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Rachelle Ramsey, M.S. completed her undergraduate degree at Otterbein University and entered the clinical doctoral program at OSU in the fall of 2009. Prior to graduate school, she spent two years at the Center for Biobehavioral Health at Nationwide Children's Hospital working on several multisite studies investigating the impact of health challenges on the social, emotional, and behavioral functioning of children with cancer and their families. Broadly, Rachelle's interests lie the processes by which child and family factors place children with chronic illnesses at risk or contribute to their resilience. Her thesis project documented the mediating role causal attributions in the parent distress- child depressive symptom relation in families of children with juvenile rheumatic diseases (Ramsey et al., 2013). Rachelle is also interested in barriers to healthcare utilization and adherence as is relates to child adjustment. Her dissertation project examines the impact of barriers to healthcare and illness intrusiveness on child depressive symptoms in children with JRDs. Rachelle's current clinical practicum allows her to provide a telehealth behavioral treatment program to improve adherence in adolescents with inflammatory bowel disease as a part of a randomized clinical trial.
Meggie Bonner, M.S. is a third year graduate student in the Behavioral Health Laboratory. After graduating from the University of Cincinnati in 2008, Meggie worked at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in the Center for the Promotion of Treatment Adherence and Self-Management where she was the program coordinator of the Adherence Center's Clinical Service research program; a clinical research study that evaluated the effects of behavioral intervention to promote treatment adherence, barriers to care, and overall functioning and quality of life in children and adolescents with chronic medical conditions. Currently, Meggie is working on her dissertation project which hopes to narrow a gap in the Juvenile Rheumatic Disease literature in examining specific parenting variables that may lead to unique parenting practices due to the presence of a unique pediatric chronic illness. Specifically, the goal of Meggie's dissertation will be to examine whether developmental variables, such as child gender, moderates the association between parent perceptions of illness uncertainty and parent-reported child vulnerability. In addition to her research in the Chaney lab, Meggie has worked with Dr. Mullins and Dr. Cushing in their respective research labs gaining experience with additional pediatric chronic illnesses such as pediatric overweight and obesity, asthma, and allergies. Clinically, Meggie is currently working in the Pediatric Pain Clinic at the Oklahoma University Health Sciences Center as part of her clinical practicum.
Brian Misiti, B.S., is an upcoming first year graduate student in the clinical psychology Ph.D. program. Originally from West Virginia, Brian graduated from The Ohio State University in 2011 with a degree in Psychology. Since graduating, Brian has spent the past two years at the Center for Biobehavioral Health at Nationwide Children's Hospital. At this position, he has worked on multiple studies investigating the coping strategies and psychosocial outcomes of children with chronic illnesses. Brian is excited about joining the lab in the fall and is looking forward to furthering his research interest on the impact of chronic illnesses on children and their families.