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  • Trauma, Substance, Justice, and Recovery Lab (TSJR)
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Trauma, Substance, Justice, and Recovery Lab (TSJR)

circle of support

What is the TSJR Lab?

The Trauma, Substance, Justice, and Recovery (TSJR) Lab focuses on the syndemic (overlapping epidemics) of trauma exposure, substance misuse, and justice system involvement, and aims to generate research to delineate pathways and identify supports to mental health and substance use disorder recovery. We are especially interested in understanding and addressing this syndemic among people who experience multiple forms of marginalization (e.g., people living with HIV [PLWH] or at substantial risk of HIV transmission; Black, Indigenous, and other people of color [BIPOC]; people with low income and economic marginalization; sexual and gender minorities [SGMs]) and among emerging adults.

This team is led by Dr. Ryan Flinn, Assistant Professor of Counseling Psychology at UND, supported by the Fischer Rose Isabelle Kelly Professorship (2024-2027) in the College of Education & Human Development at UND. 

What

Identify and evaluate effective prevention, treatment, and recovery support services for people with SUD, PTSD, and/or justice system involvement (populations experiencing health disparities)

How

Employ intersectional, trauma-informed, culturally-responsive & structurally-responsive research approaches that incorporate the perspectives of people with lived experience of the concerns we study and who are members of the populations we study

Why

Discover knowledge to improve human health

Aligned with UND’s Counseling Psychology Doctoral Program training model, training on this team is grounded in a scientist-practitioner training model with a multicultural and social justice emphasis. Among other things, this means that students learn how to evaluate and apply research evidence to clinical practice and that clinical practice experiences inspire and motivate the pursuit of new knowledge. The lab’s overarching goal is to train and graduate outstanding scientist-practitioners to pursue and disseminate research findings that have the potential to enhance human health.

We strive to conduct research that aligns with the values of the American Psychological Association’s Society of Counseling Psychology, including critical consciousness, prevention, strength-based, advocacy, flexibility and adaptability, collectivism, accountability and repairing harm, liberation, and healing. Our striving toward these values is reflected in the topics we study, the populations we work with, and the ways in which we interact with one another. As a research lab housed at a public university and supported in various ways through public funds, we also volunteer our time in support of individuals and organizations with similar goals. This might involve addressing a community need by offering a presentation or training and supporting a community partner in disseminating their knowledge or seeking and securing necessary resources. Members of the lab also engage in service to the profession of psychology in a variety of ways (e.g., serving on APA committees, completing peer reviews for APA and other journals).

Our lab consists of students with a variety of career goals and previous research experiences, including post-baccalaureate and post-master’s students. Students who are enthusiastic about routinely committing time each week (during the academic year) to learn new skills and be integrally involved in all aspects of the research and dissemination process may be a good fit for this lab.

Our lab meets once per week during the regular academic year and every 2-3 weeks during summer.

Students are encouraged to come prepared to work, ask questions, share their work, receive feedback, and find solutions to issues they are encountering in their second-year projects, dissertations, conference submissions, manuscripts, and applications for funding.

In a typical lab meeting, students will have an opportunity to share updates and seek feedback and support on the main project they are working on – which could be their second-year project or dissertation, typically developed during individual advising with Dr. Flinn – as well as contribute to work on shared projects currently being pursued by multiple members of the lab (e.g., new data collection, multi-authored manuscripts). Occasionally, Dr. Flinn, another team member, or a guest will facilitate discussion or a presentation about a specific topic of interest to enhance learning and team effectiveness.

Consistently engaged team members can expect to complete doctoral study with at least three peer-reviewed publications resulting from their efforts on this team. A higher number of publications is possible depending on time students make available for work in the lab, students’ willingness to seek supplemental funding (with support from Dr. Flinn), and other factors.

Prospective applicants are welcome to contact Dr. Flinn with questions about the lab after reviewing the materials available at the following links. Please note that it is not necessary to contact Dr. Flinn prior to applying for admission, and that pre-application correspondence with Dr. Flinn has no impact on whether your application to the program will result in an offer to interview for the program. Dr. Flinn will be reviewing applications to the program in the upcoming application cycle.

UND Programs

Counseling Psychology Ph.D. Program at the University of North Dakota

Counseling Psychology Ph.D. Program Requirements

APPLY TO GRADUATE PROGRAMS AT UND

  • Names in bold identify TSJR Lab Members

Estevez, B. (Co-Chair), Flinn, R.E. (Co-Chair), Boot-Haury, J., Terepka, A., Budge, S., Trotta, K., Patterson, C., Abreu, R.L., & Skerven, K. (2024, August). Until everyone is free: Centering personal and collective well-being in transgender and gender-diverse advocacy. Critical conversation presented in the Division 44 Meeting Room at the 2024 American Psychological Association Annual Conference, Seattle, WA, Division 44.

Anderson, S. & Flinn, R.E. (2024, August). Rural and sexual gender minority youth: A research agenda. Poster presented at the 2024 American Psychological Association Annual Conference, Seattle, WA, Division 44.

Pasman, E., Flinn, R.E., Gallardo, K.R., & Drazdowski, T.K. (2024, April). Advancing community-based participatory research on recovery support services: Emerging topics. 2024 National Conference on Addiction Recovery Science, online.

Dauria, E., Hibbard, P., Jones, M., Sheidow, A. (2024, April). Supporting people with lived experience along the NIH research pathway. (Discussant: R.E. Flinn). 2024 Academic Consortium on Criminal Justice Health Conference, Phoenix, AZ.

McCart, M., Hibbard, P., Tompkins, J., & Flinn, R.E. (2024, April). CoARS diversity survey results and pipeline to independent investigator for people with lived experience. Invited showcase for The Consortium on Addiction Recovery Science, online.

Flinn, R.E., Taylor, T.O., Cascalheira, C.J. (2024, January). Making way for justice-impacted trainees and colleagues: Dismantling barriers, highlighting progress. Difficult dialogue facilitated at the 2024 National Multicultural Conference and Summit, Santa Fe, NM.

Russell, T., & Flinn, R.E. (2024, March). Q-Chat: Engaging in Queer & Trans Research. (Discussant: J. Maliskey). Invited presentation for the University of North Dakota Pride Center, Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Waagen, T., Flinn, R.E., Hacker, M. (2024, March). Substance use disorder 101: Screening and intervention with physical therapy patients. Invited presentation delivered to Dr. Steven Halcrow’s Prevention, Wellness, and Health Promotion course, Physical Therapy Program. University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Flinn, R.E. (2024, January). Inclusive education for justice-involved students. Invited presentation for Alice T. Clark Scholars Mentoring Program. University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND.

  •  Names in bold identify TSJR Lab Members

Chapagain, S., Zhao, Y., Rohleen, T. K., Hamdi, S. M., Boubrahimi, S. F., Flinn, R. E., Lund, E. M., Klooster, D., Scheer, J. R., & Cascalheira, C. J. (2024). Predictive insights into lgbtq+ minority stress: A transductive exploration of social media discourse. IEEE 11th International Conference on Data Science and Advanced Analytics (DSAA). IEEE, 2024, October. (In Press).

Cascalheira, C. J., Chapagain, S., Flinn, R.E., Klooster, D., Laprade, D., Zhao, Y., Lund, E. M., Gonzalez, A., Corro, K., Wheatley, R., Gutierrez, A., Villanueva, O. G., Saha, K., De Choudhury, M., Scheer, J. R., & Hamdi, S. M. (2024). The LGBTQ+ minority stress on social media (MiSSoM) dataset: A labeled dataset for natural language processing and machine learning. Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) 18th International Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM). 

Cascalheira, C. J., Chapagain, S., Flinn, R.E., Zhao, Y., Boubrahimi, S. F., Klooster, D., Gonzalez, A., Lund, E. M., Laprade, D., Scheer, J. R., & Hamdi, S. M. (2023). Predicting linguistically sophisticated social determinants of health disparities with neural networks: The case of LGBTQ+ minority stress. 2023 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (BigData), 1314-1321, IEEE Computer Society, 2023/12/1. 

  •  Names in bold identify TSJR Lab Members. Student Investigators are denoted by an asterisk (*)

Draheim, A.A., Kridel, M.M., Flinn, R.E., Ravoori, N., Brands, S., Mosley, C., Drescher, C.F., Stepleman, L.M. (2023). Risk factors of homelessness among sexual and gender minorities in the Southeastern U.S. Journal of Social Distress and Homelessness. 

Hong, C., Flinn, R. E., Ochoa, A. M., John, S. A., Garth, G., & Holloway, I. W. (2023). Internalized homophobia and social well-being among Black sexual minority men living with HIV: The mediating role of LGBT community connectedness and racial, gender, and sexual identity integration. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity. Advance online publication. 

Cascalheira, C.J., Nelson, J., Flinn, R.E., Zhao, Y., Helminen, E.C., Scheer, J.R., Stone, A.L. (2023). High-risk polysubstance use among LGBTQ+ people who use drugs in the United States: An application of syndemic theory. International Journal of Drug Policy, 118. 

Cascalheira, C.J., Flinn, R.E., Zhao, Y., Klooster, D., Laparade, D., Hamdi, S.M., Scheer, J.R., Lopez, A.G., Lund, E.M., Gomez, I.N., Saha, K., & De Choudhury, M. (2023). Models of gender dysphoria using social media for use in technology-delivered interventions: Machine learning and natural language processing validation study. JMIR Formative Research, 7, e47256. 

Pryor, E.K.*, Tyre, M.*, Brands, S., Flinn, R.E., Stepleman, L.M., & Holt, N.R. (2023).  Barriers to mental health care identified by sexual and gender minority individuals in Georgia and South Carolina. Southern Medical Journal, 116(3), 264-269. 

Jackman, K.P., Tilchin, C., Wagner, J., Flinn, R.E., Trent, M., Latkin, C., Ruhs, S., Fields, E., Hamill, M., Mahaffey, C.C., Greenbaum, A., Jennings, J. (2023). Desires for individual and interpersonal level patient portal use for HIV prevention among urban sexual minority men: A cross-sectional study. JMIR Formative Research, 7, e43550. 

Funding

Dr. Ryan E. Flinn is supported as a Scholar/Trainee by the following training programs, each of which are funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA):

  • Lifespan/Brown Criminal Justice Research Training Program on Substance Use, HIV, and Comorbidities (R25DA037190)
  • JEAP Initiative (R24DA051950)

TSJR Lab Investigative Team

Dr. Ryan Flinn

Ryan Flinn, PhD (they/them/theirs)

Principal Investigator & Team Director, TSJR Lab
  • Trauma, Substance Use, Justice System, Recovery Support Services, Sexual and Gender Minorities
  • ryan.flinn@UND.edu

Shaylah Anderson
Shaylah Anderson, MA (she/her/hers)
Counseling Psychology Doctoral Student at the University of North Dakota
  • LGBTQ/Queer Mental Health, Rural Mental Health, LGBTQ/Queer Youth, Gender-Affirming Therapy, Multicultural Informed Practice, Social Justice, Social Advocacy, Liberation and Community Psychology, Weight Stigma and Sizeism
    • shaylah.olson@UND.edu

Tiffany Chiu
Tiffany Chiu, BA (she/her/hers)
Counseling Psychology Doctoral Student at the University of North Dakota
  • Multicultural Research, Trauma, BIPOC, Rural Populations
  • tiffany.chiu@ndus.edu
Molly Hacker
Molly Hacker, BA (she/her/hers)
Counseling Psychology Doctoral Student at the University of North Dakota
  • Mental Illness Stigma, Integrated Behavioral Health, Trauma, Weight Stigma, Rural Mental Health
  • molly.hacker@UND.edu
Ethan Spana
Ethan Spana, BS
Counseling Psychology Doctoral Student at the University of North Dakota
  • Trauma, LGBTQ/Queer Mental Health, Community Psychology, Substance Abuse, Multicultural Psychology 
  • ethan.spana@und.edu

Kate McKinney

Kate McKinney, BS (she/her/hers)

Counseling Psychology Doctoral Student at the University of North Dakota
  • Help-Seeking, Substance Use Recovery, LGBTQ+ Youth, College Student Mental Health
  • kate.mckinney@und.edu
Zhihao Tang
Zhihao Tang, MA (he/him/his)
Counseling Psychology Doctoral Student at the University of North Dakota
  • LGBTQ+ Mental Health, International Students' Mental Health, Positive Psychology Interventions, Trauma Recovery and Growth, Posttraumatic Growth, Gratitude
  • zhihao.tang@UND.edu

Alumni

Chandler Tobeck
Chandler Tobeck, MPH (he/him/his)
Counseling Psychology Doctoral Student at the University of North Dakota
  • Childhood Trauma, Suicide Prevention, Integrated Behavioral Health, Chronic Pain, Health Promotion
  • chandler.tobeck@UND.edu
College of Education & Human Development
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231 Centennial Dr Stop 7189
Grand Forks, ND 58202-7189
P 701.777.2674

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