Team

PhD students

Qi Wang is a PhD researcher in the Psychology in Education Research Centre supervised by Dr. Dusana Dorjee at the University of York. She has backgrounds in both Public Health (MPH) from the Dartmouth College and Accounting & Business Administration (BS. with Magma Cum Laude) from Florida Southern College in the United States. She worked for the Department of Compliance and Audit Services at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) from 2016-2017 where she gained experience in healthcare and data analysis. She then worked for the Third-Brain Research Institute and the Healthcare and Life Science Lab at Senses Global Labs & Ventures in China for 2 years where she developed an interest in mental health and cognitive function with technology. Qi is also an international standard developer where she gained experience and interest in physiological technology. She serves as the general secretary at the IEEE P2790 Biometric Liveness Detection Working Group, and the first IEEE Standard for Biometric Liveness Detection was published in 2020. Her research focused on psychophysiological measurements of self-regulation/executive function and wellbeing from a public health perspective. She is interested in digital biomarker with non-invasive methods to predict self-regulation and wellbeing. Her PhD project develops the smartphone-based photoplethysmography (e.g. heart-rate variability) derived assessment of self-regulation, wellbeing, and spontaneous thought/mind-wandering in higher education students.

 

Joshua Stubbs

After working as a mental health nurse on a psychiatric intensive care unit and a child and adolescent mental health ward, Joshua studied for a BA in Education at the University of York (First Class Honours with Distinction) and an Economic and Social Research Council-recognised MSc in Education (Research Design and Methodology) at the University of Oxford (Distinction). He is currently studying for a PhD in Education at the University of York, attempting to generate a better understanding of how best to support the mental health and well-being of students during post-compulsory. Joshua, however, has also conducted environmental, philosophical, sociological and quasi-experimental educational research in collaboration with colleagues at the Universities of Oxford and York.

Twitter: @stubbsejoshua

 

Thy Nguyen has background in Educational Psychology (BSc and MA) from her studies in Vietnam. She then received an MSc in Psychological Research at Bangor University in 2015 which was a firm step in preparation for her PhD studies.

Thy gained teaching experience during her job as a lecturer at Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, Vietnam, where she taught from 2004 until moving to the UK for her master's studies. Besides, being trained in the field of school psychology with National Association of School Psychologists (USA), she practiced counseling skills as a school counselor at the Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) Vietnam and some secondary as well as primary schools in Vietnam.

Based on this work, she developed an interest in emotional health of children and effective strategies to improve children’s ability of emotion regulation in different settings. She is currently working on her PhD project in our lab in the School of Psychology at Bangor University supervised by Dr. Dusana Dorjee. The project aims to investigate how mindfulness training affects emotion regulation in Vietnamese children at primary school age and explores cultural values which may mediate this causal link.

 

Jessie Shepherd started a PhD in the Education department at the University of York in October 2020. She recently finished a Masters of Social Justice and Education at the University of York. Her research focuses on issues of Social Justice that impact Social Emotional Learning for refugee children. In addition to her PhD, she works as a research assistant in the Health Sciences department.

In 2010, she completed a Masters of Family Therapy at John F. Kennedy University in California. Before moving to York, she worked as a licensed mental health professional in various community mental health settings in the United States as a social worker, therapist, and case manager. For the last three years, she supervised trainee mental health professionals and taught psychology and counselling courses at the undergraduate and graduate level in several California Universities.

Rosie Lennon is studying at York University for a PhD in Education with a research area focusing on the mental health and well-being of children in schools.  Rosie has been in education since 1994, starting out as a Bursar having been an accountant.  Rosie then trained as a teacher under GTP to eventually become a headteacher. During that time Rosie studied for the National Professional Qualification in Headship (NPQH), Specific Learning Difference (SpLD), Forest School and gained a MSc in Teaching and Learning at Oxford University.

Since retiring as a headteacher, Rosie has continued to provide specialist teaching in schools and counselling for children. Rosie has a passion for all children to achieve their very best and in recent years studied for the Diploma in Humanistic Integrated Counselling and this led to an understanding of how trauma and personal life experiences can have a significant impact on children’s learning. At 63 years of age Rosie herself, has a wealth of life experiences, including working with refugees under the SVPRS for five years. All this, she hopes will be useful in her quest to make a difference to children’s futures through study, research and publications.