HARC Lab

DEPAUL UNIVERSITY | DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY

The HARC Lab Team

Jump to

Graduate Students

Quin Lei, M.A.

Doctoral Student | Clinical-Community Psychology | DePaul University

About

Quin graduated from the University of St. Thomas located in St. Paul, Minnesota with a B.A. degree in Psychology. Within the HARC Lab, their research broadly focuses on equity (e.g., race, gender, sexuality, disability, etc.) within homeless service systems and economic and cultural gentrification and displacement in Chicago Chinatown. Additionally, their other research and advocacy interests include addressing anti-Blackness and colorism within Chinese American communities and promoting racial solidarity between Black and Asian American communities.

Research Interests
  • Gentrification and displacement
  • QTPOC adult homelessness
  • Intersectionality theory and application
  • Qualitative methods
  • Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Amanda Barry, M.A.

Doctoral Student | Clinical-Community Psychology | DePaul University

About

Amanda earned her B.A. at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio. As an undergraduate, she became involved with research on Alzheimer’s Disease, including projects on treatments for members of the Maasai. After graduation, Amanda worked at a group home, providing care to adults with mental illness, primarily veterans diagnosed with schizophrenia. Many of the residents she worked with had experienced homelessness; this led Amanda to switch her primary area of interest to homelessness and trauma. At the University of Dayton, her research centered around interventions at a local homeless shelter and how they impacted both the residents and undergraduate students who participated in the interventions. Her Master’s Thesis assessed changes in civic-related outcomes in undergraduate students as they worked with shelter guests. Amanda also is interested in trauma, particularly traumatic experiences that occur during periods of homelessness.

Research Interests
  • Experiences of homelessness among LGBTQIA adults
  • Trauma-informed care in homeless services
  • Underserved and disadvantaged populations
  • Intersectionality
  • Mixed method

Ugochinyere Onyeukwu, M.S.

Doctoral Student | Clinical-Community Psychology | DePaul University

About

Ugo is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Clinical-Community Psychology at DePaul University. She graduated from Purdue University with her B.S. in Psychological Sciences, minoring in Law and Society. She also graduated from the University of Baltimore with her M.S. in Applied Psychology. She has been involved in research projects that have explored barriers to mental health care, sigma, intimate partner violence, alcohol abuse, and social cognition of social movements. Informed by her experiences as a paraprofessional in community mental health settings, Ugo’s primary research and advocacy interest is strengthening community mental health settings by exploring stigma, barriers to mental health care, and the effectiveness of interventions for marginalized and disenfranchised populations with serious mental illness or substance-use disorders.

Research Interests
  • Stigma
  • Barriers to mental health care
  • Marginalized and disenfranchised populations
  • System and organizational interventions
  • Treatment and recovery interventions for individuals with substance use disorders, serious mental illness, or a dual-diagnosis

Shadman (Syed) Saquib, B.A.

Doctoral Student | Clinical-Community Psychology | DePaul University

About

Syed completed his B.A. in Psychology from Franklin and Marshall College. His undergraduate research included looking at the regulation of emotions in response to daily stressors. After graduating, Syed went on to work in the non-profit sector working first as a tenant organizer, where he led tenant associations in Queens, NY, and then as a domestic violence case manager, where he assisted survivors of domestic violence in navigating the criminal justice system and obtain culturally competent resources. The combination of his academic and professional endeavors has led Syed to develop a variety of interests ranging from housing insecurities to culturally competent mental health practices for marginalized communities.

Research Interests
  • Housing insecurity
  • Culturally competent mental health practices for marginalized communities

Cori Cafaro, M.A.

Doctoral Student | Clinical-Community Psychology | DePaul University

About
Cori completed her B.A. in Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of San Diego and her M.S.c with a specialization in global mental health at Duke University. She previously studied the use of mental health patient video narratives to destigmatize mental illness in Nepal. Her research broadly focuses on integrating mental health care and capacity building in community settings. At present, Cori is working on projects related to trauma-informed care interventions for educators, teacher-directed violence, and coordinated entry homeless service systems.
Research Interests
  • Community-based mental health care capacity building
  • Systemic and organizational interventions
  • Trauma-informed care
  • Global mental health
  • Mixed methods

Justine Stewart, M.A.

Doctoral Student | Clinical Psychology | Wheaton College

About

Justine is currently pursuing her Doctor of Psychology at Wheaton College. She completed her B.A. in Economics at Brown University. Upon graduating, she joined the Inter-American Development Bank (Jamaica Country Office) as a Research Assistant. While there, she supported longitudinal, mixed-methods studies that identified factors predicting school dropout for at-risk youth. Justine eventually transitioned to community work with at-risk youth in Germany, where she was an academic tutor for refugee children for after-school programs. That experience made clear the need for trauma-informed care as a best practice. Justine’s research interest centers on the impact of trauma on development and well-being. As a fellow in Illinois’ Leadership in Neurodevelopmental and related Disabilities (LEND) Program, her research examines the relationship between childhood trauma and school outcomes for children with developmental disabilities.

Research Interests
  • Trauma-informed care
  • Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in special populations
  • Prevention and systems-level change
  • Mixed methods

Ellie Buebendorf, B.A.

Masters Student | Community Psychology | DePaul University

About

Ellie completed her B.A. in Psychology, concentrating in Community Psychology, at DePaul University. Her research interests broadly focus on challenging harmful narratives and belief systems. For example, she conducted research with Dr. Christine Reyna on examining White extremism. She engages in a range of activities with HARC Lab, including qualitative data analysis and social justice action. Ellie is currently completing her Masters degree in Community Psychology at DePaul.

Erin Hoffman, M.A.

Doctoral Student | Clinical-Community Psychology | DePaul University

About

Erin is pursuing her Ph.D. in clinical-community psychology at DePaul University. She received her B.A. in psychology from Southern Connecticut State University in 2014. After graduating, she worked at The Consultation Center at Yale University managing several community-based research projects focused on program evaluation, health promotion, and trauma-informed care. Erin’s research is centered around community response to sexual violence and trauma-informed care within the medical and criminal justice systems. Her current research focuses on law enforcement’s response to sexual assault with particular emphasis on sexual assault case processing decisions.

Research Interests
  • Community response to sexual assault
  • Criminal justice
  • Mixed methods
  • Prevention and systems-level change
  • Trauma-informed care

Research Assistants

Noor Arjmand (she/her)

Madeeha Mohiuddin (she/her)

Dabney Lyles

Carmen Martin Zima

Milena DeMario (she/her)

Emma Ockuly (she/her)

Victoria Zygmunt (she/her)

Community-Based Research Team

Jon Adams (he/him)

Andrew Cannella (he/him)

Lamont Burnett (he/him)

Tom Gordon (he/him)