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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.

Julian Friedland

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Julian Friedland, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the College of Business at Metropolitan State University of Denver. His areas of expertise lie in business ethics, corporate social responsibility, ethics and technology including artificial intelligence; moral psychology; and general philosophy. He currently teaches global corporate social responsibility.

Prior to joining MSU Denver, Friedland worked as a professor of business ethics at Trinity College Dublin and the University of Colorado Boulder. He has experience teaching philosophy as a visiting professor at the University of Hartford. Friedland has also done freelance work as a technology-ethics consultant. He is a member of the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics.

Friedland is currently conducting research in these interlinked areas: social-impact strategy, leveraging moral self-awareness as an incentive and new means by which the reflective mind may be activated through digital choice architectures. His work has appeared in a range of books and international journals, including the Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Organizational Behavior, MIT Sloan Management Review, California Management Review and Philosophical Investigations. Friedland also writes in national magazines and newsprint such as the New York Times, the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Conversation, the Humanist and the Forward. He gave a TEDx Talk at Trinity College Dublin titled “How AI Can Help Us Live More Deliberately” in March 2019.

Friedland received his doctorate in philosophy magna cum laude from the University of Paris I: Panthéon-Sorbonne in 2000, a master’s in philosophy from San Francisco State University in 1994 and a bachelor’s in philosophy from the University of Colorado Boulder in 1990. He earned a certificate in Teaching Critical Thinking during his master’s program from the State of California.

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.

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