Our Staff
Dr. Emily Gerstein, PhD
Learn more at Dr. Gerstein's UMSL Faculty page.
Principal Investigator
Associate Professor in Psychological Sciences
Associate Department Chair
I joined the Clinical Psychology faculty at the University of Missouri-St. Louis in 2014. I received my PhD from Arizona State University, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Waisman Center for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities at the University of Wisconsin-Madison prior to coming to St. Louis.
My research interests are in the areas of developmental psychopathology, family systems and functioning, parent-child interactions, and risk and resilient processes in children with early-identified developmental risk.
Outside of the lab, I enjoy playing with my toddler, farmer's markets, baking, and finding all the local festivals, restaurants, and neighborhood gems that St. Louis has to offer!
Dr. Gerstein will be accepting a student for Fall 2023.
Graduate Students
Maire Diemer
Maire is a fourth year graduate student in the FACT Lab. She graduated from Boston College in 2016 with a degree in Psychology and a concentration in Clinical Psychology. Following graduation she worked at Tufts Medical Center for a year on a research project focused on early diagnoses for developmental behavioral problems in children. She then worked as a Lab Manager in the Communication Development Lab at Northeastern University. She is thrilled to have moved to Saint Louis to work with Dr. Gerstein, particularly in the area of non-typical early child development. Her thesis is about the relationship between parenting practices and developmental delays, and how child behavioral problems may have an effect on that relationship.
Monica Treviño
Monica is a fourth year Clinical Psychology graduate student in the FACT lab. She graduated in 2017 with a BA in Psychology from Brown University. Subsequently, she did research at the Rhode Island Consortium for Autism Research and Treatment and the Autism and Developmental Disorders Inpatient Research Collaborative. She is particularly interested in the intersection of atypical development and minority health, as well as how to improve access to care for traditionally underserved families. Her thesis will be focusing on social-emotional competencies and behavior problems in potential Dual Language Learners.
Haley Ringenary
Haley is a third year Clinical Psychology graduate student in the FACT lab. She graduated in 2018 with a BS in Psychology from the University of Delaware. After graduation, she did research at the Child Mind Institute in their community-based research lab, The Healthy Brain Network. She is particularly interested in examining how parenting processes can impact child development and potentially buffer the effects of adverse childhood experiences. Her thesis will examine the relationship between parental depressive symptoms and child language development, and how parenting processes may impact the relationship.
Jessilyn Froelich
Jessilyn is a second year clinical psychology PhD student in Dr. Gerstein’s FACT Lab. She graduated from Cal State Fullerton with a BA in psychology in 2015, and subsequently obtained her MS in clinical psychology from San Jose State University in 2017. After working primarily as a FIRST 5 and school-based therapist, Jessilyn transitioned to a full-time research assistant position with Dr. Marylene Cloitre at the National Center for PTSD in Palo Alto, working with women Veterans who had experienced MST. Her current research interests center around how maternal stress and trauma influence parenting outcomes and the parent-child relationship, and the intergenerational transmission of trauma consequences. Her thesis will focus on the determinants of parenting outcomes within a high-risk sample, examining how risk such as parenting stress, child emotion dysregulation, and home disorganization influence parenting sensitivity and detachment; specifically, how the accumulation of more than one risk factor contributes to additional risk above and beyond each individual risk factor.
Graduate Alumni
Kathryn Cherry
Dr. Katy Cherry completed her PhD in Clinical Psychology in 2022. Her clinical internship was at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in Houston, and she is now a postdoctoral fellow in Women's Health at the Allegheny Health Network in Pittsburgh, PA.
Undergraduate Lab Alumni
Vanessa Newell
Tapera Thomas
Kiera Sanders
Alexis Ruscitti
Anne Birchem
Zoe Curry
Salat Jones: Accelerated Bachelors in Science in Nursing at Goldfarb School of Nursing
Meghan Littles: Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville
Taylor Maxwell
Andee McCarthy: Master's Program in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at the University of San Diego
Jamie Powers: Education Specialist (EdS) in School Psychology at UMSL
Cameron Richter: Master's Program in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at UMSL
Kate Rothman: Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology at Roosevelt University in Chicago
Kayla Shane: Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville
Ashley Shucks
Elise Trombetta
Joe Vickery: Master's Program in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at UMSL