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Topic: Psychology/Mental Health

Patrick Griswold

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Patrick Griswold, MSN, M.Ed., RN, is a Professor in the Department of Human Services and Counseling and a clinical instructor in the Department of Nursing at Metropolitan State University of Denver. His areas of expertise include addiction medicine, mental health, counseling, affective learning and interprofessional education. He currently teaches Introduction Human Services; Pharmacology of Drugs and Alcohol; Addiction, Immunity and Infectious Diseases and oversees internships.

Prior to joining MSU Denver, Griswold worked as a course coordinator and adjunct faculty at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. He was also an instructor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and New York University. Griswold has worked as a staff nurse in addiction treatment services.

Griswold received his master’s degree in nursing education from the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 2011. He received an additional master’s degree in education from the University of Massachusetts Boston in 1994. He received his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Hamilton College in 1986. Griswold is also a Registered Nurse, Licensed Addictions Counselor, Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor I and Licensed Mental Health Counselor.

Bethany Fleck Dillen

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Bethany Fleck Dillen is a professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver teaching courses in human development and psychology. Her teaching experience includes Introduction to Psychology, Developmental Educational Psychology, Statistics, Research Methods, Child Development, Developmental Research Methods, and Cognitive Growth and Development. In her courses, Fleck Dillen is committed to an active, learner-centered approach to teaching.

Her research centers on cognitive and social development in classroom contexts. Two distinct areas of work focus on issues in early childhood education and university classrooms. Both lines of research draw on developmental theory with the overall goal of enhancing the learning environment for students of all levels. Recently, she has been working on linking Documentation, an ECE teaching approach, with maternal reminiscing style. In the classroom, her research as of late focuses on the effects of service learning, flipped classrooms and integrating Social Media into teaching.

Fleck Dillen is also the director of regional conference programming for the Society for the Teaching of Psychology.

Elisa Fadum-Montoya

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Elisa Fadum-Montoya, MSW, is an affiliate faculty in the Department of Social Work at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Cynthia Erickson

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Cynthia Erickson, Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience in the Department of Psychology at Metropolitan State University of Denver. She teaches a range of topics ranging from social issues such as multicultural psychology to cellular and molecular neurobiology.

Over the years, Erickson has conducted research from coast-to-coast mainly focusing on the neurobiology of visual memory and perception. Most of her research involves studying how the brain changes with learning and subsequently how the aging process alters this ability. Along with MSU Denver undergraduates, Erickson is investigating the relationship between consumption of probiotics and age-associated cognitive impairments in humans. The research has significant implications for development of cost-effective memory aids for an aging population.

With an early passion for psychology, Erickson received her doctorate in Psychology and Neuroscience from University of Arizona, a masters in Psychology and Learning from Emporia State University, and a bachelor’s in Psychology, English and Biology from Nebraska Wesleyan University. She received an Excellence in Teaching Award from the Psi Chi Honorary in Psychology in 2013. Additionally, Erickson has published several articles on her research and expertise in psychology and neuroscience, and held numerous presentations at conventions and conferences.

Larry Curry

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Larry Curry, Ph.D., LCSW, CAC III is a licensed Clinical Social Worker, and a former professor in the Department of Social Work at Metropolitan State University Denver. He is a national and international speaker trainer and presenter in the areas of child welfare, family preservation service and addictive behaviors. He also specializes in domestic and internal adoptions, and cross cultural adoptions.

He is also the Founder/CEO and Clinical Director for The Curry Center, LLC located in Aurora Colorado. This agency operates as a private outpatient mental health clinic, offering in home services to some of the most troubled families and children within the Denver/ Aurora communities.

Perri Corvino

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Perri Corvino, Ph.D., LCSW, LAC is a lecturer in the Department of Social Work at Metropolitan State University of Denver. With over 20 years of experience in the field of mental health, their experience in social work ranges from residential treatment to private practice. Corvino’s expertise includes experiencing and recovering from traumatic events, addiction recovery, supporting and advocating for the LGBTQIA and neurodivergent communities and promoting self-care to counter indirect trauma. Their academic pursuits focus on creating trauma-informed college and university classrooms to counter the oppression and distress faced by students, developing Open Educational Resources, illuminating the lived experience of neurodivergence, and developing an anti-oppressive, trauma-informed approach to social work supervision.

Prior to joining MSU Denver, Corvino volunteered for a crisis hotline and served as a victim’s advocate for people escaping intimate partner violence during their undergraduate studies. Additionally, after completing their master’s degree, Corvino worked in residential, jail, community, and outpatient settings. They owned a private psychotherapy practice until 2018 when they joined the social work program as a full-time lecturer.

Corvino earn a doctorate in social work from Smith College School for Social Work, as well as a master’s in social work and women’s studies from Loyola University Chicago. They completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from the State University of New York at Potsdam

Lisa Badanes

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Lisa Badanes, Ph.D., is a professor and the chair of the Department of Psychological Sciences at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Badanes has been teaching since 2010. She previously worked as an instructor at Colorado State University and University of Denver. In addition, Badanes worked as a research associate at DU and a postdoctoral fellow at Developmental Psychobiology Research Group before joining MSU Denver. She is chair of the Institutional Review Board at MSU Denver.

Badanes has published many co-authored articles on her research including most recently for Early Childhood Research Quarterly titled “Evidence for a physiologic home-school gap in children of Latina immigrants.” Her research addresses the ways in which the experience of early life stress influences current life stress, depression/anxiety and academic success in college students. She has given many presentations on her research and areas of expertise both nationally and internationally.

Badanes received her doctorate and masters in developmental psychology from University of Denver in 2009 and 2006 respectively and a bachelor’s in psychology from University of Vermont, Burlington in 2001.

Kelsey Asplin

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Kelsey Asplin, is a naturopathic doctor and affiliate professor in the Integrative Health Care Program at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Pamela Ansburg

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Pamela Ansburg, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Her specialty is in experimental psychology.

Ansburg has been in the academia field for over two decades. She taught at as an assistant professor at Arkansas State University, Jonesboro and Slippery Rock University for almost four years before joining the Department of Psychology at MSU Denver in 1999. She was one of the founding faculty associates for the Undergraduate Research Program at MSU Denver, a highly successful campus-wide research conference. It was Ansburg’s vision and leadership that defined the program and she remains active on its advisory council. Her other professional affiliations include Society for Teaching of Psychology (APA Division 2) and Association for Psychological Science. Ansburg is also on the editorial board for the Student Journal of Psychological Sciences at MSU Denver.

Her research focuses on understanding the cognitive processes involved in remembering and using knowledge. In particular, Ansburg investigates how both task demands (task familiarity, working memory load, etc.) and individual differences (age, attentional focus, etc.) can impact the ability to learn, access, and apply information. Her most recent work was published in Educational Gerontology titled “Myth-Busting is a Bust for Patient Education: Making Salient Older Adults’ Misconceptions about Osteoarthritis Fails to Lead to Lasting Corrections.”

Ansburg received her doctorate in cognitive psychology from University of Illinois, Chicago, a master’s in psychology from University of Nevada, Reno and a bachelor’s in psychology from University of California, Riverside.

AnnJanette Alejano-Steele

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AnnJanette Alejano-Steele, Ph.D., is a professor in the department of health professions and the interim associate vice president for the Office of Graduate Studies at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Her health psychology expertise is focused on local and global multicultural issues, including reproductive health access for low-income populations, and comprehensive health services for victims of human trafficking.

Alejano-Steele has been teaching at MSU Denver since 1996, where she is tenured in the Departments of Psychology and Women’s Studies. Alejano-Steele served as interim chair of the Department of Social Work and was director of Gender Institute for Teaching and Advocacy from 2006 to 2009. She created and coordinated the Human Trafficking Academic Response Team, which consists of ten academic departments designed to provide wrap around academic services for survivors of human trafficking as a form of long-term survivorship.

Alejano-Steele serves on the steering committee of the victim services-focused Colorado Network to End Human Trafficking and on a key investigative taskforce led by the State of Colorado Division of Criminal Justice. She also serves on a national working group focusing on trauma-informed care for the Office of Women’s Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

She is co-founder of the Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking (LCHT) and co-author of “The Colorado Project to Comprehensively Combat Human Trafficking,” a groundbreaking three-year LCHT study that examined how the state is responding to trafficking. She is currently coordinating a national project on promising practices in human trafficking.

Alejano-Steele received her doctorate in psychology from Michigan State University, NIH-supported postdoctoral work in psychology and medicine from the University of California, San Francisco.

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