Stephanie Ernestus

Biography

Associate Professor of Psychology Stephanie Ernestus is a clinical child psychologist licensed in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She is interested in the ways that people impact and are impacted by their interconnected shifting environment. She received a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University at Albany, State University of New York. She completed a pre-doctoral internship at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. She was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Nathanson Family Resilience Center in UCLA's Semel Institute of Neuroscience and Human Behavior.

Professor Ernestus was previously a supervising clinical faculty at UCLA, where she trained other clinicians on evidenced-based treatments. She has taught at UCLA, Penn State University and the University at Albany, State University of New York, including courses on Abnormal Psychology, Childhood Behavior Disorders, and Statistical Methods in Psychology, among others. Her articles have appeared in the Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, Behavior Therapist, Frontiers in Psychology, and School Mental Health, among others.

At Stonehill College, Professor Ernestus teaches courses related to child development, psychopathology, multicultural psychology, and psychotherapy. She actively recruits students to conduct research in her lab, and students have a role in designing and implementing studies, analyzing data, writing up results, presenting at local and national conferences, and publishing papers. She is particularly passionate about mentoring and supporting students who identify as first-generation, BIPOC, LGBTQI+, or are otherwise a part of an underrepresented group in psychology.

Education

• B.A., Psychology and English, Lafayette College
• M.A. and Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, University at Albany, State University of New York

Areas of Interest

• Professor Ernestus’s area of interest involves identifying how the complex interconnected variables that impact children result in complex outcomes at later ages. Specifically, she identifies how different factors in a child's life influence the development and treatment of psychological outcomes such as anxiety and depression, in order to best understand how to create more effective prevention and treatment programs.

Courses Taught

• Intro to Psychopathology
• Child Psychopathology and Its Treatment
• Psychotherapy Practicum
• Multicultural Psychology