Faculty and Students
Student Perspectives
The clinical faculty strives to create a supportive, close-knit environment. Hear from some of our current students about what they value most in the program.
Faculty
The following are the core clinical psychology faculty members you will work with closely. They serve on your thesis and dissertation committees, teach the core classes you take, and are often the first clinical supervisors in our in-house training clinic.
Davielle (Davi) Lakind
Youth and whole family-focused interventions in everyday settings, lay/paraprofessional workforces, community-engaged research/community-based participatory research, implementation science, training and supervision.
- Description of her background, research, and clinical interests
- View Dr. Lakind’s video
- More information can be found on Professor Lakind’s faculty page .
Michelle Lilly
(not accepting new graduate students)
Understanding the effects of interpersonal trauma and duty-related trauma on mental health (e.g., PTSD, depression, somatization); cognitive and emotion regulation processes; mindfulness.
- Trauma, Mental Health and Recovery Laboratory
- Laboratory video
- Trauma Focus video: “Favorite Things about the Trauma Focus”
Holly Orcutt
Post-traumatic stress disorder; traumatic stress and its consequences; sexual risk-taking behavior; experiential avoidance; forgiveness; emotion regulation;
- Research Lab for the Study of the Consequences of Trauma Exposure
- Video from Professor Orcutt
- Alumni video (2019-2025)
- Alumni video
- Student video
- Trauma Focus video: “Favorite Things about the Trauma Focus”
Laura Pittman
Developmental psychopathology; family process; extended family; parenting and co-parenting; economic and cultural diversity; children’s psychological response to natural disaster.
Elizabeth Shelleby
Developmental psychopathology, child disruptive behavior problems, preventive interventions, parenting practices, child emotion regulation, contextual influences (e.g., poverty, parental psychopathology).
- Video from Professor Shelleby
- More information can be found on Professor Shelleby's biography page.
David Valentiner
(not accepting new graduate students)
Anxiety disorders; factors that impede or facilitate natural recovery following trauma and during exposure-based treatments for anxiety disorders; early identification and prevention of anxiety conditions, particularly social anxiety.
Kevin Wu
(not accepting new graduate students)
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder; dimensional models of psychopathology; experimental psychopathology; personality; psychological assessment/measurement issues.
Contact Us
Kathi West
815-753-0374
kwest1@niu.edu
Laura Pittman, Ph.D.
co-Director of Clinical Training
Psychology-Computer Science Building room 313
lpittman@niu.edu
co-Director of Clinical Training
Psychology-Computer Science Building room 318
horcutt@niu.edu
