Featured Faculty

As an Associate Professor and full-time faculty member in the Department of Counseling, Dr. Melanie Iarussi treasures opportunities to promote the growth of student counselors so they may best serve their future clients. In addition to teaching and providing clinical supervision to students, Dr. Iarussi has been serving as chair or co-chair of the Department’s assessment and accreditation committees, and she assisted NSU in being awarded a grant from the National Board of Certified Counselors to pursue initial accreditation for the Clinical Mental Health Counseling program. Dr. Iarussi is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers and has provided extensive training in motivational interviewing to a broad range of helping professionals. She recently published her first book on the integration of motivational interviewing with cognitive behavior therapy in clinical practice.

Dr. W. Bradley McKibben is a Clinical Mental Health Counselor and Director of the NSU Clinical Supervision Research Lab housed in the Department of Counseling. Through the lab, he is bringing together faculty and students from counseling, clinical psychology, and school psychology to advance an interdisciplinary study and practice of clinical supervision. Some of his current projects include a mixed method study of attachment dynamics in supervision, as well as an exploratory study into how accredited counselor education programs support site supervisors in the community. Dr. McKibben is also working with colleagues from NSU’s Department of Clinical & School Psychology and at The University of Memphis to design and study a supervisor training curriculum for doctoral-level psychology trainees.

Photo Caption: Dr. McKibben (center) receives the 2019 American Counseling Association Research Award for his article, “Investigating the Impact of Supervisee Attachment System Activation on the Supervisory Relationship” published in The Clinical Supervisor.

Allie Holschbach, Ph.D., is a behavioral neuroendocrinologist. She studies the neural and hormonal pathways that underlie social and emotional behaviors and how social interactions shape the brain and alter hormones. Dr. Holschbach focuses on biological messengers, including neurotransmitters (e.g. serotonin), gonadal hormones (e.g. testosterone and estradiol), and adrenal hormones (e.g. glucocorticoids), and their role in social behaviors. Social behaviors include all sorts of interactions, including prosocial behaviors (e.g. parenting) as well as aggression and competition. She has numerous publications and her work contributes to our understanding of the neural underpinnings and biological consequences of social interactions.

As an Assistant Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience, Dr. Holschbach teaches Developmental Neuroscience, Behavioral Genetics, Drugs and the Brain, Intro to Neuroscience, and Research Methods in Behavioral Neuroscience. Allie also serves as faculty advisor to NSU Florida's local chapter of Nu Rho Psi, the honors society in Neuroscience.

Photo Caption: Allie Holschbach attended the Society for NeuroSports where she and some of her undergraduate research assistants presented a poster entitled "How to make a winner: how hormones and experience shape the brain of the victor." Also pictured: Mariana Moguel and Seethal Doki.

Professor Justin Landy is a social-cognitive psychologist who studies moral judgment and decision-making. He earned his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, and is currently the Principal Investigator of the Reasoning, Person-Perception, and Morality Lab at Nova Southeastern University. He also teaches undergraduate and master's-level courses in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, including Introductory Psychology, Social Psychology, and Research Methods. Dr. Landy's research has been published in academic journals including Psychological Bulletin, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, and Perspectives on Psychological Science, and has been profiled in popular-press outlets including Wired, Psychology Today, and New Scientist.