Meet the Research Team

Current PCI Research Team Members

Barbara Mowder, PhD, PCI Director
Nicole Berger, PsyD Doctoral Student
Mariel Boyle, Graduate Assistant, PsyD Doctoral Student
Christian Hillegas, PsyD Doctoral Student
Andrea Iacampo, PsyD Doctoral Student
Kristen Kim, PsyD Doctoral Student
Renee Krochek, PsyD
Renana Nerwen, PsyD
Joshua Pilchik, PsyD Doctoral Student

Four female and one male students standing with Dr. Barbara Mowder at the 2019 International Conference on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology (ICCAP): London, England. — PCI Research Team members at the 2019 International Conference on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology (ICCAP): London, England.

Research Team Meetings

Members of the PCI research team meet weekly during the academic year to conduct, discuss, and plan research regarding parents and children. Each member of the team has specific responsibilities, although some members are more active participants in certain aspects of research projects than others. Over time, members of the research team have presented research findings at a number of regional, national, and international meetings, including, for example, the American Psychological Association (APA), the International Conference on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology (ICCAP), and the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP).

Seven female and one male students standing with Dr. Barbara Mowder at the American Psychological Association (APA) conference in Washington, DC. — PCI Research Team members at the 2014 meeting of the American Psychological Association (APA) in Washington, D.C.

About the Research Team

Barbara Mowder, PhD

PCI Lab Director and Professor at Pace University, NYC

Dr. Mowder is a Professor of Psychology at Pace University and has been involved in parenting research for over two decades. She has written extensively on early childhood psychology, parent role development, and parenting in relation to child development outcomes and was the founding member of the Association for Early Childhood and Infant Psychologists. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and member of many other professional organizations. She also directs the graduate psychology programs at Pace University-New York City.

Nicole Berger

Nicole Berger is a fourth-year doctoral student in the School-Clinical Child Psychology at Pace University. She has worked with children and parents in relation to grief, selective mutism, autism, and externalizing disorders. She has also treated adults using both CBT and psychodynamic framework in a clinical training setting. Her professional interests include parent training and anxiety disorders.

Mariel Boyle

Mariel Boyle is a second-year doctoral student in the School-Clinical Child Psychology program at Pace University. She has been involved with the Working with Parents Manual: COVID-19, helping to design procedures for virtual implementation and meeting with parents to assist them in achieving their unique parenting goals. Her professional interests include mood and anxiety disorders in children and adolescents, barriers to mental health help-seeking, and sociocultural influences on parenting behavior.

Christian Hillegas

Christian Hillegas is a second-year doctoral student in the School-Clinical Child Psychology program at Pace University-New York City. His research interests include trauma, adverse childhood experiences, and the impact of psychological protective factors on overall health. He is currently involved in a variety of clinical research activities associated with the parent-child research team.

Andrea Iacampo

Andrea Iacampo is a second-year doctoral student in the School-Clinical Child Psychology program at Pace University. She has been involved with the Working With Parents Manual (WWPM), as well as WWPM: Covid-19, both conducting sessions and developing procedures for virtually-delivered programs. Her interests include attachment trauma and the impact of stress on parenting and child outcomes.

Kristen Kim

Kristen Kim is a fourth-year doctoral student in the School-Clinical Child Psychology program at Pace University. Her interests include parenting, child development outcomes, and family preservation. She has been involved with the Working with Parents Manual (WWPM), along with WWPM: Covid-19, meeting with parent participants to help assess and develop positive parenting beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors

Renee Krochek, PsyD

Dr. Krochek has been involved in parenting research since 2006 when she entered the doctoral program in school-clinical child psychology at Pace University-New York City. She is now a licensed psychologist in Connecticut as well as New York, currently practicing as a school psychologist. Dr. Krochek has written extensively about parenting assessment, parenting behaviors, and parenting in relation to child development outcomes.

Renana Nerwen

Renana Nerwen, M.S.Ed., is a fifth-year doctoral student in the Pace University's School-Clinical Child Psychology program. She has been involved in parenting research for the last four years and has been particularly involved in the development of a norms-based measure to assess parenting behavior perceptions for both research and practice. Renana's own research explores the relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), measures of resilience, and parenting behavior perceptions among young adults

Josh Pilchik

Josh Pilchik is a second-year student in the School-Clinical Child Psychology program at Pace University. He has worked with children and parents in relation to ADHD and behavior disorders, selective mutism and anxiety disorders. He has treated adults using CBT and psychodynamic frameworks in a clinical training setting. His professional and research interests include parenting, depression, and anxiety based disorders.