Marriage, Family, and Close Relationships

Antonoudi, Efthymia (Effie)

Assistant Professor, Financial Planning, Housing and Consumer Economics
website | eanton@uga.edu

Research Interests include:  Bias, Discrimination, and Inequality, Diversity, Education and Learning, Immigration, Marriage, Family, and Close Relationships, Mental Health, Substance Use and Addiction

Analisa Arroyo

Arroyo, Analisa

Associate Professor, Communication Studies
2015-17 GDP Participant, Owens Institute for Behavioral Research
website | arroyo@uga.edu

Research Interests include intergenerational transmission of body image issues and its relation to mental and physical health outcomes (e.g. depression, eating disorders, overweight/obesity, exercise, dieting, etc.) among grandmother-mother-daughter triads

Barger, M.

Barger, Michael

Assistant Professor, Educational Psychology
2023-2025 Grant Development Program Participant
website | michael.barger@uga.edu

Research Interests include motivation, STEM, developmental psychology, mindsets, and beliefs

Steven R.H. Beach

Beach, Steven R.H.

Regents’ Professor, Psychology
Co-Director, Center for Family Research
Distinguished Scholar, Owens Institute for Behavioral Research
2023 OIBR Service Legacy Award Recipient
website | srhbeach@uga.edu
Research Interests include preventive intervention, epigenetic processes, family health, and marriage
Geoffrey Brown

Brown, Geoffrey

Associate Professor, Human Development and Family Science
Distinguished Scholar, 2014 GDP Graduate, Owens Institute for Behavioral Research
website | glbrown@uga.edu

Research Interests:  fathering, socioemotional development, infancy, attachment, and African American families

Margaret Caughy

Caughy, Margaret

Georgia Athletic Association Professor, Family Health Disparities
Distinguished Scholar, Owens Institute for Behavioral Research
websitemargaret.caughy@uga.edu

Research Interests include academic achievement, self-regulation, and minoritized populations

Malissa Clark

Clark, Malissa

Associate Professor, Psychology 
website | clarkm@uga.edu

Research Interests include workaholism, employee well-being, work-family dynamics, and burnout

Lillian Eby

Eby, Lillian

Distinguished Research Professor, Psychology 
Distinguished Scholar, Owens Institute for Behavioral Research
website | leby@uga.edu

Research Interests include occupational health, relationship science, mentoring, and mindfulness

Ehrlich_2023

Ehrlich, Katie

Associate Professor, Psychology
Distinguished Scholar, Owens Institute for Behavioral Research
website | kehrlich@uga.edu

Research Interests include social determinants of health, inflammation, stress, and resilience

Tisha Lewis Ellison

Ellison, Tisha Lewis

Associate Professor, Language and Literacy Education
website | tellison@uga.edu

Research Interests include family literacy, digital libraries, multimodal literacies and community literacies

fields-smith

Fields-Smith, Cheryl

Professor, Educational Theory and Practice
website | cfields@uga.edu

Research Interests include family involvement, sociocultural context of teaching and learning, multicultural education, homeschooling among African American families, and African American educational history

Ted Futris

Futris, Ted

Georgia Athletic Association Professor, Family & Consumer Sciences
website | tfutris@uga.edu

Research Interests include couples, relationships, outreach, evaluation, and community engagement

gonlin, vanessa

Gonlin, Vanessa

Assistant Professor, Sociology
website | vgonlin@uga.edu

Research Interests include African Americans, couples, and families

Steve Kogan

Kogan, Steve

Professor, Human Development and Family Science
Distinguished Scholar, Owens Institute for Behavioral Research
2021 OIBR Mentoring Legacy Award Recipient
website | smkogan@uga.edu

Research Interests include Black youth, adolescent development, mental health, and racial discrimination

Justin Lavner

Lavner, Justin

Associate Professor, Psychology
Distinguished Scholar, Owens Institute for Behavioral Research
2022 OIBR Rising Star Award Recipient
2015-17 GDP Participant
website | lavner@uga.edu

Research Interests include couples, families, prevention, health disparities and LGBTQ

Rebecca Lieberman-Betz

Lieberman-Betz, Rebecca

Associate Professor, Communication Sciences & Special Education
website | rglb@uga.edu

Research Interests include special needs, parent responsibility, communication development, autism spectrum disorder, developmental disabilities, early childhood, and special education

Catherine O'Neal

O’Neal, Catherine

Associate Research Scientist, Human Development & Family Science
Distinguished Scholar, Owens Institute for Behavioral Research
website | cwalker1@uga.edu

Research Interests include life course, cumulative life experiences, health and well-being, adolescent life stage, vulnerable populations, military families; racial/ethnic minorities, and health outcomes

Anne Shaffer

Shaffer, Anne

Professor, Psychology
Distinguished Scholar, Owens Institute for Behavioral Research
website | ashaffer@uga.edu

Research Interests include parenting, emotion regulation, measurement, and emotion socialization

Leslie Simons

Simons, Leslie Gordon

Meigs Professor, Sociology
Distinguished Scholar, Owens Institute for Behavioral Research
website | lgsimons@uga.edu

Research Interests include family, crime, and intimate partner violence

slatcher, richard2022

Slatcher, Richard

Gail M. Williamson Distinguished Professor, Psychology
website | richard.slatcher@uga.edu

Research Interests include social relationships, health and well-being, asthma, and psychoneuroimmunology

Tuma, Trevor

Postdoctoral Research Associate, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
website | trevor.tuma@uga.edu

Research Interests include: Assessment and Evaluation, Diversity, Education and Learning, Marriage, Family, and Close Relationships, Mental Health, STEM

Michelle vanDellen

vanDellen, Michelle

Professor, Psychology
Distinguished Scholar, Owens Institute for Behavioral Research
website | mvd@uga.edu

Research Interests include motivation, self-regulation, smoking, health behavior change, and relationships

Watkins, K

Watkins, Kimberly

Assistant Professor, Financial Planning, Housing, and Consumer Economics
website | kimberly.watkins@uga.edu

Research Interests include: Bias, Discrimination, and Inequality, Culture, Diversity, Education and Learning, Emotion, Gender, Identity, Marriage, Family, and Close Relationships, Mental Health, Personality, Physical Health and Well-being, Sexuality and Sexual Identity, Social Psychology, Survey Methods

Kandauda Wickrama

Wickrama, Kandauda A.

Emeritus Professor, Human Development and Family Sciences
Distinguished Scholar, Owens Institute for Behavioral Research
website | wickrama@uga.edu

Research Interests include social determinants of health, health inequality across the life course, and racial/ethnical inequalities in mental and physical health of children and adults