Our Team

CAPACITY Lab

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  1. Research
  2. Lab Directory
  3. CAPACITY Lab
  4. Our Team

Brittany N. Rudd PhD

  • Instructor of Psychology in Psychiatry, Institute for Juvenile Research, Department of Psychiatry
  • Director, Implementation Science and System-Involved Youth Research and Policy Program
Dr. Brittany Rudd is a child psychologist as well as an Instructor of Psychiatry and Assistant Professor of Psychology and Law at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). She is the director of CAPACITY Lab—an interdisciplinary team of scientists who build Community Academic Partnerships to Accelerate Community Implementation of Treatments for Youth. The lab’s mission is to promote mental health equity through community-partnered research and implementation science. Key foci include the development and implementation of scalable mental health interventions (e.g., digital mental health services and brief interventions) and harnessing partnerships with community organizations (e.g., juvenile justice, family courts, schools, mental health agencies) to understand their service context and needs and support their ability to implement mental health interventions. In addition to leading CAPACITY Lab, Dr. Rudd directs the Child and Family Behavior Clinic in the UIC Psychiatry Department. There, she assesses and treats youth with externalizing disorders, as well as supervises externs, interns, and fellows.

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Jax Witzig MA

  • Research Specialist, CAPACITY Lab
Jax Witzig is a Research Specialist at CAPACITY Lab, where they provide project management and research support. In their previous roles, Jax coordinated health equity studies at Northwestern University and managed a suite of social justice projects for the YMCA’s National Resource Office. Jax received their M.A. in Gender Studies/Sociology from DePaul University, where their thesis focused on non-carceral responses to interpersonal violence.

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Catalina Ordorica MEd

  • PhD Student, Clinical Psychology Program
  • Graduate Student Affiliate, CAPACITY Lab
Catalina Ordorica is a doctoral student in clinical psychology at UIC, working with Dr. Brittany Rudd. She is broadly interested in implementation science and evidence-based practices within child-serving systems to improve behavioral health outcomes for vulnerable youth. Prior to joining CAPACITY Lab in August 2021, Catalina worked at UCSF’s Juvenile Justice and Behavioral Health Lab (JJBH) and completed her Master's in Education at Vanderbilt University in Clinical Psychological Assessment.

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Danielle Stern MD

  • Psychiatry Resident - Class of 2023
Danielle Stern is a resident physician in the General Psychiatry program at UIC. She graduated in May 2019 from the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, where she was involved in teaching health classes and tutoring youth at Rhode Island’s juvenile detention center. She intends to pursue fellowship in child psychiatry followed by a career working with juvenile justice-involved youth. She joined CAPACITY Lab in December 2020.

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Holly Huber BA

  • Graduate Student Affiliate
Holly Huber is currently pursuing her PhD in Psychology in the Clinical Science program at Indiana University-Bloomington. Holly is broadly interested in the intersection of Psychology and Law and hopes to improve court processes with evidence-based practices. Holly joined CAPACITY lab in January 2021.

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Viviana Patino BS

  • Clinical Research Coordinator, Urban Youth Trauma Center (UYTC)
  • Psychiatry Volunteer, Community Academic Partnerships to Accelerate Community Implementation of Treatments for Youth (CAPACITY) lab
Viviana is a clinical research coordinator at the Urban Youth Trauma Center. She joined the UYTC team spring 2023. Previously, she received her B.S. in Psychology at the University of Illinois Chicago, and she is an ongoing psychiatry volunteer at CAPACITY lab at UIC as well. Viviana’s role at UYTC includes coordination of research measures and participant recruitment in a clinic setting, assisting with data management procedures, study protocol development, outreach, and the collection of resources for research protocols, papers, and grants. Her academic goals include pursuing a PhD in Clinical Psychology to study suicide prevention practices in underserved and vulnerable communities, especially the Latinx community.

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Ramiro Angelino BS

  • Research Assistant, CAPACITY Lab
  • Department of Psychiatry, UIC
Ramiro is currently serving as a research assistant for the CAPACITY lab working ad hoc. In his full-time position, he is a project coordinator for the University of Nebraska Lincoln investigating the impacts of sexual assault among sexual minority men. Additionally, he serves as a court advocate in the northwest suburbs of Chicago for Champaign County CASA.

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Greeshma Job BA

  • PhD Student, Clinical Psychology Program
  • Graduate Student Affiliate, CAPACITY Lab
Greeshma is a Clinical Psychology doctoral student at the University of Illinois Chicago. She is a member in Dr. Brittany Rudd's CAPACITY Lab and her research interests revolve around understanding mental health experiences within Queer, Trans, and Gender Diverse communities of color and the ways Queer joy is cultivated; examining the mental health impacts of interpersonal trauma; and utilizing community-based participatory action research methods to understand community mental health experiences and implement interventions aimed at increasing mental health support.

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Clarisa Wijaya MA

  • PhD Student, Clinical Psychology Program at UIC
  • Graduate Student Affiliate, CAPACITY Lab
Clarisa is a Clinical Psychology doctoral student at UIC, working under Dr. Brittany Rudd’s mentorship. She is passionate about increasing access to and uptake of evidence-based practices (EBPs) especially for underserved, minoritized youth. Specifically, by harnessing scalable and accessible modes of intervention delivery (i.e., digital health), disseminating EBPs to end-users, and implementing EBPs in settings serving vulnerable youth.

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Lucinda R. Smetana

  • Volunteer for the CAPACITY Lab
  • Juris Doctor Candidate, May 2024
  • University of Illinois Chicago School of Law

Lucinda is a 3rd year Law Student at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law who will aid the University of Illinois Chicago Department of Psychiatry in legal research and writing to support the work of projects assigned in the CAPACITY Lab.

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Nana Frimpong BA

  • Research Associate, CAPACITY Lab
  • Department of Psychiatry, UIC

Nana Frimpong received her Bachelors in Psychology from Illinois State University. She plans to go to graduate school for research psychology to obtain her PhD. 

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Courtney Etheridge

  • Volunteer for the CAPACITY Lab
Courtney is a consultant for the CAPACITY lab with a focus on the Families Matter Triage Program. She has a wide range of experience that allows her to provide support and insight into the community in which the project is intended to assist. Courtney was introduced to the program through her prior work where she advised the team on the legal process of filing for a Dissolution of Marriage and the details surrounding it to build the resources needed to support Pro Se litigants.

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Thea Rice BA

  • Volunteer for the CAPACITY Lab

Thea Rice is a first year MSW student working with Dr. Brittany Rudd in the CAPACITY Lab. After graduating from Columbia College Chicago, Thea worked as a early childhood educator for three years, eventually getting involved in childcare worker policy organizing. In 2023, she worked as a Campaign Organizer on SEIU HCII’s Childcare for All Campaign.

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Maya Mistrik Jekot BS

  • Social Work Intern, CAPACITY Lab

Maya is a first year MSW student and volunteering in the CAPACITY lab under Dr Brittany Rudd. She graduated with a BS in Clinical Psychology from University of Illinois Champaign Urbana in 2022. Since graduating, Maya has worked in a therapeutic clinic helping children with ASD and other neurodiverse diagnoses.

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Rinad S. Beidas PhD

  • Professor of Psychiatry, Medical Ethics and Health Policy, and Medicine
  • Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Rinad Beidas is a Professor of Psychiatry, Medical Ethics and Health Policy, and Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the Director of the Penn Medicine Nudge Unit, the Founding Director of the Penn Implementation Science Center at the Leonard Davis Institute, and the Associate Director at the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics.

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Nikki Cohen PhD

  • Research Collaborator, CAPACITY Lab

Naomi E. Goldstein PhD

  • Professor of Psychology, Co-Director of JD/PhD Program in Law and Psychology
  • Drexel University
Dr. Naomi Goldstein is a Professor of Psychology, Co-Director of the J.D./Ph.D. Program in Law and Psychology, and the Director of the Juvenile Justice Research and Reform Lab at Drexel University.

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Wayne Bear

  • CEO of the National Partnership for Juvenile Services (NPJS)

Wayne is the CEO of the National Partnership for Juvenile Services (NPJS).

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The Honorable Maria Granger

  • Judge for Floyd County (IN) Superior Court 3, Supervising Judge of the Veterans Court of Southern Indiana

The Honorable Maria D. Granger is the first judge to preside over Floyd Superior Court 3 and is the founder and Supervising Judge of the Veterans Court of Southern Indiana.

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Sungha Kang PhD

  • Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology
  • Loyola University Chicago
Sungha Kang is an assistant professor in the department of psychology at Loyola University Chicago. She completed her Ph.D. in clinical psychology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and completed her predoctoral internship at UIC Department of Psychiatry.  Dr. Kang’s research interests include how externalizing behaviors are identified and treated in racial/ethnic minority children, and ways to mitigate the impacts of structural racism in systems of care that serve those children including schools and healthcare systems.

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Gina Sissoko PhD

  • Research Collaborator, CAPACITY Lab

Gina Sissoko, PhD is a NIMH T32 postdoctoral fellow at the Yale School of Public Health and clinical psychologist focused on improving the health and developmental trajectories of Black girls globally. As a mixed-methods researcher, Dr.

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Alexandra Tabachnick PhD

  • Research Collaborator, CAPACITY Lab
  • Assistant Professor, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Alexandra Tabachnick (PhD) is an Assistant Professor/Team Scientist in the Department of Medical Social Sciences and the Center for Community Health at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Her research takes a two-generation approach (focusing on both parent and child functioning) to understand and enhance family well-being, particularly in marginalized and oppressed populations. She completed her clinical internship and postdoctoral fellowship at UIC and is currently affiliated with Dr. Brittany Rudd’s CAPACITY Lab as a collaborator.

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Margaret Wardle PhD

  • Assistant Professor
  • Director, Addiction Research and Treatment Laboratory
  • Department of Psychology
  • University of Illinois Chicago
The overall goal of my program of research is the development of more effective interventions for addiction. I do this by focusing on how emotions are drive drug use, using both basic human laboratory studies and clinical trials. I examine the basic effects of drugs on emotions by testing how small doses of drugs given in the laboratory change emotional functioning in healthy volunteers.

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Stephanie H. Yu PhD

  • Research Affiliate, CAPACITY Lab

Stephanie H. Yu, PhD (she/her/hers) received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2024, after completing her pre-doctoral residency at the University of Illinois Chicago Department of Psychiatry.

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Diego Basaldu BS

  • Former Research Assistant CAPACITY Lab, Summer 2023

Diego was a Research Assistant in CAPACITY Lab during the summer of 2023. He is currently working with Dr. Robin Mermelstein as a visiting research specialist. He also serves as a research coordinator for two ongoing NIDA-funded studies.

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Charlotte Goff AM

  • Former Research Coordinator in CAPACITY Lab, 2020-2021
Charlotte was a Research Coordinator in CAPACITY Lab from 2020-2021 and continues to provide support to projects on an ad hoc basis. She is now a Research Analyst at ORS Impact.

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Lucy Liu

  • Former Undergraduate Volunteer CAPACITY Lab, Summer 2021
Lucy was an undergraduate volunteer in CAPACITY Lab in summer 2021. She is working toward her B.S. in Biology and B.A. in Psychology at the University of Washington.

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