NCE’s 2023-2024 fiscal year, illustrating how the College is following through with our commitment to the betterment of education on both a local and national level.
ISPP Clinical Psychology Core Faculty Illinois School of Professional Psychology (ISPP) at National Louis University Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology Program
Areas of Expertise: Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Treatment of Individuals with Eating Disorders, Exposure-Based Interventions for Anxiety Disorders, Cognitive Processing Therapy for Clients with Trauma-Related Disorders, and Mindfulness and Acceptance-Based Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies
Leah Horvath, Ph.D. Program Director Associate Professor
Leah Horvath, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor and the Program Director of the Illinois School of Professional Psychology at National Louis University. She received her undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and her MS and PhD in Clinical Psychology from The University of Kentucky, with a focus on cognitive-behavioral treatments and clinical administration. Dr. Horvath is a licensed clinical psychologist in the state of Illinois with a small private practice and more than 16 years working in Psy.D. education and training. She has specialized clinical training in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) including completing her pre-doctoral fellowship in the DBT program at the Yale-New Haven Psychiatric Hospital. Dr. Horvath completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the University Counseling Service at New York University, where she specialized in the treatment of individuals with eating disorders. Her clinical areas of interest involve Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), treatment of individuals with eating disorders, exposure-based interventions for anxiety disorders, cognitive processing therapy for clients with trauma-related disorders, and mindfulness and acceptance- based cognitive-behavioral therapies. Her research interests include issues in romantic relationships, therapy outcome research, and factors related to the positive professional development of psychologists and trainees.
Areas of Expertise: Assessment Psychology, Complex Trauma, Psychoanalysis, Feminist Psychology, Reproductive Psychology
Christina Biedermann, Psy.D., ABAP Associate Professor
Christina Biedermann, PsyD, ABAP, is an Associate Professor at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology at National Louis University as well as a practicing clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst. She is also Clinical Associate Faculty at the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis and board certified in assessment psychology. Dr. Biedermann attended Davidson College (Davidson, NC) as an undergraduate before pursuing doctoral training at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology (now Williams James College, in Boston, MA), interning at the Victims of Violence Program at Cambridge Hospital/Harvard Medical School, and completing an APA-approved predoctoral internship at the Northampton Veterans Affairs Medical Center. She then went on to complete a 4-year advanced postdoctoral training program in psychoanalytic psychotherapy at the Austen Riggs Center (Stockbridge, MA). She is currently on the Editorial Board of the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association and serves as a reviewer for Psychoanalytic Psychology and the Journal of Feminist Family Therapy. She has published and presented at national conferences on working with complex trauma, suicidality, treatment resistance, psychological assessment, and feminist advocacy, as well as lectured at the Yale Child Study Center, the Yale-Riggs Family and Infant Mental Health training program, and the New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. She is a member of the American Psychological Association (Divisions 35 and 39), the Illinois Psychological Association, the American Psychoanalytic Association, the International Psychoanalytic Association, the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis, the Chicago Psychoanalytic Society, the Society for Personality Assessment, and the International Society for Rorschach and Projective Methods. Her current research interests include: Reproductive Psychology and Justice, Motherhood and Maternal Subjectivity, Gender, Women’s Mental Health Complex Trauma, Severe Psychopathology, Personality Disorders, Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, and Psychoanalysis. She and her students are currently engaged in several qualitative projects studying various aspect of maternal subjectivity.
Areas of Expertise: Psychoanalysis, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Exposure-Based Interventions for Anxiety Disorders, and Mindfulness and Acceptance- Based, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies, Trauma-Informed Therapies, Assessments
Imuentiyan Igbinosun, Psy.D. Associate Professor
Dr. Imuentiyan Igbinosun earned her Doctor of Clinical Psychology (Psy.D.) with a concentration in Military Psychology from Adler University in Chicago, IL, and her Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology from the Illinois School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University, Chicago, IL. She currently practices in private practice, where she works with individuals presenting with depression, anxiety, trauma-related concerns, personality disorders, interpersonal challenges, identity exploration, and LGBTQIA+ related issues. She is extensively trained in psychoanalytic interventions and is certified in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT). In addition to her clinical work, Dr. Igbinosun brings significant teaching experience as an adjunct faculty member at Albizu University in Miami, FL, Daley College within the City Colleges of Chicago system, and the Illinois School of Professional Psychology at National Louis University. In these roles, she has taught courses in psychology and clinical practice, demonstrating a strong commitment to mentorship, academic excellence, and professional development. Dr. Igbinosun’s research interests center on resilience and its role in reducing the negative psychological impacts of trauma. She is particularly focused on how resilience-based approaches can foster long-term healing and empower individuals to navigate adversity with strength, adaptability, and a deeper sense of self. Areas of Expertise: Psychoanalysis, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Exposure-Based Interventions for Anxiety Disorders, and Mindfulness and Acceptance-Based, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies, Trauma-Informed Therapies, Assessments
Areas of Expertise: Rural Psychology, Child Psychology, Family and Couples, Interracial/Transnational Couples' Acculturation and Parenting
Kanae Kura, Psy.D. Assistant Professor
Dr. Kanae Kura received her Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology in 2023. After completing her internship and postdoctoral residency in an APA-accredited community mental health site in rural Indiana, she worked as an adjunct professor at The Illinois School of Professional Psychology at National Louis University. In addition to teaching as an adjunct professor at the ISPP, Dr. Kura serves as a collaborator at the ARISE (Antiracism, Resistance, Identity, Socialization, and Equity) Lab at Purdue University. Her clinical and research interests are primarily on children, families, and couples; specifically, her publications are focused on mixed-heritage children’s racial socialization, transnational families, and interracial/transnational couples’ acculturation and parenting practices. Dr. Kura’s clinical areas of expertise include intergenerational trauma, treating adults and children with severe mental illnesses with complex family trauma backgrounds. With her undergraduate degree in languages, Dr. Kura worked as an interpreter in Italian-Japanese for about 15 years. This background and experience as a linguist built a strong foundation for Dr. Kura to serve clinical populations with different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. In the new role as an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology, Dr. Kura will be teaching required and elective courses in the Child and Adolescent Track, coordinating further development of the track and courses, as well as working as a Chair for students’ dissertations.
Areas of Expertise: Women’s Health, Domestic Violence Treatment Approaches, Group Therapy, and Trauma
Lucia Lopez, Psy.D. Assistant Director of Training Assistant Professor
Dr. Lucia Lopez graduated with her Psy.D. in clinical psychology from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. She completed her undergraduate career at Roosevelt University where she obtained a B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Criminal Justice and concentration in Child and Family Studies. She currently serves as the Associate Director of Training at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology at NLU. Prior to joining NLU, Dr. Lopez was a clinical therapist and supervisor at Advocate Masonic Medical Center, Behavioral Health. She provided clinical services to patients of all ages struggling with a wide range of psychiatric diagnoses including depression, anxiety, personality disorders, and complex trauma. She provided supervision for students in training in both individual and group modalities. Dr. Lopez also facilitated groups for domestic violence survivors, monolingual speaking Latinas, people with substance abuse problems, and new moms struggling with peripartum/postpartum depression. Dr. Lopez’s areas of specialty include women’s health, domestic violence treatment approaches, group therapy, and trauma work. She has experience working with patients across the lifespan, predominantly within community mental health and hospital settings. As a bilingual bicultural clinician, she has focused on working with underserved populations. Dr. Lopez completed a year with the Michael Reese Care Program where she focused on health psychology and working with HIV+ patients. She had the opportunity to obtain specialized training in the psychological treatment of LGBTQIA+ members. When it comes to education and training, Dr. Lopez embraces the importance of diversity, inclusion, and mentorship.
Areas of Expertise: Psychopathology, Eating Disorders, Feminist Psychology, Integrated Primary Care
Misty Mann, Psy.D. Associate Professor
Dr. Misty Mann completed her Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology from the Illinois School of Professional Psychology. She is a licensed Clinical Psychologist in the state of Illinois and has obtained the Authority to Practice Interjurisdictional Telepsychology from PSYPACT. Dr. Mann maintains a small private practice providing individual therapy to diverse adults utilizing psychodynamic and feminist approaches. For the past decade she has developed her expertise in training, teaching, and administration by serving as a training faculty in various Psy.D. programs throughout the Chicagoland area. Currently, she is serving as an Associate Professor in the Clinical Psychology Psy.D. program at NLU ISPP. Dr. Mann's experience working with diverse individuals in a variety of settings, including college counseling, VA medical center, private practice, and integrated primary care family medicine clinic, has informed her clinical, scholarship, and teaching interests. She has taught courses on supervision and consultation, practicum seminars, clinical interviewing, professional development, ethics, psychology of women, group, integrated care, and dissertation seminars. Her primary clinical and scholarly interests include reproductive health, feminist psychology, veterinarian mental health, primary care psychology, and eating and body image issues. She has also co-authored book chapters on mental health and obesity and screening tools in primary care and presented at state conferences on maternal mental health. Furthermore, she is a volunteer with Not One More Vet, an organization working to decrease the suicide rate among Veterinarians. As a volunteer and Co-Chair of Outreach, she participates in outreach events and the student group and designs and creates ideas for outreach programs that promote greater mental health and awareness of resources.
Areas of Expertise: LGBTQIA+ Psychology, Community Mental Health, Addictions Counseling
Anissa Rivers, Psy.D. Director of Clinical Training Assistant Professor
Anissa Rivers, PsyD (she/her) graduated from Purdue University Northwest with MS in Counseling and completed her PsyD at Adler University. She is currently a Licensed Clinical Psychologist in Illinois and Indiana with over 20 years of experience in community mental health settings. Her career began as a substance abuse counselor and evolved into roles as a clinical psychologist, with additional experience teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels. For more than a decade, she was a clinical and assessment supervisor before assuming the role of Director of Training for an APA-accredited internship program, a position she held for the last six years. Her clinical experience focused on individuals with mental health, physical health and forensic concerns, co-occurring disorders, and a history of complex trauma in underserved treatment areas. Her research interests center on characteristics of empathy and absorption in individuals who engage in role- playing games as well as clinical and training applications of role-playing and collaborative storytelling.
Areas of Expertise: ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Neurocognitive Disorders, Rehabilitation Psychology, Gerontology, Palliative and End-of-Life Care.
Michelle Tan, Psy.D. Assistant Professor
Dr. Michelle Tan is an Assistant Professor at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology as well as a licensed clinical psychologist whose work bridges the disciplines of health psychology and neuropsychology to address the complex interaction between brain, behavior, and physical health. Dr. Tan earned her Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology (Neuropsychology emphasis) from Adler University, completing her APA-accredited internship at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Her professional background includes leadership roles as Program Manager of Evaluation Services and Training Director at a pediatric outpatient behavioral center and as Neuropsychology Emphasis Coordinator at Adler University during her time as faculty there. In her clinical work, Dr. Tan currently serves as Director of Assessment at Primary Care Psychology Associates, where she specializes in and oversees neuropsychological and psychological evaluation services across the lifespan and provides supervision for postdoctoral fellows and interns. She is deeply committed to training and mentoring future psychologists, emphasizing evidence-based practice, professional identity development, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Dr. Tan also provides evidence-based therapies including CBT, ACT, and mindfulness-based interventions to support clients to cope through challenges with the goal to improve daily functioning and quality of life. Other clinical and research interests include: ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, neurocognitive disorders, rehabilitation psychology, gerontology, palliative and end-of-life care. She is credentialed through PSYPACT and the National Register of Health Service Psychologists.
Areas of Expertise: Research Methods, History and Systems, Biological Basis of Behavior, Business
Emese Vitalis, Ph.D. Assistant Professor
Dr. Emese Vitalis is a full-time faculty member at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology. She obtained her Ph.D. in Psychology from Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands, and has more than sixteen years of experience teaching face-to-face and online courses to college and graduate students from many different countries, social backgrounds, interests, and ages. Dr. Vitalis has taught a wide variety of courses; most recently Cognitive and Affective Processes, Biological Basis of Behavior, Child and Adolescent Psychology, Research Methods, History and Systems, and Health Psychology. She has done research in learning and text understanding, trained middle and high school students in learning ad exam-taking strategies, and teachers in student learning processes. Dr. Vitalis has managed research groups, volunteers, and committees. Dr. Vitalis currently serves as a member of the Advisory Board of the Psychology Program at St. Augustine College in Chicago. Her clinical experience includes assessment, testing, and therapy. Dr. Vitalis also has an MBA and a Certificate of Entrepreneurship from the University of Montana and has experience in coaching start-up companies and writing business plans. Dr. Vitalis was born and raised in Hungary and has lived in four different countries. She enjoys traveling, writing, and movies.
Areas of Expertise: Client-Centered Therapy, Group Therapy, Family Therapy, Diversity, Severe Psychology
Margaret Warner, Ph.D. Professor
Margaret S. Warner, Ph.D. is a distinguished professor at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology at NLU, having taught classes relating to client-centered therapy, group therapy, family therapy, diversity and severe psychology since 1983. Her doctorate is in behavioral sciences from the committee on human development of the University of Chicago. She is a client-centered therapist who has practiced for over 35 years, with a particular emphasis on work with clients experiencing “difficult process,” those typically diagnosed as borderline, narcissistic, dissociative identity disorders or schizophrenia. Her clinical training was undertaken at the Chicago Counseling and Psychotherapy Center, an offshoot of the original Counseling Center founded by Carl Rogers at the University of Chicago. She was a co-founder of the Minor in Client-Centered and Experiential Psychology at the Chicago campus of the Illinois School of Professional Psychology. Dr. Warner also has a particular interest in a person-centered approach to diversity issues. She co-founded a group called “Face to Face with Diversity” that conducted a day-long, person-centered diversity group at the Chicago 2000 conference. Following this, the Face to Face with Diversity group designed a group class called “Exploring Diversity” in which students explore diversity issues in an open person-centered group which as a “critical mass” of students of color. She co-founded Nia Services, a diversity-oriented, person- centered training site on the South Side of Chicago. Dr. Warner has published widely and has offered many presentations to international groups on “difficult process,” diversity, and the person-centered theory of meaning. Dr. Warner, with a group of volunteers, convened Chicago 2000: The Fifth International Conference in Client-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapies, the first time that this conference had been held in the United States. She was a founding member of the World Association for Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapy and Counseling.
Areas of Expertise: Trauma, Refugee Psychology, International Psychology, Health Psychology
Sandra Zakowski, Ph.D. Professor
Dr. Sandra G. Zakowski is a professor in clinical psychology and a licensed clinical psychologist in Illinois. She obtained her Ph.D. in medical psychology at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and subsequently completed a clinical respecialization at the Illinois Institute of Technology. She has been teaching for over 25 years, and prior to joining the Illinois School of Professional Psychology was a faculty member at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. In addition, she worked as mental health program director for Heartland Alliance in Northern Iraq and helped develop a master’s program in clinical psychology at Koya University where she also taught. Dr. Zakowski’s clinical and academic interests focus on trauma, refugee psychology and international psychology. She is particularly interested in cross-cultural applications of trauma treatment and in the psychological consequences of human rights abuses. She worked as a therapist at the Heartland Alliance Marjorie Kovler Center for the Treatment of Survivors of Torture for about seven years. She also serves as pro bono consultant for international organizations including Physicians for Human Rights, Advocates Abroad (Greece), and the SEED Foundation (Iraq). She provides pro bono forensic psychological evaluations for asylum cases and conducts clinical consultations and training workshops internationally on topics related to trauma, the psychological consequences of forced migration, and health psychology. Her current research investigates psychological trauma related to genocide, political persecution, and gender- based violence, and she has an interest in the ethics of international psychological research. She is a member of the Scientists on Call program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and has contributed scientific consultations for international organizations documenting human rights abuses. Prior to completing her clinical respecialization, her work was primarily focused on health psychology research, and she published studies in the areas of psychoneuroimmunology, psycho-oncology, and the psychobiological effects of chronic and acute stress.
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