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Child and Family Science
Office: FFS 205
Phone: 559-278-5310
Email: katwal@csufresno.edu
Education: M.A. Education with an emphasis in Early Childhood Education, California State University, Fresno
Experience and Research: Since 1983 Kabeljit has had numerous opportunities to experience diverse roles in the field of Early Childhood Education. She has worked for a variety of organizations such as Head Start, AB212 CARES Program, and WestEd, Center for Child Family Studies. In 2003, she began teaching part-time for the State Center Community College and California State University of Fresno (CSUF). She was hired as a full-time lecturer in 2008 for the Child, Family, and Consumer Sciences Department at Fresno State.
Kabeljit has been inspired by advocating for the emotional life of a child. She is a PITC-certified infant toddler specialist. She believes that exposure to character education blossoms children to be respectful and socially competent as adults. She is an advocate for understanding children's behavior through honoring the inner emotional life of a child. She is a co-author of an article that was published in the textbook. Next Steps Toward Teaching the Reggio Way, (2nd ed.) She also has extensive interest and training in the Hanna Perkins Consultation Model. In 2011, she completed the 15-month Infant-Parent Mental Health Post-Graduate Certificate Program (IPMHPCP) and earned a graduate certificate in infant-parent mental health from the University of Massachusetts, Boston (satellite location in Napa, California).
Office: FFS 201
Phone: 559-278-3228
Email: rbillen@csufresno.edu
Education: Ph.D. Child and Family Studies, University of Tennessee-Knoxville; M.S. Child and Family Studies, University of Tennessee-Knoxville;B.S. Marriage, Family, and Human Development,Brigham Young University
Experience and Research: Joining the Fresno State faculty full-time in the fall of 2016, Rhett served the previous year as a lecturer for child growth and development, family crisis, adolescent learning and development classes at Fresno State and Clovis Community College. He also taught classes at Tennessee in family stress, human sexuality, parent-child relations, and served as a graduate research assistant. At Fresno State, Rhett enjoys teaching family science courses and the upper-division writing course. His research has focused on families with young children with developmental disabilities and determinants of parental involvement among families of children receiving early intervention services. In August 2017, Rhett became a provisional Certified Family Life Educator (CFLE) through the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR). He is working towards collaborating with families of children with disabilities in the central valley to conduct research and develop family life education materials.
Phone: 559-278-4720
Email: kdyer@csufresno.edu
Education: Ph.D. Human Development and Family Studies, University of Missouri-Columbia; M.S. Human Development and Family Studies, University of Missouri-Columbia
Experience and Research: Katie's current research explores attachment cognitions of toddlers in relation to sleep and family history. The unifying theme of Katie's research agenda is an interest in parenting practices pertaining to infant sleep and how those strategies (such as cosleeping and sleep training) are related to attachment and emotional development. In addition, she conducts evaluation research to explore the effects of a developmental pediatric intervention called Healthy Steps at a local medical clinic.
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Office: FFS 214
Phone: 559-278-1158
Email: ahammons@csufresno.edu
Website: https://sites.google.com/mail.fresnostate.edu/amberhammons
Education: Ph.D. Psychology, University of California, Riverside; M.A. Psychology, University of California, Riverside; B.S. Psychology, University of California, San Diego
Research Interests: Developmental Psychology Family Health Behavior Change Prevention/Intervention Programming Positive Psychology
Selected Publications:Professor Hammons' publications may be accessed through her website, https://sites.google.com/mail.fresnostate.edu/amberhammons
Office: FFS 203
Phone: 559-278-2878
Email: fkartch@csufresno.edu
Education: Ph.D., 2013, Communication, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; M.A., 2009, Communication, Northern Illinois University; B.A., Communication and Political Science, 2007, Northern Illinois University
Research Interests: Family Communication, Interpersonal Communication, Dark Side of Close Relationships, Gender Communication, Menstruation Studies, and Qualitive Methods
Experience and Research:
Dr. Falon Kartch's research centers on exploring how familial bonds are formed and maintained as well as how various populations define what it means to be "family," particularly in contexts in which "family" occurs outside of social and cultural conventions. Her recent work has explored nonresidential parenting practices and nonresidential parent/child relationships. She is also interested in the application of nonviolent communication and relational justice frameworks to understand, develop, maintain, and terminate close relationships. More specifically, her recent line of inquiry explores the use of relational justice frameworks for understanding co-parenting relationships. Her most current research project explores parent/child communication regarding menstruation. Her research has been competitively selected for presentation at multiple meetings of the National Communication Association as well as the International Association for Relationship Researchers and has been featured in numerous edited volumes, including Family Communication, Casing the Family: Theoretical and Applied Approaches to Understanding Family Communication, and the SAGE Encyclopedia of Communication Research Methods. She is currently co-editing an interdisciplinary, edited volume titled Gandhi's Global Legacy: Lessons from Our Modern Times and Moral Challenges, under contract with Lexington Books.
Dr. Kartch teaches Undergraduate and Graduate courses in social and personal relationships including Family Communication, Interpersonal Communication, Conflict and Communication, and the Dark Side of Close Relationships, as well as Communication Theory and Gender Communication. Dr. Kartch has also presented invited lecturers, at both the Undergraduate and Graduate level, on qualitative inquiry and data analysis.
Dr. Kartch is particularly interested in the use of service-learning as a means of promoting student engagement with the local community and has worked with local community partners, most notably the grassroots initiative Better Period, to address menstrual stigma and period poverty in the Central Valley through her Gender Communication course. She has completed several trainings in service-learning and was a recipient of the 2019-2020 Service-Learning Development Grant from the Jan & Bud Richter Center for Community Engagement and Service-Learning at Fresno State.
Office: FFS 302
Phone: 559.278.1659
Email: jmckenzie@csufresno.edu
Website: www.jessica-mckenzie.com
Education: Ph.D., 2014, Psychology, Clark University; M.A., 2011, Psychology, Clark University; B.A., 2006, Psychology, Miami University
Experience and Research: Jessica bridges developmental and cultural perspectives to examine how people make sense of themselves across the life course, and the role of culture and cultural change in sense-making processes. Employing qualitative and quantitative methods, Jessica has studied the beliefs (about divinity, morality, self) and practices (religious, linguistic, dietary, media) of adolescents and parents in Thailand, and of children, adolescents, and adults in the United States. Her ongoing ethnographic fieldwork in northern Thailand has contributed to the developmental science of globalization, and her work in the U.S. has contributed to the scientific understanding of the cultural nature of moral development.
Students in Jessica’s Human Development and Culture Research Lab have published empirical articles in leading journals in the discipline and have presented the results of their research internationally, nationally, and locally. HD&C lab members have studied a range of topics, including: the transformation and maintenance of moral values in contexts of rapid sociocultural change, adolescent orientations toward religion in globalizing Northern Thailand, dyadic perspectives of media use in rural and urban Thailand, and globalization-based cultural brokerage among urban Thai adolescent—parent dyads. Additional information on the research in which Jessica and her students are engaged can be found here.
Office: FFS 301
Phone: 559-278-5323
Email: megpronovost@csufresno.edu
Education: Ph.D. Psychological Sciences, University of California, Merced
Experience and Research: Megan joined the Fresno State faculty in 2019 after receiving a Ph.D. in Psychological Sciences with an emphasis in Developmental Psychology from UC Merced. Her research is primarily related to the development of social cognition from infancy to early childhood.
Broadly, her research investigates the origins and nature of social-group based inferences, and how environmental factors shape these inferences throughout early childhood. Specifically, she investigates the types of characteristics that infants expect members of a social group to share, such as food preferences and social behaviors.
Additionally, her research investigates how environmental influences, such as how parents discuss social groups with their children, as well as the other environmental factors, impact the beliefs and inferences that children form about social groups.
Office: FFS 305
Phone: 559-278-5141
Email: aroach@csufresno.edu
Curriculum Vitae (PDF)
Education: Ph.D. Human Development and Family Science, University of Missouri - Columbia; M.A., Child and Family Studies, Fontbonne University, St. Louis, MO; B.A., Vocational Family and Consumer Sciences, Missouri State University, Springfield, MO
Experience and Research: Joining the Fresno State faculty in the fall of 2016, Andrea received her Ph.D. degree from the University of Missouri with an emphasis on domestic violence and family relations. Her research interests include intimate partner violence, parent-child relationships, adolescence and emerging adulthood, sibling relationships, divorce and remarriage, and sexuality. She has been an active member of the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) since 2011, is a member of the Journal of Family Theory and Review Inaugural Digital Scholarship Board, and is the Students and New Professionals Representative-Elect for the NCFR Board.
At the University of Missouri, she was a graduate instructor and teaching assistant. She taught classes in family studies, intimate relationships and marriage, human sexuality, human development, adolescence and young adulthood. She also served as a postdoctoral research assistant for the Family Services Department of the State of Missouri in a comparative analysis for child support collection techniques. She also taught Family and Consumer Sciences at McCluer South-Berkeley High School while she was a graduate student at Fontbonne University. Courses she taught included child care and development, housing, fashion design, nutrition and wellness, food science, and senior survival.
Office: FFS 312
Email: cberk@csufresno.edu
Education: MA (2020) Early Childhood Education, Fresno State; BS (2019) Child Development, Fresno State; Hired: 2021
Experience and Research: Master teacher in a pre-K classroom
Phone: 559-259-4254
Email: marcydavidson@csufresno.edu
Education: MA (2007) Human Development with specializations in ECE, Teaching Adults and College Teaching, Leadership in Education and Human Services Admin., Pacific Oaks College; Hired: 2017
Experience and Research: Reedley College faculty/chair, early childhood education
Email: j.delatorre@csufresno.edu
Education: MS (2022) Marriage, Family, and Child Counseling, Fresno State; BS (2018) Child Development, Fresno State; Hired: 2023
Experience and Research: Associate Marriage and Family Therapist
Office: FFS 206
Phone: 559-696-4425
Email: lindad@csufresno.edu
Education: MS (1994) Psychology, Fresno State; Hired: 1994
Experience and Research: Full-time child development faculty at Fresno City College
Phone: 559-273-5958
Email: carolined18@csufresno.edu
Education: MS (2018) Marriage and Family Therapy, Fresno Pacific Biblical Seminary; BS (2008) Child Development, Fresno State; Hired: 2018
Experience and Research: Family Healing Center – forensic interviewer
Email: bethann1@csufresno.edu
Education: MA (2020) Early Childhood Education, Fresno State; Hired: 2022
Experience and Research: Assistant Director at Kids Kare since 1999
Email: daveyrjones@csufresno.edu
Education: PhD (2021) Human Development, Fielding Graduate University; Hired: 2022
Experience and Research: Full-time employee in Education at Fresno Pacific University
Email: elassen@csufresno.edu
Education: MA (2022) Communication, Fresno State Hired: 2023
Experience and Research: ASSIST System trainer, University of California Office of the President
Email: deblewis@csufresno.edu
Education: MA Ed. (2003) Early Childhood Education, Fresno State; Hired: 2023
Experience and Research: Full-time lecturer at Fresno City College; has previously run the CD labs at FCC
Phone: 559-349-9159
Email: clmacias@csufresno.edu
Education: MA Ed. (2018) Early Childhood Education, Fresno State; BS (2010) Biology, Fresno State; Hired: 2019
Experience and Research: Also teaches at Reedley Community College, Science Education
Email: kaceymedellin@csufresno.edu
Education: MS (2020) Marriage and Family Therapy, CSU Fullerton; BS (2017) Child Development, Fresno State; Hired: 2020
Experience and Research: Private clinical practice
Phone: 559-903-3732
Email: cnaik@csufresno.edu
Education: MS (2013) Marriage and Family Therapy, Fresno State; BA (2010) Psychology, Fresno State; Hired: 2018
Experience and Research: Private clinical practice, foster care, also teaches in Psych Dept., advisor for Psych Dept.
Email: valente1@csufresno.edu
Education: MSW (2008) Social Work, Fresno State; BS (2005) Social Work, Fresno State; Hired: 2023
Experience and Research: Private clinical practice and Administrative Director, West Coast Institute for Gestalt Therapy with Children and Adolescents
Email: mputman@csufresno.edu
Education: MA (2018) Marriage and Family Therapy, Fresno Pacific University Biblical Seminary; BA (2011) Family Science, Fresno State; Hired: 2018-2020 Rehired: 2023
Phone: 559-259-2596
Email: rrobart@csufresno.edu
Education: PhD (2010) Cognitive Psychology, UC Riverside; Hired: 2019
Experience and Research: Cognition, perception, family interactions and child health
Email: alexandrasmith@csufresno.edu
Education: MS (2021) Marriage and Family Therapy, Fresno State; BA (2019) Psychology, Fresno State; Hired: 2022
Email: xueyan@csufresno.edu
Education: PhD (2018) Special Education, University of Washington; Hired: 2023
Experience and Research: Lecturer in Education, Fresno State
Phone: 559-278-1601
Email: lwalters@mail.fresnostate.edu
Want to know what our emeritus faculty have been up to since you graduated? https://sites.google.com/mail.fresnostate.edu/fresnostatecfsemeritusfaculty/home