FRC Graduate Students

Chantelle Wolpert is in her first year of the PhD program in HDFS. She is both a board-certified genetic counselor and a physician assistant. She spent the last twelve years working at Duke University Medical Center primarily with families diagnosed with inherited disorders, including neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism. She received her BS in Health Sciences from SUNY at Sony Brook, an MBA in Health Care Administration Baruch College, and trained as a genetic counselor at the Mt. Sinai Genetic Counseling Program. Her research interests include understanding aspects of family interpretation of genetic information and/or genetic diagnosis and how this interpretation may ultimately affect their views of themselves, their child and other family members. At the FRC, Chantelle will be working with the Guilford Genomic Medicine Initiative.

Irina Mokrova graduated from Moscow State University in Russia with a BA in Psychology. Irina is working on her Master's thesis at UNCG, with the future plans of getting her PhD. Her research interests include development of motivational domain in children and its relations with emotional and cognitive domains, family influences on motivational development, and cross-cultural differences. She holds a research assistantship through the FRC, and is part of the STAR research team there. She runs visits with children, collects and enters data, and performs other tasks related to the project.

Jackie Nelson is in her second year as an MS/PhD student in the Human Development & Family Studies department. She received her BA from Elon University in Psychology with a minor in Sociology. Jackie will spend the year collecting and coding data for the STAR Project, assessing how emotional and cognitive development influence social competence and school readiness in young children. She is interested in early emotion knowledge and the influence of emotional socialization in the family.

Parita Vithlani graduated from North Carolina State University with a B.A. is Psychology. Parita is a first-year Master's student at UNCG and will be working on the STAR project collecting, entering, and analyzing data. As part of her research interests, s he wants to explore protective factors contributing to the positive socio-emotional development of children. Furthermore, she would like to engage in theory driven research that will guide and inform the development of intervention programs that will help students achieve social and academic successes.

Recent FRC Alumni

Ben Hinnant is a fourth-year PhD student in the department of Human Development and Family Studies. He graduated from Clemson University with a BS in psychology and a minor in sociology. He spent the 2003-2004 academic year working with three-and-a-half year olds in the STAR pilot project assessing the contributions of cognitive and emotional factors to early academic achievement and social competence. Since the spring of 2005, Ben has been conducting home observations of school-aged children for the Right Track project. Most recently he has returned to work with the current STAR project. During 2007-2008, Ben will be a predoctoral fellow at the Center for Developmental Science at UNC-Chapel Hill while continuing his work at the FRC. He is interested in children's cognitive and emotional development, particularly the development of prosocial-related behaviors including empathy, emotion regulation, and moral reasoning.

Lauren Keel Shinn was the Project Coordinator for the STAR Project. She completed her third year of the MS/PhD program in HDFS. She completed her Master's thesis on gendered communication in parent-child dyads. Her research interests include children's peer interactions and knowledge of social norms.

Ali Phillips is in her second year of the MS/ Family Life & Parent Education program and is continuing her work with the Right Track project. Ali graduated from Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina with a BA in Spanish and a concentration in Latin American Studies. Her interests focus on helping families locate resources in the community to meet needs they have. She hopes to work with at-risk populations upon completing her Master's program in May of 2007.

Tenisha Tolbert is in her third year of the PhD program in HDFS, having arrived with a Master's degree in child development and family studies from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, and a BA from North Carolina A&T State University. Before leaving Purdue in 2003, Tenisha served as co-lead teacher at the Purdue Child Development Laboratory Preschool and also as Director of Project Literacy.  Her research interests include literacy and language development in early childhood, pre-professional development for student teachers, and parent-child interaction.  At the FRC, Tenisha is working with the Baby First project.

Nerissa LeBlanc-Gillum completed her Ph.D in May, 2005. Her dissertation focused on Successful Non-Kin Formal Adoptions in Black Families.  Nerissa has a Master's degree in Human Development and Family Studies from the University of North Texas, has been an educator at the high school level, and has taught English in Sri Lanka.  Her research interests included Black family life, with a primary focus on older-child adoptions. In June, 2005, Dr. LeBlanc-Gillum accepted a position as assistant professor in the department of Family and Consumer Sciences at Texas Women's University.

Amber Grant Ortel completed her M Ed in Family Life/Parent Education program in May, 2005. She had received a BA in both psychology and communication studies from UNC-Chapel Hill, where she had work and volunteer experience with children and families, including work with the UNC Children's Hospital Child Life department and Project HomeStart for mothers and children of domestic abuse. Amber has a wide range of interests in working with families and children in various situations, including families experiencing divorce, those experiencing the hospitalization of a child, and overall parent education. She has recently moved to Canonsburg, PA.