Faculty and Staff

Office: FFS 201

Phone: 559-278-3228

Email: rbillen@csufresno.edu

Education: Ph.D. Child and Family Studies, University of Tennessee-Knoxville; M.S. Child and Family Studies, University of Tennessee-Knoxville; B.S. Marriage, Family, and Human Development, Brigham Young University

Experience and Research: Joining the Fresno State faculty full-time in the fall of 2016, Rhett served the previous year as a lecturer for child growth and development, family crisis, adolescent learning and development classes at Fresno State and Clovis Community College. He also taught classes at Tennessee in family stress, human sexuality, parent-child relations, and served as a graduate research assistant. At Fresno State, Rhett enjoys teaching family science courses and the upper-division writing course. His research has focused on families with young children with developmental disabilities and determinants of parental involvement among families of children receiving early intervention services. In August 2017, Rhett became a provisional Certified Family Life Educator (CFLE) through the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR). He is working towards collaborating with families of children with disabilities in the central valley to conduct research and develop family life education materials.

Phone: 559-278-4720

Email: kdyer@csufresno.edu

Education: Ph.D. Human Development and Family Studies, University of Missouri-Columbia; M.S. Human Development and Family Studies, University of Missouri-Columbia

Experience and Research: Katie's current research explores attachment cognitions of toddlers in relation to sleep and family history. The unifying theme of Katie's research agenda is an interest in parenting practices pertaining to infant sleep and how those strategies (such as cosleeping and sleep training) are related to attachment and emotional development. In addition, she conducts evaluation research to explore the effects of a developmental pediatric intervention called Healthy Steps at a local medical clinic.

Click here https://sites.google.com/view/professordyerhdfs/home

Office: FFS 214

Phone:  559-278-1158

Email: ahammons@csufresno.edu

Website: https://sites.google.com/mail.fresnostate.edu/amberhammons

Education:  Ph.D. Psychology, University of California, Riverside; M.A. Psychology, University of California, Riverside; B.S. Psychology, University of California, San Diego

Research Interests:
     Developmental Psychology
     Family Health
     Behavior Change
     Prevention/Intervention Programming
     Positive Psychology

Selected Publications:
Professor Hammons' publications may be accessed through her website, https://sites.google.com/mail.fresnostate.edu/amberhammons 

Office: FFS 203

Phone: 559-278-2878

Email: fkartch@csufresno.edu

Education: Ph.D., 2013, Communication, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; M.A., 2009, Communication, Northern Illinois University; B.A., Communication and Political Science, 2007, Northern Illinois University

Research Interests: Family Communication, Interpersonal Communication, Dark Side of Close Relationships, Gender Communication, Menstruation Studies, and Qualitive Methods

Experience and Research: Dr. Falon Kartch's research centers on exploring how familial bonds are formed and maintained, as well as how various populations define what it means to be "family," particularly in contexts in which "family" occurs outside of social and cultural conventions. Her recent work has explored nonresidential parenting practices and nonresidential parent/child relationships. She is also interested in the application of nonviolent communication and relational justice frameworks to understand, develop, maintain, and terminate close relationships. More specifically, her recent line of inquiry explores the use of relational justice frameworks for understanding co-parenting relationships. Her most current research project explores parent/child communication regarding menstruation. Her research has been competitively selected for presentation at multiple meetings of the National Communication Association as well as the International Association for Relationship Researchers and has been featured in numerous edited volumes, including Family Communication, Casing the Family: Theoretical and Applied Approaches to Understanding Family Communication, and the SAGE Encyclopedia of Communication Research Methods. She is currently co-editing an interdisciplinary, edited volume titled Gandhi's Global Legacy: Lessons from Our Modern Times and Moral Challenges, under contract with Lexington Books. 

Dr. Kartch teaches Undergraduate and Graduate courses in social and personal relationships including Family Communication, Interpersonal Communication, Conflict and Communication, and the Dark Side of Close Relationships, as well as Communication Theory and Gender Communication. Dr. Kartch has also presented invited lecturers, at both the Undergraduate and Graduate level, on qualitative inquiry and data analysis.

Dr. Kartch is particularly interested in the use of service-learning as a means of promoting student engagement with the local community and has worked with local community partners, most notably the grassroots initiative Better Period, to address menstrual stigma and period poverty in the Central Valley through her Gender Communication course.  She has completed several trainings in service-learning and was a recipient of the 2019-2020 Service-Learning Development Grant from the Jan & Bud Richter Center for Community Engagement and Service-Learning at Fresno State.

Office: FFS 214

Phone: 559.278.1659

Email: jmckenzie@csufresno.edu

Website: www.jessica-mckenzie.com

 Education: Ph.D., Psychology, Clark University; M.A., Psychology, Clark University; B.A., Psychology (Italian minor), Miami University

Experience and Research: Jessica's research synthesizes developmental and cultural perspectives to examine how culture structures the life course, and how young people and their families psychologically negotiate cultural change brought about by globalization and immigration. Under this umbrella, she currently has three interconnected lines of research:

In one line of work, Jessica studies the perspectives (about self, morality, values, divinity) and practices (religious, linguistic, dietary, media) of Thai youth coming of age in an era of rapid globalization. This long-term fieldwork, which began prior to widespread availability of high-speed internet in rural Thai communities, contributes to the psychological science of globalization and paves the way for understanding both how culture evolves over time and the developmental implications of that evolution.

In another line of work, Jessica studies the psychological experiences of biculturalism among immigrant-origin Southeast Asian and Latino/a youth growing up in central California. This work contributes to acculturation science by speaking to how young people negotiate between and integrate multiple sets of cultural values into their conception of self - as well as barriers to psychological integration. 

Jessica also examines within-culture diversity of moral reasoning on global and local scales. In Thailand, she studies how ecological context and generational cohort shape moral values and moral reasoning. In the U.S., she has studied how age and religious beliefs jointly shape moral reasoning.

In each line of research, Jessica systematically integrates and works alongside undergraduate students. Human Development & Culture Research Lab student scholars have published empirical articles in leading cross-cultural psychology, developmental science, media studies, and religious studies journals, co-authored invited book chapters, and have presented the results of their research internationally, nationally, and locally. More information on lab activities, lab members (past and present), and lab output is available here: www.jessica-mckenzie.com

Students interested in getting involved in Jessica's Human Development and Culture Research Lab are invited to get in touch via email.

Office: FFS 301

Phone: 559-278-5323

Email: megpronovost@csufresno.edu

Curriculum Vitae (PDF)

Education: Ph.D. Psychological Sciences, University of California, Merced

Experience and Research: Megan joined the Fresno State faculty in 2019 after receiving a Ph.D. in Psychological Sciences with an emphasis in Developmental Psychology from UC Merced. Her research is primarily related to the development of social cognition from infancy to early childhood.

Broadly, her research investigates the origins and nature of social-group based inferences, and how environmental factors shape these inferences throughout early childhood. Specifically, she investigates the types of characteristics that infants expect members of a social group to share, such as food preferences and social behaviors.

Additionally, her research investigates how environmental influences, such as how parents discuss social groups with their children, as well as the other environmental factors, impact the beliefs and inferences that children form about social groups.

Office: FFS 305

Phone: 559-278-5141

Email: aroach@csufresno.edu

Education: Ph.D. Human Development and Family Science, University of Missouri - Columbia; M.A., Child and Family Studies, Fontbonne University, St. Louis, MO; B.A., Vocational Family and Consumer Sciences, Missouri State University, Springfield, MO

Experience and Research: Joining the Fresno State faculty in the fall of 2016, Andrea received her Ph.D. degree from the University of Missouri with an emphasis on domestic violence and family relations. Her research interests include intimate partner violence, parent-child relationships, adolescence and emerging adulthood, sibling relationships, divorce and remarriage, and sexuality. She has been an active member of the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) since 2011, is a member of the Journal of Family Theory and Review Inaugural Digital Scholarship Board, and is the Students and New Professionals Representative-Elect for the NCFR Board.

At the University of Missouri, she was a graduate instructor and teaching assistant. She taught classes in family studies, intimate relationships and marriage, human sexuality, human development, adolescence and young adulthood. She also served as a postdoctoral research assistant for the Family Services Department of the State of Missouri in a comparative analysis for child support collection techniques. She also taught Family and Consumer Sciences at McCluer South-Berkeley High School while she was a graduate student at Fontbonne University. Courses she taught included child care and development, housing, fashion design, nutrition and wellness, food science, and senior survival.