Psychology Undergraduate Degree, Miami, Florida

The Department of Psychology coordinates activities to give students experience outside of the classroom:

The Psychology Club addresses current issues in Psychology while providing opportunities for professional advancement within the discipline. For more information on Barry’s club contact Dr. Maria Lopez at mrlopez@mail.barry.edu or 305-899-3276.

Psi Chi is the National Honor Society in Psychology, founded in 1929 for the purpose of promoting excellence in scholarship and advancing the science of psychology. Membership is open to graduate and undergraduate men and women who are making the study of psychology one of their major interests and who meet the qualifications listed below for admission to Barry’s chapter. For more information about the national organization, visit www.psichi.org. For more information on Barry's chapter of the Honor Society, contact Dr. Michelle Major-Sanabria at mmajor@mail.barry.edu or 305-899-4575.

The Mission of GASP is to provide a support system to the graduate students of the Department of Psychology Department at Barry University that creates an open environment which attracts, develops, and rewards highly professional future psychology professionals, and supports the south Florida community.

For more information on GASP, please contact Dr. Guillermo Wated at gwated@.barry.edu .

Barry University's Alumni Association provides many benefits, discounts, services, and activities for the Barry community. For more information, go to www.barry.edu/alumni.

Danielle Budash (M.S. Clinical Psychology, 2003) is a doctoral student in the Combined-Integrated Psychology Program in Clinical and School Psychology at James Madison University. She is working on a dissertation involving crisis intervention/disaster intervention with children. She has recently traveled to India for a three-day conference on disaster interventions. She also spent three weeks in the Dominican Republic on a service learning trip. She says, "I never would have thought this small town girl from West Virginia would be seeing the world!"

Leslie Naghib, B.S. 2005, is currently a language arts teacher at William H. Turner Tech High in Miami . She has just been selected as her school's Rookie Teacher of the Year. She will compete with other Rookies to be the Florida Rookie Teacher of the Year. She is also enrolled in Barry's Master of Arts program in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). She plans to travel the world teaching English before settling down and buying her own flower shop in Coral Gables.

Becket Lott '04 is a Dependency Case Manager for the Children's Home Society in Partnership with Kids' Central Inc. in Sumter County , Florida . She is also working toward her master's degree in Mental Health Counseling and School Counseling at Webster University in Ocala.

Two classes, Psychology & Professional Development (PSY 264) and Experimental Psychology (PSY 333) came together to hear Florence Taylor, Barry '03 give a guest lecture. Florence is a third year law student at the University of Florida . She spoke about how her work as a psychology major prepared her for the rigors of law school. She told the students that it was very important to take advantage of all the opportunities in our psychology program to do research with professors and to make oral presentations. She presented her own undergraduate research with Dr. Muscarella at a professional conference in Montreal.

Rebecca (Smith) Lockwood '02 visited recently with daughter Lexie and husband Paul. Rebecca took the opportunity to get together with her former women's basketball teammates. She is currently enrolled in a clinical Ph.D. program at Suffolk University , Boston.

Candela Bonaccorso, Barry M.S. in Clinical Psychology 2002 is completing her Psy. D. at The George Washington University . She is starting her pre-doctoral internship at Bellevue Hospital in New York City , which was her first choice. She writes, "I was so happy! I wanted to share the great news with all of you-since my path to Bellevue began at Barry."

Indeira Persaud (1999) is a Psychology Lecturer and Counsellor at the St. Vincent Community College in St. Vincent and the Grenadines , where she implemented the first Psychology Program for the institution. After completion of her B.S. at Barry University , she was awarded a STARSAT Scholarship to the University of Manchester in England where she completed her M.Sc. in Applied Psychology. Indeira also holds both a Teacher's Certificate and a Family Life Education Certificate from the University of the West Indies , in addition to a Certificate in Youth Work through the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Indeira's entire career has been spent in the teaching profession during which time she has assessed thousands of students. She has conducted numerous seminars on personnel development and counselling for various organizations including the Royal St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force, the Tourism Department and numerous community centers. Indeira's future plans involve pursing a Ph.D in Psychology and using this knowledge to make a vital contribution both to St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the wider Caribbean region especially in the areas of social, educational and developmental psychology, as they relate to male underachievement in education, the vicious circle of poverty and spiralling crime rates.

Sandra Riano (B.S.2000, SSP, 2006) is taking a position as a School Psychologist in Puyallup County, Washington -- half an hour from Seattle. Sandra is from Colombia and has been with us on a student visa for many years. Now, Cumberland Therapy Services in New Jersey found her this job in an area where there is a great shortage of people with her credential, and Cumberland Therapy Services is sponsoring her working visa status.

Yenys Andrade Castillo (MS Clinical Psychology, 2006) is starting the Ph.D. program at Nova Southeastern University in Fall 2006.

Connie Berger (B.S. 2003) is a doctoral student in the Industrial/Organizational Psychology program at Florida International University. She has now finished her master's degree and passed her doctoral comprehensive exams. She is currently doing an internship at Seitlin,an insurance brokerage firm. She is working in HR doing recruitment and selection, which is what she really likes. She is also revising her master's thesis for publication and working on her dissertation proposal.

Jay Schneller Jr, Ph.D. (M.S. 2000; S.S.P. 2002) received his doctorate degree in Education and Leadership in Exceptional Student Education from Barry University in 2004. He currently works in private practice and for Putnam County School District . He has a number of publications and developed the Psychosocial Evaluation & Threat Risk Assessment (PETRA). The PETRA is a self-report psychosocial assessment instrument that allows for an analysis of the context of psychosocial, social, and ecological factors to assist in the identification, assessment, and management of adolescents (ages 11-18) who pose a risk for targeted violence.

Mabel Lopez (B.S. 1996) finished her Ph.D. (2004) in Psychology, Neuropsychology track, at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, formerly known as Finch University/The Chicago Medical School. She finished a clinical internship and clinical/research postdoctoral training at the University of Florida's College of Public Health and Health Professions, Department of Psychology. Currently, she holds a position as a Licensed Psychologist, specializing in geriatric neuropsychology, at Collier Neurologic Specialists in Naples, FL. She conducts neuropsychological assessments mainly in an older population in order to detect and differentiate dementias. She is also involved in pharmaceutical research specifically aimed at looking at dementia in the Hispanic population.

Maria Ruiz (2005 M.S. Clinical Psychology) works at the Jackson Memorial Hospital Forensic Psychology Department. She supervises the competency restoration program for inmates who are incompetent to stand trial.

Sam Kedem (M.S. Clinical Psychology, 1999) works for the World Trade Center Permanency Project, doing posttrauma counseling for people affected by 9/11. He was one of the first counselors, before they called it Project Liberty, and at the end of 2007 he will have been one of the last counselors for this specific kind of work. He works closely with programs at hospitals, the rescue and recovery community, social service agencies, illegal immigrants, and the surviving family members.

Robyn Kennedy (M.S. Clinical Psychology 2003) is completing her doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Spalding University in Kentucky . She successfully defended her dissertation, "An Investigation into Diagnostic Classification Systems for Infants." She has now moved to San Antonio and started an internship in Army Psychology. At first, she will be in the behavioral health track, possibly working with the soldiers in the burn and amputee unit. Other tracks include child and family, neuropsychology, and outpatient (primarily with young soldiers in training). She will get her degree next fall and may find herself working with soldiers in Iraq.

Kurt Rogers (M.S.Clinical Psychology) reports that he has spent considerable time buried in his Barry statistics book trying to apply it to modern portfolio theory (MPT). During the last five years he has been doing guardianship work for the courts. This entails managing the person and the property (hence MPT) of incapacitated people. He finds it to be tremendously rewarding knowing the difference that can be made in people's lives and in the process he has used knowledge from just about every class he took in the Barry psychology program. He wants people to know that there is a big need for caring capable guardians. He would be happy to answer questions and even become a mentor. Email him at ltjc@bellsouth.net

Tiombe Bisa-Kendrick (SSP) is employed as a school psychologist with the Miami-Dade County Public School District. She works in the School Improvement Zone in two middle schools providing interventions and other psychological services. Her students are primarily from populations underrepresented in gifted programs, and Tiombe has significantly increased the numbers of students served in gifted programs in her schools. One of her eighth graders will be attending Emory University's Summer Institute for the Gifted on a full scholarship. Tiombe was awarded the Mary Fraser Scholarship sponsored by the National Association for Gifted Children. In the summer of 2006, at the annual convention of the Association of Black Psychologists, Tiombe presented her research on academic support services for high school athletes.