Torrance Center Summer Institute

Anna Abraham, Ph.D. is the E. Paul Torrance Professor and Director of the Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development at the University of Georgia. She investigates the psychological and neurophysiological mechanisms underlying creativity and the imagination. She is the author of the 2018 book, The Neuroscience of Creativity (Cambridge University Press).

Dr. Ardoin is the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education of the UGA Mary Frances Early College of Education and Associate Editor of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. Dr. Ardoin’s research focuses both on developing interventions and evaluating their effectiveness for individual students. Much of his current research employs eye-tracking procedures to better understand the reading processes that students engage in while reading passages and responding to questions.

Karrah Bowman graduated from Florida State University with a major in Psychology. She is currently a second-year doctoral student in the School Psychology program at the University of Georgia. Her research focus is on developing the educational environment to improve autistic student outcomes.

Brianna Caldwell is a third-year doctoral student in the University of Georgia’s Educational Psychology Department with a concentration in School Psychology. She is currently working in Clarke County Schools for practicum experience. She enjoys working with students in all grades but finds herself drawn to the elementary and middle school students. Brianna’s current research interests focus on school climate and mental health outcomes for minority students.

Bob Capuozzo is a Clinical Associate Professor of Elementary Education and has been at UGA for 10 years. At UGA he has been a professor-in-residence, program and field coordinator. He has 3 children in the Clarke County schools. He enjoys playing and watching sports.

Amanda L. Giordano, Ph.D., LPC is an associate professor at the University of Georgia who specializes in addictions counseling. She is the sole author of a clinical reference book titled, A Clinical Guide to Treating Behavioral Addictions and co-author of a textbook titled, Addiction Counseling: A Practical Approach. Dr. Giordano collaborates with domestic and international organizations to provide trainings to increase awareness related to behavioral addictions and has been an invited keynote speaker. She maintains a blog called Understanding Addiction for Psychology Today and has been a guest on several podcasts.

Ashley Harrison is an Associate Professor in the School Psychology Program at UGA’s Mary Frances Early College of Education. Dr. Harrison’s research focuses on identifying mechanisms that contribute to autism spectrum disorder (ASD) service disparities. Dr. Harrison co-directs the ASD diagnostic clinic within the school psychology clinic and serves as the school psychology program coordinator.

Emmaleigh Klein, M.S., CF-LSP is a Ph.D. student at the University of Georgia in the Learning, Leadership, and Organization Development Department. Her research interests include creativity, team functioning, leadership development, coaching, and Lego® Serious Play®. Her former employers include The Walt Disney Company, Chick-fil-A, and Azusa Pacific University.

Dr. Neubauer teachers in the masters of public administration program at Albany State University. His interests include human resources management, information systems, systems theory, artificial intelligence, multimedia and instructional design.

Tina Novelli is a Ph.D. student in special education at the University of Georgia and a scholar with the National Center for Leadership in Intensive Intervention. Prior to starting her doctoral program, she taught general and special education in public elementary schools in Nevada and Northern California, and received her M.Ed. in school administration. She is also a board-certified behavior analyst. Her primary research interest is understanding how readers acquire high-quality lexical representations across development.

Ashleigh Pipes teaches at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She holds a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from Georgetown University and has taught Linguistics, Communication, and ESL courses domestically and abroad. She has presented her research on creativity and other individual differences in second language acquisition at conferences in Belgium, Brazil, Finland, Poland, and Turkey.

Madison Rodriguez is a third-year doctoral student in the School Psychology program at the University of Georgia. Her clinical work focuses on providing bilingual mental health resources to her community and school systems in rural Georgia, as well as supporting the academic engagement and success of multilingual learners. Her research interests focus on the use of culturally adaptive interventions with Latinx families and the impact of ethnic identity development on the mental health of Latinx youth.

Desiree Sharpe is the Program Coordinator for the UGA Torrance Center. Dr. Sharpe received her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Georgia, specializing in behavioral neuroendocrinology and cognitive neuroscience. She currently leads scoring workshops for Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking and other professional learning courses centered on teaching for creativity.

Kiana Willis taught for 14 years before pursuing her doctoral studies in educational theory and practice with a focus on teacher education. Her specific areas of interest cover Black women educators, healing, restoration, and wellness through artful inquiry.

Fan Yang is a third-year Ph.D. student of Learning Design and Technology in the Department of Workforce Education & Instructional Technology at the University of Georgia. His research focuses on online learners’ help-seeking behavior as an adaptive way to self-regulate their studies and how instructional designers can promote online learning engagement and outcomes. He is also interested in motivational theories and how to embed these theories in instructional practices to facilitate learning.