Martha C. Tompson, Ph.D. mtompson@bu.edu
Dr. Tompson's research focuses on the role of the family in promoting individual mental health. She is particularly interested in family processes and family treatment among individuals with depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Her goals include identifying strengths and deficits in family systems, which may impact on the course of mental disorders, and developing programs to help families cope. Over the past ten years, Dr. Tompson has developed a strong research program specifically on depression and family factors – both processes and treatment. Currently this work focuses on the links between maternal and children depression and on family-based models for treating child depression. This work is funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. These studies reflect Dr. Tompson's commitment to understanding family processes and testing family-based treatment models.
Her research has included the involvement of students, both graduate and undergraduate, at each level of the process, including review and synthesis of research literature, data collection, data analysis and preparation of manuscripts. As projects are collaborative, students are encouraged to contribute their ideas at each phase of designing and implementing research protocols. Each student in Dr. Tompson's lab has honed in on specific aspects of the larger research projects in developing their own research ideas. Dr. Tompson's students have consistently presented findings from their own research efforts at national and international conferences, including meetings of the Society for Research in Psychopathology, Society for Research in Child Development, Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, and International Society for Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology. Dr. Tompson has also published with her students in several highly ranked psychology journals. Click here to view a list of selected publications.

Rachel Freed, M.A. rfreed@bu.edu
Rachel is a fourth year student in the clinical psychology doctoral program at BU. She received a B.A. in Psychology from Johns Hopkins University in 2002. After graduating from Hopkins, she worked for four years for American Institutes for Research (AIR) in Washington, D.C. Rachel began working in Dr. Tompson's lab in the summer of 2006 and has been involved in data collection for the Families' and Children's Adjustment Study. Rachel's research interests include prevention and treatment of depression among children of parents with depression, and risk and resiliency factors for the development of depression in this population.

Priscilla Chan, M.A. pchan@bu.edu
Priscilla is a second year student in the clinical psychology doctoral program at BU. She graduated from Bowdoin College in 2006 with a major in Psychology and a minor in English. She worked as a research assistant for the Family Development and Treatment Lab prior to her acceptance as a graduate student to the program. Priscilla's research interests include treatment of depression and anxiety in children and adolescents and the ways in which life stress contributes to psychopathology in youth and families.

Ruth Cruise, M.A. cruise@bu.edu
Ruth is a second year student in the clinical psychology doctoral program at BU. She graduated from Harvard University in 2004 with an A.B. in the Study of Religion. Prior to joining Dr. Tompson’s lab, she worked at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia as a Research Technician on a randomized clinical trial of a family therapy for depressed and suicidal adolescents. General research interests include family contextual factors in the development, maintenance, and treatment of depressive symptoms. Her second year research project focuses on the role of maternal expressed emotion--a measure of the quality of family relationships--in mother-child interaction tasks and children's perceptions of their mothers.

Corey Smetana, B.A. coreyrs@bu.edu
Corey is a Research Assistant for the BU Family Development and Treatment Lab. She graduated from Boston University in 2009 with a major in psychology and a minor in statistics. Corey has been working in the lab since 2006, where she completed her work for distinction project on children’s coping with stressors associated with maternal depression. Her research interests include the role of family processes in depression, resiliency in the face of environmental stressors, sport psychology, and eating pathology.

Graduates:

•  Fawn McNeil-Haber, Ph.D.
•  Jason Fogler, Ph.D.
•  April Groff, Ph.D.
•  Kathryn Dingman Boger, Ph.D.