Student Committee

Amanda Acevedo-Morales

Northern Arizona University

Student Liaison

Clinical Interests: Her clinical interest includes promoting mental health awareness in children, adolescents, and adults who live in rural communities and belong to underserved populations. Other interests include provide psychotherapy services in both Spanish and English to bilingual clients. Upon graduation, Mrs. Acevedo would like to work within community-based programs with culturally and linguistically diverse populations.

Research Interests: Ms. Acevedo’s research interest focuses on addressing and curtailing substance use among minority populations, diversity and inclusion, generational trauma, bilingual assessments, autism (from childhood to adults), and public stigma.

Rohan Arcot

Boston University

Rohan Arcot (he/him) is a first-year PhD student in Counseling Psychology at Boston University. He holds a M.S. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Johns Hopkins University (JHU), a B.A. in psychology from Hamilton College, and is a Nationally Certified Counselor. He works as a research team member in the ARISE lab and for the Center for Character and Social Responsibility. He previously worked as a teaching assistant at JHU and lab manager for the SPIEE lab. His research interests include Asian American mental health, culturally sensitive therapeutic treatments, positive psychology, anti-racism, and multicultural counseling training. He is an avid sports fan and loves to bake. You can contact him at rarcot@bu.edu. 

Stephanie Chin

University of Louisville 

Student Representative

Clinical Interests: Culturally sensitive and appropriate counseling; AAPI and BIPOC college-aged and young adult populations; depression/mood, anxiety, and trauma related diagnoses; psychological assessments 

Research Interests: AAPI mental health; cultural and familial risk and protective factors; resilience and coping; intersectionality; retention of BIPOC students in academia

Annalisa Chu

(she/her)

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Student Conference Planning Committee 

Clinical Interests: Provision of culturally responsive care through a multicultural lens for clients of all social locations, with an emphasis on offering couples counseling and services to members of the AAPI community 

Journa Cobite

University of Houston

Mentorship Committee Co-Coordinator

Research Interests: Exploring health disparities related to accessibility and quality of mental healthcare, biopsychosocial determinants of drug vulnerability and social/cultural influences as they relate to stress physiology, particularly among Black and ethnic minority groups. 

Clinical Interests: Providing behavioral health services within integrated clinical settings and working with the OCD & anxiety disorders. 

Doreen Frimpong-Brago

Midwestern University

Student Liaison

Clinical Interests: Immigrant and underserved populations, developing culturally sensitive interventions for ethnic minorities, mood disorders, psychoeducation on mental health.

Research Interests: Acculturation processes and its impact on African immigrant family systems and mental health, eradication of stigma surrounding mental health especially within the African/African-American community, mood disorders

Jocelyn Gomez, MA

(she, her(s), ella)

University of Houston – Clear Lake

Social Media Manager

Clinical Interests: Treatment and psychosocial support for children, adolescents, and young adults struggling to cope with issues related to complex medical diagnoses and long term hospitalization. Provide services in Spanish and English.

Research Interests: Quality of life within complex medical diagnosis and psychosocial factors impacting treatment outcomes. Further, health inequities within the Latino and Black communities.

Pooja Mamidanna

California School of Professional Psychology (San Francisco Campus)

Division 45 Campus Representative

Clinical Interests: Pooja’s clinical interests include collaborating with clients from racial/ethnic minorities. Pooja works from a globally social justice and trauma-informed care lens. Pooja is ardent in discussing diversity issues such as race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and culture. Pooja’s clinical experience includes substance use, crisis residential treatment facilities, and community mental health outpatient clinics (children, adolescents, adults, families, couples, and the elderly population).

Research Interests: Pooja’s research interests include multicultural psychology, decolonizing therapy, BIPOC mental health, South Asian mental health, grief, loss, intergenerational, and complex trauma.

Hajr Muhammad

Wayne State University

She obtained a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Michigan State University and her MA from WSU. Her research interests include strong black woman schema, colorism, and African American/Black mental health. Hajr is passionate about the work of psychology and believes it is a staple for the wellbeing of society.

Xiangyu Tao

Fordham University 

Research Interests: Adolescent development in the social media context; Mental health disparities among BIPOC and LGBTQ+ adolescents

Kayla Womack

Tennessee State University

Research Conference Student Committee

Kayla obtained her bachelor’s degree in English Studies from Illinois State University, her M.A. in Writing, Rhetoric, and Discourse from DePaul University, and M.S.Ed. in School and Mental Health Counseling from the University of Pennsylvania. She is currently a first-year doctoral student in Counseling Psychology at Tennessee State University. Her research interests include BIPOC maternal health, child development, and trauma. She is passionate about working with pregnant/parenting women, and children.