Jillian R. Scheer, PhD, is a licensed counseling psychologist, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Rhode Island, and Director of the Minority Stress & Trauma (MST) Lab. Dr. Scheer is also a research affiliate at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS at the Yale School of Public Health and at the VA Center for Integrated Healthcare Research Affiliate at the Syracuse VA Medical Center.

Dr. Scheer earned a Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Boston College and completed a predoctoral clinical internship at Mount Sinai St. Luke’s/West Hospital in New York City. Dr. Scheer also completed an NIMH T32 postdoctoral fellowship in psychiatric epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health. Dr. Scheer is the author of over 75 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Scheer’s research is supported by grants from NIAAA, NIMHD, the William T. Grant Foundation, and the American Psychological Foundation. Dr. Scheer’s work has been recognized through several awards (e.g., NIMHD Research Institute Scholar, NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health).

Dr. Scheer’s research program focuses on identifying biopsychosocial determinants, such as sexual and relationship violence, traumatic stress symptoms, and physiological stress reactivity, of alcohol and other drug use among sexual minority women and transgender and gender-diverse people. Additionally, Dr. Scheer’s program of research seeks to understand multilevel factors that influence help-seeking and linkage-to-care efforts and to develop scalable and innovative in-person, telehealth, and digital health interventions tailored to these populations.

Gabriella (Gabby) Epshteyn Gabby is a third-year doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program under the mentorship of Dr. Jillian Scheer. She graduated with her BA in Psychology from Baruch College, City University of New York, and earned her Masters in Clinical Psychology with a concentration in global mental health and trauma from Columbia University, Teachers College. Before coming to URI, Gabby served in various research coordinator/program manager roles across the Veterans Health Administration, Columbia University, and the Mount Sinai Health System. Gabby’s research focuses on the intersection of suicide, trauma, substance use, and personality disorders, with an emphasis on adapting transdiagnostic mindfulness-based interventions within historically underrepresented and marginalized communities. In Gabby’s free time she enjoys thrifting and spending time with her two dogs.

Rachel Girard is a doctoral candidate in the Clinical Psychology, Ph.D. program. After earning her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Kalamazoo College, MI in 2019, she worked at Michigan Medicine as a clinical research coordinator on several projects aimed at increasing access to evidence-based substance use disorder (SUD) treatment. At URI, she has continued studying her interests in health utilization, with an emphasis on improving access and treatment experiences among marginalized communities under the mentorship of Dr. Spillane (now at ASU) and Dr. Scheer. Rachel was awarded the F31 application from NIDA exploring intervention stigma surrounding buprenorphine prescribing and use in the Veterans Health Administration, which will serve as her dissertation project. Outside of the lab, her interests include playing volleyball, doing heated workout classes, and spending time at the beach.

Natalie Chasten graduated from the University of Rhode Island in 2022 with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a minor in nutrition. She is thrilled to be supporting the Minority Stress & Trauma Lab as a research assistant and hopes to pursue a graduate degree in psychology in the future. Her research interests include behavioral endocrinology, eating disorder behaviors, sports psychology, and mental health interventions for sexual and gender minorities.

Abby Savarese is a senior working on earning her BS in Psychology at the University of Rhode Island. Abby’s role as a research assistant is to code papers for inclusion as part of a systematic scoping review, as well as to create materials that will promote and encourage participation in research being conducted in the Minority Stress & Trauma Lab. She is proud to be a part of this research team, and is excited to pursue her postgraduate studies in school psychology!