DR. CHARLES SWENCIONIS'S LAB
Danielle Wischenka
Danielle Wischenka is a fifth-year student in the Clinical Psychology, with Health Emphasis, PhD program. Her research interests include cognitive and psychological correlates, clinical treatments, and potential interventions of weight disorders such as obesity and eating disorders such as Anorexia-Nervosa. She is currently involved in research to analyze long term predictors of success in treatment of Anorexia Nervosa at the inpatient level the University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro. Her dissertation research involves building a theoretical model to explain the relationship between health behaviors, disordered eating pathology, and experiential avoidance.
Alyssa Singer
Alyssa Singer is a fourth year doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology with Health Emphasis program. Her primary research interests involve eating disorders, weight loss, dieting efficacy and the use of exercise in weight loss and maintenance. More specifically, interests include body image and dissatisfaction, fitness and the impact of media on these constructs. Current research explores fitness images, body dissatisfaction and societal ideals of thinness.
Cynthia Cervoni
Cynthia Cervoni is a fourth year doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology, Health Emphasis program. Her
research interests include health behavior decision making, risk factors for obesity, the relationship between
migraine and obesity, and the effects of overweight and obesity on quality of life. Cynthia's predoctoral
research project involved examining the relationship between nutrition knowledge and eating behaviors and the
potential implications for weight loss interventions. Cynthia’s dissertation examines social desirability during the
pre-bariatric surgery evaluation.
Maria Loizos
Maria Loizos is a fourth-year student in the Clinical Psychology, with Health Emphasis, PhD program. She is interested in a wide range of areas related to obesity including, cognitive-behavioral treatment for weight loss, the relationship between religion and obesity, and Binge Eating Disorder (BED). Her predoctoral research looked to determine the relationship between the prevalence of BED and behavioral and/or cognitive coping repsonses to food temptaiton. Maria's dissertation aims to examine impulsivity before and after exercise within an obese population.
Jessica Lawson
Jessica Lawson, MSc, MA is a fourth year clinical psychology health emphasis doctoral student. One of her primary interests is in the field of obesity and related co-morbidities. Her pre-doctoral research explored on the relationship between psychosocial variables and weight change in a cognitive-behavioral weight loss interventions. She presented this work at The Obesity Society annual conference in 2014. Her doctoral thesis is a cross-cultural validation study aimed at understanding the constructs of food addiction in a Hispanic bariatric surgery patient population. She recently presented preliminary findings at The Obesity Society 2015 annual conference. Jessica is also collaborating on another project which is focused on understanding sleep and obesity in a primary care setting in the Bronx, NY.
Sarah Chen
Sarah Chen, M.S., is a third-year doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology, Health Emphasis program. Sarah is interested in exploring health psychology issues among children and adolescents drawing upon prior work in Education with this population. Her current research focus is on factors underlying the development of maladaptive eating habits, with the aspiration of strengthening cognitive-behavioral treatment approaches for these conditions. She plans to link this research with prior Master's work in Nutrition Science.