Leona Aiken
Professor of Psychology
Ph.D., Purdue University
www.asu.edu/clas/psych/people/faculty/laiken.html

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Felipe Gonzalez Castro
Professor of Psychology
Ph.D., University of Washington
www.asu.edu/clas/psych/people/faculty/fcastro.html

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Mary C. Davis
Associate Professor of Psychology
Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh
www.asu.edu/clas/psych/people/faculty/mdavis.html

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John Stuart Hall
Professor of Public Affairs
Ph.D., Political Science, University of Oregon
(links to a pdf file)
http://spa.asu.edu/faculty/pdf/hall.pdf

John Stuart Hall, ASU Professor of Public Affairs, leads the Resilience Group’s efforts to better understand community resilience factors, and to develop potential community resilience interventions.

Hall’s research on community affairs and urban issues has been published in numerous urban and public policy journals and outlets including The Brookings Institution Press, The Urban Institute Press, Princeton University Press, and the State University of New York Press. He has served as director and/or principal investigator of over 40 funded interdisciplinary community research projects including: The Phoenix Community Outreach Partnership Center (HUD, 1995); and Community Development in the Phoenix Region (multiple projects for Brookings, Urban Institute, Princeton Woodrow Wilson School, and Rockefeller Institute of Government, SUNY).

During his three terms (12 years) as a member of the Board of Directors of the National Civic League, he was involved in various national community building initiatives including development and implementation (with others) of The Civic Index, and service as a juror of the All American Cities awards.

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Kathryn S. Lemery
Assistant Professor of Developmental Psychology
Co-director of the Wisconsin Twin Project at the Waisman Center on Developmental Disabilities and Human Development.
Ph.D., Developmental Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
www.asu.edu/clas/psych/people/faculty/klemery.html
http://emotion.la.asu.edu/

Kathryn Lemery’s research has contributed to the scientific literature on early biological and environmental risk and protective factors for later mental and physical health. She is trained in behavior genetics and uses twin studies to separate out the effects of genes and the environment on health. Her research includes measures from multiple levels of analysis, such as genetic, physiological and behavioral, in order to better understand mechanisms of development and brain-behavior relationships. She is currently funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and is studying young twins with DSM-IV diagnoses of mood and behavioral disorders longitudinally.

Along with her colleagues, her research focus is resilience, or the capacity to bounce back, pursue goals and thrive in the face of stress and adversity. Dr. Lemery focuses on the development of resilience in children, and identifies and measures candidate genes that have a putative role in promoting resilience in individuals, protecting them from mental and physical disease despite a challenging, stressful environment.

Publications
Lemery, K. S., Valiente, C., & Castro, K. S. (in preparation). Child resilience mediates the relation between parenting and child academic, social, and physical health outcomes.

Lemery, K. S., & Doelger, L. (in press, 2005). Genetic vulnerabilities to psychopathology. In B. L. Hankin and John R. Z. Abela (Eds.), Development of psychopathology: A vulnerability-stress perspective. Sage Publications.

Luecken, L., & Lemery, K. S. (2004). Early caregiving and physiological stress responses. Clinical Psychology Review, 24, 171-191.

Goldsmith, H. H., Lemery, K. S., & Essex, M. J. (2004). Temperament as a liability factor for behavioral disorders of childhood. In L. DiLalla (Ed.), Behavioral genetic principles—development, personality, and psychopathology, pp. 19-39.  Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Lemery, K. S. (2003). Twin study contributions to understanding ontogeny. Invited chapter for the Nature Encyclopedia of the Human Genome, pp. 2567-2573. Nature Publishing Group. www.ehgonline.net/index.asp

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Linda J. Luecken
Associate Professor of Psychology
Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, Duke University
www.asu.edu/clas/psych/people/faculty/lluecken.html

Families play a major role in shaping the development of resilience in children in ways that can affect physical and psychological health throughout life. Linda Luecken’s research interests center on characteristics of the early family environment that contribute to long-term cognitive and physiological responses to daily life challenges. Physiological stress responses prepare the body to survive threat by mobilizing energy, increasing cardiac output, and altering immune and other bodily functions. Although stress responses are necessary to adapt successfully to the environment, exaggerated, repeated, or prolonged stress responses contribute over time to the development of hypertension, heart disease, infectious illnesses, and cognitive decline. Growing evidence shows that a caring and supportive relationship with the primary caregiver is associated with the development of adaptive coping skills and healthy physiological responses to stress, both of which promote good physical health over the lifespan.

It would be impossible to shield children or families from stress, but a resilient family is one that can view stress as a challenge and can work together to respond in an adaptive, healthy way. Family resources can also promote resilience in the face of high levels of economic or environmental stress. For example, traumatic events such as floods, war, kidnapping, and witnessing a shooting result in severe psychological or physical health consequences for some but not all children and adults. The short and long-term responses of family members and other supportive adults can powerfully protect against the development of post-trauma pathology. In fact, in almost every study of severe stress, children are observed who manage to remain healthy and grow into strong, competent adults despite overwhelming obstacles, posing a special invitation for researchers to identify the factors that promote resilience in the face of unavoidable stress.

Publications
Luecken, L.J., & Lemery, K. (2004). Early caregiving and adult physiological stress responses. Clinical Psychology Review, 24, 171-191.

Lin, K.K., Sandler, I.N., Ayers, T.S., Wolchik, S.A., & Luecken, L.J. (in press). Resilience in parentally-bereaved children and adolescents: Family, child, and stress variables. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology.

Huntsinger, E., & Luecken, L.J.. (2004). Attachment style and health behavior: The mediating role of self-esteem. Psychology and Health, 19, 515-526.

Compas, B.E., and Luecken, L.J. (2002). Psychological adjustment to breast cancer: Cognitive and interpersonal processes. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11, 111-114.

Luecken, L.J. (2000). Parental caring and loss during childhood and adult cortisol responses to stress. Psychology and Health, 15, 841-851.

Resilient Quote
When you’re hurt by friend or foe, see it, feel it, let it go.


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Kate Murray
Graduate Assistant
Doctoral Student in Clinical Psychology
B.A., DePauw University

Kate Murray’s research interests fall into two main areas, community resilience and the development and implementation of prevention programming. She is interested in the ever-changing role of communities in fostering health and well-being. Along these lines, she is interested in how environmental factors influence behavior and the role of prevention programming to minimize risk and promote resilience.

Publications
Davis, M.C., Zautra, A.J., Johnson, L.M., Murray, K.E., & Okvat, H. (in press). Psychosocial Stress and Resilience in Older Adults.
In C. Aldwin & A. Spiro (Eds.) Handbook of Health Psychology and Aging. New York: Guilford Publications.

Murray, K.E., Parrish, B.P., Davis, M.C., Reich, J.W., Zautra, A.J. (March 2005) Resilience resources contribute to better health outcomes among rheumatoid arthritis patients.(pdf) Presented at the 63rd Annual Scientific Conference of the  American Psychosomatic Society: Vancouver, B.C. Canada.

Zautra, A.J., Murray,K.E., & Parish, B.P.(in press). Adding paths to resilience and daily accounts to an already rich field of inquiry: A brief commentary on James Jackson’s “Social structure and health disparities.” In K.W. Schaie & L. Carstensen (Eds). Social Structures, Aging and Self-Regulation. New York: Springer.

Resilient Quote
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
~Oliver Wendell Holmes


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Maureen Olmsted
Faculty Research Associate
Ph.D., SUNY – Stoneybrook

Dr. Olmsted (Faculty Research Associate, Project Director) received her Ph.D. in Social/Health Psychology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1997. Her dissertation examined the effects of parental alcoholism, self-alcoholism, and partner alcoholism on relationship functioning (including satisfaction, intimacy, jealousy, and aggression) in young married couples. Her work reflects her dual interests in developmental risk and protective factors associated with negative outcomes in adulthood and in close relationships. Identifying protective factors that can be introduced into the lives of children in order to reduce their risk for negative outcomes is one of her long-term goals. With this goal in mind, she is particularly interested in personality characteristics that may protect individuals from negative outcomes associated with difficult childhood experiences, the role of the environment (including home, school, and community) as both a risk and protective factor, and gender differences in resilience. She has 10 years of experience with longitudinal research, as both a research scientist and project director.

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Christina Van Puymbroeck
Postdoctoral Fellow
Ph.D., Counseling Psychology, Arizona State University

As a counseling psychologist, Christina Van Puymbroeck is particularly interested in research with direct clinical applications, such as the study of how people develop personal, social, and community resources to facilitate resilient responding in difficult times. To that end, she has focused on program development and assessment related to the measurement and promotion of resilient outcomes. One example of this type of program development is a mentoring program she developed for Arizona State University to facilitate the retention and academic success of students at-risk for non-completion of their degrees. She recently completed the development of a two part series of group treatment interventions for adolescent survivors of sexual trauma for a local community mental health agency, and they are currently collecting outcome data on this intervention which will focus on resilience and growth outcomes in the recovery from trauma. She strongly values community research partnerships, where interventions are developed and maintained within a community in collaboration with a sponsoring agency such as a local university.

She is currently employed as the project director of a clinical trial study of a psychosocial intervention designed to improve physical and psychological outcomes and build resilience for individuals with chronic pain. Other research areas of interest are the links between immunology and emotions, recovery from depression, substance abuse and trauma recovery, and working with under-served populations.

Publications
Van Puymbroeck, C.M., Zautra, A.J. & Harakas, P.P. (in press). Pain and depression: Chronic burdens of adaptation. In Steptoe, A. (Ed.), Depression and Physical Illness. Cambridge University Press, London.

Van Puymbroeck, C.M. (2003). Survivors of Life, Etc. (SOLE) Manual: Outpatient treatment for adolescent sexual trauma survivors. Unpublished manuscript.

Van Puymbroeck, C.M. (2001). The Mentoring Web: A model to increase the retention of lesbian, gay and bisexual undergraduates (Research Report No. 14-01). College Park, MD: University of Maryland Counseling Center.

Gutierres, S. E. & Van Puymbroeck, C.M. (2000). Social influence factors in European-American and Mexican-American women’s vulnerability to misuse of illicit substances. In Wosinska, W. and Cialdini, R.B. (Eds.), Social influence factors in Multiple Cultures. Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers; Hillsdale, NJ.

Resilient Quote
Whenever I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have always been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they may seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it: ALWAYS.
- Mahatma Gandhi

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John W. Reich
Professor of Psychology
Ph.D., University of Colorado
www.asu.edu/clas/psych/people/faculty/jreich.html

Dr. Reich’s teaching and research interests involve applying social psychological theory and research to studying physical and mental health issues in adults. Current research involves the study of spousal relationship variables in the health of adults, specifically studying patients and couples where one member has rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, or fibromyalgia. Current research is expanding our research to studying genetic contributions to pain sensitivity. We also have developed and are testing workshop experiences for helping pain patients understand and adjust to their pain conditions.

Publications
Reich,J.W. (in press). Three Psychological Principles of Resilience in Natural Disasters. Disaster Planning and Management.

Reich, J. W., & Zautra, A. J. (1995) Spouse encouragement of self-reliance and other- reliance in rheumatoid arthritis couples. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 18, 249 - 260.

Reich, J. W., Erdal, K. J., & Zautra, A. J. (1997). Beliefs about control and health behavior. In D. Gochman (Ed.), Handbook of Health Behavior Research.(Vol. 1). New York: Plenum.

Reich, J. W. (2000). Routinization as a factor in the coping and the mental health of women with fibromyalgia. Occupational Therapy Journal of Research, 20, 41S-51S.

Reich, J.W., Zautra, A. J., & Potter, P. T. (2001). Cognitive structure and the independence of positive and negative affect. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 20, 105-122.

Reich, J. W., & Zautra, A. J. (2002). Arousal and the relationship between positive and negative affect: An analysis of the data of Ito, Caccioppo, and Lang (pdf) (1998). Motivation and Emotion, 26, 209-222.

Reich, J. W., Zautra, A., J., & Davis, M. C. (2003). Dimensions of affect relationships: Models and their integrative implications (pdf). Review of General Psychology, 7, 66-83.

Reich, J. W., & Williams, J. (2003). Exploring the properties of habits and routines in daily life. Occupational Therapy Journal: Research: Occupation, Participation, and Health, 23, 48-56.

Nagurney, A. J., Reich, J. W., & Newsom, J. (2004). Gender moderates the effects of independence and dependence desires during the social support process (pdf). Psychology and Aging, 18, 215-218.

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Rebeca Rios
Graduate Assistant
Doctoral Student in Clinical Psychology
B.A., Georgetown University

Rebeca Rios has research interests in community health, ethnic and socioeconomic health disparities, and substance use. The Latino sub-population of Phoenix and the influence of the process of acculturation on health is a focal point of Rebeca’s work. She is interested in the cultural and community aspects of resilience, as well as the risk factors contributing to health disparities and substance use. The application of resilience concepts and research to community program development and capacity building is also a central interest.

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Alex J. Zautra
Foundation Professor of Psychology
Ph.D., University of Utah
www.asu.edu/clas/psych/people/faculty/azautra.html

Alex J. Zautra is Arizona State University Foundation Professor of Psychology. He is the leader of the Resilience Solutions team. He has published over 90 scientific papers, and is the recent author of Emotions, Stress and Health, published by Oxford University Press. His publications embrace topics of preservation of quality of life, healthy social relations and positive adaptation to chronic pain. In his current research, he focuses on the role of chronic illness and resilience in the health and well-being of adults as they age. He has devoted his career to understanding how people can be resilient in the face of highly stressful circumstances, and developing programs that enhance that capacity for resilience.

Publications
Zautra, A.J. (2003). Emotions, Stress, and Health. New York: Oxford University Press.
Read an excerpt...

(The links below go to pdf files of the publications.)

Zautra, A.J., Affleck, G., Davis, M.C., Tennen, H., & Fasman, R. (in press). Assessing the ebb and flow of everyday life with an accent on the positive. (pdf)A. Hogg (Ed.) Handbook of Methods in Positive Psychology. New York; Oxford University Press.

Davis, D.A., Luecken, L.J., & Zautra, A.J. (in press). Is exposure to childhood maltreatment related to the development of chronic pain in adulthood?(pdf) A meta-analytic review of the literature. The Clinical Journal of Pain

Zautra, A.J., Johnson, L.M., & Davis, M. C. (in press). Positive affect as a source of resilience for women in chronic pain. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

Zautra, A.J., Fasman, R., Reich, J.W., Harakas, P., Johnson, L.M., Olmstead, M., & Davis, M.C. (in press). Fibromyalgia: Evidence for deficits in positive affect regulation(pdf). Psychosomatic Medicine.

van Puymbroeck, C., Zautra, A.J., & Harakas, P. (in press). Chronic pain and depression: Twin burdens of adaptation (pdf). In A. Steptoe (Ed.) Depression and physical illness. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Zautra, A.J., Murray,K.E., & Parish, B.P.(in press). Adding paths to resilience and daily accounts to an already rich field of inquiry: A brief commentary on James Jackson’s “Social structure and health disparities.” In K.W. Schaie & L. Carstensen (Eds). Social Structures, Aging and Self-Regulation. New York: Springer.

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