Meet our Team

Brittany is a doctoral student in the School Psychology program at the University of California, Riverside. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from University of California, San Diego. She loves to work with kids from marginalized backgrounds but has a special passion for advocating and serving foster youth. Brittany's research interests include school-based mental health supports, identifying and bolstering protective factors, and improving foster youth educational outcomes. She currently serves as the School of Education Academic Affairs Officer.

Viviana is a doctoral student in the School Psychology program at the University of California, Riverside, driven by a strong passion for supporting underserved and underrepresented communities. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Psychology with a Biological emphasis from the University of California, Davis. Viviana has worked extensively with culturally diverse populations across school, research, and clinical settings and has strived to promote inclusivity. Viviana is an advocate for transformative change in educational settings to better serve racially and ethnically minoritized youth to promote educational equity. Her research interests include using implementation science to study and encourage the implementation of culturally responsive Social Emotional Learning (SEL) programs in school settings and supporting students’ mental health using a preventive lens. Viviana serves as the Diversity Subcommittee Chair for the Student Affiliates of School Psychology (SASP). In her free time, Viviana enjoys reading, salsa dancing, cooking, and spending time with her friends and family. 

Sarah is a second year doctoral student in the School Psychology program at the University of California, Riverside. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Psychology and her minor in Education from the University of California, Riverside. Sarah has worked on research regarding how adverse challenges occurring early during youths’ development affects their socioemotional and academic functioning. She currently studies social and cognitive processes in children and adults with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) as well as the implementation and improvement of universal mental health screening in school settings. Sarah is a volunteer at the SEARCH Clinic on campus which provides families access to screening and resources for youths with ASD. 

Sarah is interested in studying how screening and evidence-based interventions can be utilized for children with co-occurring ASD and anxiety in school settings. Additionally, she wants to research how school-based interventions for mental health issues can be modified to best support children with neurodevelopmental challenges.

Yeon Hee "Jenny" Kang is a doctoral student in the School Psychology program at the University of California, Riverside. She completed her undergraduate degrees in Psychology and Spanish in Madrid, and her masters degree in Educational Psychology at McGill University in Montréal. Her work with culturally and linguistically diverse youth has spanned school, research, and clinical environments in South Korea, Spain, and Canada, and her current research interests lie at the intersection of intervention and implementation. She is particularly interested in multi-tiered systems of support, universal mental health screening, and intervention methods that benefit culturally and linguistically diverse youth. Outside of school, Jenny enjoys eating, spending time in water, reading, and dancing salsa or hip hop.

Elissa graduated with her PhD in School Psychology PhD in 2024. She completed her internship at the University of California Irvine Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders and a nonpublic school designed for students with ADHD and Autism. Through her practical experiences in the school system, Elissa began to understand the challenges involving implementation of evidence-based psychosocial interventions in schools. Her practical work with students with ADHD and Autism has inspired the formulation of several research questions around how best to measure and foster the development of students’ self-regulation skills. Elissa is also interested in the adoption of community-based participatory research and use of implementation science to develop school- and community- based psychoeducational programs for parents, teachers, and school mental health professionals so that they too can design toolboxes to better support the children around them.