Alumni
Wiveca I. Borjesson Holman, Ph.D.
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Pam has worked with Dr. Michael Dunn and the Substance Use Research Group at the University of Central Florida since she was an undergraduate student in 2001. As a member of this research team, she has conducted research with families, adults, and college students. She has also served as an intervention specialist for a clinical trial that compared brief alcohol interventions for college students and is involved in the prevention of substance use disorders within the community by performing duties as Orange County’s Substance Abuse Resource Guide coordinator. Pam is also a member of the Orange County Coalition for a Drug-Free Community, in Orange County, Orlando, Florida and serves on several committees involved in developing initiatives to reduce underage alcohol use. Her dissertation research is the development and evaluation of a web-based parent program to reduce alcohol use in adolescents. She will complete her predoctoral internship at the Connecticut VA Healthcare System’s West Haven VA Hospital in August 2010. |
Wiveca I. Borjesson Holman, Ph.D.
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Department of Psychology University of Central Florida Email: wborjess@mail.ucf.edu Curriculum Vitae Dr. Borjesson Holman was the first graduate of the UCF Clinical Ph.D. program in 2003 and has spent time teaching and conducting research in the areas of alcohol and interpersonal violence. She is currently working at UCF on a grant sponsored by the US Dept of Education. |
H. Cathy Lau Barraco, Ph.D
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Cathy graduated from the UCF Clinical Ph.D. program in 2006. She went on to become a Postdoctoral Associate at the Research Institute on Addictions (University of Buffalo, State University of New York). Her primary research focuses on the psychosocial determinants of problematic alcohol use, cognitive processes, young adult drinking, and brief interventions. Currently, she is working on a project funded by the RIA Research Development Program which explores social-environmental and cognitive influences of drinking behavior and their associated negative consequences in nonstudent young adults. She hopes to extend this work later on with the development and testing of a brief intervention program specifically targeted to at-risk drinkers between the ages of 18-25. In addition, she was a recipient of the 2008 Research Society on Alcoholism Junior Investigator Award. |
Jacqueline Alfonso, Ph.D.
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Dr. Alfonso completed her undergraduate education at
Florida International University where she graduated summa cum laude from
The Honors College with a B.A. in Psychology. She went on to pursue
doctoral training in clinical psychology at The University of Central
Florida, where she concentrated her research in the substance abuse area
of health psychology. She has experience working in diverse clinical
settings (i.e., inpatient, outpatient, corrections), with a variety of
populations (i.e., children, adolescents, adults, families, couples,
substance abuse, Spanish-speaking, and serious and persistent mental
illness), and in various capacities (i.e., clinical provider, program
coordinator, training supervisor, assessment specialist). After completing
her pre-doctoral internship at the Greater Hartford Internship Consortium,
Dr. Alfonso joined the Emmanuel College faculty in the Fall of 2008.
Currently, Dr. Alfonso acts as director for her research lab. Her primary research interests center on studying the biopsychosocial factors related to substance abuse in adolescence and young adulthood, where she focuses on the empirical development and improvement of current prevention and intervention strategies within these populations. More specifically, Dr. Alfonso is interested in strategies that incorporate harm reduction and motivational enhancement principles to modify existing (intervention), as well as future (prevention) high-risk behaviors. Additional research projects outside of the health psychology field focus on the improvement of pedagogical practices to increase student learning, engagement, and retention. |