Training in Mental Health Research

Sacha Bunge, PhD
Co-coordinator, Mental Health Research Track
Associate Professor, Clinical and Developmental Psychology
Office: Old Administration 203
Email: sbunge@sfsu.edu

Dr. Bunge received her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the University of California at Berkeley. She has a joint appointment in developmental and clinical psychology in SFSU’s Psychology Department. Her primary research area is child abuse prevention with a special focus on the application of attachment theory to understanding cycles of abuse. She is currently conducting a longitudinal study that examines the role of attachment relationships in the intergenerational cycle of child abuse in a sample of African-American and Latina teenage mothers. Dr. Bunge has a very active research lab and mentors graduate and undergraduate students who are interested in gaining experience in clinical research with minority populations. Dr. Bunge teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in both clinical and developmental psychology, in particular courses in developmental psychopathology and family theory.  She is Director of the Career Opportunities in Research  (COR) Program at SFSU, a NIH funded program that provides mentoring and educational experiences to undergraduate minority students to prepare them for doctoral programs in mental health. Dr. Bunge is a licensed Clinical Psychologist and a senior clinical supervisor at SFSU’s Psychology Clinic.

Ken Miller, PhD
Co-coordinator, Mental Health Research Track
Assistant Professor, Clinical and Community Psychology
Office: HSS 216
Email: kemiller@sfsu.edu
Web: http://bss.sfsu.edu/kemiller

Dr. Miller received his doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the University of Michigan. His area of research lies at the interface of Clinical and Community Psychology, and is focused on understanding the mental health problems and needs of refugee communities. He has been conducting research with refugees since 1991, and is currently co-editing, with Lisa Rasco, a book to be published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates entitled From Clinic to Community: Ecological Approaches to Refugee Mental Health.  Dr. Miller has an active program of research in which graduate and undergraduate students are centrally involved. Students working with him have had several first-authored papers accepted for presentation at national conferences, and have also been involved as co-authors on manuscripts currently in press or under review. Prior to joining the SFSU faculty in 1999, Dr. Miller worked as the clinical director of the Bosnian Mental Health Program in Chicago, and taught courses in community and clinical psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Affiliated Faculty
Mark Geisler, Ph.D. (Assistant Professor, Psychophysiology).
Dr. Geisler is a popular faculty member with students whose interests lie at the interface of physiological and clinical psychology. He teaches classes on research methods, statistics, and psychophysiology. His publications have focused on research examining both normative psychophysiological processes, as well as abnormal processes associated with traumatic brain injuries, multiple sclerosis, and aging. He is currently conducting a study using event-related brain potentials (ERP) to study the effects of music on children with cognitive processing in children with multiple sclerosis, and is also using ERP to study the relationship between neuropsychological and electrophysiological measures of cognition in applied clinical and research settings. In his three years at SFSU, Dr. Geisler has had numerous students present first-authored papers or posters at national conferences, and several students currently working with him are currently preparing to apply for pre-doctoral study in clinical and other areas of psychology.

Linda Juang, Ph.D. (Assistant Professor, Developmental)
Dr. Juang has an active research lab in which she and her students study issues related to adolescent development within the dynamic context of intra-familial relationships. She is particularly interested in understanding the role of intra-familial variables associated with positive steps towards autonomy among older adolescents. Her earlier publications were focused primarily on the experiences of adolescents in Germany; currently, she has shifted her attention to understanding differences in patterns of adolescent development and autonomy within Asian, Asian-American, and Latino communities. Dr. Juang teaches courses in developmental psychology and adolescence at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

John Kim, Ph.D. (Associate Professor, Cognitive-Developmental).
Dr. Kim has a doctorate in cognitive science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His main area of research lies in the study of language development in young children. Dr. Kim is the Coordinator of the Research Psychology Program, which houses the Mental Health Research Track. Dr. Kim's primary contribution to the Mental Health Research Track will be in the role of a statistical and methodological consultant, who will be available to consult with MHRT students on a broad range of design and data analytic questions. Dr. Kim has written or co-authored several articles on a variety of statistical topics, including a recent paper examining issues related to the conceptualization and use of effect sizes in statistical analyses. Dr. Kim teaches courses on statistics and research methodology at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Julia Lewis, Ph.D. (Professor, Clinical).
Dr. Lewis is the Director of the Psychology Clinic at San Francisco State University. In addition to teaching courses on psychopathology and psychotherapy at the graduate and undergraduate levels, she has an active program of research examining the long-term effects of divorce on children. Most recently, Dr. Lewis co-authored a highly acclaimed 25 year follow-up study examining the sequelae of divorce on children (Wallerstein, Lewis, & Blakesly, 2000).

David Matsumoto, Ph.D. (Professor, Clinical and Cross-Cultural)
Dr. Matsumoto, a clinical psychologist, studies various topics related to cross cultural variations in the experience and expression of emotion. He has also studied the inter-relationships between cultural variables, health, and psychosocial well-being. His recent publications have been related to his research using facial coding procedures to assess cross-cultural differences in the expression and recognition of emotions, with a particular focus on emotional expression and recognition among Japanese and Japanese Americans. Dr. Matsumoto has also published a popular textbook on cross-cultural psychology. His primary area of teaching is in the area of cross-cultural psychology.

Ricardo Muñoz, Ph.D. (Professor, University of California, San Francisco)
Dr. Muñoz is an internationally recognized expert in the development, implementation, and evaluation of innovative programs aimed at preventing depression and promoting psychosocial and physical well-being. Dr. Muñoz is the director of the predoctoral/postdoctoral training program in clinical psychology at UCSF, an extremely popular training program in a setting that combines clinical training and involvement with research conducted by an internationally acclaimed group of mental health researchers. Students in the Mental Health Research Track may do their research training under the direction of Dr. Muñoz at UCSF.