Recent work
Congrats Kanica!
Kanica Bhutoria successful proposed her dissertation, “Therapists’ Perspectives on Improving Treatment for Chronic Trauma: A Mixed Methods Study.” In this important study, Kanica aims to understand how therapists treating complex trauma adapt EBPs, filling an important role in our understanding of how to treat complex trauma. The study is guided by the following research questions: 1) What recommendations do therapists offer for improving the responsiveness of existing trauma interventions to the needs of individuals with chronic trauma histories? 2) What are therapists’ perceptions of the unmet treatment needs of clients with chronic trauma histories? 3) How frequently and in what ways do therapists adapt evidence-based trauma treatments when working with this population? 4) What factors, including attitudes toward evidence-based practice and clinician burnout, are associated with the frequency of treatment adaptation? 5) How do therapists describe their decision-making processes when adapting standard protocols, and what barriers do they encounter? We can wait to see what important findings this work reveals!
Zoe Lapham at the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science Conference (ACBS) and the American Psychological Association (APA)
In July 2026, Zoe Lapham presented in a symposium on improving chronic pain care. Her presentation, “Getting to integrated: How integrated primary care systems can show-up for the challenges patients with chronic pain experience in healthcare” provided a systems-level focus on how integrating behavioral health services into medical settings and using a trauma-informed care approach in these settings are vital steps towards health equity for patients with chronic pain. Her presentation was alongside two other EMU graduates: Dr. Caroline Lucy and Efthymia Orkopoulou, MSc.
In August 2026, Zoe also presented at the American Psychological Association alongside Dr. Lucy and Dr. Alexandros Maragakis on “Steps to stepped care:
Theory, implementation, and research considerations.” Her presentation, “Stepped-care implementation: What works, for whom, and how it comes about,” focused on describing the state of the literature on stepped care models have been implemented and how we can use frameworks from implementation science to understand a vast and fragmented literature.
Dr. Sala-Hamrick at the Michigan Association of Infant Mental Health Conference
In April 2026 Dr. Sala-Hamrick and her colleague Dr. Mat Edick were invited to speak the MI-AIMH’s Annual Conference. Their workshop on the epigenetics of trauma and resilience was well attended and we are honored to have so many engaged providers across Michigan come to:
1) Discuss the bio-psycho-social model (and its application for trauma and resilience)
2) Learn the basic science of epigenetics and
3) Review the current research on epigenetics and its role in trauma and resilience (what it means and what is does not mean).
Thanks again to MI-AIMH for having us and looking forward to future work and conversations on how to use these important research findings in the future!
STAR Lab at MI-ACE 2026
The STAR Lab returned the the Michigan ACE Initiative Conference for the 10th annual meeting in 2026! We presented on many of our current projects and had a fantastic time engaging with our broader community in Michigan.
Congratulations Zoe!
In April 2026, Zoe Lapham successfully proposed her thesis titled “You Belong with Me (But What Does That Mean?): The Role of Provider Acceptability and Implementation
Strategy Use in the Adoption of Integrated Primary Care.” This project is an exciting next step in understanding how to best implement integrated primary care and aims to improve the current understanding of how to use implementation strategies to address common barriers to behavioral health integration in primary care settings.
Congratulations Logan!
In March 2026, Logan Lopus (and Dr. Sala-Hamrick) was award the Undergraduate Research Stimulus Program award, to financial support his work on the Experience Seeking Healthcare Study. His project “A Longitudinal Study Examining Young Adults’ Experiences Seeking Healthcare” was one of thirteen applications selected for funding across the university.
STAR Lab at BAAM (Congrats Isabella!!)
In February 2026, Isabella Cafini presented her findings from the Experiences Seeking Healthcare study at EMU’s very own Behavior Analysis Association of Michigan conference! Her poster, The Role of Anxiety in the Relationship Between Adverse Healthcare Experiences and Cannabis Use, summarized her goals for her honors thesis at EMU.
Congratulations Kanica!
In January 2026, Kanica Bhutoria successful passed her qualifying exam with the development of her qualifying paper “Effectiveness of Trauma-Focused Treatments for Adults with Chronic Trauma Exposure: A Systematic Review of Treatment Outcomes, Variations and Gaps.” This paper is the result of her hard work (along with the support of many lab team members) developing and conducting a systematic review on trauma treatments and their effectiveness in complex trauma survivors, including a focus on underserved and marginalized populations. We can’t wait to see where this work goes next!
Congratulations Sophia!
In December 2025, Sophia Sodano successfully proposed her thesis (Committee Chair: Dr. Adam Briggs) titled “A Survey of Staff Training and Performance Management Practices: An Update on Behavior Analytic Approaches Since 2020.” Building on her interests in training and qualitative methods, this project aims to improve the current understand of the training and supervision experiences and needs of behavioral providers across the U.S.
Congratulations Sawyer!
Congratulations to lab coordinator-extraordinaire, Sawyer Byerly on his graduation with is Bachelors degree in December 2025. We are extremely proud of his hard work, both in and outside of lab and very happy he will be staying on in STAR lab as our Lab Coordinator.
New Publication!!
We are excited to share that work conducted by Dr. Sala-Hamrick and the geneTIC workgroup was recently published in the Journal of Clinical Practice in Pediatric Psychology’s Special Issue on Traumatic Stress in Pediatric Medical Settings. This paper, titled “Provider Perspectives on Implementing Trauma-Informed Approaches in Pediatric Genetics Care” fills an important gap by providing information on the perspectives, use and barriers faced by genetics providers hoping to implement trauma-informed care. Despite the high rates of exposure to potential traumatic experiences by pediatric patients with genetics conditions and their families, this is the first study to explore the knowledge, competence, opinions and barriers associated with TIC use in genetics settings. Paper findings will be used to inform future TIC implementation projects in genetics settings as well as other pediatric medical settings treating children and families with chronic medical conditions.
Read more here! https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/21694826251367434
STAR Lab at the American Psychological Association Convention, 2025
This year two posters were presented representing STAR Lab at APA in Denver, Colorado. In collaboration with the GeneTIC research team, Thiaru Moore-Petinak and Sofie Ruiz-Sierra presented a poster entitled “Barriers and Facilitators to Implementing Trauma-Informed Care in Medical Genetics Settings.” In collaboration with parents from MDHHS and MPHI, Dr. Sala-Hamrick also presented on “Examining Differences In Adverse Childhood Experiences Among Michigan’s Generational Cohorts.” As always, the APA was an inspiring and fun conference, full of engaging and innovative research presentations, conversations and fun times re-connecting with colleagues from around the county!
Dr. Sala-Hamrick speaks as an invited panelist on Trust and Trustworthiness
Dr. Sala-Hamrick was an invited panelist for the University of Maryland’s PATIENTS program’s “Addressing Systemic and Structural Racism to Improve Safety, Quality and Trustworthiness in Health Delivery Systems” or ASTARISQ Summary Roundtable Series. During this program, Dr. Sala-Hamrick, along with a superb panel of subject matter experts, discussed “Trust and Trustworthiness in Health Care and Science.” Rich discussions were had around how we van ensure that everyone is empowered to make informed and personally appropriate health decisions based on accurate and understandable information and how the panelists discussed how they have led the fight to build trust across policy and practice and how we can navigate the current landscape. It was a pleasure to take part in such an enriching and active discussion – thanks to all the community members, providers, scientists, policy makers and system leaders that joined in on the conversation!
STAR Lab at MI-ACE 2025
Congratulations to all STAR Lab members for presenting our recent work at the 2025 Michigan ACE Initiative Conference!
Dr. Sala-Hamrick was invited to speak at the 2025 MPS Newborn Screening meeting where she was able to meet with many amazing parents, patients and providers working to advocate and support children with MPS and their families. Her talk, Psychosocial Impact: Trauma-Informed Care in Medical Genetics Settings provided information about her clinical work and research on how trauma-informed practices can support children, families and providers. She also was a panelist on the Newborn Screening: Results, Notification and Policy where they discussed how to improve the delivery of newborn screening results and related processes.
Sophia Sodano presented at the 2025 Behavior Analysis Association of Michigan (BAAM) Conference where she was able to speak with behavior analysis researchers, students, and clinicians across the State of Michigan! Her poster, On the Pre-Assessments Used to Inform Experimental Functional Analyses: A Concise Review provided information about the assessments used to inform experimental functional analyses. She gained valuable feedback and suggestions from attendees and is excited to present her symposium at the 2025 Association for Applied Behavior Analysis International Convention in Washington DC this May.
Other Work
Review a sample of our work by visiting Dr. Sala-Hamrick’s google scholar profile, here.
STAR Research Collaborative 