ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø

Welcome! I am a Sport & Performance Psychologist and a Professor here at IU, since 2007. I spent a yearlong sabbatical in 2014 with the University of Washington Athletic Department and at Seattle Children's Hospital, but I am a Hoosier through and through, with Cheesehead roots. And I will be taking 1-2 new PhD students for the upcoming admissions cycle.

I created and coordinate a Doctoral Minor in Sport and Performance Psychology for our Counseling Psychology graduate students wherein these students receive strong curricular training combined with supervised clinical practicum experiences with student-athletes in the Indiana University athletic department and at local high schools. I currently am the Director for the IU Sport & Performance Psychology Training Practicum (college level placements at Indiana University Athletic Department and high school level placements at Edgewood, Decatur Central, and Mooresville High Schools). And I've coached a bazillion youth sport teams, or so it seems, implementing Sport & Performance Psychology principles into action, and I host and produce Unit3d w/BigTeam at IU, a national podcast on athlete mental health through the Hilinski's Hope Foundation. Tune in!

I teach a variety of graduate courses, including Interventions in Sport and Performance Psychology (G609), Group Counseling (G532), Proseminar in Counseling Psychology (G600), and Counseling Athletes (G608). I also teach an undergraduate class, Intro to Sport Psychology and Student-Athlete Mental Health (G207), which my doctoral students also teach. I also coordinate our undergraduate Minor in Counseling and our Counseling and Student Services (CASS) Major, a popular and growing opportunity for students to not only explore prospects of future professional training in a mental health field, but students in this Minor and the CASS Major also learn counseling-related communication and helping skills that can help them be successful in any professional field.

If you haven't gotten the hint yet, sport is a very important part of my personal and professional life. Sport is a fertile field to examine social dynamics, and within this domain my research interests center on the intersection of multicultural psychology, sport psychology, the psychological study of men/masculinities, and social justice issues. Primarily, my research focuses on the psychosocial development of student-athletes, which includes investigations of gender role socialization, racial and athletic identity, and psychological well-being (e.g., adjustment, body esteem, help-seeking). My research also involves American Indian empowerment through an examination of the psychological effects of the use of Native-themed mascots, nicknames, and logos in sport.

Check out episodes of the on athlete mental health.