Faculty and Staff
Contact Us
Department of Psychology
In person: 103 Stewart Hall
Phone: (320) 308-5659
Mailing Address:
103 Stewart Hall
St. Cloud State University
720 4th Ave S
St. Cloud, MN 56301-4498
Office Hours: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday
Reserve the Stewart Hall 306 Computer Lab
Faculty and Staff
Amanda Hemmesch
- Chairperson
- Professor
- Ph.D., Brandeis University
(320) 308-3215 | 103N Stewart Hall
Research Interests:
- Improving health, well-being, and quality of life for older adults and individuals with chronic and rare conditions.
- Understanding how health and psychosocial factors, especially social relationships, influence development and well-being throughout the lifespan.
- Dr. Hemmesch is recruiting motivated research assistants who share an interest in developmental, health, and social psychology, especially aging.
Spring 2025 Office Hours (On-Campus and Virtually)
Monday: Noon-2 p.m.
Tuesday: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Wednesday: Noon to 2 p.m.
And by Appointment
Brenda Buswell
- Assistant Professor
- Ph.D., University of Wisconsin Madison
(320) 308-3096 | 103E Stewart Hall
Spring 2025 Office Hours
Monday: 1:30-3 p.m. and 4-7:00 p.m.
Wednesday: 1:30-7 p.m.
And by appointment
Jody Illies
- Associate Professor
- Ph.D., University of Nebraska
(320) 308-5772 | 103I Stewart Hall
https://web.stcloudstate.edu/jjillies/
Research Interests:
- Organizational problem solving and decision making, creativity and innovation, leadership and the use of biographical data as an assessment tool.
- In his most recent studies, he has been exploring the influence of individual differences and situational characteristics on leader emergence and employee creativity.
- If you find any of his research areas intriguing, or just want to talk about I-O or research in general, please contact Dr. Illies.
Spring 2025 Office Hours
Monday: Noon-3 p.m.
Wednesday: Noon-4 p.m.
Friday: 8-11 a.m.
Zoom link available by request.
Maegan Jones
- Associate Professor
- Ph.D., North Dakota State University
103L Stewart Hall
Research Interests:
- Understanding what factors provide children and adolescents with barriers against the development of unhealthy eating habits and negative beliefs about the body, and how that information can be best used to create prevention and intervention programs.
- Examining how families can encourage healthy eating, specifically in terms of the parent-child relationship.
- Eating disorder comorbidities, such as depression and PTSD.
Spring 2025 Office Hours
Tuesday: 11 a.m.-Noon, 2-3:30 p.m. (Virtual or face-to-face)
Wednesday: Noon-5 p.m. (Virtual only)
Thursday: 11 a.m.-Noon, 2-3:30 p.m. (Virtual or face-to-face)
Joseph Melcher
- Associate Professor
- Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh
103K Stewart Hall
Research Interests: Cognitive psychology; learning and memory.
Spring 2025 Office Hours
Monday: 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. & 2-3 p.m. (Office or Zoom)
Tuesday: 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. (Office or Zoom)
Wednesday: 11 a.m.-3 p.m. (Zoom Only)
Thursday: 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. (Office or Zoom)
In-person walk-ins are welcome, but it’s preferable to make an appointment; for Zoom meetings, you must make an appointment.
Jamie Opper
- Associate Professor
- Ph.D., Colorado State University
(320) 308-6682 | 103P Stewart Hall
Spring 2025 Office Hours
Monday: Noon-3 p.m.
Tuesday: 1-3 p.m.
Wednesday: Noon-3 p.m.
Thursday: 1-3 p.m.
Daren Protolipac
- Professor
- Coordinator of Industrial-Organizational Graduate Program
- Ph.D., Northern Illinois University
(320) 308-5750 | 103H Stewart Hall
Research Interests:
- Psychological capital impact student and employee attitudes and performance.
- Dispositional, motivational, and situational influences on occupational safety.
- Personality influences on organizational, team, and individual outcomes.
- Influences on the work-school interface for working students.
- Employee engagement and organizational climate.
- His most recent project explored Psychological Capital’s Role in Work-School Facilitation/Conflict on Study Engagement.
- Students interested in any of these avenues of research, or with personal interests in research related to any aspect of organizational functioning and/or members of organizations are encouraged to contact Dr. Protolipac. He is always looking to create new research teams and projects.
Spring 2025 Office Hours
Monday: 8-9 a.m. & 12:45-2:30 p.m.
Wednesday: 8-9 a.m. & 12:45-2:30 p.m.
Friday: 10 a.m.-1:30 p.m. and by appointment
Marcy Young Illies
- Associate Professor
- Ph.D., University of Nebraska
Adjunct Faculty
Brooke Bryson
- Adjunct Instructor
- Ph.D., Oregon State University
brooke.bryson@stcloudstate.edu
Dr. Bryson teaches a mixture of online and in-person classes, including Health Psychology, Social Psychology, and Cognitive Processes. Her Ph.D. in Psychology from Oregon State University has a focus in Health Psychology.
Research Interests:
- Her research examines psychosocial factors, such as social support and stigma, that contribute to the quality of life of individuals with common and rare diseases. Her work also seeks to better understand effective symptom management strategies for adults living with diverse blood cancers.
Nicole Chesemore
- Adjunct Instructor
- M.S. American International College
nicole.chesemore@stcloudstate.edu
Kati J. Klitzke
- Adjunct Instructor
Anne Neumann
- Adjunct Instructor
- Ph.D., University at Buffalo, NY
Awarded the Fulbright scholarship to study in the USA in 2004. Received her M.A. in Psychology in 2008 and her Ph.D. in Behavioral Neuroscience in 2011 from the Department of Psychology at the University at Buffalo, NY. Her graduate research involved opioid-mediated phenomena surrounding parturition such as pregnancy-mediated analgesia and maternal behavior in rats and how these are mediated by placentophagia. Placentophagia is the ingestion of amniotic fluid and placenta that occurs at parturition in most female mammals and has been shown to enhance opioid-mediated analgesia. Her dissertation investigated the influence of placentophagia on the development of tolerance, sensitization, and withdrawal that result from the repeated exposure to morphine in rats. She conducted graduate and postdoctoral clinical research on medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorders and chronic pain and the effects of addiction on child welfare outcomes in adolescents and during and after pregnancy. This sparked an interest in behavioral therapy research. She has taught in higher education since 2006 including undergraduate classes in psychology at various universities such as University at Buffalo, NY and Augsburg University in the USA and internationally in Singapore and Germany, where she also taught some graduate classes in psychology.
Rose Stark-Rose
- Adjunct Professor, Licensed Psychologist
- PhD., University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
With over 20 years of clinical experience, her areas of specialization include adults with eating disorders, body image challenges, mood disorders, and complex trauma. She is trained in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). Working with multicultural populations, and providing supervision to graduate level counselor trainees. She is the current co-chair of the ethics consultation committee for the Minnesota Psychological Association. Dr. Stark-Rose’s research and peer reviewed publications have included group work with racial minority populations, in class experiential activities for multicultural competence, and awareness of group privilege with college students. Her current research examines risk of eating disorders, and awareness of the western standards of beauty among Somali and Hmong American women college students.
Leslie Valdes
- Adjunct Instructor
- Ph.D., Adelphi University
Spring 2025 Office Hours
Monday: 2-3 p.m.
Benjamin White
- Adjunct Instructor
- M.A., Brandeis University
benjamin.white@stcloudstate.edu
Specializes in assisting students in developing practical applications of material to their individual lives. Over 14 years of experience teaching various psychology courses in two and four-year institutions and has also created over 3 dozen workshops on a variety of topics concerning pedagogy, andragogy, teaching methods, and student success with a goal to provide faculty with different perspectives and methodologies to promote success for themselves and their students inside and outside of the classroom. In 2019 he was invited to give a TEDx talk on motorcycling and anxiety for the Blinn College TEDx event.
Currently serves as an early career mentor for the Society for Teaching of Psychology (STP), a division of the APA, helping instructors who are new to teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels and is an active contributor to the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Innovation at UTK.
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