Lab Members
Lab Director: Evan Kleiman, Ph.D.
Evan Kleiman is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Rutgers University, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Health Behavior, Society, and Policy in the School of Public Health. Prior to coming to Rutgers, Dr. Kleiman was a Postdoctoral Fellow (2014-2017) and Research Associate at Harvard University. He received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at George Mason University (2014), completed his clinical psychology internship at Temple University (2014), and received his BA in Psychology from Temple University (2008).
Dr. Kleiman’s work focuses on understanding the everyday occurrence of factors of interest to clinical psychological scientists. He has a specific focus on the everyday lives of individuals at risk for suicide using smartphone and wearable monitoring technology. His work has been published in over 140 peer-reviewed manuscripts and is currently funded by several NIMH grants. | CV | Research Gate | Google Scholar
Postdoctoral Research Fellows
Elizabeth Edershile
Elizabeth Edershile (Betsy) is an assistant professor who joined the lab in summer 2023. Betsy is interested in better capturing and understanding interpersonal and affective dynamic patterns that give rise to expressions of psychopathology. For example, some of her work has explored the affective and interpersonal processes associated with narcissistic symptom expression. She is also interested in understanding how affective variability associates with risk for suicide. Betsy leverages multiple techniques in her research, including ecological momentary assessment and experimental methods.
Mariah Hawes-Sousa
Mariah joined the lab in Fall 2023 as a psychology intern in the Rutgers UBHC doctoral internship program. She stepped into her current role as a postdoctoral fellow upon graduating from Stony Brook University with a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. Mariah is passionate about increasing access to evidence-based care in acute treatment settings, which she approaches through staff training initiatives and research on brief, scalable interventions that combine in-person and digital delivery formats.
Thomas O'Kane
Thomas (Tom) O’Kane is a postdoctoral research associate who joined the lab in Fall 2024, having received his PhD in clinical psychology from Rowan University. Dr. O’Kane’s research interests include the psychosis-spectrum, having developed and published a novel psychosis-spectrum risk measure, the Inclusive Psychosis Risk Inventory (IPRI). His research also examines health behaviors, the integration of psychological services within medical settings, and mechanisms for improving the psychological services provided within inpatient settings. Additionally, Dr. O’Kane is involved in the development and delivery of clinical trainings, as well as the provision of clinical supervision. | CV |
Clinical Psychology Residents
Vansh Bansal
Vansh is a clinical psychology resident at Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care (UBHC) , and he is a psychology PhD candidate at Virginia Tech. His research centers around precision medicine, for which he applies machine learning approaches to forecast mental health outcomes, uncover correlates of psychiatric illness, and develop novel interventions. In addition to research, Vansh assists with group programming for inpatient care at Rutgers UBHC and sees patients at Rutgers Health Family Medicine at Monument Square.
Graduate Students
Annabelle Mournet
Annabelle is a fifth-year graduate student in the clinical psychology program. Her primary research interests focus on the use of ecological momentary assessment to investigate suicide risk and protective factors (e.g., social connection, sleep) among autistic adults. | CV |
Ellen Wittler
Ellen is a fourth-year graduate student in the clinical psychology program.
Roscoe Garner
Roscoe is a third-year graduate student in the clinical psychology program. His primary research interests focus on the use of technology-based interventions for suicide risk among adults, specifically mechanisms of change within these interventions. Additionally, he is interested in investigating why certain individuals experience suicidal ideation, while others go on to ultimately attempt suicide.
Molly Ball
Molly is a second-year graduate student in the clinical psychology program. Her primary research interests focus on optimizing real-time mobile interventions for individuals at high risk for suicide. Additionally, she is interested in the use of mobile tools to predict and improve social-support seeking and disclosure behaviors in moments of elevated risk for suicide.
Alma Bitran
Alma is a third-year graduate student in the clinical psychology program. Her research aims to characterize how suicidal individuals ask for help in direct and indirect ways, as well as how loved ones respond to help-seeking. |CV|
Research Coordinators
Emma Yoon
Emma received her B.S. in Psychology and Sociology from the University of Pittsburgh in 2024. Her research interests focus on understanding how real time intervention tools (EMA/EMI apps) can be used to improve mental health care. She is particularly interested in identifying which types of treatments are most effective for different individuals and contexts, and in using these insights to make interventions more personalized and accessible. Emma aims to pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical or Counseling Psychology.
Allison Pereira
Allison received her B.A. in Psychology from Rutgers University – New Brunswick in 2025. She started in the Kleiman lab in the Spring of 2024, and is excited to continue her research journey as a full-time member of the research team. Allison hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical or Counseling Psychology.
Research Assistants
Shriya Joshi
Shriya is a senior at Rutgers University, majoring in Psychology and Health Administration. She is eager to contribute to the lab as a research assistant and gain further experience in the field.
Hannah Graham
Hannah recently received her B.A. in Psychology from the Rutgers University Honors College and is now continuing at Rutgers in the Masters of Applied Psychology 4+1 program. Hannah hopes to eventually attend medical school to become a child psychiatrist. Her research interests focus on the onset and development of youth mental ailments, with particular attention towards how these factors contribute to suicide risk. |CV|
Lab Alumni
Jeremy Grove (Post Doc) – Assistant Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University
April Yeager (Project Coordinator) – Clinical Psychology PsyD Student at Rutgers University
Madison Taylor (Project Coordinator) – Clinical Psychology PhD Student at The University of California – Irvine
Olivia Lozy (Project Coordinator) – Brand Program Manager at X (Twitter)
Kaileigh Conti (Project Coordinator) – Applied Development Science PhD Student at Colorado State University
Dana Steinberg (Project Coordinator) – Clinical Psychology PhD Student at SUNY Binghamton
Hannah Krall (Project Coordinator) – Clinical Psychology PhD Student at Florida State University
Kai Kellerman (Graduate Student) – Clinical intern at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital
Gavin Rackoff (Clinical Resident) – Post Doc at Boston University
Lab Collaborators
Kate Bentley – Massachusetts General Hospital
Paul Duberstein – Rutgers University
Cassie Glenn – Old Dominion University
Jessica Hamilton – Rutgers University
Richard Liu – Massachusetts General Hospital
Matthew Nock – Harvard University
Shireen Rizvi – Rutgers University