M.A. Core Faculty

Jeff Anastasi, Ph.D.

Dr. Anastasi is a Professor of Psychology at Sam Houston State University. He teaches a broad array of courses including cognition, research methods, history of psychology, introductory psychology, and psychology and the law at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. He studied psychology at the University of North Texas, the State University of New York at Cortland, and completed his masters and doctoral work in Experimental Cognitive Psychology at the State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University). He received his PhD in 1996 and has worked at Francis Marion University (Florence, SC), Arizona State University, and Sam Houston State University.

His research includes a focus on cognitive psychology with an emphasis on memory and includes various topics such as face recognition biases (e.g., own-age bias, own-race bias, in-group/out-group bias), illusory/false memories, eyewitness memory, effects of photographs on acceptance of information, and human factors design.

Daniella Cash, Ph.D.

Dr. Cash attended Florida Southern College where she earned her B.S. in Psychology and minor in Sociology. She completed her M.A. at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and her Ph.D. at Louisiana State University. Dr. Cash’s research interests examine how social and cognitive principles influence the legal system. This includes topics such as eyewitness memory, jury decision-making, and deception detection.

Gulden Esat, Ph.D.

Dr. Esat is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at SHSU. Her research interests include: Developing school-based preventive programs such as the Mindful Ambassadors Program for college students; evaluating the acceptability, feasibility, and sustainability of mental health or educational programs; and incorporating spirituality and religiosity in clinical practice.

Hillary Langley, Ph.D.

Dr. Langley is a Developmental Psychologist and Assistant Professor of Psychology at SHSU. She received both her B.A. (2006) and Ph.D. (2013) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she also completed an NIH-funded postdoctoral fellowship (2016). She joined the faculty of the Department of Psychology and Philosophy at SHSU in the fall of 2016. Her program of research is designed to investigate the ways in which parents socialize aspects of their children’s social, emotional, and cognitive development. Specifically, she examines how parent-child conversations and other parental socialization mechanisms are linked to aspects of children’s development, particularly gratitude and autobiographical memory. In addition, Dr. Langley studies the impact of early life adversity – such as trauma and abuse – on children’s and adolescents’ mental health outcomes, as well as risk and resilience factors in justice-involved youth.

Adam P. Natoli, Ph.D.

Dr. Natoli joined the faculty at Sam Houston State University in 2020. As a Ronald E. McNair Scholar, he studied psychology and sociology at Rider University; Dr. Natoli went on to earn a M.S. in Clinical Psychology (2015) from Eastern Michigan University before receiving his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology (2020) from Adelphi University where he was also a George Stricker Research Fellow. Dr. Natoli’s program of research is primarily focused on two interweaving lines of inquiry: (1) Exploring the psychological and physiological processes engaged by individuals while they respond to different types of tests (e.g., self-report, implicit, behavioral, etc.) in effort to advance psychological measurement and (2) investigating personality’s context-specific variability in everyday life to learn how personality influences the way an individual perceives and engages with themselves, others, and their environment. His research draws upon multimethod research designs – including the use of physiological, self- and other-report, implicit, performance-based, behavioral, and ecological momentary assessment data – as well as clinical case studies, integrative literature reviews, and meta-analyses.
Website: https://www.apnatoli.com
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Adam_Natoli

Shelley A. Riggs, Ph.D.

Dr. Riggs is currently a Professor and the Director of the Psychology Masters programs at Sam Houston State University. She a licensed psychologist with an M.A. and Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Riggs has been training graduate students in individual, couple and family intervention and assessment for twenty years. She conducts research on family mechanisms and risk factors that contribute to mental health and illness, including family interaction patterns, the disruption or loss of attachment relationships, and abuse or trauma. Raised in a military family herself, Dr. Riggs has a special interest in the impact of combat-related trauma on military couples and families. Dr. Riggs serves on the editorial boards of several APA journals and is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association’s Society for Couple & Family Psychology. With extensive experience and a lifelong passion for teaching, Dr. Riggs is the recipient of multiple teaching awards, including the Texas Psychological Association’s 2014 Outstanding Contribution to Education Award.

George Scott, Ph.D.

Dr. Scott, a native Houstonian, earned his undergraduate degree (B.S. in Psychology) at Liberty University and doctorate (Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology) at Ponce Health Sciences University in Ponce, Puerto Rico. He completed an APA-accredited dual-site predoctoral internship at Damas Hospital and Ponce Health Sciences University Wellness Center with a concentration in Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine. He is currently working toward his postdoctoral master’s degree in Clinical Psychopharmacology at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology as a prerequisite to becoming a licensed prescribing psychologist (RxP). He is passionate about mental health and well-being, research, and educating the next generation of mental health practitioners. As a provisionally licensed psychologist, his areas of clinical expertise are clinical depression, medically complex patients with co-occurring psychological disorders, and delivering consultation-liaison psychology services in the Emergency Department, ICU, and medical units in the general hospital setting. Dr. Scott is the founding director of the Behavioral Medicine Research Intervention and Outcomes Lab at Sam Houston State University, where he and his team employ mixed-methods community engagement and primary prevention approaches to address the individual-level biological, psychological, and behavioral risk factors implicated in developing cardiovascular disease. At the health system level, the team designs and tests enhanced consultation-liaison models to enhance access to quality mental health care for patients in tertiary medical settings. Dr. Scott is a tenure-track faculty member at Sam Houston in the psychology department where he teaches health psychology, abnormal psychology, and psychotherapy courses at the graduate and undergraduate level. He also serves as a mentor for research, thesis, and dissertation projects. Dr. Scott also serves as a collaborating adjunct faculty member in the Clinical Psychology Program at Ponce Health Sciences University.

Diane Stoebner-May, Ph.D.

Dr. Stoebner-May is the Assistant Director of the Sam Houston State University (SHSU) Counseling Center and Training Director for the doctoral internship in health service psychology. She is a licensed psychologist and holds a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Houston. She completed her internship at the VA Central Iowa Health Care System in Knoxville and postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. She has worked at Sam Houston State University since 2010 and as Training Director of the SHSU Counseling Center since 2017. Additionally, she is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the SHSU Department of Psychology and teaches practicum courses for the clinical psychology master’s program. She is currently working on the self-study for the APA accredited doctoral internship in health service psychology for the SHSU Counseling Center. Her clinical interests include anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, and clinical supervision and training. In her personal time, Dr. Stoebner-May enjoys spending time with her family and friends, travel, and tennis.

Stephen White, Ph.D.

Dr. White joined Sam Houston State University as an Assistant Professor of Psychology in the fall of 2018 after receiving his M.A. and Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of Mississippi with a focus on Behavioral Neuroscience. Dr. White teaches courses in neuroscience at the graduate and undergraduate level including Physiological Psychology and Psychopharmacology. Dr. White has also taught Learning as well as Introduction to Psychology for the Elliot T. Bowers Honors College at Sam Houston State University.
Dr. White’s research focuses on pre-clinical behavioral pharmacology. More specifically, the development, validation, and utilization of animal models of psychiatric syndromes in research. Currently, Dr. White uses an avian model of Treatment-Resistant Depression in efforts to better understand the etiopathology of stress-related disorders with the goal of developing novel drug therapies. His ongoing projects involve exploring the cellular mechanisms behind ketamine’s rapid antidepressant effects and the role of the microbiome in the development of mood disorders.