Members of the MSU Denver Institutional Review Board
Chair
Ann Morrison, Ph.D.
Ann Morrison is an Assistant Professor in Teacher Education at MSU Denver. Dr. Morrison was a special education teacher and school administrator for ten years prior to beginning her doctoral work in Literacy Curriculum and Instruction. Her research involves literacy instruction for urban, at-risk kindergartners, teacher preparation for literacy instruction, and Response to Intervention. Ann is a member of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading and the American Educational Research Association, among others. She holds a Ph.D. in Literacy Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Colorado at Boulder, an M.A. in Special Education from the University of Colorado at Denver, and a B.A. in American Political Economy from the University of California at Berkeley. Contact Dr. Morrison at cmorri46@msudenver.edu or 303-352-7083
IRB Coordinator
Michaela Clemens, M.A., CIP
Contact Michaela Clemens at hspp@msudenver.edu or 303-352-7330
Committee
Lisa Badanes, Ph.D.
Lisa S. Badanes is an Assistant Professor of psychology in the Psychology Department at MSU Denver. Her research addresses how aspects of the environment that are incongruent with particular characteristics of the individual interact to produce physiological responses in children. She is also interested in the ways in which these physiological responses confer risk or resilience to subsequent developmental psychopathology. She is currently involved in two lines of research that explore these issues. The first examines the relationship between characteristics of the child’s environment (e.g. child care and home) and physiologic stress reactivity in preschoolers. This research is particularly geared at understanding the ways in which child care providers and parents could potentially buffer children against stress reactivity. The second line of research focuses on cortisol reactivity and basal cortisol as a potential indicator of risk for early internalizing symptoms in preschoolers, particularly in children of depressed mothers. Dr. Badanes holds both a Ph.D. and M.A. in Developmental Psychology from the University of Denver and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Vermont.
Jennifer Bradford, Ph.D.
Dr. Bradford is an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at MSU Denver. Before joining the University, Dr. Bradford worked with arrestees and pretrial defendants in the criminal justice system. She is fluent in Chinese-Mandarin and served as a Naval Chinese Linguist in South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. Her research interests include cognitive-behavioral rehabilitation for juvenile offenders, interactions between prisoners and corrections officers, and best practices for risk assessment of pretrial defendants. Dr. Bradford holds a Ph.D. in Criminology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, a Master of Criminal Justice from Boston University, and a B.A. in Psychology from Willamette University.
Bethany Fleck, Ph.D.
Bethany Fleck is an Assistant Professor of Psychology in the Psychology Department at MSU Denver. She has experience on the IRB in the psychology department. Dr. Fleck’s research centers on cognitive and social development in classroom contexts. Two distinct areas of work focus on issues in early childhood education and university classrooms. Both lines of research draw on developmental theory with the overall goal of enhancing the learning environment for students of all levels. Dr. Fleck holds a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology, an M.S.T. in College Teaching, and an M.S. in Developmental Psychology from the University of New Hampshire, and a B.A. in Psychology from Western New England College.
Mike Furno, M.S.
Mike Furno is a Research Analyst at the University of Denver in the Office of Institutional Research and Analysis. His research interests include the areas of higher education, intercountry adoption, and child attachment theory. Mr. Furno is currently working on his Ph.D. in Research Methods and Statistics at the University of Denver. He has a MS in Industrial Technology Management and a BS in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin – Platteville.
Rey Hernández-Julián, Ph.D.
Rey Hernández-Julián is an Associate Professor of Economics at MSU Denver. Most of his research is on the behavior of students in higher education, mainly on the determinants of student grades. He has written on how student Grade Point Averages respond to merit-based scholarships, course scheduling, and the nature of students’ transfer experiences. In addition, he has written on how student course choices have helped aggravate the trend in grade inflation over the last 20 years. He is currently researching factors in the increase in tuition in higher education and the relationship between student appearance and grades. He holds a Ph.D. in Applied Economics from Clemson University.
Christian Itin, Ph.D., MSW
Dr. Christian M. Itin, MSW, Chair/Professor of Social Work. He has is Bachelors, Masters and Doctorate in social work. He has been involved in research for close to 20 years. He has supervised over 100 student research projects and has been lead faculty in research at three academic institutions. He has been a researcher on federally funded research projects and smaller college funded projects.
Christopher Jennings, Ed.D.
Dr. Chris Jennings has been on the IRB at Metro State for five years and has his CITI course certification through the IRB process at the University of Wyoming (2010). He has experience in military, government, private and public sectors as well as a history of research related training/experience. Dr. Jennings' primary research focuses on human factors and usability testing as well as education technologies. He served on several committees at the Library of Congress that focused on technology and research – primarily in Education Technology and Technology Security. Post 9/11 technology integration in the government was of chief concern while there and he has been fortunate to learn from those experiences. Dr. Jennings is a technologist and provides insight towards the past, present and future of technology implementation and human factors that go along with them. Dr. Jennings holds an Ed.D. from the University of Wyoming, an M.S.C.I.T. from Regis University, and a B.A. from Metropolitan State University of Denver.
Dawn Matera, Ph.D.
Dr. Dawn Matera, MSW, LCSW is an Assistant Professor of Social Work at MSU Denver. Before joining the University, Dr. Matera worked for 20 years in a variety of private non-profit mental health settings. Her experiences include working with children and adolescents with emotional, social, cognitive, behavioral, and mental health problems. She has also worked with chronic mentally ill adults in community mental health settings. Her research interests include interventions to improve social-emotional functioning of clients, exploring the impact of vicarious trauma on treatment providers and clients, and strategies to address workforce issues in mental health. She has been a researcher on federally funded and university funded research projects. Dr. Matera has a PhD in Social Work and an MSW from the University of Denver, a B.S.M from Radford University, and is a licensed clinical social worker.
Mark Mazurek, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Mark Mazurek is an Assistant Professor in Biology at MSU Denver. Mark’s research experience involves studies of cognition and behavior in animals and humans. Mark’s current research involves studying visual perception and cognition in human subjects. Mark gained a medical degree through his graduate training in a joint M.D./Ph.D. program, and he continues to be interested in issues related to cognitive development and disability. Dr. Mazurek holds an M.D. from the University of Washington, a Ph.D. in Behavioral Neuroscience from the University of Washington, and a B.S. in Biology from the California Institute of Technology.
Bridget Murphy-Kelsey, Ph.D.
Dr. Murphy-Kelsey has an extensive research background in developmental psychology. She has co-authored many empirical papers pertaining to social-emotional development during childhood, adolescence, and adulthood which have been published in top developmental psychology journals. As an Associate Editor of the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, Dr. Murphy-Kelsey is continually exposed to a variety of research practices. Among other classes, she teaches Developmental Research methods at MSUDenver. Dr. Murphy-Kelsey holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. in Developmental Psychology, both from Arizona State University, and a B.S. from the University of Iowa.
Gesemia Nelson, Ph.D.
Gesemia Nelson is an Associate Professor of Sociology at MSU Denver in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. Dr. Nelson was trained in the areas of inequality and poverty. Specifically, she has done work that critically looks at the US poverty measure. Currently, she works in the field of applied sociology, an area of the discipline that uses sociological theories and methods to solve real-world problems. She also teaches several research methods classes in her department. Dr. Nelson holds a B.A., M.A. and a Ph.D. in Sociology from Harvard University.
Alexis Newton, Ph.D.
Alexis Newton is an Assistant Professor of Nursing and is the lead faculty for Nursing Research. Dr. Newton is an advanced practice nurse in the area of adult and pediatric burns and trauma with an emphasis on vulnerable populations and rural health. Her research experiences include pediatric burns, rural health including farm and horse related injuries and most recently migrant farm worker parental health beliefs. She has served on review committees for student research and hospital based nursing research. Dr. Newton received her PhD from the University of New Mexico, MSN from the University of Cincinnati and her BSN from Fairleigh Dickinson University.
Aaron Richmond, Ph.D.
Aaron S. Richmond is an Associate Professor of Psychology in the Psychology Department at MSU Denver. He has experience on the IRB both as a graduate student committee member and as a faculty member for over 5 years. Professor Richmond is an avid researcher and his research is three pronged: (1) he studies the scholarship of teaching and learning in the college classroom where he has published numerous research articles and book chapters; (2) investigates the processes and application of memory strategies in K-12 education as they specifically apply to science education where he has published numerous research articles; and (3) investigates the process and application of metacognitive development in the K-12 students where he as published numerous research articles. Dr. Richmond holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Nevada at Reno, an M.S. in Applied Psychology from Montana State University, and a B.A. in Social Sciences from the University of Montana-Western.
Anna Ropp, Ph.D.
Anna Ropp is an Assistant Professor of in the Psychology Department at MSU Denver. Dr. Ropp is a social psychologist who conducts both qualitative and quantitative research, and her area of expertise within social psychology is intergroup relations. Her research tends to explore 1) the responses of individuals who experience discrimination or 2) effective ways to reduce prejudice and discrimination. Dr. Ropp has also conducted evaluation research with projects designed to help individuals with disabilities. Dr. Ropp holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Social Psychology from the University of California at Santa Cruz, and a B.A. in Psychology from Texas State University San Marcos.
Jessica Rossi-Katz, Ph.D.
Dr. Jessica Rossi-Katz is an Assistant Professor in Speech, Language Hearing Sciences at MSU Denver. She is also a licensed audiologist in Colorado and clinically certified by the American Speech-Language Hearing Association. Her research explores factors that underlie older adults’ difficulties understanding speech in noisy environments, with a recent focus on cochlear implantation in older adults. Dr. Rossi-Katz is part of a collaborative project using educational theatre to deliver hearing-health messages to elementary-aged children in an effort to prevent noise-induced hearing loss among youth. Dr. Rossi-Katz holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Audiology from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a B.S. in Communication Disorders from the University of New Hampshire.
