Patrick Aragon, Psy.D
Assistant Professor & Assistant Director of Clinical Training
Assistant Professor & Assistant Director of Clinical Training
Felipa Chavez, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Assistant Professor
Richard Elmore, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Associate Professor
Philip Farber, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Associate Professor
Patrick Aragon, Psy.D | Assistant Professor & Assistant Director of Clinical Training
Assistant Director Of Clinical Training
Dr. Aragon received his doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Nova Southeastern University. His interests include empathy in the process of forgiveness and therapeutic necessity; chronic mental health with inpatient and homeless individuals; substance abuse prevention & intervention.
Felipa Chavez, Ph.D.
| Assistant Professor
Dr. Chavez received her doctorate in Clinical Psychology, with a concentration in working with children and families from State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY-Buffalo). She was an NIAAA post-doctoral fellow at the Research on Addictions at SUNY-Buffalo. Her work with the Building Blocks program teaches Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), an empirically validated play therapy treatment, to students and provides services to local families as well as schools, daycares, and community centers via Project Play. This program is designed to promote healthy child development outcomes through the reduction of dyadic stress in parent-child interactions, both externalizing and internalizing behavioral problems in children, and child abuse potential.
Richard Elmore, Ph.D. | Associate Professor
Dr. Rich Elmore received his Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Georgia State University. His research interests are primarily in the areas of traumatology and couple therapy. He teaches coursework on psychotherapy to include Clinical Skills and Techniques, Marital and Sex Therapy, Clinical Hypnosis, Consultation and a specialty seminar on combat-related PTSD. Dr. Elmore supervises the advanced practicum team on Couple Therapy and serves as the Director of the Center for Combat Veteran Resiliency which provides services to combat veterans.
In addition, Dr. Elmore maintains a part-time private practice specializing in Marital and Sex Therapy. He is a member of the Emeritus Medical Staff, Department of Psychiatry at Holmes Regional Medical Center. He is a past President of the Brevard/Indian River Chapter of the Florida Psychological Association and serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Florida Society of Clinical Hypnosis.
Philip Farber, Ph.D.
| Associate Professor
Dr. Farber is a licensed clinical psychologist who received his doctoral degree in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His research interests are currently within the areas of self-knowledge, and death and dying. He presently teaches doctoral-level classes in Psychodiagnostics, Existential/Humanistic Models of Therapy, Death and Dying, and the Administration and Management of Mental Health Services. He served for 18 years as the Program Chair of the Psy.D. program at Florida Tech, and also is one of the past presidents of the National Council of Schools and Programs of Professional Psychology (NCSPP).
Julie Costopoulos, Ph.D.
Professor
Professor
Radhika Krishnamurthy, Psy.D
Professor
Professor
Anthony LoGalbo, Ph.D
Associate Professor
Associate Professor
Vida Tyc, Ph.D.
Professor, Psy.D. Program Chair
Professor, Psy.D. Program Chair
Julie Costopoulos, Ph.D. | Professor
Dr. (Gross) Costopoulos' career has been in the area of forensic psychology. She comes to Florida Tech after serving as the senior forensic psychologist for the Sexually Violent Predator Program of Florida (also known as the Jimmy Ryce Act). Previously she served at a forensic psychiatric inpatient unit at Florida State Hospital where she conducted therapy and assessments, and testified to the court on issues of residents' competency to stand trial, commitment for hospitalization and other forensic matters. While there, she received a number of awards for her outstanding work and contributions.
Dr. Costopoulos is coordinating a number of studies examining the efficacy of programs in the community managing mentally ill offenders. Current research includes evaluating aggression in an inpatient forensic settings and examination of theoretical concepts of psychoanalytic conceptualization of violent criminal behavior.
Radhika Krishnamurthy, Psy.D | Professor
Dr. Krishnamurthy received her doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology from the Virginia Consortium for Professional Psychology and completed her predoctoral internship at Eastern Virginia Medical School. Her research interest is primarily in the area of personality assessment and includes psychometric investigations, applications of testing in treatment planning and implementation, therapeutic assessment and feedback, and diversity-sensitive assessment. She teaches the three-course psychological assessment sequence in the Psy.D. program and supervises comprehensive battery assessments at the SCPS clinic practicum.
Dr. Krishnamurthy is 2011-2013 President of the Society for Personality Assessment (www.personality.org) and former President (2008) of Section IX (Assessment) of the American Psychological Association's Division 12 (Society of Clinical Psychology). She serves as Associate Editor for the Journal of Personality Assessment and Consulting Editor for Assessment and Psychological Assessment journals
Anthony LoGalbo, Ph.D | Associate Professor
Anthony LoGalbo, Ph.D. is a board certified clinical neuropsychologist. He earned his B.A, at New College of Florida and his Ph.D. at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He was a fellow in the neuropsychology program at the VA Puget Sound Healthcare System. In recent years, he has been a clinical neuropsychologist at the Medical Psychology Associates/Florida Hospital Medical Group. He was affiliated with the Florida Hospital Departments of Neuroscience and Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation. He is a licensed psychologist in the State of Florida.
Vida Tyc, Ph.D. | Professor, Psy.D. Program Chair
Scott Gustafson
Professor
Professor
Mariana Juras
Assistant Professor
Assistant Professor
Mary Fertitta
Assistant Professor
Assistant Professor
Scott Gustafson | Professor
Dr. Gustafson received his Ph.D. from the University of Mississippi, and completed his predoctoral internship at Dartmouth University in New Hampshire. He is the Director of the Community Psychological Services center, the in-house training clinic for the Psy.D. program at Florida Tech, and is the current President of the Association of Psychology Training Clinics: the international organization for training clinic directors. He holds a Board Certification Diplomate in Clinical Psychology. His clinical and research interests include clinical psychophysiology and the development of empirically supported treatments.
Mariana Juras | Assistant Professor
Dr. Juras is a psychologist and marriage and family therapist from Brazil. Before joining Florida Tech in 2022, Dr. Juras worked for several years in the Family Courts in Brazil, where she provided psychological services, supervised interns, and conducted research projects in this applied area. She also have several years of experience in teaching clinical applied courses in different universities in Brazil and in the U.S. Dr. Juras research interests are broad and her scholar agenda includes family matters on clinical and forensic psychology. She is also particularly interested in mixed-method research and believes that the integration of quantitative and qualitative data is particularly important to inform best practices in psychology, with participant/client-centered orientation. Her previous and current studies have particularly focused on topics of divorce, remarriage, domestic violence, parenting interventions, and multicultural differences.
Mary Fertitta | Assistant Professor
Associate Faculty
Julie Costopoulos, Ph.D.
Professor
Professor
Kristi Van Sickle, Psy.D.
Associate Professor
Associate Professor
Frank Webbe, Ph.D.
Professor
Professor
Demara Bennett, Psy.D.
Assistant Professor
Assistant Professor
Julie Costopoulos, Ph.D.
| Professor
Dr. (Gross) Costopoulos' career has been in the area of forensic psychology. She comes to Florida Tech after serving as the senior forensic psychologist for the Sexually Violent Predator Program of Florida (also known as the Jimmy Ryce Act). Previously she served at a forensic psychiatric inpatient unit at Florida State Hospital where she conducted therapy and assessments, and testified to the court on issues of residents' competency to stand trial, commitment for hospitalization and other forensic matters. While there, she received a number of awards for her outstanding work and contributions.
Dr. Costopoulos is coordinating a number of studies examining the efficacy of programs in the community managing mentally ill offenders. Current research includes evaluating aggression in an inpatient forensic settings and examination of theoretical concepts of psychoanalytic conceptualization of violent criminal behavior.
Kristi Van Sickle, Psy.D. | Associate Professor
Dr. Van Sickle is a Florida licensed psychologist and credentialed by the National Register of Health Service Psychologists. She is also a registered public accountant in the state of Illinois and a National Committee on Quality Assurance (NCQA) Patient-Centered Medical Home Certified Content Expert (PCMH CCE). Project Director, HRSA Graduate Psychology Education (GPE) Grant, which provides qualified students with $12,500 stipends/semester (2 semester max.) to complete clinical training experience in one of two integrated primary care practica sites.
Frank Webbe, Ph.D. | Professor
Frank Webbe earned his Ph.D. in psychology at the University of Florida and was on the faculty of the University of Mississippi before joining the Florida Institute of Technology, where he is professor of psychology. The Research Director at the East Central Florida Memory Disorder Clinic, Dr. Webbe has studied standard and computerized methods of early assessment of Alzheimer's disease, and also Applied Behavior Analysis interventions with family caregivers and Alzheimer patients. Through the Florida Tech Sport-Related Concussion Project he has studied the risk factors for concussion in sport, as well best practices for assessing and managing concussion. Dr. Webbe teaches courses in Physiological Psychology, Learning and Motivation, and Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behavior.
He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the National Academy of Neuropsychology, chairman of the State of Florida's Alzheimer's Disease Advisory Committee, and chair-elect of the Technology Professional Interest Area of the International Society to Advance Alzheimer Research and Treatment. He is a former president of the Division of Sport and Exercise Psychology of the American Psychological Association. Dr. Webbe is the NCAA Faculty Athletics Representative at Florida Tech, and is the president-elect of the national Faculty Athletics Representatives Association.
Demara Bennett, Psy.D. | Assistant Professor
Dr. Demara (Mari) B. Bennett earned her Doctorate in Psychology, Clinical Specialization, from the Florida Institute of Technology. She joined the faculty at Florida Tech following extensive clinical experience providing psychological evaluation, treatment, and clinical supervision within community mental health, inpatient, outpatient, and private practice settings. Professional interests include child and family psychology with specialization in differential diagnosis of pediatric mental health concerns, including neurodevelopmental disorders such as Autism Spectrum Disorder, trauma disorders, and child maltreatment.
Dr. Bennett serves as Director of the Family Learning Program (FLP), one of only 14 DOH-sponsored sexual abuse treatment programs in Florida, providing treatment for children, siblings, and nonoffending caregivers, and clinical training for Clinical Psy.D. students in trauma assessment and evidence-based sexual abuse and trauma treatment. Dr. Bennett also teaches Introduction to Child Advocacy and Critical Issues in Child Advocacy, two of the three required courses for completion of the Child Advocacy Studies Certificate.