Meet Psychology Faculty

Associate Chair
Associate Professor

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Dr. Chapman earned her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Kentucky. Her primary research interests are in evaluating components of psychotherapy process and outcome, both in person and via telepsychology, to develop evidence-based practices that increase the access to and quality of mental health care amongst underserved populations. Although Dr. Chapman uses an integration of interpersonal process, cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness theories to inform her work, her clinical approach is ultimately informed by a client-directed outcome-informed (CDOI) model. She is currently a member of the APA Division 17 Section for the Promotion of Psychotherapy Science, is involved with the Society for Psychotherapy Research and the KPA.

Director for the Center for Behavioral Health
Assistant Professor

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Dr. Claire Beaulieu received her PsyD in clinical psychology from Spalding University. She completed her internship at Grand Valley State University Counseling Center and worked for several years in Michigan before returning to Louisville. Dr. Beaulieu has worked in a variety of clinical settings, including university counseling centers, community mental health centers, and private practice. Her clinical interests include psychological assessment, anxiety, trauma disorders, and interpersonal relationships. She approaches therapy and supervision from an integrative (interpersonal, psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral) perspective. As the Director of the Center for Behavioral Health, Dr. Beaulieu is passionate about training future professionals in her roles as a teacher and a supervisor.

Full Professor

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Dr. Bergandi holds a Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Ball State University and joined the Spalding faculty in 1985. His areas of professional expertise and interest are in long-term psychotherapy, forensic evaluation, organizational psychology, sports psychology and student retention. In addition to his university responsibilities, he sees clients in his private practice and consults for Business Visions, a national management consulting firm. He also consults with Kentucky’s Department of Public Advocacy. He is licensed in the states of Kentucky and Indiana, and is a member of the American Psychological Association (Division of Independent Practice and Consulting Psychology) and the Southeastern Psychological Association. He has appeared in multiple publications and presents in a variety of areas, but primarily in sport & exercise psychology.

Undergraduate Program Director
Assistant Professor

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Dr. Fowler earned her Ph.D. from the University of Louisville in Educational Psychology, Measurement, and Evaluation, and is excited to be continuing her career as an Assistant Professor in the SOPP. A strong belief in the importance of education is at the core of Dr. Fowler’s research and teaching. Her background is rooted in the practice and pedagogy of a successful classroom, as she earned her B.A. in Elementary Education from the University of Kentucky. That training was the catalyst for her research, which examines the relationship between developmental theory, achievement motivation, and learning. She centers her teaching around fostering a positive classroom community in which both the students and herself can learn and grow, using the latest research and evidence-based strategies to aid in the process.

Associate Director of the Collective Care Center
Assistant Professor

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Dr. Gardner is an alumna of Rutgers University where she studied psychology and music. She earned a MS in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Indiana State University, and a MA and PsyD in Clinical Psychology from Spalding University. She completed her internship at the University of Illinois at Chicago where she worked with college students and survivors of political torture, before completing her postdoctoral fellowship within Student Wellness at The University of Chicago. Dr. Gardner has trained in a wide array of mental health settings including residential treatment, juvenile detention, community mental health clinics, private practice, and college counseling centers; settings in which she has used her strong generalist skills and training to wedge herself in between trauma and multiculturalism. Dr. Gardner is an integrationist. She believes in the nature of collective healing and the value of being grounded in both identity and community. Thus, her approach to therapy (thinking about, teaching about, and doing) is collaborative, contextually informed, trauma informed, justice oriented, affirmative, and prioritizes liberation. She seeks to center those marginalized by systems that have far long deferred fault. Dr. Gardner works to reconcile the relationship between evidence and practice for oppressed people as she establishes her place in the field of psychology through clinical work, leadership, and in the classroom.

Office of Special Programs and Research (OSPRe) Director
Professor

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Dr. Steve Katsikas obtained his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Arkansas. He has taught both graduate and undergraduate courses in psychopathology, child/adolescent psychopathology, tests and measurement theory, advanced quantitative methods, and personality, culture and social structure. He served as the Chair of the School of Professional Psychology for 13 years. He has been an active member of the Kentucky Psychology Association, most recently as the representative for the Education and Training Interest Group. Dr. Katsikas’ clinical interests are in the area of child and adolescent assessment and treatment of children with behavioral difficulties. His research interests include psychometric properties of the Rorschach Inkblot Technique, attachment theory, child psychopathology and scale development. His most recent publications have been in the areas of juvenile fire setting, cross-cultural differences in childrearing practices, computer use among the elderly and the effects of psychostimulants on weight change in Hispanic children.

Dr. Katsikas, former program chair, is the 2020 Kentucky Psychological Association President.

Chief Diversity Officer
Director of Collective Care Center in the CBH
Assistant Professor

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Dr. Steven D. Kniffley Jr. received his doctorate and master’s degree in clinical psychology from Spalding University where he specialized in child, adolescent, and family therapy. He completed his post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Kniffley also has a Master’s in Public administration from Wright State University. Dr. Kniffley's area of expertise is research and clinical work with Black males. Specifically, his work focuses on understanding and developing culturally appropriate interventions for Black male mental health as well as barriers to academic success for this population. As an educational consultant Dr. Kniffley has worked internationally with students and school administrators in South Africa and India. Dr. Kniffley also serves as an organizational diversity consultant and works with law enforcement departments on addressing conflicts between communities of color and police officers.  Some of his books include: Knowledge of Self: Understanding the Mind of the Black male,  Out of KOS (Knowledge of Self): Black male psychopathology and its treatment,  and Black males and the Criminal Justice System. Follow Dr. Kniffley’s blog.

In 2020, Dr. Kniffley was recognized as an up-and-coming leader in Louisville Business First's "Forty Under 40".

Professor Emeritus

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Dr. Linfield earned his degree in Clinical/Community Psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign with a minor in quantitative psychology. His interests include various elements of religious faith and spirituality, and the relation of religion and spirituality to a broad range of Mental Health issues, including positive elements such as well-being. In addition, he maintains an interest in many elements of research and analysis such as multivariate techniques, structural equation modeling, and qualitative as well as quantitative data analysis. Dr. Linfield is the program evaluator for a number of on-going projects in Louisville. He is on the editorial board for the journal of APA’s Division 36: Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. He teaches graduate courses in psychometrics, research design, statistics, and program evaluation, in addition to two undergraduate courses: Psychology of Religion, and Community Psychology.

Director of Adult Neuropsychology Emphasis Area
Assistant Professor

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Dr. McBride, a native Louisvillian, brings a wealth of experience working with memory disorders to the SOPP. He recently finished a second neuropsychology fellowship with the Department of Neurology at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. Prior, he completed his first fellowship at the Tennessee Valley HealthCare System in Tennessee and his internship with the Vanderbilt/Veteran Affairs Professional Psychology Consortium. He received his doctoral degree from the Virginia Consortium Program in Clinical Psychology in Norfolk VA. He is the treasurer and a co-founder for the Society for Black Neuropsychology. His research interests include neuropsychology within minority communities and health disparities.

Professor Emeritus

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Dr. Morgan earned his degree in experimental psychology with an emphasis in human operant behavior from Auburn University. He maintains interests in behavioral epistemology, single-subject research design and the impact of human behavior on the natural environment. His recent textbooks include Essentials of Learning and Cognition (Waveland Press, 2007) and Single-Case Research Methods for the Behavioral and Health Sciences (Sage, 2009) coauthored with Robin K. Morgan of Indiana University Southeast. Dr. Morgan has contributed numerous articles in professional journals, including The Behavior Analyst, The Psychological Record and Teaching of Psychology.

Director of Pediatric/Adolescent Neuropsychology Emphasis Area
Assistant Professor

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Dr. Richardson is a Clinical Neuropsychologist with a wide range of experience working with neurologically compromised individuals throughout their lifespan. She is a Louisville native and a graduate from Spalding University’s School of Professional Psychology Program. Following graduate school, she received neuropsychological-specific internship training at the third largest Veteran’s Affair Medical Center in the country, the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center. To continue her career, she received advanced training through a fellowship in neurology, neurosciences, and rehabilitation at the University of Toledo Medical Center. As a recipient of the Women in Neuropsychology Award, Dr. Richardson aims to provide mentoring and clinical experiences to promote well-rounded training in clinical neuropsychology.

Assistant Professor

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Dr. Starling earned his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from Ball State University, with a focus on quantitative methods and learning theory. Combined with an M.A. in School Psychology, also from Ball State, he has a unique, integrated perspective on cognition and behavior, and an appreciation of both clinical and academic settings. His interests include the scholarship of teaching and learning, systems, evaluation, and cognitive-affective models of behavior. He is passionate about training processes and how they interact with the full range of learner variables. This informs his research and also guides his instructional focus on building a supportive community of inquiry where students feel free to engage in the process of developing their skills regardless of where they currently stand.

Director of Health Psychology Emphasis Area
Assistant Professor

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Dr. King earned her PsyD in Clinical Psychology from Spalding University, where she specialized in health and pediatric psychology. Dr. King completed her internship in pediatric psychology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital and Medical Center and an NIH-funded fellowship at Nationwide Children's Hospital. Her clinical and research interests pertain to youth adherence to medical treatment regimens, specifically as it relates to self-management and the family’s negotiation of treatment allocation. Clinically, Dr. King practices mindfulness-based therapies, mainly acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). She enjoys teaching and mentoring student psychologists, focusing her efforts on training students to practice evidence-based psychology in complex and dynamic medical settings.

Full professor

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Dr. Wohlfarth, a tenured full professor, loves to teach. She has made teaching the focus of her research endeavors and is actively collaborating with students on a number of teaching-focused projects. She frequently presents at national and international teaching conferences and has been a featured speaker at the Lilly Conference on College Teaching. She has won the Metroversity Award for teaching excellence in 2001 and 2003, and the Trustees Award for Outstanding Faculty in 2004. Wohlfarth’s clinical expertise focuses on the needs of children with severe emotional and behavioral challenges. Currently, she maintains a private practice and is a licensed clinical psychologist in Indiana and Kentucky. She also serves as a consulting psychologist, supervising students working as clinicians. Her treatment philosophy is systemic, family-centered, evidence-based, practical, and strengths focused. She is a member of both the American Psychological Association and the Kentucky Psychological Association and serves as an Ambassador for KPA.