Daniel Chapman received his BA in both Psychology and Government & Political Affairs in 2013 from Millersville University. He received his PhD in Summer 2018 from our program. He is a post-doctoral fellow at the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and a research fellow in the Yale Law School. 

As an undergraduate he conducted a number of research projects on how different types of psychological threat influence public policy preferences. He also served as a research assistant for an initiative in Millersville University’s Center for Disaster Research and Education involving academic institutions in four countries seeking to collaborate on topics related to natural disaster risk reduction and resiliency.

Daniel’s current interests fall broadly at an intersection between social psychology, environmental conservation, and international relations. In one area of research he is exploring psychological factors that affect adaptive responses to resource scarcity, environmental conflict, and projected climate change impacts. One current focus of this work is to develop frameworks of individual and group-level processes related to risk perceptions, resource management, adaptive capacity and disaster resiliency. His research also examines how individuals prepare and respond, both individually and collectively, to large-scale disaster events and instances of localized environmental degradation. He also has additional research interests in the role of emotions in conflict resolution and methods for improving the effectiveness of post-conflict justice procedures.

Given the complexity and multidimensionality of these issues, he is actively engaging in and pursuing further interdisciplinary collaborations with researchers in environmental conservation, sociology, political science, and marine science, among others.

Daniel Chapman’s Webpage

Diala holds a Master's in clinical psychology from the American University of Beirut in Lebanon, where she also taught, practiced clinical work, and worked with communities that have struggled through political conflict. She has worked as a volunteer relief provider and a psychosocial coordinator, organizing workshops on postwar trauma, conflict resolution, dialogue, and group mediation.

Her doctoral training has been in applied research within social, political, and clinical psychology, where she focuses on research that stems from intergroup conflict and group dynamics, with an emphasis on minority status groups and alliance-building between groups. Diala completed her Ph.D. in May 2014 and took a position in Fall 2013 at Clark University, as Visiting Assistant Professor of Social Psychology. As of Fall 2017, she is an Assistant Professor and Chair of the Psychology Program at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies in Qatar.

Jaeshin received a Master's degree in Cultural Psychology from Korea University in South Korea. His research interests concern the roles that threat and fear play in promoting aggressive conflict. He was an intern and a consultant at the International Organization for Migration (IOM), South Korea from 2008 to 2009, and worked as a research associate in Karuna Center for Peacebuilding, USA from 2009 to 2010.

Jaeshin completed his Ph.D. in 2010 and is a research professor at the Center for Dispute Resolution at Dankook University, South Korea where he investigates conflict and dispute issues in Korean society. Particularly, he is committed to developing theory and practice in order to build a culture of peaceful resolution of conflict and dispute.

Katya studied foreign languages and cultures at Samara State Pedagogic University (Russia) and studied psychology at Indiana University-Purdue University (USA).  Katya has worked extensively with organizations promoting democratic values education in post-Soviet Russia and was one of the creators of educational programs on cultural tolerance for Jewish teenagers in Samara.  She has a keen interest in cross-cultural communication, humanistic pedagogy, democratic values, Arab-Israeli conflict, and the lessons of Holocaust. 

 Katya's current research concerns the facilitation of intergroup contact, trust, and tolerance in post-conflict societies.  She was also a part of a quantitative evaluation team for the Training Active Bystanders program, implemented by the Quabbin Mediation Center, which focuses on promoting social competence and active bystandership among secondary schools in Western Massachusetts.

She was selected as the 2012 James Marshall Public Policy Fellow from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. This fellowship allows her to conduct postdoctoral work in Washington DC for two years, in order to "contribute to the effective use of scientific knowledge about social issues in the formation of public policy."

Katya was placed working with representatives in Congress on the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, whose mission is "to promote, defend and advocate internationally recognized human rights norms in a nonpartisan manner, both within and outside of Congress, as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other relevant human rights instruments." She was working closely with Jim McGovern (D-MA), our congressional representative in western Mass and co-Chair of the Commission.

Katya recently accepted a position with the RAND Corporation (http://www.rand.org), where she now serves as an Associate Behavioral and Social Scientist. At RAND, Katya hopes to combine her expertise in both science and policy and to continue and expand her work on societies in transition and relations between racial, ethnic, and national groups.

Helen received her Masters in Violence, Terrorism and Security from Queen’s University, Belfast. Her thesis utilized a meta-analysis of approaches to analysing terrorist psychology in order to understand the cognitive evolution of an extremist—from initial experiences of political grievances to committing a violent act. During this time she conducted field research into insurgent tactics in Northern Ireland as part of a partnership with the University of California Institute of Global Conflict and Cooperation. She has also worked at the UK’s leading children’s charity, Barnardo’s, policy and research department investigating child exploitation.

Helen’s current interests focus on the nature of morality and political violence, in particular the social and psychological factors which influence engagement with, and justification of, terrorism or alternative nonviolent social change. She is hoping that this research will lead to practical applications for peacebuilding and conflict transformation. She received her Masters from our program in 2015.

Ramila received her Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in Psychology. Currently, she is  faculty member in the Department of Philosophy & Psychology at the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka. She was a research scholar at the Solomon Asch Center for the study of Ethnopolitical conflict at the University of Pennsylvania in 2004-2005 and is also a trained mediator. Her research focuses on how individuals are able to maintain the perception that they are moral, despite having committed moral transgressions.

She also studies how different mechanisms are used in moral judgments depending on whether the transgression is interpersonal in nature or takes place on behalf of a group in an intergroup context. In addition, Ramila was interested in creating psychosocial intervention programs, which are culturally specific, for those affected by intergroup violence. Along this line, she conducted research in Sri Lanka looking at the influence of religious beliefs and practice on psychological resilience.