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Director

Dr. Danica Slavish

Assistant Professor of Psychology

Dr. Slavish is a health psychologist interested in examining the associations between sleep, stress, and health across time. Her work uses a biopsychosocial framework, exploring the sociocultural, biological, and behavioral correlates of sleep, health, and well-being. Dr. Slavish's research program employs a variety of methodologies both in and outside the laboratory, and she is particularly interested in statistical approaches to analyzing intensive longitudinal data.

In 2017, Dr. Slavish received her PhD from The Pennsylvania State University, where she was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research fellow in the lab of Dr. Jenn Graham-Engeland. From 2017-2019, she worked as a postdoctoral research associate with behavioral sleep medicine expert, Dr. Daniel Taylor. She holds a BA in psychology from Beloit College in Beloit, WI. Dr. Slavish has been involved in numerous federally-funded grants from NSF, NIH, and DoD, and is the recipient of awards from the American Psychological Association, the American Psychosomatic Society, and the Penn State Alumni Association. She teaches undergraduate courses in health psychology and graduate courses in research methods and advanced statistics, and serves as a section editor for the journal, Stress and Health. Dr. Slavish is currently affiliated with UNT's Behavioral Science and Clinical Psychology programs, as well as the Center for Psychosocial Health Disparities Research.

In her spare time, Dr. Slavish enjoys reading, cooking, exploring DFW restaurants and museums, and hanging out with her two rescued greyhounds, Olivia and Ocho.

Research Gate

Google Scholar

CV

Current Ph.D. Students

**I will NOT be recruiting graduate students for the Fall 2024 submission cycle. However, please feel free to contact me if you have questions about our lab or our program!

Please see the Training page for more information about our lab's philosophy and the specific training provided in our lab.

Brett Messman, B.A., M.S.

  • 4th year graduate student in the Behavioral Science Ph.D. program
  • Hometown: Austin, TX
  • Research interests: sleep, circadian rhythms, PTSD, mood, inflammation
  • Selected awards: 2021 Health and Behavior International Collaborative Award from the APA Division 38 Society for Health Psychology
  • CV

Madasen Briggs, B.S., M.S.

  • 4th year graduate student in the Behavioral Science Ph.D. program
  • Hometown: Merkel, TX
  • Research interests: intersectional identities, emotion, women's role in extremist movements, health implications of discrimination
  • Selected awards: Charlotte Friedersdorff-Boyd Memorial Scholarship; 2023 UNT Intern of the Year Award
  • CV

Isamar Almeida, B.A., M.S.

  • 3rd year graduate student in the Behavioral Science Ph.D. program
  • Hometown: Merida, Venezuela
  • Research interests: how stressful and traumatic experiences faced by immigrants affect their sleep, health, and psychological well-being
  • Selected awards: UNT NIH T32 G-RISE recipient; UNT Voertman-Ardoin Graduate Fellowship; UNT Center for Psychosocial Health Disparities Research grant
  • CV

Emily Feldman, B.A., M.S.

  • 2nd year graduate student in the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program
  • Hometown: Harrisburg, PA
  • Research interests: pediatric behavioral sleep medicine, trauma, health disparities
  • Selected awards: UNT Center for Psychosocial Health Disparities Research grant
  • CV

Current Undergraduate Research Assistants

  • Alvaro L. Rivera (RA for Sleep, Health, and Immigration Study)
  • Ria Garg (TAMS student; working on project related to sleep, physical activity, and PTSD)
  • Amanda Bates (RA for Development of a Measure of Sleep Health Literacy Study)

 

Lab Alumni

  • Regan Christian (Honors Thesis student; currently a master's student in psychology at Texas State University)

  • Shayla Anderson (RA for Health, Sleep, and Melatonin Usage in College Students Study)

  • Jayne Clark (RA for Health, Sleep, and Melatonin Usage in College Students Study; currently a project coordinator for Dr. Mary Carskadon at Brown University)

  • Vianca Flores (RA for Communities and Families Health Study; currently a master's student in UNT's Mental Health Counseling program)

  • Syd Seymour (Honors Thesis student; Thesis: Bidirectional Associations between Insomnia and Anxiety among Nurses Across a Year: A Cross-Lagged Panel Analysis)

  • Elisa Valentine (McNair Scholar; currently a master's student in Mental Health Counseling at Midwestern State University)

  • Em Squyres (former RA for Sleep, Relaxation, and CBD study)
  • Saylor Jordan (Undergraduate RA)
  • Odalis Garcia (McNair Scholar; currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Psychology at North Dakota State University)
  • Megan Dolan (Graduate RA; currently a staff psychologist at the Dallas VA)
  • Heather Lucke (Gradaute RA; currently a Ph.D. student in the UNT BSci program and a data analyst/clinical researcher in neurosurgery)
  • Justin Asbee (Graduate RA; currently a postdoc at the University of Arkansas)
  • Jaylin Martinez (Undergraduate RA)
  • Gladys Segura (Honors thesis student; Thesis: "Psychological Resilience as a Moderator of the Association between Socioeconomic Status and Academic Outcomes in College Students")
  • Tori Shapiro (Undergraduate RA; currently a M.S. student at UT-San Antonio)
  • Jamie Walker (Post-bac RA; currently a clinical psychology Ph.D. student at the University of Arkansas)
  • Kirti Veeramachaneni (TAMS student; currently a medical student at St. Louis Universty)
  • Bianca Santiago Rodriguez (Undergraduate RA)

External Collaborators

  • Yvette Szabo, Ph.D., California State University, Los Angeles
  • Nancy Sin, Ph.D., University of British Columbia
  • Heidi Kane, Ph.D., University of Texas at Dallas
  • Jessee Dietch, Ph.D., Oregon State University
  • Daniel Taylor, Ph.D., University of Arizona
  • Jenn Graham-Engeland, Ph.D., The Pennsylvania State University
  • Kristi Pruiksma, Ph.D., University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
  • Josh Wiley, Ph.D., Monash University