Team Members

Bertranna Muruthi Her primary aim is to conduct research that will lead to community based culturally responsive interventions and prevention programs for immigrant families in the US. Central to her research activities is the examination of factors related to immigrant families in transition and family predictors for risk and resilient behavior. Specifically, she uses an intersectionality lens within a transnational framework to explore how immigrant experiences evolve and change as they stay connected to native countries while in host countries. This perspective provides vital tools that highlight the lives of marginalized families while empowering their cultural practices. These experiences allow for a closer examination of connections that migrants have to their native countries and how these connections may affect migrants’ resettlement experiences in receiving nations.


 

Lindsey Romero (she/her) is a third-year Counseling Psychology doctoral student. She holds a BA in Psychology and minor in Film and Media Studies from Dartmouth College. Her research interests include Latinx and immigrant mental health, with a particular focus on examining mental health outcomes among Peruvian communities both in the United States and in Peru. Lindsey enjoys eating potatoes (in any form), adding books to her “to be read” pile, and watching documentary films.


Abiola Taiwo is a 3rd year doctoral student in school psychology. Her primary interests is in interventions for problem behaviors in schools, parent training in management children challenging behaviors and interventions/prevention work for immigrant mothers particularly on inclusion in schools. Abiola enjoys cooking, eating and watching Korean dramas.


Reid Thompson Cañas is a doctoral student in Counseling Psychology at the University of Oregon. Their research interests focus on experiences of queer, trans, and gender nonconforming populations in Latin America, specifically considering mental health and protective factors. They are also interested in transnational experiences of queer, trans, and gender nonconforming Latinx immigrants. Their hope is to contribute to better policy and mental health care for the queer, trans, and gender nonconforming population both within and outside of Latin America.


 

Yijun Cheng is a second-year doctoral student in Counseling Psychology at the University of Oregon. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Pennsylvania State University and her master’s degree in Clinical Psychology from Teacher’s College, Columbia University. Her research interests focus on how parental behaviors and cultural factors shape child development and psychological well-being. She hopes to translate and adapt culturally informed prevention intervention for Chinese families. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, reading, and traveling.


Angela Allmendinger is a first-year doctoral student in Counseling Psychology. Her advisor is Dr. Betranna Muruthi. Prior to beginning her studies at the University of Oregon, Angela worked in the non-profit field with various organizations both in the U.S. and abroad that were largely geared toward educational development for youth experiencing displacement and survivors of child sex trafficking. In these roles, Angela became particularly interested in the structures of community-based organizations and the accessibility of mental health pedagogy. At the University of Oregon, she hopes to develop her skills as a clinician and broadly explore task-shifting/sharing models for community-based service provision in low-resource settings. Angela received her BA in Interdisciplinary American Studies and her MA in American Studies from the Eberhard-Karls Universität, Tübingen. In her free time, Angela enjoys playing taiko, hiking, entertaining her dog, and finding creative ways to kill houseplants.