Biography
Hi!
I'm a third year student in the Clinical-Community Psychology PhD program; I work under the direction of Dr. Nicole Allen, on the Action Research & Collaboration team. My pronouns are she/her/hers.
Gender-based violence can be understood, studied, and prevented - and I'm excited about how we can support community efforts.
I'm most interested in research involving community and societal-level interventions to prevent and respond to domestic and sexual violence and ways to support providers who implement these interventions.
Currently, I'm a research assistant for a statewide evaluation project that partners with the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault and the Illinois Department of Public Health to investigate sexual violence prevention efforts across Illinois. I'm also part of a study investigating experiences of incivility and harassment among STEM students, and I've been collaborating with Dr. Rachel Garthe on her work utilizing state surveillance surveys to investigate youth victimization. I'm leading a scoping review on mass messaging pertaining to sexual and domestic violence.
Previously, I coordinated research at the Center for Psychotherapy Research (University of Pennsylvania) on depression treatment in the community mental health setting. I earned a B.A. in Psychology with honors from Wellesley College, where I was involved with research that partnered with a local girls' leadership camp and research on attitude change and creativity. Community engagement is very important to me and my work. My undergraduate mental health advocacy has been recognized by the Jordan Porco Foundation (Student Mental Health Advocate of the Year, 2017) and I was the Women Organized Against Rape Volunteer of the Year (2018).
Education
Wellesley College, B.A. in Psychology
University of Pennsylvania, Certificate in Professional Writing
Awards and Honors
University of Illinois Graduate College Conference Participation Award (fall 2020)
2020 Child Maltreatment and Interpersonal Violence Special Interest Group (Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies) Poster Award
Women Organized Against Rape Volunteer of the Year (2018)
2017 Student Mental Health Advocate of the Year Award (Jordan Porco Foundation)
Courses Taught
I'm not currently teaching - but I do love supporting undergraduates and getting students involved with research! I am grateful to work with a fantastic team of undergraduates; I am not recruiting new team members for the summer.
I recommend checking out Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program (URAP). In the past, I have been a mentor in this program. http://undergradresearch.illinois.edu/programs/urap.html.
Check out more research opportunities with the Action Research & Collaboration group here: https://actionresearch.web.illinois.edu/.
External Links
Highlighted Publications
Rieger, A., Blackburn, A. M., Bystrynski, J. B., Garthe, R. C., & Allen, N. E. (2021). The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on gender-based violence in the United States: Framework and policy recommendations. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy.
Garthe, R. C., Kaur, A., Rieger, A., Blackburn, A. M., Kim, S., & Goffnett, J. (2021). Peer and dating violence victimization experiences of cisgender, transgender, and gender expansive adolescents. Pediatrics. doi:10.1542/peds.2020-004317
Crits-Christoph, P., Rieger, A., Gaines, A., & Connolly Gibbons, M. B. (2019). Trust and respect in the patient-clinician relationship: Preliminary development of a new scale. BMC Psychology, 7:91. doi:10.1186/s40359-019-0347-3
Rieger, A., Gaines, A., Barnett, I., Baldassano, C. F., Connolly Gibbons, M. B., & Crits-Christoph, P. (2019). Psychiatry outpatients’ willingness to share social media and smartphone data for research and clinical purposes: Survey study. JMIR Formative Research, 3(3), e14329. doi:10.2196/14329
Gibbons, M.B., Gallop, R., Thompson, D., Gaines, A., Rieger, A., & Crits-Christoph, P. (2019). Predictors of treatment attendance in cognitive and dynamic therapies for major depressive disorder delivered in a community mental health setting. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 87(8), 745-755. doi:10.1037/ccp0000414
Crits-Christoph, P., Wadden, S., Gaines, A., Rieger, A., Gallop, R., McKay, J.R., & Gibbons, M.B. (2018). Symptoms of anhedonia, not depression, predict the outcome of treatment of cocaine dependence. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 92, 46-50. doi:j.jsat.2018.06.010
Crits-Christoph, P., Gallop, R., Gaines, A., Rieger, A., & Gibbons, M.B. (2018). Instrumental variable analyses for causal inference: Application to multilevel analyses of the alliance-outcome relation. Psychotherapy Research. Available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/10503307.2018.1544724