Community Health Sciences, Counseling & Counseling Psychology

Dr. Emily Abel is an Assistant Professor in Public Health and completed her PhD in Human Development and Family Science from Purdue University in 2022. Dr. Abel has extensive training in pediatric sleep health, developmental assessment, and developmental disabilities. Her research is broadly focused on measuring, understanding, and promoting sleep health for autistic children and their families. Most recently, Dr. Abel's work is focused on increasing accessibility in sleep research for autistic children and their family using tele-health approaches to sleep measurement (non-invasive, remote monitoring). In this work, she aims to improve equity in recruitment strategies and develop opportunities for children and caregivers to determine what improvement in sleep and quality of life looks like for them.

Dr. Abel is passionate about promoting access to sleep resources and research opportunities for children with developmental disabilities and families in the state of Oklahoma and beyond.

Dr. Abel is accepting undergraduate research assistants for Spring 2026 in the Researching Equitable Sleep Together (REST) Lab on the Stillwater campus.

Dr. Abel is accepting graduate students for Fall 2026 for the Community Health Sciences PhD program. Students who are interested in sleep health research, especially those interested in pediatric sleep, family health, or the intersection of sleep and disability, are encouraged to email Dr. Abel (emily.abel@okstate.edu). 

I am a cattle rancher’s wife from northwest Oklahoma and an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) with extensive experience in geriatrics, long-term care, critical care, post-anesthesia care, and rehabilitation. Over my 26 years of teaching at High Plains Technology Center, I developed strong skills in instruction, curriculum development, and student mentorship. I now have the privilege of serving as a Clinical Assistant Professor at Oklahoma State University.

It is an honor to contribute to the development of the new BSN program at Oklahoma State University—the very place where my journey in nursing began when I completed my pre-nursing courses in 1986. Returning to OSU in an instructional role feels like coming full circle, and I am proud to help prepare the next generation of nurses for meaningful and impactful careers.

Dr. Tonya R. Hammer is a Professor of Counseling and Counseling Psychology.  Dr. Hammer is the director of OSU Tulsa's Body Image and Disordered Eating Lab. Her research interests include the areas of body image and eating disorders, humiliation and language, relational cultural theory, and mentoring. Dr. Hammer has written on issues impacting women both as clients and as professionals. She has served in numerous positions within the American Counseling Association (ACA) including serving as the 2016-2017 President of the Association for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues in Counseling and is currently serving on the ACA Ethics Committee.

Research Interests:

Her research interests include the areas of body image and eating disorders, humiliation and language, relational cultural theory, and mentoring. Dr. Hammer has written on issues impacting women both as clients and as professionals.

Physical activity intervention and promotion, Healthy walking strategy, Sedentary behavior prevention, Health behavior theory, Epidemiology, Health behavior change, Activity monitors

I am an assistant professor of Counseling and Counseling Psychology (CPSY). My research focuses on advocacy for counselors-in-training with supervision, counseling outcomes, and professional development. 

Highlighting that supervision is a signature pedagogy of counseling training, my ongoing scholarly work centers on supervision ethics, practice, and supervisory relationships. Keeping up with a competence-based approach to counseling education and training, examining counseling outcomes for counselors and counselors-in-training, contributes to holding counseling services accountable. My research aims to improve the quality of counseling and its training by examining counseling effectiveness and efficiency with contextual specificities. The line of research focuses on the professional development of counselors-in-training, including multicultural and general counseling competencies.

Dr. Sarah Johnson is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Counseling and Counseling Psychology in the School of Community Health Sciences, Counseling and Counseling Psychology. Dr. Johnson is the director of the Al Carlozzi Center for Counseling at OSU-Tulsa. She is a Licensed Health Service Psychologist in Oklahoma and her primary clinical interests are transgender mental health, identity development, and college student mental health. In addition to clinical work, her professional interests include supervision, training, and counselor development. 

Research Interests:

Dr. Johnson's  research interests include the areas of body image and eating disorders, gender diversity, work-life interaction, and perfectionism. She is also interested in research that intersects with clinical work and trainee development. 

Heontae Kim is an Assistant Professor in the Public Health Program within the School of Community Health Sciences, Counseling, and Counseling Psychology at Oklahoma State University, specializing in Health Data Analytics.

His primary research areas encompass physical activity, sedentary behavior, healthy walking strategies, and physical literacy. His work is dedicated to validating new measurement tools related to physical activity and health, devising innovative physical activity interventions, and conducting analyses on health-related big data.

Douglas Knutson, (he/him) PhD is the Myron Ledbetter/Bob Lemon Counseling Psychology D. Assistant Professor, Training Director, and Associate School Head in the School of Community Health Sciences, Counseling and Counseling Psychology at Oklahoma State Univesrity.  He is Board Certified in Counseling Psychology and serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Rural Mental Health and as a member of the American Psychological Association Committee on Rural Health. Dr. Knutsons 50+ peer-reviewed articles, 5 books, and other scholarly contributions focus on rural health care access expansions and community-based behavioral health education strategies.

I'm a Professor of Public Health and Director of the Disability and Wellness Research Collaborative (DWRC). My research starts from lived experience and community priorities, especially where they intersect with structural inequities. 

In  the DWRC we use statistical methods to study patterns of exclusion and disparity, and we view data as a tool for change, rather than surveillance. The DWRC draws on transformative research paradigms, with intersectionality informing how we design studies and reflexivity driving how we interpret results. Partnerships with disabled people and community organizations run through every stage of the work. They guide which questions we ask, inform how we read our findings, and determine how we get results back to the community.

We also train the next generation of scholars. That means treating lived experience as core to good research rather than an add-on, and pushing students to use data for the good of society. We are currently accepting students.

Research interests:

• Structural inequities in access to health and social care for disabled and neurodivergent people
• Statistical and participatory methods for justice-oriented public health research
• Social inclusion and relationships as health-promoting factors
• Autism, neurodivergence, and intersecting marginalized identities
• Housing, employment, and other social drivers of health for disabled people

Jyotsana Sharma's research is focused on exploring socio-cultural contexts and their effect on trauma recovery and posttraumatic growth, specifically in the context of interpersonal violence. She is also involved with research in counselor education and supervision, especially trauma-informed care as well as supervision. She is passionate about developing innovative educational practices that help develop culturally sensitive counselors. 

Anita Silwal, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the School of Community Health Sciences, Counseling, and Counseling Psychology. Her research focuses on the intersection of public health communication, policy, translational science, and implementation science, with a specific emphasis on mental health, suicide prevention, and substance use. Dr. Silwal earned her PhD from University of Kentucky, where she also was trained in implementation research as a researcher for the NIH-funded HEALing Communities Study aimed to reduce overdose deaths. Dr. Silwal's scholarly profile is further distinguished by extensive professional expertise in strategic communication, philanthropy, community engagement, and intergovernmental relations.

Dr. Silwal is accepting students interested in overdose prevention and suicide prevention for research mentorship or implementation supervision. 

Ginger Welch is a clinical professor in the department of Human Development and Family Science, and a licensed health services psychologist. She holds a bachelor's degree in Early Childhood Education, a master's degree in Child Development, and a PhD in Counseling Psychology. She specializes in issues pertinent to the early years of life including trauma, healthcare, parental work, and rural families and communities. Her clinical work focuses on early childhood assessment, trauma, and children with chronic or serious medical conditions. She is a member of the hub team for the OSU Center for Health Sciences Pediatric Obesity ECHO.

Research Interests:

Early trauma; obesity; prevention and early intervention; integrated behavioral and medical services; rural families/employment; career development

Dr. Jisoo Youn (she/her) is an assistant professor in Counseling and Counseling Psychology program. Her research focuses on cross-cultural generalizability of career theories. Some research questions she has include: Can occupational information developed in the US be used outside of the US? Can career theories developed mostly with college students be applied to occupations that do not require higher education? How can we, as a field of vocational psychology, make career theories and practice more inclusive and multicultural? Her ultimate research goal is to develop indigenous career development model for South Korean population.

Dr. Youn's recent CV can be found at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1c4PXtloXh6hbD39AuJFri172J73vW0LN2d9aAzCYYfM/edit?usp=sharing