Director
Peggilee Wupperman, Ph.D.
Dr. Wupperman is a professor of psychology at John Jay College/City University of New York and an assistant clinical professor at Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Wupperman is invested in improving the understanding and treatment of individuals with dysregulated emotions and behaviors. With this aim, she has conducted basic and applied research related to mindfulness and modification therapy for more than a decade. Her publications have focused on behavior dysregulation, mindfulness, emotion regulation, and personality disorders. Dr. Wupperman has presented at multiple national and international conferences, and she regularly conducts seminars, workshops and consultations for mental-health professionals and trainees. She sees therapy clients at the American Institute for Cognitive Therapy and in clinical trials of MMT for underserved populations. (Click here to view Dr. Wupperman's faculty page at John Jay College, and here to see her faculty page at Yale School of Medicine.)
Current Research Assistants
Dawoon Lee, B.A., M.A. Student
Dawoon Lee is a second-year graduate student at John Jay studying Forensic Psychology. She obtained her bachelor’s degrees in Criminal Justice and Forensic Psychology in 2020. She has worked as a research assistant with Professor Keith A. Markus on data analysis. She is a fellow for the Tow Police Advocate Fellowship, where she works in the Katal center for equality, health, and justice and learns how to advocate and evaluate policy. Dawoon’s MA thesis that will examine academic dishonesty and students’ related academic experience. Her research will address a growing concern about cheating as classes stay online, while also exploring solutions to prevent student misconduct and improve students’ education satisfaction. Ultimately, she plans to work toward protecting youth in the criminal justice system through pursing a Ph.D. in clinical psychology with a focus on forensic assessment of youth.
Micah Sanguyu, B.A., M.A. Student
Text coming soon.
John Engle, M.A., Ph.D. Student
Text coming soon.
Collaborators and Research Therapists, Current and Past
Jenny “Em” Mitchell, Ph.D.
Jenny "Em" Mitchell’s master's research focused on the ways in which borderline personality disorder traits manifest in relationship contexts, including a thesis about how emotion regulation and identity disturbances affect interpretation of feedback from others, as well as studies about variability in interpersonal needs and psychological abuse. In her doctoral research, Em has investigated sexual coercion and interventions for intimate partner violence (IPV). Most recently, Em partnered with a diversion program to conduct a feasibility trial of Mindfulness and Modification Therapy targeting physical aggression in court-referred men. Em's current research interests center on improving interventions for IPV, complex trauma, and underserved populations--particularly in reducing shame, stigmatization, bias, and judgment of clients in treatment.
Nancy Burns, B.A., J.D., M.A.
Cameron Pugach, M.A., Ph.D. Student
Mia Gintoft-Cohen, M.D.
Jennifer Varley, L.M.H.C.
Mikhal Yehezkal, L.M.H.C.
Briana Ryan, M.A., L.M.H.C.
Faith Unichukwa, M.A., Ph.D. Student
Jessica Dong, M.A., L.M.H.C.
Jacqueline Douglas, M.A., Ph.D. Candidate
Emily Edwards, Ph.D.
Ashley Spada, Ph.D.
Rakhel Shapiro, B.A., Ph.D. Student
Qian Li, M.A., Ph.D Student
Martin Viola, M.A.
Eugenia Garcia-Dubus, Ph.D.
Andrea Lee Gomez, M.A.
Monique DiNapoli, M.A.
Nina Tioleco, M.D.
Amanda L. Reed, Ph.D.
Bianca Wentt, B.A., M.A.-Candidate
Akanksha Anand, B.A., M.A.
Alain Zagorin, M.A.
Original Consultants
G. Alan Marlatt, Ph.D.
Bruce Rounsaville, M.D.
Funding Organizations
Special thanks to the funding organizations whose support has made the above projects possible: Donaghue Medical Research Foundation, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Mental Health, The Research Foundation of CUNY, PSC-CUNY, the John Jay Office for the Advancement of Research, The Ross Institute, and John Jay Psychology Department.