The PADRES Lab has a dynamic team of individuals dedicated to equity in the availability of high quality, evidence-based interventions for children and families. Meet our team!
Dr. Miya Barnett
Director of the PADRES Lab
Miya Barnett is an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology in the Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology and a licensed psychologist. She received her B.A. in Psychology and Hispanic Studies from Lewis & Clark College and her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Central Michigan University. She completed her pre-doctoral internship at University of Miami, Mailman Center for Child Development. As a postdoctoral fellowship at UCLA, Dr. Barnett was involved in the NIMH-funded 4KEEPS Study, which investigated the implementation of evidence-based practices (EBP) within a large-scale reform of children’s mental health services. Dr. Barnett specializes in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) and she is a certified by PCIT International as Level 1 Trainer. Her research interests include dissemination and implementation, strategies to decrease mental health service disparities for ethnic minority children and families, and the impact of therapist behaviors on treatment outcomes. Dr. Barnett has received NIMH Fellowships from the Child Intervention and Prevention Services Fellowship (2015-2016) and Implementation Research Institute (2018-2020). Currently, she has a Mentored Early Career Award from NIMH, which is investigating how Lay Health Workers can increase engagement in PCIT for Latino, immigrant families.
Graduate Students
Erika Luis Sanchez
Erika graduated with a B.A in Psychology from CSU San Marcos. Later, she earned her M.A. in Psychology from San Diego State University. As an undergrad, Erika worked with Dr. Kimberly D’Anna-Hernandez in her study on perinatal mental health among pregnant women of Mexican descent, with a particular interest in exploring how socio-cultural stressors influenced the mental health of mothers and their infants. During her undergraduate studies, Erika became a Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement Program (RISE) scholar, an NIH-funded program, which allowed Erika to advance her research training. Later as a M.A. student, Erika worked with Drs. May Yeh and Kristen McCabe on a project aimed at developing a personalized module for Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) to improve treatment engagement and outcomes for families from diverse cultural backgrounds. Currently, Erika is conducting research to understand how community-based therapists adapt PCIT to meet the needs of the families they serve including Spanish-Speaking families.
Yessica Green Rosas
Yessica is a doctoral student with an emphasis in Clinical Psychology under the supervision of Dr. Miya Barnett. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology at the University of San Diego. During her undergraduate training, she worked with Drs. Kristen McCabe and May Yeh as coding coordinator on a project aimed at personalizing Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) for culturally diverse families. During this time she also joined the McNair Scholars Program, which allowed her to dedicate her summers full-time to research, during which she worked on a project creating reliable guidelines to code imitation during parent-child dyad interactions in PCIT. She is primarily interested in reducing mental health care disparities for underrepresented populations, as well as increasing engagement and outcomes in mental health services.
Hanan Salem
Hanan is a doctoral student with an emphasis in Clinical Psychology under the supervision of Dr. Miya Barnett. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology at Florida International University. After graduating, she worked with Dr. Jonathan Comer as a project coordinator on Kids FACE FEARS, a PCORI-funded study that examined the effectiveness of therapist-led and online Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for youths within pediatric settings. During this time, she also worked with Drs. Jason Jent and Dainelys Garcia to explore various models of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) aimed at increasing the accessibility of and engagement in PCIT across diverse families. Her research interests include addressing mental health disparities within diverse and underserved children and families that have experienced disasters and adversity by increasing the access to and quality of evidence-based services within these populations.
Damaris Garcia-Valerio
Damaris is a doctoral student with an emphasis in Counseling Psychology under the supervision of Dr. Miya Barnett. She graduate with a Bachelor in Studio Arts and Bachelor in Psychology from CSU Los Angeles. During and post undergraduate she worked in the Center for Cross-Cultural Research at CSU Los Angeles under Dr. Kohatsu, focusing on racial identity issues and the psychological impact of racism. After graduation, she worked as a Health & Behavioral Research Assistant at the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles where she worked on projects relating to barriers to healthcare access for communities that experience discrimination, exclusion, and marginalized identities. Her research interests include, identity development for undocumented immigrants, increasing accessibility to mental health services undocumented immigrants, and peer support models for undocumented students. In her free time she enjoys yoga, and going to the theater.
Kaela Farrise
Kaela Farrise (she/her) is a doctoral student with an emphasis in Clinical Psychology under the supervision of Dr. Miya Barnett. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from Stanford University in African and African American Studies, and in Urban Studies. She also has a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology and is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the state of California. During her MA program she specialized in psychological trauma and applied community psychology. Prior to joining UCSB, she was the Lab Manager in the Early Life Stress and Resilience Program at Stanford University School of Medicine and has also worked as a clinician in a wide-range of settings. Her research interests include the implementation and dissemination of mental health services in under-resourced communities, understanding and mitigating the impacts of domestic violence and racial trauma on families of color, and culturally responsive adaptations of psychological interventions. Kaela is a Chancellor’s Fellow and Racial Justice Fellow at UCSB.
Juliana Ison
Juliana (she/her) is a doctoral student with an emphasis in Clinical Psychology under the supervision of Dr. Miya Barnett. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and Spanish from the University of Notre Dame in 2019. After graduation, she served as a Clinical Research Coordinator and later a Research Program Coordinator at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School where she worked on projects related to community-based health equity research. Juliana's research interests lie in the intersection between implementation science, community-based participatory research, and youth/family mental health. More specifically, she is interested in increasing access to effective, evidence-based, and culturally-responsive mental health services for youth and families, especially Spanish-speaking families, and she is interested in utilizing lay health worker models to address disparities in access to mental health care for underresourced families.
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Fátima Aguilar
Fátima is a fourth-year Sociology and English double major with a minor in Spanish. Fátima is a McNair scholar, and she is interested in exploring the importance of promotoras de salud within the Parent–Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) model as well as focusing on underrepresented groups in her work. Fátima plans to apply to doctoral programs in clinical psychology and work towards making therapy more accessible for marginalized communities.
Ariana Cortez
Ariana is a third-year undergraduate student from Riverside, California studying Psychological and Brain Sciences with a minor in Applied Psychology. She is currently a research assistant in the UCSB PADRES lab where she assists in studies that implement Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) with vulnerable communities. Ariana is interested in researching the relationship between parent and child, as well as how this relationship differs amongst ethnic minority communities. Following graduation, she plans on applying to Clinical and Social Psychology PhD programs to further research parent-child relationships.
Alex Reed
Alex is a fourth-year Biopsychology major with a minor in Applied Psychology. Alex is a McNair Scholar and a research assistant in the PADRES Lab, where he engages in the rapid qualitative analysis of experiences related to Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) within Spanish-speaking communities. Additionally, Alex is currently researching addiction in rats within the Szumlinski lab at UCSB and testing the effects of a therapeutic drug on addiction. His work explores the craving for sucrose and substances of abuse (methamphetamine and cocaine), aiming to contribute valuable insights into human behavior. Additionally, Alex actively contributes to research efforts in the Miller lab, where he examines criterion shifting and decision-making in humans, and in the Child Studies lab, where he explores the intricate world of social cognition. Looking ahead, he is in the process of applying to Ph.D. programs in cognitive and behavioral neuroscience, with a heartfelt aspiration to pioneer interdisciplinary approaches for more effective addiction and trauma treatment. His ultimate mission remains centered on empowering underserved communities through innovative research and improved therapeutic interventions.
Allison Tae
Allison is majoring in Psychological and Brain Sciences with a minor in Applied Psychology. Starting her freshman year, she became a research assistant for the Child Studies Lab in the Psychological and Brain Sciences department and the PADRES Lab in the CNCSP department. As she gained various experiences through these labs, she found passion towards parent–child relationships for children with autism, specifically on parent mediated therapy. Allison will be applying to PhD programs this fall, and she is super excited to continue a similar line of research to that she has been studying as a research assistant through both the PADRES Lab and the Child Studies lab. She hopes to advance interventions for families with ASD children and be involved in research communications to strengthen our families around the globe.
Samantha Wilson
Samantha Wilson is a fourth-year undergraduate student from Bakersfield, California studying Psychological and Brain Sciences with a minor in Applied Psychology. Her clinical and research interests focus on reducing mental health disparities for underserved communities through discovering accessible and culturally-sensitive mental health care. She is currently working as an undergraduate research assistant in the UCSB PADRES Lab, where she contributes to projects researching Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) administration to Spanish-speaking and Latinx families. After graduation, Samantha will apply to Clinical Psychology graduate programs, and ultimately hopes to become a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) and mental health professional, with a focus on the Latinx population.
PADRES Lab Alumni
J.C. Gonzalez
J.C. Gonzalez (he/him) is a recent 2023 doctoral graduate, having completed his PhD under the supervision of Dr. Miya Barnett. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology with a minor in Sociology from the University of Connecticut. After graduating with his B.S., J.C. was a project coordinator for the 4KEEPS Study at UCLA, an NIMH-funded project investigating evidence-based practice sustainment within the community mental health system of Los Angeles County. His research utilizes implementation science and partnerships with lay health worker communities to address disparities in access to effective mental health services for children and families. He is also interested in increasing father engagement in children's mental health services to benefit child and family outcomes. His clinical experiences include PCIT, community mental health, and inpatient severe mental illness. J.C. is currently serving as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Francisco. Please feel free to contact him via email at [email protected].
Corinna Klein
Corinna Klein is a recent 2023 doctoral graduate, having completed her PhD under the supervision of Dr. Miya Barnett. She completed a Master of Social Work at UCLA in 2017. During her Masters, Corinna specialized in school social work, providing mental health services to culturally and socioeconomically diverse students in public, non-public, and continuation schools in the Los Angeles area. Following her time at UCLA, she worked as a medical social worker in an acute care hospital. Her work within various treatment settings exposed her to the unequal provision of community mental health services and to the many barriers clients face in pursuit of effective treatment. She hopes to work towards decreasing disparities in access to effective mental health treatment. Her research interests include the implementation and dissemination of mental health services and clinician attitudes towards evidence-based treatments. Corinna is currently serving as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Iliana Flores
Iliana Flores is a recent 2023 doctoral graduate in counseling psychology, having collaborated with Dr. Miya Barnett in addition to Dr. Andrés Consoli as her primary advisor. She completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Human Services with an emphasis in mental health from California State University, Fullerton. Iliana’s current research and clinical interests include reducing disparities in mental health among racial and ethnic populations, access and utilization of culturally relevant services using a social justice lens, and bilingual (English-Spanish) professional training and development.
Hana Belmonte-Ryu
Hana Belmonte-Ryu is an undergraduate student from San Diego, California studying Psychology & Brain Sciences and Black Studies. She is currently working as a research assistant to the UCSB PADRES Lab and the UCSB Developmental Psychology Department. She is interested in working on research for groups of people who have historically been excluded from mainstream research or have been subject to negatively biased research. After graduation, she hopes to attend graduate school for Psychology with a focus in Race/Ethnicity Studies.
Freddie Corcoran
Freddie Corcoran is a fourth year undergraduate student studying Psychological and Brain Sciences and Applied Psychology at UCSB. She is currently incorporating her interests in community based mental health as well as her passion for child development and dissemination science by working as a research assistant for the UCSB PADRES Lab and the Children Youth and Family Consortium through the University of Minnesota. Freddie is particularly interested in closing mental health-care disparities in low-income and marginalized populations at both individual and community levels. After graduation, Freddie plans to continue working for the University of Minnesota and promoting the implementation and dissemination of evidenced-based practices in rural communities. She will also be applying to Clinical and Developmental Psychology PhD programs to enhance her enthusiasm for research.
Tina Garoosi
Tina is a psychology master’s graduate. She has experience working with children and their families for several years, specifically on developmental and behavioral issues. She also provided parenting training and workshops. Her primary approach focused on parent-child interaction and relationships, which led her to choose parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT) as her main research interest. She is currently collaborating in the research on examining coaching behaviors of English and Spanish-speaking therapists in PCIT. Tina is getting ready to apply to doctoral programs in clinical psychology and hoping to continue researching PCIT and implementing it in different populations.
Dulce Gonzalez
Dulce Gonzalez is a UC Santa Barbara class of 2019 alumna and current MSW graduate student at Cal State University, Fullerton. Her areas of interest include expanding access to mental health services for underserved children and families, and trauma-informed social work. Her long-term goal is to become a licensed clinical social worker with an emphasis on children's behavioral health. Dulce is also currently a graduate ambassador to the CSUF Allied Health Academy involved in collaborative health career mentorship and a recipient of the CSUF Pa'lante Fellowship. Her time as a member of the PADRES Lab team have greatly furthered her career aspirations of helping underserved communities overcome the social/institutional barriers that limit their opportunities to thrive and advocate to promote the destigmatization of mental health service acquisition.
Jordan Holmen
Jordan Holmen recently graduated from UCSB with a B.A. in Psychology and a Minor in Applied Psychology. She currently works for Massachusetts General Hospital’s Child CBT Program as a research coordinator, helping to conduct research on the identification of anxiety in young toddlers. Jordan is now getting ready to apply to doctoral programs in Clinical Psychology and she hopes to continue studying childhood anxiety, specifically the use and dissemination of evidence-based treatments for children with these issues.
Yaxcha Mariles
Yaxcha Mariles recently graduated from her undergraduate studies at UCSB with a degree in Sociology and Applied Psychology, and she is from San Jose, California. As a McNair Scholar and under the supervision of Dr. Miya Barnett, she conducted an undergraduate research project that qualitatively analyzes the cultural barriers affecting progress in PCIT in Latinx communities. She is interested in researching the mental health disparities among low-income minority and immigrant populations. She is currently applying to Clinical Psychology graduate programs to continue her passion for research.
Tanya Murphy
Tanya Murphy is a third-year undergraduate student studying Psychology at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. Her post-undergraduate goal is to obtain a Master's in Clinical Neuropsychology followed by a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology. Tanya's research interest lies in the implementation of evidence-based practices for children with developmental and intellectual disabilities, and the ways in which these practices can be tailored to accomodate for the specific needs of each family.
Medini Rastogi
Medini Rastogi is a fourth-year undergraduate student from Sunnyvale, California studying Biological Sciences. After graduation, her plans are to work in a clinical setting before either attending medical school or obtaining a Master’s in Public Health. Her clinical and research interests are increasing access to care and cultural sensitivity of medical services for women. She has a desire to build connections with different communities of women to understand how medical systems can better serve them.
Madeleine Tremblay
Madeleine Tremblay is an undergraduate student from Los Angeles, California studying Global Studies. Her research interests lie in mental health disparities and mental health policies domestic and abroad. Madeleine's clinical experience as a Mental Health Peer at UCSB Counseling and Psychological Services has also deepened her interest in school-based mental health services. Madeleine ultimately hopes to improve access to mental health services among marginalized groups.