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General Contact Information

Psychological Sciences MA Program
Department of Graduate Psychology and Department of Psychology
70 Alumnae Dr., MSC 7401
James Madison University
Harrisonburg, VA 22807

Program Director:
Brian Leventhal, Ph.D.
Department of Graduate Psychology
Office: Lakeview 1126
Phone: 540-568-5004
Email: leventbc@jmu.edu

Staff

School Psychology Staff
Name Phone E-mail Room
Guerin, Carl A.
Administrative Assistant
540-568-6439 guerinca@jmu.edu Johnston 101
Henriques, Andee
Administrative Assistant
540-568-5352 henriqas@jmu.edu Johnston 112
Moroniak, Lisa
Part-time Administrative Assistant
540-268-2556 moronilr@jmu.edu Johnston 114

Over 20 faculty from both the Department of Psychology and Department of Graduate Psychology contribute to the Psychological Sciences graduate program. The program operates on a mentorship philosophy, where students enter the program based on their fit with a particular faculty member who serves as the student's research advisor. Below is a list of faculty members accepting students in Fall 2025.

Faculty Accepting Students in Fall 2026:

Since Psychological Sciences works on a mentorship model, students are admitted to work with a particular faculty. Here are the current faculty members who are accepting students for the school year 2026-2027.

Psycsciences Faculty
Name and Contact Concentration

Blankenship, Benjamin
Office: Miller Hall, 1131
Phone: 540-568-4915
Email: blankebt@jmu.edu

Concentration: Applied Research
Intersection of identity, stigma, and socio-political engagement: Focus on marginalized communities and how internalized stigma (negative feelings about one’s social identity group) and identity centrality (the importance of a social identity group to one’s sense of self) influence political behavior and engagement

Bao, Yu
Office: Lakeview 1128
Phone: 540-568-3483
Email: bao2yx@jmu.edu

Concentration: Quantitative
Psychometric modeling; Diagnostic Classification Models; Higher Education Assessment

Finney, Sara
Office: Lakeview 1132
Phone: 540-568-6757
Email: finneysj@jmu.edu

Concentration: Quantitative
Examinee perceptions and behavior during testing

Good, Megan
Office: Lakeview 1122
Phone: 540-568-7103
Email: good2mr@jmu.edu

Concentration: Quantitative
Exploring student learning and employability outcome connections, learning improvement in higher education, and perceptions of learning in higher education by various stakeholders

Hall, Michael
Office: Miller Hall 1115
Phone: 540-568-7877
Email: hallmd@jmu.edu

Concentration: Experimental
Auditory Perception Laboratory website
Auditory perception and cognition
Speech perception
Music perception

Hathcoat, John
Office: Lakeview 1120
Phone: 540-568-2516
Email: hathcojd@jmu.edu

Concentration: Quantitative 
Assessing Student Learning in Higher Education, Reliability and Validity Issues in Authentic Assessment Practices, Instrument Development, Mixed Methods Research

Henriques, Gregg
Office: 216 Johnston Hall
Phone: 540-292-1383
Email: henriqgx@jmu.edu

Concentration: Applied Research
Theoretical psychology, consciousness, social motivation and emotion, psychotherapy, depression and anxiety

Irons, Jessica
Office: Miller Hall 1177
Phone:540-568-6565
Email: ironsjg@jmu.edu

Concentrations: Experimental, Applied
Health risk behavior change; visit my website for more detail: https://cashlab.wixsite.com/cashlab 

Kush, Joseph
Office: Lakeview 1122 
Phone: 540-568-7103
Email: kushjm@jmu.edu

Concentration: Quantitative 
Multilevel structural equation modeling, causal inference, measurement invariance, moderated nonlinear factor analysis, propensity score methods

Leventhal, Brian
Office: Lakeview 1124
Phone: 540-568-5004
Email: leventbc@jmu.edu

Concentration: Quantitative 
Examinee Disengagement in Testing; Use of A.I. in assessment; Item Response Tree Models; Bayesian Item Response Theory

Li, Yanbin
Office: Miller Hall 1151
Phone: 540-568-6107
Email: li42yx@jmu.edu

Concentration: Experimental
Young adults’ family formation and career development cross diverse sexual orientations and cultural contexts; Development and health of international students; Effect size measures and sample size planning

Owens, Caitlyn
Office: Johnston 202
Phone: 540-568-6835
Email: klotzca@jmu.edu

Concentration: Applied Research
Young Children’s Mental Health, Parenting Interventions, Family Homelessness, ACEs, Trauma, Bridging Gaps Between Research, Clinical Work, and Policy

Pastor, Dena
Office: Lakeview 1118
Phone: 540-568-1670
Email: pastorda@jmu.edu

Concentration: Quantitative
Examinee motivation in low-stakes testing; higher education assessment & research

Salvatore, Jessica 
Office: Miller G089
Phone: 540-568-4276
Email: salvatja@jmu.edu

Concentrations: Experimental, Applied
Intergroup relations and conflict; Social stigmas, especially from the target's perspective; Group norms and (meta-)perceptions

Saville, Bryan
Office: Miller Hall 1143
Phone: 540-568-2277
Email: savillbk@jmu.edu

Concentration: Experimental
Psychology of passion (specifically, passion for activities), interteaching and other behavioral teaching methods

Stokes, Trevor
Office: Johnston Hall 119 
Phone: 540-568-5067 
Email: stokestf@jmu.edu

Concentration: Behavior Analysis
Applied Behavior Analysis, Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Parent Child Interaction Therapy and Teacher Child Interaction Training

Szwedo, David
Office: Johnston 206
Phone: 540-568-3568
Email: szwedode@jmu.edu

Concentration: Applied Research
Romantic relationship development; Emotion regulation, coping, resilience; Young adult independence and success; Attachment in adolescence and young adulthood; Social and relational competence; Online social networking behavior; Social predictors of physical health; Intervention development

Yarger, Heather A.
Office: 1155 Miller
Phone: 540-568-6373
Email: f9hdvj@jmu.edu 

Concentration Applied Research
Focuses on identifying risk and protective factors associated with social-emotional difficulties, especially anxiety symptoms, in youth with and without autism; currently investigating how physiological indicators (i.e., heart rate variability, respiratory sinus arrythmia) are associated with anxiety symptoms in autistic and non-autistic youth via a federally funded grant.

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