Dr. Susan T. Tran, Research Director

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@SusanTranPhD

Dr. Tran (she/her) completed her graduate training at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and her internship and fellowship training at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.  Dr. Tran’s research, teaching, and clinical interests are in pediatric psychology. Specifically, her research focuses on the relationships between biological and psychosocial determinants of health and wellness in children and adolescents.  Current projects focus on physical, academic, social, and emotional functioning in youth with pediatric chronic pain, the effects of stress on pain, health disparities in pediatric chronic pain, and health behavior in emerging adults.

Marissa Koven, 6th year Doctoral Student

Clinical Child Track

Marissa (she/her) received her bachelor’s of arts degree in psychology from Emory University. After graduation, she worked as a clinical research coordinator in the Center for Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. While at DePaul, she was an extern at DePaul FCS, UI Health Craniofacial Center, and University of Chicago Medicine. Clinically, Marissa has worked with families from diverse backgrounds in a variety of medical and community mental health settings. Marissa’s research interests lie in understanding the impact of pediatric chronic medical conditions on children and families’ psychosocial functioning, within the context of broader family factors. She is passionate about fostering resiliency and improving coping among children and their families in both her research and clinical work. She has developed a bilingual (English and Spanish) and culturally sensitive coping kit for school aged children with craniofacial conditions and their caregivers. She is pilot testing the kit for her dissertation. She is currently completing her predoctoral internship at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in the Pediatric Psychology Track .

Helen Bedree, 4th year Doctoral Student

Clinical Child Track

Helen (she/her) received her bachelor of arts in psychology at Mount Holyoke College. After graduating, she moved to Chicago and worked as a post-bac research assistant at DePaul’s Center for Community Research on the pediatric epidemiology project, which aimed to determine the prevalence of chronic fatigue syndrome and myalgic encephalomyelitis among a community-based sample in the Chicagoland area. Helen’s general research interests are understanding health disparities related to pediatric chronic illness and access to psychosocial treatment approaches. She defended her thesis examining bidrectionality of daily pain and physical activity among emerging adults using dynamic structural equation modeling in July of 2021 and received her MA in clinical psychology. Helen is currently working on her dissertation, examining developmental differences in youth with disorders of the gut-brain interaction. In her clinical training, Helen has completed practica at DePaul’s Family and Community Services and NorthShore University HealthSystem’s pediatric neuropsychology externship. Her current clinical rotation is at Shriners Children’s Chicago working with pediatric populations.

Keely Bieniak, 2nd year Doctoral Student

Clinical Child Track

Keely (she/her) graduated from North Central College in 2019, earning a BS in Psychology as well as minors in Neuroscience and Wellness. In June 2021 she earned her MS in Psychology from DePaul. This is her fourth year as part of the CHILL Lab, where she has had the chance to engage in a variety of research projects including those focused on pediatric Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, mental health in emerging adulthood, and the impact of COVID-19 on well-being. Keely’s main research interests lie in understanding what factors influence the wellness outcomes for individuals with pediatric chronic pain or chronic illness. She is currently working on a systematic review of the prevalence of mental health conditions in youth with chronic pain. Keely recently began clinical training at DePaul Family and Community Services where she provides individual psychotherapy to youth and adults as well psychological assessment and school based services to youth.

Brittany Ricart, 3rd year Doctoral Student

Clinical Child Track

Brittany received her B.A in psychology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. After graduating, she spent several years working at Children’s National Medical Center with patients in the in-patient psychiatric unit and the emergency department, as well as at George Washington University’s Cancer Center. Brittany’s primary research interests include the relationship between children and adolescents with chronic medical conditions and their mental/physical health outcomes, chronic pain/stress relationship, and health disparities among minority children and adolescents. Outside of the program, you can find Brittany caring for and playing with her cat Remus, hiking and leisure reading.