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Center for Youth Social Emotional Wellness (CYSEW) at Rutgers University

Affiliate Faculty, VCU Department of Psychology

Research projects

• Homework, Organization & Planning Skills
• Sleep
• Evaluation of the Homework, Organization, and Planning Skills (HOPS) Program: A Conceptual Replication

Team members

• Caroline Cusick

About

I am a clinical psychologist and Professor in the Department of Psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University. I received my doctorate in clinical-community psychology from the University of South Carolina, completed internship at Duke University Medical Center and then worked for six years as a child psychologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. I came to VCU in 2011 and co-founded the ADHD Clinic that now serves many families in and around Richmond.

My main research and clinical interests surround the development of interventions to improve the academic and behavioral functioning of adolescents with ADHD. I focus on developing interventions that are brief, cost-effective and feasible to implement. My work is community-based and I have developed interventions for community, pediatric and school settings. I have a particular interest in teaching adolescents with and without ADHD to independently use important academic and life skills such as organization and time-management skills. One of the interventions I developed, the Homework, Organization, and Planning Skills (HOPS) intervention, teaches these skills and is now used in many schools across the United States. I also worked with Dr. Arthur Anastopoulos at University of North Carolina, Greensboro to develop and evaluate the Accessing Campus Connections & Empowering Student Success intervention, a Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) program designed to give college students with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) the knowledge and skills necessary for academic, personal, and social success. https://accessproject.uncg.edu/what-is-access/. 

I directed the Promoting Adolescent School Success (P.A.S.S.) research group at VCU, which includes faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, and full-time research staff devoted to the mission of helping adolescents and emerging adults succeed in school. Currently I am affiliate faculty at VCU and Professor of Psychology and Director of the Center for Youth Social Emotional Wellness (CYSEW) at Rutgers University.