Our Team
Julie Croff, PhD, MPH
Principal Investigator, Administrative Core Director
Dr. Croff is a Professor in the Department of Rural Health at Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences. Her work focuses on the precursors to and impacts of substance use across the lifespan, with particular emphasis on women and families. Within CIRCA, she fosters collaboration among scientists to advance discovery on childhood adversity. She also leads the Oklahoma site of the national HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) study with Dr. Morris. Dr. Croff is Immediate Past President of the American Academy of Health Behavior. She has served in various administrative and leadership roles across the OSU system and is known for creating strong, supportive teams.
Kent Teague, PhD
Biological Systems (BioS) Core Co-Director
Dr. Kent Teague, Assistant Vice President for Research, leads the research efforts at OU-Tulsa. Dr. Teague is a biomedical researcher who specializes in studying the effects of psychosocial stress and chronic inflammation on the immune system and the downstream effects on health. He earned a PhD in Immunology from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in 1995, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the field of immunology at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Denver in 1999. He joined the OU College of Medicine in 2000 where he directs the OU-Tulsa Integrative Immunology Center. Dr. Teague is also the Associate Dean for Research for the OU-TU School of Community Medicine, a Professor in the OU Department of Surgery, an Adjunct Professor in the OU Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, an Adjunct Professor in the OU Department of Psychiatry, and an Adjunct Associate Professor of Immunology at the OSU Center for Health Sciences in Tulsa. Dr. Teague holds the George Kaiser Family Foundation Chair in Community Medicine Research and is a member of the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine Academy of Teaching Scholars.
Kyle Simmons, PhD
Biological Systems (BioS) Core Co-Director
W. Kyle Simmons, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology at Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences, and Director of the OSU Biomedical Imaging Center. For over 20 years his research has used cutting-edge neuroimaging, psychophysiology, and bioassays of endocrine, metabolic, and immune signaling pathways to explore the biological determinants of health behaviors in adults and children from both healthy and clinical populations, particularly in depression, obesity, and substance use disorders.
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Lana Beasely, PhD
Recruitment, Engagement, Collection and Analysis (RECA) Core Co-Director
Dr. Lana Beasley is a licensed Clinical Child Psychologist and the Director of Resilience, Adversity, and Interventions at CIRCA. Dr. Beasley’s research has included working on randomized clinical trials and program evaluation all in the area of supporting children and families experiencing high-risk factors. She holds expertise in qualitative research and has been a co-investigator on many grants involving a program of research developing, implementing, evaluating, and expanding evidence-based home visiting programs serving populations facing adversity. Dr. Beasley also conducts mixed-methods research in the area of adaptation of treatments for diverse populations and examining engagement and attrition of families experiencing high-risk factors.
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Jens Jespersen, PhD
Recruitment, Engagement, Collection and Analysis (RECA) Core Co-Director
My name is Jens Jespersen, and I am a Research Scientist at the Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences, working at the Center for Integrative Research on Childhood Adversity. I received my doctorate in Human Development and Family Science from OSU with an emphasis in infant mental health. My research interests are centered around how early relationships and experiences influence social and emotional development in infants and young children, and how protective experiences influence child and family development and functioning in the context of early adversity. I am a mixed-methods researcher involved with work evaluating various parenting, health, and education programs across the State of Oklahoma.
Amanda Sheffield Morris, PhD
Director of Mentoring and Training
Amanda is the George Kaiser Family Foundation Chair and Regents Professor in the Department of Psychology at Oklahoma State University. Dr. Morris is a developmental scientist with research interests in parenting, socio-emotional development, and risk and resilience. She is endorsed as an Infant Mental Health Research Mentor, Level IV, and is a certified Trainer of Trainers for Active Parenting programs. Dr. Morris is a Principal Investigator on the NIH funded HEALthy Brain and Child Development Study. Dr. Morris also serves on the ABCD Culture and Environment work group as part of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study at LIBR. She has authored numerous articles and chapters on child and adolescent development and the neuroscience of emotion regulation and parenting. Dr. Morris is an Associate Editor for the new Journal Adversity and Resilience Science: Research and Practice published by Springer. She is also a co-author of the in-press book, Adverse and Protective Childhood Experiences: A Developmental Perspective published by the American Psychological Association.
Rebecca Fine Stallings, MA
Program Director
Rebecca has her Master’s in Educational Policy Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she focused her research on racial disparities in school discipline, and was a qualitative research analyst at Madison Metropolitan School District. Prior to joining CIRCA, Rebecca was a middle school teacher in Tulsa and Union Public Schools. She later joined the Oklahoma Policy Institute as the Education Policy Analyst and KIDS COUNT Coordinator where she served as an advisory board member for the Early Childhood Education Institute at the University of Oklahoma. Prior to joining CIRCA, she was an instructional coach for elementary and secondary teachers in Tulsa Public Schools.
Ahlam Alarbi, PhD
Lab Manager
Dr. Alarbi is a Lab Manager at the Hardesty Center for Clinical Research & Neuroscience at the OSU Center for Health Sciences. She has a Master’s in Biochemistry and a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Tulsa. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Surgery and the Integrative Immunology Center at the OU-TU School of Community Medicine. Dr. Alarbi is an expert in biomarker and cellular analysis.
Bidhan Lamichhane, PhD
Staff Scientist
​Dr. Lamichhane is the Assistant Director of Neuroimaging Research at the OSU Biomedical Imaging Center. His current research focuses on the application of functional and structural neuroimaging techniques to investigate the human brain's response to health, disease, and aging. He holds a doctorate in Physics from Georgia State University, where he conducted neuroimaging research on the social and perceptual decision-making processes in the human brain. During his postdoctoral training at Washington University in St. Louis, he performed statistical analysis and mathematical modeling/simulation/analysis of complex neuroimaging data, including that from healthy aging, brain tumor, and pain patients. He is also a certified Safety Expert/Officer (MRSE/MRSO). Currently, Dr. Lamichhane lends his expertise to design and implement neuroimaging experiments using MRI/EEG/fNIRX, and contributes to writing/coding in the neuroimaging data analysis pipeline. He also oversees the technical aspects (including MRI/EEG and FNIR as well as their peripheral systems) and the infrastructure of the center.
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Ashlee Rempel, MBA
Lab Manager
Ashlee Rempel serves as the Integrative Immunology Center Laboratory Manager and Business Manager. Ashlee has been employed at the University of Oklahoma since 2002, beginning as a Research Assistant II in the Department of Pediatrics at the OUHSC in Oklahoma City. She joined OU - Tulsa as a Research Assistant II in 2005. She assumed the role of Research Associate and Laboratory Manager in 2009. She has a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology and a Master's in Business Administration from Oklahoma State University. She is a certified flow cytometrist and an expert in flow-based cytokine bead arrays, ELISA, MSD arrays, and other biomarker technologies.
Chibing Tan, PhD
Staff Scientist
Dr. Tan directs the Flow Cytometry Laboratory at the Integrative Immunology Center. He is an expert in multiparametric flow cytometry. He is a certified operator of the MoFlo™ XDP high-speed cell sorter. He earned his PhD in Polymer Chemistry and Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Biochemistry and Biophysics at the OUHSC in Oklahoma City and a second postdoctoral fellowship in Immunology at the University of Oklahoma School of Community Medicine in Tulsa.
Brenda Davis, BS
Research Coordinator
Brenda Davis is a senior research technician with extensive experience in human tissue/blood processing, blood and saliva biomarker analyses, molecular biology and recombinant DNA technology. She serves as the Integrative Immunology Center’s clinical studies coordinator and oversees human tissue processing and cryogenic storage. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from The Oklahoma State University.
Kaylen Smith, BS
Program Coordinator
Kaylen Smith graduated from Oklahoma State University with an undergraduate degree in Psychology. Kaylen explored a career in marketing for a few years after graduating, and now assists with community outreach and dissemination efforts in her role as a program coordinator at CIRCA. Additionally, Kaylen is training to facilitate and help coordinate a stress reduction program for first responders, called Mindful First Responders.
Internal Advisory Committee
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