psychobiological methods to study the effects of adversity across the lifespan. Her overarching research interests include risk factors during pregnancy and interventions that leverage caregiving practices to promote resilience and prevent the development of psychopathology in mother and child. Additionally, Elizabeth is eager to study the effects of maternal mental health and stress during the perinatal period on early child development.
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Allie Murphy
Allie Murphy is a fourth-year undergraduate student at Oklahoma State University earning a Bachelor of Science in Psychology with a minor in Neuroscience. She has been a research assistant in two pediatric focused labs on campus. Allie has also been employed at a child learning center where she was responsible for the care and developmental growth of young children in her community. Her main concentration interest in research involves parent-child relationships. She plans to focus on internalizing and externalizing symptoms against variables such as sleep disturbances. Allie’s goal is to earn a Ph.D. in clinical psychology with an emphasis in child development. She hopes to continue her career engaging in research relating to parent-child relationships and mental illness while incorporating neuroscientific evidence.
Bailey McLeod
Bailey McLeod is a fourth-year undergraduate pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology with a minor in Sociology. Her future career goal is to get her PsyD in clinical child psychology. Bailey is interested in studying how maternal stress affects infants’ sleep patterns and emotional well-being.
Emma Sherrer
Emma Sherrer is a second-year undergraduate student pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Microbiology with minors in Spanish and Psychology. She is interested in the mother-baby relationship and the way childbirth impacts mothers emotionally. Her future plans include working with families in a healthcare setting.
Sarah Joslin
My name is Sarah Joslin, and I am a senior at OSU pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. My long-term goals include attending graduate school with the hopes of eventually earning a Ph.D. I hope to build a career working with non-profits to help families develop and maintain healthier dynamics by focusing on teaching parents' proper emotional management and self-care.
Stephanie Sirhal
Stephanie Sirhal is a Field Artillery Officer stationed at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. She completed her Bachelors and Masters in Architecture at Tulane University, and commissioned into the Army in 2018. Stephanie deployed to the Middle East in 2020, during which she became interested in how developmental trauma affected her Soldiers. Stephanie plans on pursuing a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology in order to develop theories on interventionist approaches that can successfully reduce the impact of childhood neglect and abuse through therapeutic work with the parent and the child.
Talynn Barnes
Talynn Barnes is a first-year graduate student in the Oklahoma State University Counseling M.S. program. Talynn graduated with her Bachelor's Degree in Psychology from Oklahoma State University. She was a research assistant in the Child Trauma Prevention Lab under Dr. Lana Beasley and the Child Adaptation and Maternal Psychopathology Lab under Dr. Lucia Ciciolla.