Psychology

Commencement student speaker Caroline Little found her family while at George Mason

Shayla Brown — Tue, 10 Dec 2024 21:25:40 +0000

Commencement student speaker Caroline Little found her family while at George Mason Shayla Brown Tue, 12/10/2024 - 16:25

Graduating psychology student Caroline Little said she grew up at ��AV.

“I have grown from a child to an adult at George Mason in ways I could have never thought possible. I came here a teenager, and left here a married mother of two,” said Little.

Little, who will travel from Alabama to address her fellow graduates as the 2024 Winter Commencement Student Speaker, will welcome her second child, Isabella, this winter.

Graduation student speaker Caroline Little and her son, Saint. Photo provided.

George Mason’s rigorous education and location being so close Washington, D.C., made her decision to attend pretty easy, said Little. “George Mason really helped foster rapid maturation in the best way possible,” she said.

Originally an in-state student, Little transferred from Germanna Community College in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Since then, she has lived in Rhode Island, New Orleans, and currently resides in Alabama. 

“I chose psychology as my major because I have always had a special interest in the study of how the human brain works and how humans behave. I definitely plan to take my psychology education further,” said Little, who was part of George Mason’s psych club during her first two years.

Little’s passion for psychology was fueled by College of Humanities and Social Sciences professor Michael Hurley, the undergraduate academic advisor in the Department of Psychology who helped her get a job in applied behavioral analysis.

“I worked with older autistic individuals, mostly individuals who are about to graduate from high school,” said Little. “I taught them how to be self-sufficient in their homes and they learned to do their own laundry, cook basic meals, clean up after themselves, and things like that.”

Little also met her husband, former George Mason basketball player and star forward Joshua Oduro, BS Business ’23, during an on-campus voting event.

Little has had many great experiences during her time as a student at George Mason, but some of her favorite memories, she said, come from the Homecoming basketball games and getting married to Oduro.

Little and her husband, Joshua Oduro, celebrate on Wilkins Plaza. Photo provided.

“We came back to campus and popped a bottle of champagne in front of the George Mason statue to celebrate meeting each other on campus,” said Little.

Throughout that summer, while Oduro was away at pre-draft, Little was a full-time mother and simultaneously took seven accelerated courses. It was a big challenge, said Little, because both she and her son, Saint, were struggling with sleep deprivation.

“My son and I would go to campus every day to meet with my tutor at The Globe [dining hall],” said Little. “We would be on campus all day, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. I breastfed him, walked him around the halls, and brought him a big blanket for tummy time, just trying to keep him occupied while I studied.”

Little’s biggest piece of advice for incoming students is pursue yourself first. “So much happens in your four years of college, don’t ever forget why you’re here in the first place,” she said. “Never give up on your dreams, no matter how hard it may seem! No one will do it for you. You are in charge of your own destiny.”

Following graduation, Little plans to pursue her master’s degree in marriage and family counseling.

Discover George Mason's Psychology Department

Topics

Winter Commencement

Graduation

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Psychology

Student-Parents

Students

Nicole Beadles

Jeannine Harvey — Wed, 30 Aug 2023 16:45:08 +0000

Nicole Beadles Jeannine Harvey Wed, 08/30/2023 - 12:45

Assistant Professor and Academic Program Coordinator, School Psychology Prog, College of Education and Human Development

Contact Information

Phone: (703) 993-5127
Campus: Fairfax
Building: West Building 2007
4400 University Dr.
Mail Stop: 4C2

Email: nbeadles@gmu.edu

Personal Websites

Personal Website

School Psychology, School of Education

Biography

Dr. Beadles has been teaching at George Mason since 2011. She is the Academic Program Coordinator for the School Psychology Program and has been in this role since 2013. Dr. Beadles teaches graduate classes in social emotional assessment and ethics and law in school psychology. She has taught doctoral and undergraduate students, as well, in the areas of developmental psychopathology and lifespan development. Dr. Beadles also supervises students as they complete intellectual and comprehensive assessments in the university psychology training center.

Dr. Beadles worked as a school psychologist in public schools in the local area, as well as in international schools in Geneva and Brussels, prior to coming to Mason. She is a licensed clinical psychologist through the Board of Psychology and a certified school psychologist through the State Department of Education. She also is a Nationally Certified School Psychologist.

Degrees

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Clinical Psychology May 2006

University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA

Curry Program in Clinical and School Psychology (APA accredited and NASP approved)

Educational Specialist (Ed.S.), School Psychology July 1998

James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Virginia (NASP approved)

Master of Arts (M.A.) School Psychology July 1996

James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Virginia

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) May 1995

Georgetown University, Washington DC

Major: Psychology, Minor: Italian

Research

Regan, K., Weiss, M. Beadles, N., & Rowe, E. (2019). Project Synergy. Interdisciplinary Preparation in Special Education, Early Intervention, and Related Services for Personnel Serving Children with Disabilities who have High-Intensity Needs - Focus Area B (CFDA 84.325K), Office of Special Education Programs, US Department of Education, Washington, D.C. (I was designated as co-PI) $1,384,040 Submitted
Initiated the Assessment Database, a project compiling years worth of testing data at GMU’s training clinic (ongoing)
Developed and analyzed teacher, student, staff, and parent surveys measuring the effectiveness of the behavior modification plan (Level System) at JLG-RICA (fall, 2005).
Dissertation on the prevention of depression in patients with brain tumors.
Conducted literature review and planned study design in collaboration with a pediatric neuropsychologist on the late-effects of traumatic brain injury on growth and maturation (Spring, 2003).
Program evaluation of Montgomery County school psychological services.
Initiated and completed a study on the tolerance of personality differences in a college setting (1994-1995).

Mason’s School Psychology Program launches new center for child and teen testing and evaluation

Colleen Rich — Wed, 30 Aug 2023 14:46:42 +0000

Mason’s School Psychology Program launches new center for child and teen testing and evaluation Colleen Rich Wed, 08/30/2023 - 10:46

The School Psychology Program at ��AV’s School of Education has launched a Coordinated Educational and Wellness Services (CEWS) center for psychoeducational testing and evaluation of school-aged children.

Nicole Beadles.
Photo by Evan Cantwell/��AV

Housed within the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD), the center will specialize in mental health, psychological, and educational services for children, adolescents, and teens, ages 5 to 18. The goal of these services is to improve the emotional, behavioral, and academic functioning of children in primary and secondary schools.

“We wanted to develop a center that was focused on school-age children and educationally related concerns,” said Nicole Beadles, associate professor in Mason’s School Psychology program, who oversees the center.

Previously, the School Psychology Program provided psychoeducational testing for children and teens through the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS), which operates a mental health clinic serving a client base that includes young children as well as adults of college age and beyond.

The new center will serve as a community resource helping families with a child who may be experiencing academic, emotional, or behavioral problems impeding their functioning in school and elsewhere. Services will begin in September; the center accepting appointments for testing to be conducted through its Comprehensive Assessment Services (CAS) program. No referral is necessary, and parents may contact the center directly for an appointment.

“We have extensive experience helping families whose children have psychological, behavioral, and emotional difficulties, and we strive to support them across all areas of their lives,” Beadles said, adding that the center is “a much-needed resource for parents, families, and youth in the community.”

Evaluations performed through the CAS program are designed to assist parents in addressing specific areas of concern where their child may be having difficulties. Some of the more common concerns include anxiety, mood disorders (depression), social interaction challenges, behavioral difficulties, emotional outbursts, learning and attentional difficulties, ADHD, and autism. Assessments encompass interviews, questionnaires, record reviews, and direct testing of the child.

Graduate students in Mason’s School Psychology Program will conduct testing under the close supervision of licensed clinical and school psychologists affiliated with the university. Parents get the benefit of two sets of eyes on all work conducted in the center, Beadles said. “Our goal is to provide accurate and useful information that can make a difference in a child’s life,” Beadles added.

Beadles, a former school psychologist with Fairfax County Public Schools, has been in contact with community organizations and school psychology leaders in Northern Virginia school districts including Fairfax, Prince William, Loudoun, Arlington, Alexandria, and Manassas to spread the word about the center.

Learn more about the School of Education

Learn more about the Coordinated Educational and Wellness Services (CEWS)

In This Story

Nicole Beadles

Topics

Campus News

College of Education and Human Development

Virginia public schools

Community Engagement

Psychology

Working to improve human-machine collaborations

Colleen Rich — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 17:19:01 +0000

Working to improve human-machine collaborations Colleen Rich Mon, 02/13/2023 - 12:19

As the use of technologies like facial recognition and smart home devices increase in daily life, many have begun to question the morality of these inventions, the ethics of their use, and how our own biases and worldviews impact the development of these smart tools.

Mason researcher Beth Phillips (in VR headset) with psychology major Rydia Weiland. Photo by Sarah Holland

��AV researcher Elizabeth “Beth” Phillips is working with collaborators from labs around the country to answer these pressing questions about artificial intelligence and robotics in her role as the principal investigator for the university’s Applied Psychology and Autonomous System Lab (ALPHAS).

The ALPHAS Lab studies how to make robots, computer agents, and artificial intelligence (AI) into better teammates, partners, and companions. While computer science seems like the obvious field for this work, social sciences and humanities are critical to the development of effective, ethical, and efficient machines that humans can work with and alongside long term.

Student and faculty researchers in ALPHAS are exploring the benefits of using social robotic animals as therapeutic tools, how robots might conceptualize socialization norms to better fit into our lives, and how robots might justify and define morality in their actions, for example.

Mason graduate student Lydia Melles works with Baxter, an industrial robot by Rethink Robotics. Photo by Sarah Holland

“You have to know a lot about humans in order to create successful robotics,” said Phillips, an assistant professor in human factors and applied cognition in the Department of Psychology. “How humans interact, how they work together, how they build trust in each other: these are the same building blocks in understanding how humans might interact with machines and can help us better establish how people might build trust in a variety of autonomous machines.”

One of the lab’s projects, “Improving Human-Machine Collaborations with Heterogeneous Multiagent Systems,” was a recipient of the 2022 Seed Funding Initiative out of Mason’s Office of Research, Innovation, and Economic Impact and in support of the Institute for Digital Innovation (IDIA). This project will be done in collaboration with co-investigators Ewart de Visser and Lt. Col. Chad Tossell of the Air Force Academy, and Air Force Academy cadets slated to commission as officers into the U.S. Space Force.

The humanities also provides perspective on ethics and morality in relation to robotics: what could it mean for a robot to be a moral agent? “The rules of moral philosophy vary based on culture and structure,” Phillips said. “When we think about robots as moral agents, what we’re really talking about is being able to translate a system of morality and ethics into an algorithm. It’s up to the humanities and social sciences to define these systems, as well as consider the implications of favoring one moral and ethical system over another.”

Learn more about the Psychology Department at Mason

Learn more about AI Research at Mason

New Course Creates Ethical Leaders for an AI-Driven Future
December 10, 2024
Interprofessional George Mason researchers awarded more than $1 million to improve outcomes for patients with depression
December 10, 2024
Jaffer appointed to new Virginia Artificial Intelligence Task Force
October 23, 2024
New research utilizes machine learning to address social isolation among alzheimer’s caregivers
October 10, 2024
Schar School Welcomes Thema Monroe-White
September 4, 2024

Topics

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Artificial Intelligence

Institute for Digital InnovAtion (IDIA)

Mason researchers partner with Indigenous nations to promote environmental resilience

Mariam Aburdeineh — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 20:29:47 +0000

Mason researchers partner with Indigenous nations to promote environmental resilience Mariam Aburdeineh Fri, 09/02/2022 - 16:29

In This Story

Thomas Wood

It’s common to think of Indigenous peoples as living in the past. We may think of them around Thanksgiving or in old films and books. But Native Americans are very much here and now, said Jeremy Campbell, and after decades of struggle, that’s starting to be recognized.

Dancing at an Upper Mattaponi Powwow in May 2022.

In 2018, U.S. legislation granted federal recognition to six tribes in Virginia. A ��AV team has been partnering with two of them, the Upper Mattaponi and Chickahominy nations, as they embark on being sovereign nations.

“What really has been an honor to be a part of is building the capacity and the sovereignty of native tribes,” said Campbell, a College of Science professor co-leading the Mason team with School of Integrated Studies professor Tom Wood. “This is a wonderful opportunity for us, as a university, to build a sustainable and respectful relationship that has the potential to last for decades.”

Supporting Tribal Sovereignty

When tribes become sovereign nations, they must set up governments and structures to communicate with the U.S. government, said Campbell, associate director for strategic engagement at Mason’s Institute for a Sustainable Earth. That includes a department of environmental management, which both tribes are setting up.

That’s where Mason comes in.

Over the summer, Campbell and Wood led a multidisciplinary team of 10 undergraduates and two graduate researchers to collect environmental data in partnership with tribal governments as part of a Summer Impact Project. Their research will support tribes in making informed decisions for their communities when it comes to conservation, restoration, and environmental matters.

Chickahominy Connections

George Mason student Sara Jefferson is a member of the Chickahominy Tribe. Photo provided.

For junior psychology major Sara Jefferson, the project hits home.

“My favorite part about working on this project is being able to teach others about my culture and my people, while also learning about the natural world around me,” said Jefferson, a member of the Chickahominy Tribe and of Mason’s Native American and Indigenous Alliance.

Jefferson is part of three groups supporting the Chickahominy tribe in food security, wildlife assessment, and digital mapping.

“In the food security group, we’re researching the accessibility to different food sources in the surrounding Charles City area, and assisting the beginning process of community gardens within the tribe,” she said.

Jefferson is also part of a wildlife assessment group that’s identifying wildlife commonly found in the area and declining species. This involves expeditions along the Powhatan (James) River at dawn—when animals are most likely to be out—and recording where and when animals are discovered.

“This project has been very valuable to the Chickahominy Tribe, as it’s helped us establish a baseline of information about our tribal lands and waters that will help us as we make decisions going forward,” said Dana Adkins, tribal environmental director of the Chickahominy Indian Tribe. “As we work to strengthen our community’s role as stewards of our ancestral lands, it’s been great to partner with the students and learn from them as they learn from us.”

The team during a wildlife assessment. From left to right: Brian Jiménez, Olga Cheltsova, Maiya Justice, Dominique Hannon, Dana Adkins (Chickahominy Tribal Environmental Director), Dr. Tom Wood, Guadalupe Meza-Negrete.

Uncovering What Was Lost

In the wildlife assessments, the teams are also tracking what they didn’t find, such as native plant species being pushed out by invasives, Campbell said. Talking with their Indigenous partners helps them understand what the ecosystem should look like.

Collaborating with the tribes is of utmost importance for upholding tribal sovereignty, and for expanding students’ understanding.

“Leading with humility is really important, especially when you’re working with a group that’s been historically marginalized,” said senior sociology major James Condo. “Understanding that you’re going to be a student of everyone else around you is really important to keep in mind for research and in life.”

That mindset can be powerful, Campbell said, especially as the system most people are used to has ignored or marginalized Indigenous ways of knowing.

“If we connect with those ways of knowing and relationships, it can enrich our personal lives, and our ability to perceive and interact with nonhumans, and other communities, in a way that leads to more profound awareness.”

Prof. Tom Wood, Brian Jiménez and Mason team members using a spotting scope during a wildlife assessment.

Going Digital

The Mason team is also training tribal members in how to create geospatial information systems (GIS) databases. These include information about landscape changes, and air and water quality.

“We pull it into a system like ArcGIS, and overlay culturally significant points,” Campbell said. “We’re working with the tribes to train them, so that, if we’re successful, we can stand back and just stand ready for the new kinds of questions and challenges that might come up.”

Students also benefit.

“This has started to get me versed in GIS, and geospatial data is on the cutting edge of a lot of social science fields,” Condo said. “It’s really a great access point for a lot of interdisciplinary spaces.”

Mason students working with Chickahominy participants in a GIS skills building workshop.

Protecting Indigenous Data

“Tribal sovereignty is at the heart of this partnership, which is necessary and important,” said Leigh Mitchell, environmental and cultural protection director of the Upper Mattaponi Indian tribe. “Indigenous priorities have led the way in this research.”

For the Upper Mattaponi, who recently took land into trust, one of those priorities includes documenting how their landscape—which borders on the edge of urban expansion—has changed over the past 50 years, and how people are interacting with the land.

The Mason team is also constructing protocols to ensure that Indigenous people have control of their data in accordance with the principles of Indigenous Data Sovereignty—the right of a tribal nation to govern the collection, ownership, and application of its own data.

“[Indigenous Data Sovereignty] encourages us to think of data as another kind of valuable resource that people need, use and care for, the way we might think of natural resources,” Campbell said. “As Virginia’s tribal nations reassert their sovereignty, it is important that their control over information pertaining to their communities, landscapes, and waterways be securely and affirmatively under their control.”

One of the team’s next steps, Campbell said, is to create a digital environment where tribes can grant tiers of access to non-native collaborators.

Research in Dialogue

Learning directly with the tribes has been a major draw, Jefferson and Condo agreed.

In addition to providing tribes with information needed to make informed environmental decisions, relationship building has been at the project’s center.

“It’s very much a dialogue,” Campbell said.

From left to right: Adam Edwards, Olga Cheltsova, James Condo, Patricia Troup, Elizabeth Schierbeek, Dr. Jeremy Campbell, Upper Mattaponi Chief Frank Adams.