Current Graduate Students
Sophie Ma Zhu (Ph.D. student, Measurement, Evaluation, & Research Methodology)
Ph.D. Dissertation: The role of response format in reverse-keying method effects: A comparison of bipolar and unipolar Likert-type scales
Sophie received her B.A. degree with a major in History and a minor in Psychology from Beijing Normal University (China). She completed her M.A. degree in Counselling Psychology at UBC in 2017. During her M.A. program, she was involved in several research projects in Dr. Richard Young’s Contextual Action Theory Lab and Dr. Hubley’s Adult Development and Psychometrics Lab. After graduation, she worked as a clinical counsellor and research assistant for two years. She is currently studying as a doctoral student in the Measurement, Evaluation, and Research Methodology Program under the supervision of Dr. Hubley. She is funded by a SSHRC doctoral fellowship and was named a Paragon Doctoral Fellow for 2019/2020. Still involved in several studies in the lab, she is lab coordinator for Dr. Hubley’s SSHRC-funded Positive and Negative Wording & Keying research. She enjoys outdoor activities and learning different languages.
Zarah Chaudhary (Ph.D. student, Measurement, Evaluation, & Research Methodology)
Ph.D. Dissertation: TBD
Zarah completed her Master’s in Neuroscience at McGill University, researching human learning and memory systems in the brain. Prior to this, she received her B.Sc. in Psychology & Neuroscience at McMaster University. Before starting her doctorate, she worked as a researcher in Toronto advancing the understanding of clinical reasoning processes in medical expertise development as part of a provincial health-system change initiative with the Medical Psychiatry Alliance, the Wilson Centre, University Health Network and the University of Toronto. Zarah’s research interests are in health measurement and psychometrics, particularly in neuropsychological testing, contemporary validity & validation, the measurement of cognitive processes, and patient outcomes. She is a 4YF fellow and currently funded by a SSHRC doctoral fellowship. Zarah has interned at the National Board of Medical Examiners in the United States and, outside her research, she provides consultative support in behavioural science methodology, statistics and evaluation locally across faculties at UBC.
Xuyan Tang (Ph.D. student, Measurement, Evaluation, & Research Methodology)
Ph.D. Dissertation: To collapse or not to collapse: Unveiling the impact of item rescoring on the psychometric properties of depression scales
Master’s Thesis: Adaptation and validation of the Hubley Depression Scale for Older Adults (HDS-OA) in China
Master’s Graduation: November 2020
Tang Xuyan received her B.Sc. in Psychology from Sun Yat-sen University (China) in 2017. She completed her M.A. degree in Measurement, Evaluation, and Research Methodology (MERM) at UBC in 2020 and was and a Paragon Graduate Fellow for 2019/2020. In her Master’s thesis, she adapted the Hubley Depression Scale for Older Adults (HDS-OA) into Chinese and examined the psychometric properties of the translated HDS-OA in the general Chinese adult population. Currently, she is studying as a doctoral student in the MERM program under the supervision of Dr. Hubley. During her doctoral training, she hopes to keep exploring the applicability of the Chinese HDS-OA in more populations, such as the Chinese immigrant population in Canada, with the use of advanced psychometric methods. In her free time, she enjoys reading, watching movies and listening to music.
Alexis Webster (Ph.D. student, Measurement, Evaluation, & Research Methodology)
Ph.D. Dissertation: TBD
Master’s Thesis: Upholding data quality: An evaluation of methods to detect problematic respondents in online surveys
Master’s Graduation: November 2023
Alexis completed her B.A. in Psychology (Hons.) in 2019 at Mount Royal University in Calgary, AB. She began her research journey with Dr. Naomi Grant, who later became her Honours thesis supervisor under whom she investigated self-esteem and self-enhancing behaviours. During her undergraduate studies, she was involved various interdisciplinary research projects. After graduation, she became a Research Coordinator for Dr. Lynne Lafave’s CHEERS for child care project, which explored the efficacy of a well-being education program for early childhood educators across Alberta. Alexis was awarded SSHRC CGS-M funding in her second year and completed her M.A. degree in the MERM program under the supervision of Dr. Hubley. She just started the doctoral program in MERM in Sept., also with SSHRC scholarship funding. In her spare time, she enjoys the great outdoors as well as spending quality time with friends and family!
Nikki Lombardo (M.A. student, Measurement, Evaluation, & Research Methodology)
Master’s Thesis: TBD
Nikki earned her B.A. in psychology (specialized Honours) from York University in Toronto, Ontario. Her Honours thesis, supervised by Dr. David Flora, evaluated the psychometric properties of the Maladaptive Daydreaming Scale (MDS-16), a relatively new scale intended to measure the proposed mental health disorder Maladaptive Daydreaming. Nikki also completed an independent research project supervised by Dr. Cathy Zhang, which examined the implications of using Likert-alternative scale formats in test construction to the validity of self-report data. Throughout her undergraduate degree, Nikki also worked as a research assistant in the quantitative department, where she gained additional experience cleaning, visualizing and analyzing data in R. Nikki is now in her first year of the MERM program under the supervision of Dr. Anita Hubley, working towards her M.A. In her spare time, Nikki loves reading and writing (short fiction), exercising, going for long walks, and eating good food!
Chloe Sernasie (M.A. student, Counselling Psychology)
Master’s Thesis: TBD
Chloe received her B.A. in Psychology from the University of British Columbia in 2019. She became involved in research as an undergraduate student, completing a directed studies project examining the role of semantic generalization in social anxiety, under the supervision of Dr. Lynn Alden. Since graduating, she has taken on various positions within the field of mental health, working in research, non-profit, and hands-on client support roles. These diverse experiences served as a driving force behind her decision to pursue graduate training, and informed her research interests in mental health, stigma, and barriers to treatment. She is currently an M.A. student in the Counselling Psychology program under the supervision of Dr. Anita Hubley. In addition, she works as a research assistant in the Centre for Collaborative Research on Hoarding, which is housed in the UBC Department of Psychology. In her leisure time, she enjoys biking, snowboarding, and competing in weekly pub trivia nights with friends.
Shuhan (Kathy) Yang (M.A. student, Counselling Psychology)
Master’s Thesis: Chinese immigrants and the GAD-7: Cultural validity in the screening for anxiety
Shuhan, who also goes by Kathy, completed a B.S. in Psychology at the University of Toronto (Mississauga). There, she pursed various research experiences, including assisting Dr. Linlin Zhan on the Child Development in Marginalized Communities project. Her undergraduate experience ended with the completion of a thesis on strategies for regulating maladaptive cognition under the supervision of Dr. Norman Farb. Afterwards, she sought out helping experiences. She worked as a medical assistant at an office with five medical doctors. She also volunteered as a helpline responder. These experiences and more have collectively led her to where she is today, currently pursuing a M.A. in Counselling Psychology at UBC under the supervision of Dr. Anita Hubley. Through this degree, she hopes to be of service to immigrants one day. Outside of school, she enjoys reading mystery novels and is a big fan of Agatha Christie.
Amanda Dumoulin (M.Ed. student, Measurement, Evaluation, & Research Methodology)
Amanda received her B.A. in Psychology (Honours) in 2021 from Kwantlen Polytechnic University. Her Honours thesis, which evaluated the effectiveness of teaching introductory psychology online, was supervised by Dr. Shayna Minosky. While completing her undergraduate degree, Amanda was involved in various research projects, such as validation studies in learning environment research and theory of mind research, big data analyses, and building VR environments for birds and bees. While working towards her M.Ed. in the MERM program under the supervision of Dr. Hubley, Amanda has also been working as an Evaluation Analyst in the UBC Faculty of Medicine’s Evaluation Studies Unit. In this role, she conducts statistical analyses for evaluation reports and codes reports and data visualizations using R. Amanda enjoys reading novels, solving puzzles (not riddles, riddles are the worst…jigsaw and number/logic-based puzzles only), playing board games, and hanging out with friends in her spare time.
Haoyang Chen (M.Ed. student, Measurement, Evaluation, & Research Methodology)
Haoyang earned a B.A. in Psychological Studies with Cum Laude honors from Temple University in 2024. He was involved in a variety of research projects during his undergraduate studies, including exploring the gender differences in the intergenerational transmission of violence and the development of self-report instruments for procrastination. Also, he received training employing Clinical Ethnographic Narrative Interview (CENI) for individuals with traumatic experience for recovery under the supervision of Dr. Denise M. Saint Arnault. Haoyang is currently pursuing a M.Ed. in MERM under the supervision of Dr. Hubley. Haoyang’s work focuses on translating psychological assessment tools into Mandarin and employing advanced statistical techniques, such as structural equation modeling, in mental health research. In addition to academic work, Haoyang has experience as a teaching assistant and has worked on data analysis projects, gaining proficiency in tools like SPSS and R. Outside of research, Haoyang enjoys music, gaming, and spending time with friends.
Kelli Wheatley (M.Ed. student, Counselling Psychology)
Kelli completed her B.S. in Media, Culture, and Communication from New York University in 2016. Since her undergraduate degree, she has worked full-time in the higher education sector across both Canada and the United States, holding roles in student recruitment, admissions, communications, and most recently academic advising. Kelli has a particular interest in the mental health of post-secondary students, especially the impacts of the transition to a new educational environment. Kelli is currently a M.Ed. student in the Counselling Psychology program under the supervision of Dr. Hubley. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time by the water, playing the piano, and writing and performing slam poetry.
Adrianne Campbell (M.Ed. student, Counselling Psychology)
Following an extensive career in Occupational Health and Safety, Adrianne returned to school to follow her true passion – psychology. She recently completed a B.A. (Honours) degree in Psychology (KPU) with a focus on mental health, clinical, and developmental psychology. Adrianne is currently a M.Ed. student in the Counselling Psychology program under the supervision of Dr. Hubley. Outside of school, she feeds her soul by travelling, doing yoga, enjoying good food and spending time with her young daughter.