Expertise

Research Interest:

  • Grieving on social media
  • Intimate partner violence
  • Childhood sexual abuse.

Research Projects:

  • Currently interviewing individuals that have experienced a disenfranchised type of grief (grief that is not typically acknowledged or recognized by society, including but not limited to loss due to a method that makes people reluctant to talk about or acknowledge it, like murder or suicide; miscarriage, abortion, giving child up for adoption, or stillbirth; loss of a pet; loss due to dementia or traumatic head injury (physically still present); loss due to divorce or the ending of a relationship that was not public (like an affair) or was not considered a “typical” family member; etc.) and how they use social media to process their grief.
Degrees
PhD, Auburn University, Human Development and Family Studies, 2005
MS, Auburn University, Human Development and Family Studies, 2002
BS, University of Maine, Psychology, 1999