ABOUT

Kayla is a current fourth-year doctoral candidate in Sam Houston State University’s Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program. She received her Bachelor’s of Science in Psychology and Sociology (Criminal Justice focus) from Reinhardt University in Waleska, GA, and received her Masters of Art in Clinical Psychology from Sam Houston State University. When she is not in class or working on research, she loves to travel, play video games, and exercise.

 

RESEARCH INTERESTS 

Kayla is primarily interested in researching what factors influence the recognition and prevention of child sexual abuse. Specifically, she is interested in individuals’ ability to accurately detect grooming behaviors and how to educate people on how to recognize these behaviors to prevent child sexual abuse. Kayla is also interested in research that involves raising awareness for more diverse cases of child sexual abuse, such as abuse perpetrated by youth or siblings. Clinically, Kayla is interested in research on trauma-informed care for youth who have experienced child sexual abuse, as well as best practices in treatment for adolescents who have sexually offended or who present with problematic sexual behaviors.

 

CURRENT RESEARCH

Kayla is currently involved in multiple projects in the JEDI lab, namely regarding the recognition and prevention of diverse forms of child sexual abuse. She also leads several collaboration projects with other faculty and doctoral students at SHSU examining recognition of and intervention in more diverse forms of CSA. Kayla also successfully proposed her dissertation exploring the factors that influence individuals' recognition of grooming behaviors in peer-to-peer and sibling sexual abuse in the Spring of 2025.

 

In addition to her own projects in the lab, Kayla mentors several undergraduate and master's level lab members to prepare them to present various projects in the lab at local (Sam Houston State University's Undergraduate Research Symposium), regional (Southeastern Psychological Association, Southwestern Psychological Association), and national (American Psychology-Law Society, Association of Professionals Solving the Abuse of Children) psychology conferences. To date, Kayla has mentored over 14 lab members on numerous poster and oral presentations at these various conferences. 

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