Members
Charissa Hosseini (Chair, Listserv Moderator) is a fifth-year doctoral student at Palo Alto University. She is in the process of completing her Pre-doctoral training at the Jerry L. Pettis Memorial VA Medical Center also known as the Loma Linda VA. Charissa’s clinical experiences include administering assessment batteries at Stanford University in Dr. Amit Etkin’s Lab and conducting individual at the Gronowski Center, Institute on Aging, and Palo Alto VA Geropsychiatry Community Living Center. Charissa’s research interest are regarding aging and trauma, she has published book chapters, a journal article, and has presented several poster presentations at national conferences. Her long-term career goals are to work in the field of geropsychology. Charissa enjoys traveling, spending time with her family, as well growing her succulent garden.
Rachael Spalding (Website Coordinator) is a second-year graduate student in the clinical psychology doctoral program at West Virginia University under the mentorship of Barry Edelstein. Her research interests include end-of-life decision-making, consent capacity issues, and late-life sexuality. She aspires to practice as a clinical geropsychologist in the future. In her spare time, she enjoys long-distance running, reading fiction and true-crime novels, and cooking.
Caroline Merz (Website Content Creator)is a 6th year PhD student in Brian Carpenter’s lab at Washington University in St. Louis. She is currently completing clinical internship at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington DC. Caroline’s interests are broad and include end of life, palliative care, psycho-oncology, and health psychology. Her dissertation is on psychologists’ knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs regarding medical aid in dying, and psychological evaluation in patients with terminal illness. In her (almost-nonexistent) spare time, she enjoys yoga, running with her husband, and playing with their dog.
Brenna Renn (Newsletter Editor) is an Acting Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington, having recently completed a research fellowship in geriatric mental health services research in the same department. She earned her PhD at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs (home of the Pikes Peak model!) and spent internship at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX. Her research interests include late-life depression, the comorbidity of depression and chronic disease, and improving access to mental health care, such as expanding the mental health workforce in primary care. Although she misses the sunshine of her home state of Hawaii, she and her growing family love the mix of the outdoors and cosmopolitan offerings that makes Seattle such a special place to live.
Elissa Kozlov (Newsletter Editor)
Patricia Bamonti (Social Media Overseer) is a staff psychologist in the Geriatric Mental Health Outpatient clinic at the Boston VA Healthcare System (VABHS) and an instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from West Virginia University in 2015. She completed internship and a clinical fellowship specializing in geropsychology at the Milwaukee VAMC. She provides individual and group psychotherapy and serves as a major supervisor within the Geropsychology training program supervising psychology interns and fellows. In 2017, she co-founded the Capacity Clinic, a training clinic for psychology interns in capacity evaluation of older adults at VABHS. Dr. Bamonti’s research is broadly focused on mitigating the impact of chronic illness and disability on mental health outcomes in older adults. Her current research is focused on comorbid mental health conditions in older adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and intervention development in this area. She currently serves as Secretary for the Council of Professional Geropsychology Training Programs (CoPGPT) and the Social Media Overseer for SCG and Diplomatic Liaison between SCG 12/II and CoPGPT.
For further information regarding the Communications Committee, please contact Charissa Hosseini, Committee Chair: chosseini@paloaltou.edu
