Meet the Faculty

The multidisciplinary team of researchers and theorists are presented here in alphabetical order. The biomedical engineering team and support staff are on a separate page.

Kevin D. Beck Ph.D.

Dr. Beck is an Assistant Professor of Neurosciences at the New Jersey Medical School, UMDNJ, and a Research Physiologist at the VA New Jersey Health Care System.

Dr. Beck's interests in the factors that lead to susceptibility in developing mental disorders is a marriage of his interests in both psychology and biology. During his doctoral studies with Dr. Victoria Luine at Hunter College, CUNY, Dr. Beck was puzzled by the fact that certain animals were more reactive to chronic stress and only some developed long-lasting behavioral and neurochemical changes for days afterward. He studied how environmental factors such as housing density and food deprivation affected this processes in both male and female rats. Following this work he did a short post-doctoral fellowship with Dr. Servatius at NJMS where he studied how an unseen stressor (infrasonic vibrations) could affect rodent and feline behavior. Subsequently, he moved to the East Orange VAMC where he continues to work alongside Dr. Servatius in developing animal models of Gulf War Illness and post traumatic stress disorder. His particular interest still lies in understanding how hormonal and environmental factors contribute to the development of abnormal behavior. Towards these ends he is studying how unexplained symptoms develop through classical conditioning, and he is developing a psychobiological model for the development of anxiety disorders in females.

CV (130k Microsoft Word document, right-click and Save As)

Michael D. Matthews, Ph.D.

Michael D. Matthews is a Professor of Engineering Psychology at the U.S. Military Academy, and also serves as Director of the Engineering Psychology Program in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership. He earned his doctor of philosophy degree in experimental psychology from the State University of New York at Binghamton. A former Air Force officer, Dr. Matthews has published extensively in the general domains of military psychology and engineering psychology. His current research interests include developing and validating simulation-based Army leader training programs and small unit leader decision making. He also works extensively with the Norwegian military in assessing small-unit leader decision-making in field training exercises. Dr. Matthews has held faculty positions at the U.S. Air Force Academy and Drury University, and served as a research psychologist for the Air Force Human Resources Laboratory and the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences.

additional information at the United States Military Academy at West Point

Joselyn McLaughlin, Ph.D.

Dr. McLaughlin is the Scientific Administrator for the SMBI at the VA New Jersey Health Care System (VANJHCS). She earned her Doctor of Philosophy degree in Experimental Psychology from the University of South Carolina. Her graduate research under the mentorship of Dr. Powell investigated the corticolimbic regulation of associative learning. She also worked with Dr. Appel to examine the neural mechanisms underlying the behavioral effects of stimulants. This led her to the Medical University of South Carolina Center for Drug and Alcohol Programs. During her post-doctoral fellowship with Dr. See, she studied the role of the amygdala and prefrontal cortex in mediating drug-seeking behavior to drug-associated stimuli. She then completed a short post-doctoral fellowship with Dr. Servatius at the NeuroBehavioral Response Laboratory at the VANJHCS to study the hormonal influences on associative learning.

Dr. McLaughlin uses her training in behavioral neuroscience and experimental psychology and her expertise in research ethics to support her fellow scientists in obtaining research approval from the appropriate ethics committees. Toward that end, she works closely with the human Institutional Review Boards at the VANJHCS, the New Jersey Medical School, Seton Hall University, and the United States Army Medical Research and Materiel Command and with the animal use ethics committee at the VA. Dr. McLaughlin further supports her colleagues in the SMBI by supervising research subject recruitment and by researching issues related to the selection, use, and interpretation of assessment instruments.

Roberta Moldow, Ph.D.

Biographical sketch forthcoming.

Jeffrey B. Rosen, Ph.D.

profile at the University of Delaware Department of Psychology

Kenneth Short, Ph.D.

Biographical sketch forthcoming.

Kirsten VanMeenen, Ph.D.

Biographical sketch forthcoming.