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Cass Bennett has been with the Psychology Advising Center since October 2022. They have been working as a professional counselor since 2012 and started their own practice specializing in ADHD, religious trauma, and LGBTQ+ folks in 2018. Taking on their role as an advisor has allowed them to step away from their practice part-time, which has been a welcome change. In their free time they enjoy cooking, backpacking, rock climbing, and hiking with their wife, Meghan. 

Kristi Cook has dedicated 12 years to the University of Tennessee, where she has expertly managed travel expense reports and maintained detailed ledgers. Her extensive experience in financial handling has made her an invaluable resource within the institution. Now in her senior year, Cook is pursuing her undergraduate degree in political science, combining her financial acumen with a deep understanding of political systems. Her commitment to excellence and her ability to balance academic and professional responsibilities highlight her dedication and skill. Cook is a financial associate and her comprehensive background positions her well for future challenges in both finance and political fields.

Susan Hawthorne grew up in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, studied media in college, and then moved to Knoxville, where she has lived ever since. Her first job out of college was as a fact checker/researcher at Whittle Communications. Hawthorne then worked at Scripps Networks Interactive doing background research for television series, finding stories to feature, and producing online videos. Research meant talking with people across the country about their lives, which was one of her favorite things about this work. Currently she is an administrative assistant in the department, where she hires new employees, keeps up our accreditations, and helps with office needs. 

Jackson Knight was born in Knoxville but has only just returned home within the last few years. In that time, he has worked around UT in various departments and experienced a multitude of what the university offers and how it functions. He is currently taking classes in media technology and learning what it is like to work in a post-production environment for different forms of media. He is excited to be helping out the department as an administrator and undergraduate assistant, hoping to make life easier for all.

Sharon Sparks has been with UT for 15 years, and most of those years were spent at the agriculture campus in the School of Natural Resources (formerly the Department of Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries) as the financial associate. She joined the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience in 2023 and is a financial associate with responsibilities for accounts payable, processing travel reimbursements, and other financial duties. 

Cidae’a Woods has been working as an academic advisor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience since fall 2022. She earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 2018 and a master’s degree in kinesiology with a concentration in sport psychology and motor behavior in May 2022, both from UT. Woods is originally from New Jersey and came to UT as an undergraduate student-athlete for women’s track and field. She is currently enrolled at UT in the Master of Social Work program with a clinical concentration, and she has an interest in working in a clinical setting as a therapist in the future.

Jasmine Coleman earned her PhD in clinical psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her broad research goal is to advance our understanding of ways to reduce mental and behavioral health disparities experienced by Black youth. She aims to achieve this by identifying and addressing the unique and interactive roles of Black youths’ community, peer, and family microsystems in the development of mental health and behavioral problems. Her current work focuses on examining how youths’ justice involvement may impact their family members, particularly siblings’ justice involvement and youths’ adjustment in sibling dyads.

Sarah Diorio completed her doctoral degree in clinical psychology at Immaculata University in Pennsylvania and completed her internship and postdoctoral residency at Mid-Atlantic Behavioral Health in Delaware. She is in her eighth year of teaching, previously teaching in both undergraduate and graduate psychology programs at Rowan University in New Jersey. Diorio joined our department in 2023 primarily teaching General Psychology, Theories of Personality, and Abnormal Psychology. When not teaching she is a clinician working in therapeutic and assessment services, with a specialty in general mental health and psychological diagnosis and evaluation. 

Claire Hemingway’s lab broadly explores the mechanisms, outcomes, and evolutionary consequences of animal decision-making. To address these questions, they study foraging behavior in both bats and bees to test how animals evaluate and make decisions between foraging options based on the signal and reward properties of each option. They also ask whether species differ in decision-making mechanisms based on their foraging strategy or other aspects of their ecology. Finally, they are interested in how certain decision mechanisms may shape the targets of those decisions, such as floral signals and rewards.

Justina Hyfantis earned her PhD in counseling psychology from UT and completed her internship at the UT Student Counseling Center. She completed postdoctoral training at the Counseling and Psychological Services Center at Appalachian State University and returned to UT in fall 2024 as a clinical assistant professor. Her clinical experience includes specialization in individual and group therapy for young adults, career counseling, and academic success. Hyfantis’ approach to both clinical practice and supervision is integrative and primarily influenced by interpersonal process, cognitive-behavioral, and humanistic theories, couched within a strengths-based lens.

Trenton Johanis joined the department in 2024 as a lecturer and has a PhD from the University of Toronto. As a researcher, his primary interests are in music psychology, studying experiences and effects of flow states in piano performances, as well as other topics. He also has completed research projects in developmental and social psychology. 

Lucybel Mendez is an assistant professor in the clinical program. She received her clinical psychology PhD from the University of Utah and completed her predoctoral internship at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Mendez’s research focuses on: 1) trauma-informed developmental trajectories to mental health and behavioral problems among marginalized and minoritized youth; 2) socioecological risk and protective factors underlying these pathways; 3) trauma-focused prevention and intervention outcomes; 4) trauma-informed care in youth-serving systems; and 5) policy and advocacy efforts that promote access to mental health services and wellbeing for youth and their families. 

Ryan Mokhtari earned his PhD in neuroscience from SUNY Upstate Medical University, studying molecular genetics of autism spectrum disorder, using induced pluripotent stem cells. He had previously received his MD in Iran and worked in the field of psychiatry for a few years in Australia. Mokhtari also received a research fellowship from Einstein College of Medicine in New York, where he worked on epigenetic mechanisms of neurodevelopmental disorders. Mokhtari teaches undergraduate courses on behavioral neuroscience, behavioral genetics, neuroscience journal club, and evolutionary psychology. He is a member of the UT Undergraduate Council. 

Cynthia M. Navarro Flores is a bicultural/bilingual Mexican psychologist and assistant professor in the counseling psychology program. She co-directs the THRIVE Lab (Targeting Health Disparities through Research, InnoVation, and Equity). She earned her PhD in combined clinical/counseling psychology at Utah State University and completed her pre-doctoral internship in the child emphasis track at the Medical University of South Carolina. Her research aims to reduce mental health disparities in marginalized youth and families, particularly within Latinx/e communities, by understanding mechanisms of resilience and adversity and increasing access to culturally competent evidence-based interventions.

Alejandro L. Vázquez is a bicultural/bilingual Cuban American psychologist and assistant professor of counseling psychology at UT. He earned his PhD in combined clinical/counseling psychology at Utah State University and completed his pre-doctoral clinical internship at the Medical University of South Carolina (child emphasis track). His research focuses on reducing mental health disparities in underserved populations with a specific interest in Latinx youths and families. Within this broad scope, he is interested in identifying needs, mechanisms influencing caregiver help-seeking, and improving the delivery and accessibility of evidence-based interventions.

Alejandro Vélez Melendez is originally from Bogotá, Colombia, where he obtained a BS and an MS in biology from Universidad de Los Andes. He completed his PhD at the University of Minnesota and postdoctoral work at Purdue University and Washington University in St. Louis. After some years as a faculty member at San Francisco State University, he joined the UT’s Department of Psychology and Neuroscience in 2023. His research program seeks to understand patterns of brain evolution and how they relate to diversification of perception and behavior. His lab integrates ecological, behavioral, physiological, and anatomical studies, under a comparative framework, to investigate the mechanisms, function, and evolution of animal communication signals and signal-processing mechanisms.

Caitlin Williams is a native North Carolinian, born and raised in the Asheville area, who earned her PhD  in clinical psychology from George Mason University in 2020. She completed her required clinical internship on the child track at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Her first postdoctoral fellowship was at Cherokee Health Systems in Knoxville, and her second was at the Center of Excellence for Children in State Custody through the UT Graduate School of Medicine. She specializes in trauma-focused and informed interventions, including Parent-Child Interaction Therapy, in which she is a within-agency trainer. Her assessment experience includes child and adult assessment for psychoeducational, psychodiagnostic, and trauma-focused assessments.