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Agnes (Aggie) Rieger

Biography

Hi! I’m a PhD student in the Clinical-Community Psychology program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. My pronouns are she/her/hers.

 

I'm excited about researching community and societal-level interventions to prevent and respond to interpersonal violence, and ways to support providers who implement these interventions. Highlights of my research to date include working on incredible teams. I've gotten to be part of evaluating sexual violence prevention efforts across Illinois with the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault and Illinois Department of Public Health; consulting/serving as the primary evaluator for a domestic violence shelter to support community-engaged public housing interpersonal violence prevention; and co-designing/facilitating Illinois’s Moving Prevention Forward project, which developed recommendations for the state coalition’s future sexual violence primary prevention efforts. My dissertation research explores the intersection of adolescent identity and rurality for interpersonal violence exposure, and how we can reground school trauma-informed care practices for rural communities.

 

My applied work inspires my research, and vice versa. I value my clinical training (Herman Eisen Award; 2023, recognizing professional contributions to psychology and a commitment to mental health needs of Urbana-Champaign; 2023). In the clinic, I especially enjoy working with youth who have been exposed to violence, healthy relationships/social-sexual health education (centering neurodiverse youth), and prevention/education interventions with couples. I was one small part of helping support our campus’s COVID-19 response by working on a team to develop an integrative resource document (College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Impact Award; 2021), am endlessly inspired by my rape crisis volunteer experiences (Women Organized Against Rape Volunteer of the Year Award; 2018), and led a team of mental health educators as an undergraduate (Jordan Porco Foundation Student Mental Health Advocate of the Year; 2017).

 

As an educator, I am especially passionate about teaching our department’s service learning course for undergraduate students, which partners with Cunningham Children’s Home (List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent, fall 2023 and spring 2024), and our science communication workshop series for masters students. I also coordinate our program area’s clinical-community psychology interest group and volunteer as part of a sexual health education team in town.

 

When I’m not researching, teaching, or in the clinic, you can probably find me running to a good audiobook for book club (send me your favorite narrator recommendations); I ran my first marathon this summer.

 

Education

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, M.S. in Psychology

Wellesley College, B.A. in Psychology 

University of Pennsylvania, Certificate in Professional Writing 

Awards and Honors

Teachers ranked as excellent (fall 2023, spring 2024)

2023 Herman Eisen Award (recognizing professional contributions to psychology; “reflecting a commitment to mental health needs in Champaign-Urbana”)

College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Impact Award (spring 2021; shared with Brett Bergmann & Maya Marder)

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

This fall/spring, I am thrilled to be teaching our service learning course, in partnership with Cunningham Children's Home. 

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

Highlighted Publications

Check out my Google Scholar for a complete list of publications. 

 

Rieger, A., Zhan, Q., Griffin, B., Garthe, R. C., & Allen, N. E. (2024). Perils and possibilities: Sexual violence preventionists’ perspectives on gathering community input on prevention practice. Violence Against Women.

Rieger, A., Campbell, J., & Garthe, R. C. (2024). Connecting to community: Violence prevention barriers, geography, and preventionist perceptions of community leadership and opportunities. Health Promotion Practice. 

Rieger, A., Blackburn, A. M., Nag, A., Holland, H., & Allen, N. E. (2023). Contradictions in change: Ecological factors in the implementation of outer layer sexual violence prevention. American Journal of Community Psychology.

Garthe, R. C., Rieger, A., Goffnet, J., Kaur, A., Sarol, J. N., Blackburn, A. M., Kim, S., Hereth, J., & Kennedy, A. C. (2022). Grade-level differences of peer and dating victimization among transgender, gender expansive, female, and male adolescents. Journal of LGBTQ Youth. 

Nnawulezi, N., Rieger, A., Shaw, J., Greeson, M., Lichty, L., & Allen, N. E. (2022). Reflecting and rejuvenating our work, together: One team’s consideration of AJCP publications on gender-based violence. American Journal of Community Psychology 70(3-4), 255-264. 

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.