Contact & People
Department of Psychology
Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences
University of British Columbia Okanagan
1147 Research Road
Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7
Canada
Email: psychology.okanagan@ubc.ca
Please direct all inquires to the Department Assistant first.
Our People
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Linda Allan | Associate Professor | Psychology | linda.allan@ubc.ca | 250.807.8729
Research Interests: Ageist attitudes and beliefs in different populations; the mitigation of ageist attitudes and behaviour; ageist treatment of the elderly; cognitive ageing; a cross sectional comparison of adults’ and university undergraduates’ attitudes and knowledge about elderly persons.
Courses & Teaching: Human development from a lifespan perspective including child, adolescence, adulthood and aging.
Jan Cioe | Associate Professor | Psychology | jan.cioe@ubc.ca | 250.807.8732
Research Interests: Human sexuality; forensic psychology; recovery of function from cortical lesions.
Courses & Teaching: Research methods and statistics; forensic psychology; human sexuality.
Stefanie Ciszewski | PhD Student | Psychology | sciszews@mail.ubc.ca
Research Interests: Obesity; obesity intervention and prevention; behavioural treatment; predictors of treatment success; targeted treatment/treatment matching for obesity.
Colin Comfort | Adjunct Professor | Psychology | dr.colin.comfort@interiorhealth.ca
Courses & Teaching: Assessment and treatment of psychological disorders.
Maxine Crawford | PhD Student | Psychology | maxine.crawford@ubc.ca
Research Interests: Nature; aesthetics; urban planning; well-being; life satisfaction; individual differences.
Paul G Davies | Professor | Psychology | paul.g.davies@ubc.ca
Research Interests: Intergroup relations; stereotypes; prejudice; discrimination; diverse forms of social identity threat; perceived stereotypicality; levels of prejudice and discrimination that target stigmatized individuals.
Courses & Teaching: Introductory psychology; social psychology; intergroup relations.
Paul Gabias | Associate Professor | Psychology | paul.gabias@ubc.ca | 250.807.9383
Research Interests: Interface between visual and haptic perception; comprehension and production of haptic pictures by the blind; health and adjustment; perceptual, cognitive, and social aspects of blindness.
Courses & Teaching: Introductory psychology; visual perception; non-visual perception; psychology of touch; evolutionary psychology of aggression and the blind movement.
Liane Gabora | Associate Professor | Psychology | liane.gabora@ubc.ca | 250.807.9849
Currently accepting graduate supervision requests
Research Interests: Creativity; concepts, especially how they combine and adapt to new contexts; origins of modern cognition; cultural evolution; computer models of the above.
Courses & Teaching: Psychology of creativity and humour; evolution of human cognition.
Linda Hatt | Associate Professor | Psychology | linda.hatt@ubc.ca | 250.807.9323
Research Interests: Health psychology; pain management; experimental analysis of behavior.
Courses & Teaching: Health psychology; personality.
Mark Holder | Associate Professor | Psychology | mark.holder@ubc.ca | 250.807.8728
Research Interests: Positive psychology and the science of happiness; research has four main thrusts: predictors (e.g., temperament, spirituality, and social) of happiness in children; strategies and programs to promote well-being; biological basis of happiness; and developing new measures of happiness.
Courses & Teaching: Introductory psychology; behavioral neuroscience; positive psychology.
Susan Holtzman | Associate Professor | Psychology | susan.holtzman@ubc.ca | 250.807.8730
Currently accepting graduate supervision requests
Research Interests: Health psychology; adjustment to chronic illness; stress and coping; close relationships; caregiving; depression; chronic pain; organ transplantation; daily process methodologies; pathways through which the social environment can influence physical and emotional well-being in healthy and chronically ill populations.
Courses & Teaching: Introduction to psychology; health psychology.
Shirley Hutchinson | Lecturer | Psychology | shirley.hutchinson@ubc.ca | 250.807.8413
Courses & Teaching: Introduction to psychology; child development; adult development and aging; special topics: psychology of motivation; special topics: anxiety, fear, and uncertainty in intergroup relations.
Jacqueline Kanippayoor | PhD Student | Psychology | jacqueline.kanippayoor@ubc.ca
Research Interests: Cross-cultural differences in psychopathy; psychopathy; dark triad; criminal behaviour and recidivism; deception detection.
Kimberley Kaseweter | PhD Student | Psychology | kkaseweter@alumni.ubc.ca
Research Interests: Psychopathy; empathy; emotional expression; affect perception; pain; facial coding.
Marvin Krank | Professor | Psychology | marvin.krank@ubc.ca | 250.807.8773
Research Interests: Development of substance abuse in adolescence; vulnerabilities related to social learning; cognitive models that differentiate implicit (unconscious) from explicit memories; relative role of automatic associations versus executive control; social experiences, dispositions, memories, and thoughts that predict transitions to substance use and to substance abuse.
Courses & Teaching: Learning; psychometrics and test evaluation; addiction; questionnaire development.
Jennifer Langille | PhD Student | Psychology | jennifer.langille@alumni.ubc.ca
Research Interests: Greenberg's emotion focused therapy; motivational interviewing; programs for offenders; therapeutic approaches for PTSD.
Damien Leitner | PhD Student | Psychology | damien.leitner@ubc.ca
Research Interests: Predictors of functional outcome in stroke populations; neuropsychological testing; return home and community reintegration.
Maya Libben | Associate Professor | Psychology | maya.libben@ubc.ca | 250.807.9026
Currently accepting graduate supervision requests
Research Interests: Clinical cognitive neuroscience; stroke; hemispatial neglect; traumatic brain injury; neuropsychological assessment; cognitive bias; eating disorders; body image; bilingualism; eye-tracking.
Courses & Teaching: Introductory psychology; psychopathology; clinical intervention; multiculturalism and clinical supervision.
Diana Lisi | PhD Student | Psychology | diana.lisi@ubc.ca
Research Interests: Health psychology; relationships; emotion regulation; mood; pain/distress.
Lesley Lutes | Associate Professor | Psychology | llutes@mail.ubc.ca | 250.807.8128
Currently accepting graduate supervision requests
Research Interests: Obesity intervention and prevention; developing alternatives to standard clinical treatments for obesity and associated health conditions; examining theoretically-based alternative treatment approaches in different populations; utilizing different treatment modalities and technologies; examining alternative interventionist models for treatment delivery.
Courses & Teaching: Ethics, graduate clinical practicum in group therapy.
Cynthia Mathieson | Professor | Psychology | cynthia.mathieson@ubc.ca | 250.807.8711
Research Interests: Narrative and thematic analysis; barriers to health care; identity theory.
Courses & Teaching: Community psychology; history of psychology.
Harry Miller | harry.miller@ubc.ca | 250.807.9860
Research Interests: Assessment of memory with traumatic brain injury; peripheral vascular disease and cognition; emotional function post stroke; effects of alcohol use on recovery from brain injury.
Courses & Teaching: Neuroscience of cognition; southern medical program.
Kaylee Misener | MA Student | Psychology | kaymis@mail.ubc.ca
Research Interests: Eating disorders; implicit measures of disordered eating; cognitive biases among individuals who exhibit eating disordered symptoms; cognitive bias modification.
Crystal Mundy | PhD Student | Psychology | crystal.evanoff@ubc.ca
Research Interests: Sexual offending; paraphilic interests; psychometrics; offender reintegration.
Brian O'Connor | Professor | Psychology | brian.oconnor@ubc.ca | 250.807.9636
Currently accepting graduate supervision requests
Research Interests: Statistics; normal and abnormal personality; interpersonal behaviour; psychopathology; software for statistical procedures.
Courses & Teaching: Advanced statistics; research methods; interpersonal behaviour and psychopathology.
Holli-Anne Passmore | PhD Student | Psychology | holli-anne.passmore@ubc.ca
Research Interests: Nature connectedness/exposure to the natural environment; various indices of well-being; positive psychology interventions to promote well-being in adults and children.
Stephen Porter | Professor | Psychology | stephen.porter@ubc.ca | 250.807.9129
Research Interests: Psychology and law; legal decision-making; forensic aspects of memory/PTSD; deception detection; criminal behaviour; psychopathic personality; examines the criminal activity of psychopathic offenders, accuracy of memory for traumatic events and behavioural cues to deception.
Courses & Teaching: Forensic psychology; psychopathy; violence; personality theory.
Jill Robinson | MA Student | Psychology | robinjil@mail.ubc.ca
Research Interests: Substance (alcohol and cannabis) use and abuse in child, teen and young adult populations; substance prevention programs in those who are at risk of developing substance use problems.
Katherine Rose | PhD Student | Psychology | katherine.rose@ubc.ca
Research Interests: Criminal behaviour; youth sexual violence; personality; trauma; childhood maltreatment; deception; computer-mediated communication; internet crime.
Barbara Rutherford | Associate Professor | Psychology | barbara.rutherford@ubc.ca | 250.807.9527
Research Interests: Communication between the hemispheres of the brain during reading in people with and without a reading disability such as dyslexia; developmental trends in hemispheric specialization for reading.
Courses & Teaching: Memory; cognitive processes.
Alison Spadafora | Adjunct Professor | Psychology | alison.spadafora@interiorhealth.ca
Courses & Teaching: Adolescent mental health; psychological assessment.
Carolyn Szostak | Associate Professor | Psychology | carolyn.szostak@ubc.ca | 250.807.8736
Currently accepting graduate supervision requests
Research Interests: Rural mental health; barriers to accessing mental health services by adults 50 years and older in rural communities; media and mental health-related stigma; role of media in combating stigmatizing attitudes about mental health disorders and suicide.
Courses & Teaching: Mental health disorders; pop culture and mental health; use of psychological tests and assessments.
Michelle Thiessen | MA Student | Psychology | michelle.thiessen@ubc.ca
Research Interests: Therapeutic and recreational use of cannabis and psychedelics; substance use; partner violence.
Kara Turcotte | PhD Student | Psychology | kara.turcotte@ubc.ca
Research Interests: Developmental trajectory of pain response and pain perception over the lifetime; psychosocial aspects of pain experience and pain perception; emotional regulation; attachment relationships; behavioural coding.
Megan Udala | PhD Student | Psychology | megan.udala@ubc.ca
Research Interests: Clinical psychology; infanticide.
Zach Walsh | Associate Professor | Psychology | zachary.walsh@ubc.ca | 250.807.9373
Currently accepting graduate supervision requests
Research Interests: Cannabis use - medical and non-medical; substance use; hallucinogens; harm reduction; personality disorder; partner violence; aggression; third-stream/mindfulness behavior therapies; drug policy.
Courses & Teaching: Drugs and behavior; psychotherapy.
Marlis Wecels | Administrative Manager, Psychology Clinic | Psychology | psych.gradstudies.ok@ubc.ca | 250.807.8241
Susan J. Wells | Psychology, Social Work | susan.wells@ubc.ca | 250.807.8163
Research Interests: Investigates the possible causes of overrepresentation of African American children in the United States’ out-of-home care; re-entry into out-of-home care after reunification with family; stability of out-of-home care placements; explores child welfare case types to identify characteristics that more closely represent the complexity of cases seen in the field.
Courses & Teaching: Child welfare services and policy; program evaluation; research methods.
Jocelyn Wentland | Adjunct Professor | Psychology | jocelyn.wentland@ubc.ca
Courses & Teaching: Interpersonal relationships; adolescence; human sexual behaviour; introductory psychology; social psychology.
Carmela White | PhD Student | Psychology | carmela.white@ubc.ca
Research Interests: Positive psychology interventions; well-being; health psychology; prevention and early intervention; predictors of treatment success.
Christopher Wilson | Adjunct Professor | Psychology | christopher.wilson@ubc.ca
Courses & Teaching: Psychological assessment.
Derrick Wirtz | Senior Instructor | Psychology | derrick.wirtz@ubc.ca | 250.807.8276
Currently accepting graduate supervision requests
Research Interests: Subjective well-being; happiness; the “good life”; cross-cultural differences in emotion; flourishing & thriving; positive emotions; interventions to increase well-being.
Courses & Teaching: Introduction to psychology; introduction to research methods and design; positive psychology; social bases of behavior.
Michael Woodworth | Professor | Psychology | michael.woodworth@ubc.ca | 250.807.8731
Currently accepting graduate supervision requests
Research Interests: Psychopathy; violent offending; deception detection; computer-mediated communication; assessment and treatment of forensic populations; memory and psychiatric issues primarily within a legal context.
Courses & Teaching: Psychopathy; criminal behaviour; deception detection.