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2008-2009 AAMFT/MFP FELLOWS

AAMFT is proud to introduce its 2008-2009 MFP Fellows. Represented among this class of 23 fellows are twelve ethnicities, nine countries and at least ten languages. We are excited to field a class that is diverse internationally and regionally. We have fellows from Afghanistan, Albania, Bangladesh, Brazil, Israel, Laos, South Korea and Uruguay. As well as from across the wide spectrum of the American landscape--California, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah and Virginia.

We think this class is reflective of our commitment as an Association to increase the quality and quantity of culturally competent Marriage and Family therapists capable of serving the needs of all our citizenry.

Class of 2008-2009

Metra was born in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1979 after the country had just been invaded by the USSR and her family was on verge of migration. With the experience of working so closely with these new Afghan families, she applied for her Master’s in Marriage and Family Therapy at Alliant International University, Irvine. Upon the completion of her Master’s degree, she was accepted into the doctoral program in Marriage and Family Therapy at Alliant International University, Irvine, where she is currently pursuing her doctoral degree.

Metra has a profound interests in studying minorities’ mental health issues, immigration concerns, spirituality in therapy, substance abuse, marginalization of minorities, couples therapy, parenting issues, PTSD, and children of minorities who suffer from autistic spectrum disorders. She currently serves on two Islamic School boards, is active in her local Mosque, and raises funds for Afghanistan with the Afghan Women’s Association.

Metra can be reached at: msalem@alliant.edu

Asha Barber

Asha Barber is from Schaumburg, IL and is currently a third year doctoral student in the Family and Child Ecology with a specialization in Marriage and Family Therapy Program at Michigan State University in the Department of Family and Child Ecology. She earned her masters degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Michigan State University, and her bachelors of arts degree in Sociology from Hampton University.

To date, much of her graduate training has focused on the general experiences of African American families who are involved in the child welfare system. Through her clinical experiences, she has had the opportunity to be exposed to multiple contexts in which substance abuse has caused a deteriorative effect on the overall family systems thereby ultimately increasing the chance of families of color entering into the child welfare system.

Asha’s current research interest focuses on the clinical treatment of African American families involved in the child welfare system. In particular, she is interested in researching the role that formal and informal social support plays in the patterns of stress and coping in the African American community. Asha’s use of the multisystems model of treatment strives to provide families with the tools that they need in accordance with their own unique cultural values.

Asha can be reached at: barbera7@msu.edu

Sara is a member of the Prairie Band Potowatomi, an ethnic group of American Indians. She received her Masters degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Abilene Christian University. Currently, she is a doctoral student in the Marriage and Family Therapy program at Texas Tech University.

Building on the scholar-practitioner model, she facilitates a group of mandated clients on federal probation who meet the criteria for co-occurring disorders, while as a researcher she conducts research with the Southwest Institute for Addictive Diseases. Though a student, Sara has developed an extensive publications record. Other research interest include the plight of the Descendents of the Freedmen, a group of African-Americans who share Native American ancestry.

Sara’s is also interested in several aspects of the criminal justice system that pertain to aftercare programs aimed at women and minorities, as well as, identity development of the offenders and how that relates to gang involvement in prison. Upon completion of her doctorate her plan is to transition into classroom, where she hopes to assist in training future generations of culturally competent marriage and family therapists.

Sara can be reached at: sara.blakeslee@ttu.edu

David earned his bachelor degree in Psychology from San Diego State University, master’s degree from Alliant International University and is a doctoral candidate in the marriage and family therapy program at Michigan State University. A student member of the National Hispanic Science Network on Drug Abuse, his research and clinical interests are in developing, implementing, and evaluating culturally appropriate prevention interventions for high-risk families of color.

Other research interests include mixed-methodologies and community-based participatory research methods. David has worked toward the development of the cultural adaptation of an evidence-based prevention intervention for Latina/o parents. He has presented his research at numerous state and national conferences, and has published scholarly articles and a book chapter on Latinas/os. Most recently, he was awarded the 2008 Student of the Year Award by the Michigan Association for Marriage and Family Therapists.  

He currently serves as a Research Intern at Behavioral Assessment Inc. working on studies funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Specifically, he is working on a Phase-II NIMH study to establish the psychometrics of the Hispanic Stress Inventory-Adolescent version, a culturally appropriate psychosocial stress assessment. In addition, he provides clinical services as part of a SAMHSA study which aims to examine the effectiveness of an evidence-based prevention intervention for substance abuse, HIV, and hepatitis in high-risk Latina/o youth.  

David can be reached at cordovad@msu.edu

Kimberley Diggles

Kimberly was born and raised in Dallas, Texas but traded in her cowboy boots for snow boots in order to attend the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities for her PhD in Marriage and Family Therapy.  One of Kim’s passions and reasons for pursuing a degree in a family related field are children.  While in Texas, she did much of her practicum work at local elementary schools and at a parenting center working with adolescents.  She also served as the Dean of Students for Breakthrough Collaborative—Fort Worth, an educational enrichment program for underrepresented middle school students in the inner city.  This particular experience afforded her the opportunity to explore two more of her passions—education and the advancement of historically marginalized groups.

 Kim is currently doing her clinical practicum at an urban family medical clinic in North Minneapolis as well as at an eating disorder clinic in Saint Paul.  Her current interests in family therapy are around families of color as it pertains to resiliency through parenting.  She has recently taken a strong interest in the topic of racial socialization in minority families, exploring strategies that parents use to teach their children about what it means to be a cultural minority in America and how this particular area of socialization affects children’s relationships with the dominant culture, particularly in the domains of education and academic achievement. 

 Through her research Kimberly would like to inform youth substance abuse and other risky behavior prevention at a community level.  She also believes that a more thorough understanding of the experiences of cultural minorities in America will lend to fewer hegemonic ideologies and more effective institutional policies.

Kimberly can be reached at: diggl017@umn.edu

Kara was born in South Korea and came to the United States when she was four years old. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. and LMFT in the Department of Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota.

Kara’s scholarly interests include the development of evidence-based interventions for addressing racial disparities in mental heath; the adaptation/innovation of culturally and contextually appropriate interventions for cross-cultural populations; the development of multi-method methodologies and clinical interventions for psychological trauma; specifically the impact of trauma on children and adolescent outcomes. Her scholarly interests span across prevention and intervention science. Driven by her commitment to social justice, she is particularly interested in the impact of systemic oppression on marginalized groups.

In her experiences as an educator Kara has presented at several conferences on topics related to issues of social justice for ethnic minorities and other underserved populations including stepfamilies and older rural women. She is currently collaborating with an international and interdisciplinary group of researchers to develop methodologies and systemic and evidence-based treatments for a range of trauma contexts. Her dissertation project builds upon this collaborative effort, piloting an assessment protocol that culturally validates several established instruments and developing new dyadic-level observational methods for assessing trauma and substance abuse (in child and/or family) in a child maltreatment context in Monterrey, Mexico.

Kara can be reached at: erol0003@umn.edu

Narkia Green

Narkia was raised in Suitland and Fort Washington, Maryland, but was originally born in Washington, D.C. She is a doctoral student in the Marriage and Family Therapy program at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) where she also received both a Masters degree in Marriage and Family Therapy and bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Virginia Tech.

She has served as a clinician at Virginia Tech’s Center for Family Services in Falls Church, Virginia; and Fort Belvoir’s Chaplain Family Life Center in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. She is currently a clinician at Virginia Tech’s Family Therapy Center in Blacksburg, Virginia. Her clinical and research interest include stress, depression, and coping, expressive arts in therapy, couple relationships, women’s body image, family diversity, qualitative research. Her scholarly work has appeared in the Journal of Primary Prevention and the Journal of Family Violence. She has been recognized by the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy for her commitment to the field of marriage and family therapy through the 2006 Minority Fellowship Award. 

She is a member of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy and Kappa Omicron Nu Honor Society.  Narkia is also taking part in the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy’s Virtual Internship Program in which she provides periodic manuscript and book edits.  She is the elected student representative of the Virginia Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. Narkia is also a former scholar of the Ronald E. McNair Baccalaureate Achievement Program.

Narkia can be reached at: nagreen1@vt.edu

Afshana Haque

Afshana  was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh and migrated to the US two months after her birth. She completed her Masters Degree at the University of Houston-Clear Lake before moving on to San Antonio, TX, where she is currently a doctoral student in Marriage and Family Therapy at St. Mary’s University.

During her graduate career she has given presentations at The American Association for the Advancement of Science Southwestern and Rocky Mountain Division: Science-The Key to the Past, Present, and Future, Texas Dawah Convention, and ISNA: Islam in America Conference. Her most recent publication efforts include: A Systematic Research Synthesis of Various Adaptive Strategies Utilized by Dual-Income Couples, and a current work in progress is entitled: The Reliability of the Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Test when Administered to the Muslim Population.

Her past clinical experience includes working at DePelchin’s Children Center in Houston, TX in 2005. Currently she is working at AIGB Diagnostics for a bariatric surgical group in San Antonio, TX, and she is also the co-director of a non-profit organization, Hawa Center for Refugee Mental Health. Afshana’s goal as a family therapist is to provide therapy to the underserved population of immigrants in the United States as well as working with the Muslim community.

Afshana can be reached at: afshanah@aol.com

Lucy Her

Lucy (Ntsum Hwaj) was born in Xieng Khoung, Laos. Her family immigrated to the United States seeking asylum after the Vietnam War. Lucy is currently a doctoral student in Clinical Psychology in Marriage and Family Therapy at Alliant International University in Irvine, CA. Her therapy experience includes working with adult addicts and alcoholics in residential treatment at the Phoenix House in Santa Ana, Calif., and in Santa Fe Springs, Calif. Most of these clients had dual diagnosis that included major depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, borderline personality and bi-polar.     

Her other work experience includes working for eight years as a journalist for three newspapers in the Midwest: The Repository in Canton, Ohio, the Kansas City Star in Missouri, and the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, Minn. In January 2004, she left the Star Tribune to work on her doctorate in clinical psychology, after having decided on a career change after documenting the life of a Hmong family following their parents’ murder-suicide. Thirteen children, all under the age of 21, were orphaned.

Her current interest is in working with couples where one partner is in recovery.

Lucy can be reached at: herlucy@yahoo.com

Sheena Horsford

Sheena is a graduate student in the Department of Family & Child Ecology at Michigan State University. She received her Bachelor’s of Arts degree in Psychology from Hampton University in Hampton, VA. After graduating from Hampton University, Ms. Horsford attended Virginia Tech as a NIH post-baccalaureate research scholar. While at Virginia Tech, she worked within the Department of Psychology studying the relationship between parents’ marital relationships and children’s prosocial behavior.

Sheena’s research currently focuses on the parenting practices among ethnically diverse families. Her goal is to assist in providing structure and stability within the lives of ethnic diverse families living in at risk environments. She also aspires to provide parents with parenting management skills and appropriate discipline techniques. She has been awarded the opportunity to assist with the implementation of a parenting program geared toward assisting ethnic diverse families at risk for substance abuse. The model of parent training is being adapted to fit the community context of diverse families. Such training will provide parents with the tools necessary to maintain and develop respectful and nurturing parent-child relationships.

Sheena can be reached at: horsford@msu.edu

Adriatik Likcani

Adriatik is currently a Ph.D. student in Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) at Kansas State University. He received his M.S. degree in MFT from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and completed a post-graduate certificate program in Medical Family Therapy at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. He is a Certified Advanced Substance Abuse Counselor (CASAC) and currently pursuing licensure as a marriage and family therapist in Missouri. His research areas include: family therapy & substance abuse treatment, supervision, collaborative healthcare, family measurement, trauma, and telehealth.

He has worked in the field of addictions since 1993 as co-founder and vice president of Teen Challenge Albania, and later as substance abuse counselor in residential and outpatient settings in Missouri providing individual, couple, and family counseling. His focus is to promote evidence-based treatment modalities and family engagement in treatment for drug and alcohol abuse. He has provided trainings and professional presentations in Missouri and Kansas on substance abuse treatment approaches, effects of substance abuse on the family system, teenage drinking/drugging and co-morbidity, and on an array of other related topics.

Adriatik can be reached at alikcani@ksu.edu or adriatik@recoverylighthouse.org

Zephon Lister

Zephon was born in New York City, New York. He currently attends Loma Linda University and is enrolled in the PhD program in Marriage and Family Therapy with an emphasis in Medical Family Therapy. Zephon has a great interest in relational, multidisciplinary health care,  and clinical research. He is particularly interested in exploring the benefit of multidisciplinary care and studying the recursive relationships between social networks (i.e. couples, parent-child social support systems) and health/illness. These interests have led to his work on several projects including studies that examine the influence of relational variables on childhood obesity and couples living with diabetes.

Much of his recent clinical training has taken place at the SACHS-Norton Clinic, a community outreach clinic of Loma Linda University that primarily serves the uninsured and other underserved populations. His work there has included working as a medical family therapist, coordinating Partners in Prevention an alcohol and drug prevention program, and most recently coordinating inter-professional training and services. In one inter-professional lab students from multiple health disciplines are taught how to work collaboratively in a primary care setting. His clinical interests also include the role of spirituality in therapy and working with families living with chronic illness.      

Zephon is also very active in the community. For the past six years he functioned as the Youth and Community Outreach Coordinator for his local church developing and implementing programs for at-risk youth in the community. He was recently asked to be the Loma Linda University Student Association Community Outreach Director, where he will coordinate outreach opportunities for students locally and world wide.

Zephon can be reached at: freshstart_fhlm@yahoo.com

Alicia Marquez

Alicia Marquez was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, but lived most of her life in New York, working as an accountant. Her interest in families led her to obtain a certificate in Family Life Education from Andrews University and a BA in Psychology from SUNY at Old Westbury. She then to quit her job and moved to California to join the Marital and Family Therapy PhD Program, with Interim Masters, at Loma Linda University.

Her clinical experience has been obtained at the Christian Counseling Center, Inc. seeing clients in various Spanish-speaking churches, and at MFI Recovery Center, Inc., working in two sites in Southern California. 

Broad interests include working with children, adolescents, and their parents, in the prevention and treatment of substance abuse. Specific goals are to bring social change to rural families, mostly Mexican, working in the fields of Southern California, through teaching, supervision, and publishing.

Alicia can be reached at: marquez_alicia@hotmail.com

Martha Morgan

Martha was born in Long Beach, CA and raised in Apple Valley, CA. She completed an undergraduate degree at the University of Central Oklahoma, where she was a McNair Scholar. She went on to earn a Masters in Adult Education at the University of Central Oklahoma. Currently she is a second year MFT doctoral student at Texas Tech University, where she matriculated after having completed a Masters program in MFT at Oklahoma State University and an internship at the Stillwater Cancer Center.

Her research interests include issues related to working with underserved populations including minorities and the elderly. Currently, she works with adolescents at the Lubbock County Juvenile Justice Center and with individuals and families in Pediatric Oncology and the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Covenant hospital. Martha's dissertation topic focuses on the experiences of Black graduate students. She is in the process of completing a qualitative study on the effects of juvenile diabetes on the families of minority patients.

Martha can be reached at: martha.morgan@ttu.edu

Megan Oka

Megan Oka was born in Ogden, Utah, but grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada. She is currently finishing her first year as a doctoral student at Texas Tech University. She received her bachelor’s degree in Marriage, Family and Human Development from Brigham Young University, and her master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy, also from Brigham Young University.

Her clinical interests include families with young children, eating disorders, self-harm, and partner violence. Her current research interests include issues of family violence and safety, including intimate partner violence, and intergenerational transmission of violence.

Megan can be reached at: megan.oka@ttu.edu

Laurelle Olsen

Laurelle  was born in Minneapolis, and was raised in Northern Minnesota. She a third year student in the Family Social Science doctoral program at the University of Minnesota, specializing in Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT). She received her master’s degree in MFT from East Carolina University in North Carolina. Her clinical and research interests include minority families and communities, cultural competency in therapy, and American Indian (AI) families.

She received training and has experience working in Adult Rehabilitative Mental Health Services with clientele whom are diagnosed with serious and persistent mental illness to integrate them into the community. She also has experience providing individual and family therapy, and has facilitated prevention and intervention groups with children and adolescents (and their families) with psychiatric disorders. She has sought opportunities to work with the AI community as a practitioner and researcher.

She is currently doing her internship at the Native American Community Clinic. In her work with AI families she has primarily dealt with issues of domestic violence, substance abuse, and suicidal ideation. She hopes to address the stigma around mental health treatment by incorporating the essential aspects of AI wellness, community and spirituality.

Laurelle can be reached at: lolsen@umn.edu

Kristi Palmer

Kristi was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She received a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and Mathematics from Penn State University and completed her Master’s degree in couples and family therapy at the University of Oregon. Currently she is a doctoral student at the University of Connecticut.

One of Kristi’s goals is to develop competence as consultant and program designer, placing particular emphasis on programming that works with urban youth to prevent substance abuse and other risky behaviors and to promote positive development. As an MFT, she hopes to make a contribution to this field by devoting particular attention to the barriers that keep prevention programs from accessing families as part of their preventive efforts, given the important role that family factors appear to play in youth outcomes.

Kristi can be reached at: kristi.palmer@uconn.edu

Tenille Richardson

Tenille was born and raised in Winston-Salem, NC. She is a first year doctoral student in the Marriage and Family Therapy Program at Virginia Polytechnic and State University. She received a Masters of Social Work from the University of Maryland at Baltimore and a Bachelor’s of Science in Psychology from Howard University.

Tenille has previous research experience as a Research Scholar at Family Connections; a University of Maryland Baltimore program committed to researching risk and protective factors that affect children and families. After providing wrap around services she evaluated the ability of policies and programs to promote strength and resilience in families.  For the past three years Tenille has worked as a Social Worker in Child Welfare Services reunifying parents with their who were removed by Child Protective Services. This experience was the impetus for her current research interest which includes premarital counseling, adolescent relationship building skills, hearing impaired couples counseling, cultural competence, art therapy and substance abuse within the family system. Tenille will also serve as a clinician for Virginia Tech’s Family Therapy Center in Blacksburg, VA. Tenille has over seventeen years of community outreach and advocacy experience. Her hobbies include dancing, photography and arts and crafts.

Tenille can be reached at: anise_r@yahoo.com

Luciana Silva

Luciana is originally from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil but has lived in Georgia for 13 years now. She is a fifth year Marriage and Family Ph.D. student at The University of Georgia. As a clinician, she is especially interested in working with Latino families, sexual assault and domestic violence survivors, intercultural couples, and couples dealing with trust, intimacy, and adjustment issues in general. She also has extensive experience working in sexual assault crisis centers as well as domestic violence shelters, while her training through the MFT Program at UGA has emphasized therapy with couples and families, and therapy in Spanish for the Latino community in Athens.

Luciana’s research focuses on women’s issues and multiculturalism within the family. Currently, she is studying cultural negotiation and relationship identity formation in intercultural couplehood. She is especially interested in applying qualitative methodology to clinical research in the hope of providing clinicians with empirically validated guidelines for working with intercultural and underserved couples.

Luciana can be reached at: lsilva@uga.edu

Tamara Taitt

Tamara was born in Barbados, West Indies and joined her mother in the United States at age nine. She grew up in Brooklyn, New York and completed her Bachelor's degree in Psychology at Princeton University with minors in Women’s Studies and African-American Studies. Tamara earned a Master's of Science degree in Marriage and Family Therapy at Nova Southeastern University and is currently a first year doctoral student in Family Therapy at Nova.

Tamara is trained as a direct-entry midwife and has a special interest in the health of women during their childbearing years. She is a board member of the Midwives Alliance of North America and works with a not-for-profit organization that specializes in Maternal, Infant and Child Health. In this position Tamara coordinates Fetal Infant Mortality Review Project and Black Infant Health Practice Initiative of Miami-Dade County.

This work piqued her interest in birth outcomes and risk factor assessment data which indicate that poor mental health, influenced by stress, depression and oppression among other factors, significantly affects the health of women of color during pregnancy and subsequently the health and well-being of black infants and families.  Tamara’s research interests focus on health disparities and exploring the mental health issues that are pervasive during the perinatal period. In particular, she hopes through doctoral research to look more closely how those issues disproportionately impact Black women and families.

Tamara can be reached at: taitt@nova.edu

Avigail Ward

Avigail was born and raised in Jerusalem, Israel, where she has served in both the elite Israeli Navy Intelligence Department and the Israeli Ministry of Defense. Avigail has been living in the United States for the past 16 years where she obtained her Masters in psychology with an emphasis on marriage and family therapy from Chapman University. Currently, she is working on a Doctor of Marriage Family Therapy (DMFT) degree, with an emphasis on Medical Family Therapy at Loma Linda University,

Avigail has a profound interest in Medical Family Therapy, a biopsychosocial approach to treatment for individuals as well as families who are dealing with medical issues.

Avigail can be reached at: amward@llu.edu

Erica Wilkins

Erica was born in State College, Pennsylvania. Erica earned her masters degree at Drexel University. While at Drexel University, she was the recipient of the Master of Family Therapy Award for Academic Achievement and the Master of Family Therapy Award for Outstanding Leadership. She was also inducted into the Alpha Eta Honors Sorority and Who’s Who Among Students.

Erica is currently working toward the completion of her doctoral degree in marriage and family therapy at Texas Tech University. Her research interests include studying the residual effects of slavery on the African American family, self-of-the therapist issues and cultural competency. She has studied the delivery of culturally competent community based therapy. Erica is also researching culturally competent therapeutic techniques and gender differences among undergraduate college students’ beliefs about infidelity.

She is currently assisting with the completion of a textbook chapter regarding culture, ethnicity and addiction. Clinical interests include the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder, grief counseling, substance abuse, culturally competent services and contextual therapy.

Erica can be reached at: ericarto@yahoo.com

Maria Shantell Williams

Maria was raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Currently, she is completing her first year as a doctorate student in the Marriage and Family Therapy program at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. She received her Master’s degree from Abilene Christian University and her undergraduate degree from Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana. During her time at Dillard, she became certified as an HIV/AIDS and Sexual Assault Counselor.

She is a past scholar in the Ronald E. McNair/SROP scholars research program at Michigan State University.  While at Abilene Christian University, she began working with Serenity House in Abilene, Texas which is one of the largest substance abuse treatment programs in the nation.

Maria is interested in research germane to African American therapy attendance and in developing processes and institutions that enhance awareness around individual development, the salience of the family ecosystem in ways that help individuals connect their aspirations with their goals. Currently, she conducts workshops on ULM’s campus and assist clients at the University of Louisiana at Monroe’s Counseling Center and Marriage and Family Therapy Center. She is a member Delta Kappa International Marriage and Family Therapy Honor Society.

Maria can be reached at mariawilliams83@yahoo.com

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