Research and Scholarly Activity
Janet Farmer, Ph.D., ABPP
Dr. Farmer’s research investigates strategies for promoting healthy child development and improving family outcomes for children with special health care needs, including those with autism spectrum disorders. She has received grant funding from the federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau (with supplemental funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders, the Office for the Advancement of Telehealth and the Missouri Foundation for Health.
Brick Johnstone, Ph.D., ABPP
Brick Johnstone is a Professor and clinical neuropsychologist. He has conducted research in three main areas over the past two decades, including:
Employment Outcomes for Individuals with Disabilities
Dr. Johnstone has received grant funding to determine predictors or employment outcomes of persons with disabilities, as well as projects to evaluate the efficacy of interventions to improve the vocational and psychological health of persons with disabilities. He has been the PI of a NIDRR funded TBI Model System Center (1998-2002) which collaborated with the Missouri State Division of Vocational Rehabilitation.
Spirituality,Religion, and Health
As director of the MU Spirituality and Health Research program of the MU Center on Religion and the Professions, Dr. Johnstone has completed several studies which have examined the relationships that exist among religion, spirituality, and health, and particularly for individuals with different chronic disabling conditions and for those from different faith traditions.
Neuropsychology of Spiritual Experiences
Dr. Johnstone’s most recent area of research focuses on the neuropsychology of spiritual experiences. He has completed two pilot studies which suggest that spiritual transcendence is related to the lack of focus on the self (or “selflessness”) associated with decreased right parietal lobe functioning. He is currently collaborating with other MU researchers on an MRI study in this area, and has recently received funding to study the religious and spiritual experiences of individuals with temporal lobe epilepsy.
Rehabilitation Psychology/Neuropsychology Training Grants
Dr. Johnstone has received three different federally funded training grants to increase the number of rehabilitation and neuropsychologists to provide services to underserved and under-represented populations, and particularly those persons with disabilities in rural areas. The MU Department of Health Psychology received two Graduate Psychology Education grants, the only ones in the nation which focused on persons with disabilities.
Micah Mazurek, Ph.D.
Micah Mazurek, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Psychology in the School of Health Professions at MU, and a clinical child psychologist at the Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders. Dr. Mazurek received her BA in psychology from Yale University, and her MA and PhD in clinical psychology from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She completed her clinical internship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she trained in a Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (LEND) program. Dr. Mazurek has over 12 years of experience in psychological assessment and intervention, as well as specific expertise in evidence-based evaluation and treatment of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and other neurodevelopmental disorders. Dr. Mazurek has also served in leadership positions relevant to this work, including serving as Assistant Director of Clinical Services at the MU Assessment and Consultation Clinic, and serving as Director of Intervention Services and Associate Director of the Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders.
Dr. Mazurek’s research interests have focused on rehabilitation outcomes among individuals with disabilities, treatment outcomes in ASD, and social/emotional development of children with ASD. This research has resulted in a number of peer-reviewed publications, interdisciplinary collaborations, and grant-funded projects. Dr. Mazurek has a number of active research projects, focusing generally around two main themes: 1) understanding characteristics of social and emotional development among children with ASD, and 2) developing and evaluating new models for intervention and outcome measurement for ASD.
Laura Schopp, PhD,ABPP
Dr. Laura Schopp is a Professor in the MU Department of Health Psychology and Director of the T.E. Atkins University of Missouri System Wellness Program, which conducts population health management for the approximately 41,000 covered lives in the University of Missouri System. She completed two NIH fellowships (rehabilitation psychology and health informatics) and is a health psychologist and board-certified clinical neuropsychologist. She spent her early career studying health promotion and health service delivery for persons with chronic health conditions and neurologic disabilities. She has served as Principal Investigator or Co-Principal Investigator on over $4.1M in grants and contracts, primarily in areas related to health and participation among persons with chronic health conditions and disabilities. She has received national and local awards such as the American Psychological Association Rehabilitation Psychology Early Career Award, the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research Mary Switzer Fellowship, the Brain Injury of the United States Young Investigator Award, the School of Health Professions Research Award, and the City of Columbia Mayor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Health Award. In recent years she has broadened her focus to include primary health promotion in workplace and community settings.
Cheryl Shigaki, Ph.D., ABPP
Dr. Cheryl Shigaki’s primary research interests focus on self-management of chronic conditions and the health concerns of older adults. Dr. Shigaki is particularly interested in examining ways that use of the electronic medical record and electronic communications can be used to support self-management. In this vein, Dr. Shigaki is working with MU’s Tiger Institute’s OSCR team (Optimizing Self-Care Resources) to develop tools that are user-friendly from both patient and provider perspectives. Recent publications have explored motivation for self-care in diabetes as well as outcomes from an online self-management intervention for individuals with rheumatoid arthritis. Other projects include exploration of psychosocial factors in long-term breast cancer survivorship and exploration of best practices for supporting workers with disabilities.