***The Penn State Psychological Clinic has continued to remain completely operational throughout the COVID-19 pandemic by offering the full range of services through telehealth. 

For further information regarding clinic services, please contact us at 814-865-2191. 

You are here: Home / Psychological Clinic / Staff

Staff

Message from the Psychological Clinic

Welcome to the Pennsylvania State University Psychological Clinic homepage. Our clinic functions with three primary goals in mind:

  1. Training of graduate students in our doctoral (PhD) training program in Clinical Psychology (adult and child tracks)
  2. Provision of evidence based psychological services to residents of Centre County and the surrounding area
  3. Conducting “state of the art” research in order to develop new and more effective ways of helping our clients cope with the difficulties they face

In order to accomplish these missions, we are committed to providing services to all individuals regardless of race, gender, religion, ethnic background, economic status, or sexual orientation. Because we operate as the training facility for one of the leading Clinical Psychology programs in the nation, our professional staff includes faculty in Clinical Psychology, adjunct faculty, staff psychologists and psychiatrists, and licensed mental health professionals. Many hold clinical appointments in the Department of Psychology. Many serve as clinical supervisors to the staff clinicians who are primarily composed of graduate students enrolled in the Clinical Psychology doctoral training program.

The Clinic is licensed by the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services as an Outpatient Psychiatric Clinic and accepts referrals from individuals and various community agencies. We operate, in part, as a contracted provider for Centre County's Mental Health/Intellectual Disability/Drug and Alcohol Program/Early Intervention Services and receive referrals from the Base Service Unit (BSU) in Bellefonte. Thus, some of our services are funded in part under an agreement with Centre County. We also accept most major insurance providers.

Clinic Directors

Estee Hausman, Ph.D. - Interim Co-Director of the Psychological Clinic and Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychology

Estee

Estee Hausman is an Interim Co-Director and clinical supervisor of the Psychological Clinic. She provides clinical supervision of therapy and assessment to doctoral students in clinical psychology, provides individual and group psychotherapy, provides consultation services to schools and other community agencies, and also serves in a variety of training and administrative functions. She is also a clinical supervisor at Penn State's Anxiety Clinic. In her clinical work and supervision, she utilizes a developmental psychopathology lens, drawing from behavioral, cognitive-behavioral, and third-wave cognitive-behavioral approaches. Her primary interests include typical and atypical regulation of both positive and negative emotions in children and adolescents. Specifically, her work has focused on atypical regulation of positive emotion (affective, cognitive, neurobiological) with respect to anxiety and depressive symptoms and disorders in children and adolescents. She also has interests in clinical training and supervision as means of disseminating evidence-based practices. She has also worked extensively on an NIMH-funded clinical outcome study of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), is a certified PCIT therapist, and provides administration of and clinical supervision within Penn State's PCIT clinic.

Sandra Testa, Ph.D. - Interim Co-Director of the Psychological Clinic, Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychology

Sandra Testa is the Interim Co-Director of the Psychological Clinic and clinical supervisor at the Psychological Clinic at Penn State University. She provides direct supervision to clinical doctoral students, provides direct treatment services for Clinic clients, and also serves in a variety of training and administrative functions. She is a broadly-trained clinical psychologist, and utilizes a variety of therapeutic modalities including psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, and integrative psychotherapies in the treatment of a wide range of clinical difficulties. Her primary research interests include the explication of factors and mechanisms which may trigger, exacerbate, and/or perpetuate the susceptibility toward and maintenance of both general and specific forms of clinical psychopathology in order to enhance prevention and treatment approaches. She is especially interested in the complex and oftentimes multidirectional interactions that occur between innate influences, developmental factors (e.g., attachment history, family of origin issues, learning history, sufficiency of other necessary resources for optimal self-regulation), and impact of exposure to adverse conditions (e.g., acute/chronic/traumatic stress) across multiple domains of functioning (e.g., cognitive, affective, interpersonal, physiological, and neurobiological) at various stages of development which may render an individual susceptible to a variety of clinical disturbances. She has also worked extensively on NIMH-funded comparative treatment outcome studies for Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia and is currently serving as a clinical supervisor at Penn State’s Anxiety Clinic.

Bettina Welz, M.D. - Psychiatrist, Medical Director

Dr. Welz is a medical doctor and psychiatrist with an interest in community mental health and psychopharmacology. At the Penn State Psychological Clinic, she provides direct patient care in collaboration with the psychologists, as well as performs administrative tasks and supervision. She graduated from Swarthmore College and Pennsylvania State University Medical School, and completed residencies in Internal Medicine and Psychiatry at the University of Virginia. Dr. Welz is board certified in Internal Medicine and Psychiatry.

Senior Clinical Staff

 

Kristen M. Kelly, PhD, CRNP - Psychiatric Provider and Clinical Supervisor

Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner
Senior Clinician and Supervisor

Dr. Kelly’s roles include providing clinical supervision for doctoral students, as well as providing direct clinical care to Clinic clients. In addition, her research interests center on the areas of parent-infant mental health and developmental psychopathology, particularly as they relate to parents' mental representations, cognitive-affective attributions, and corresponding parent-infant behaviors. Specifically, one of the main functions of her research is to develop more accurate and comprehensive models for understanding how distortions in parents' perceptions of themselves and of their children influence parenting behavior, the quality of parent-infant interactions, and child developmental outcomes. She is especially interested in studying how such distortions manifest in vulnerable populations, such as mentally ill parents and those who have suffered severe trauma, given that these individuals are at higher risk for experiencing impaired perceptions and difficult interpersonal relationships.

 

Kristen Smith-Simon, Ph.D. - Assistant Clinical Professor

Kristen Smith-Simon received her Ph.D. from Penn State University's Clinical Psychology program and her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan. She completed her internship at Geisinger Medical Center in the Pediatric Psychology track and her post-doctoral training at the Penn State Psychological Clinic and MidStep Center for Child Development. Since becoming licensed she has continued her positions at both clinics. Her roles at the Penn State Psychological Clinic include providing individual and group psychotherapy, assisting with administration of and supervision within the Anxiety Clinic, and running and supervising students through the Parent-Child Behavior Skills Group program. Her research interests broadly include understanding family factors involved in children's socio-emotional development, with specific interest in childhood anxiety and behavior problems.

 

Ashley Schrag, MEd, LPC

Ashley S.pngAshley Schrag received her Bachelor’s degree in Human Development and Family Studies from The Pennsylvania State University. She went on to earn an M.S.Ed. in Psychological Services and an M.Phil.Ed. in Professional Counseling from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. While conducting her graduate studies, Ashley completed an internship at Hall-Mercer, a community mental health center affiliated with the hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. There she was responsible for providing individual therapy to adult and child clients, co-leading therapeutic groups for adults and children, and assisting with the intake process. Additionally, Ashley gained experience working with parents and children in the Head Start program. After graduation, Ashley went on to work at the Penn State Psychological Clinic, where she continues today as a Staff Therapist. In her role at the clinic, Ashley provides individual and group psychotherapy to adults and children, as well as providing psychological consultation services to individuals with intellectual disabilities and their service providers. She also devotes time to mentoring and supervising current counseling students. Ashley is currently a Licensed Professional Counselor in the state of Pennsylvania. She enjoys serving a variety of clients, with particular interest in working with adults to address issues related to anxiety, depression, interpersonal difficulties, and challenges related to adjustment and phase of life transitions.

Kelly Berthold

Jenn Connell

Senior Staff

Kahlil Hasib - Director of Information Technology

Susan Hollywood - Office Manager

Hannah Holsing - Compliance Specialist

Administrative Staff

  • Jaclynn Zucco - Client Care Specialist
  • Alice White - Client Care Specialist
  • Katherine Evans, B.S. - Administrative Support Specialist

Clinical Faculty Supervisors

  • Peter Arnett, Ph.D.
  • Karen Bierman, Ph.D.
  • Louis Castonguay, Ph.D.
  • Pamela Cole, Ph.D.
  • Estee Hausman, Ph.D.
  • Frank Hillary, Ph.D.
  • Cynthia Huang-Pollock, Ph.D.
  • Yo Jackson, Ph.D.
  • Kenneth N. Levy, Ph.D.
  • Amy Marshall, Ph.D.
  • Michelle Newman, Ph.D.
  • Aaron Pincus, Ph.D.
  • Kristin Smith-Simon, Ph.D.
  • José Soto, Ph.D.
  • Sandra Testa Michelson, Ph.D.
  • Martha Wadsworth, Ph.D.
  • Stephen Wilson, Ph.D.

Staff Therapists

  • Christina Ford, PhD, LPC, NCC

Pre-licensed Clinical Staff

  • Karen Burgos, M.Ed., NCC, CRC
  • Brian Crosby, Ph.D.
  • Lauren Parker, Ph.D. M.Ed., NCC, CRC
  • Ahna Sahi, Ph.D.

Auxillary Supervisors

  • Kytam Dawood, Ph.D.
  • Jeff Hayes, Ph.D.
  • Anthony Junod, Ph.D.
  • Brian Sharpless, M.A.,Ph.D.

Doctoral Trainees

  • Ayse Asan
  • Irene Baik
  • Chloe Bliton
  • Megan Bradson
  • Adam Calderon
  • Sky Cardwell
  • Young Chung
  • Andrew Cwiek
  • Roua Daas
  • Katherine Davis
  • Walter Dyer
  • Bre Genaro
  • Alexandra Halberstadt
  • Christina Hlutkowsky
  • Leslie Ho
  • Josie Huang
  • Joseph Kilcullen
  • Vanessa Kim
  • Rachel Level
  • Catherine Li
  • Metzli Lombera
  • Gabrielle Lowenthal
  • Raaga Mahendiran
  • Morgan Mannweiler
  • Chelsea Mayo
  • Hollie Mullin
  • Haruka Notsu
  • Holly Pham
  • Natalie Pottschmidt
  • Sreelakshmi Pushpanadh
  • Gavin Rackoff
  • Adithi Rajagopalan
  • Camilo Rodriguez
  • Lia Rosenstein
  • Alexandra Roule
  • Ahna Sahi
  • McKenna Sakamoto
  • Michael Sanders
  • Jeremy Schwob
  • Becca Slotkin
  • Nathaniel Smith
  • Sara Soto
  • Daniel Spina
  • Tawni Stoop
  • Sara Such
  • Michael Tan
  • Garrett Thomas
  • Alex Trahan
  • Esha Vaid
  • Samantha Vervoordt
  • Tyler Warner
  • Elsie Yan
  • Zhenyu Zhang
  • Corina Zisman
Return to Top