Alice Mullin is a doctoral student in the School Psychology emphasis in CCSP under Dr. Jill Sharkey. She graduated from Scripps College in 2017 with a B.A. in psychology. Following graduation, she began working as a project coordinator in Dr. Allison Harvey’s lab at UC Berkeley. The lab focused on the development and implementation of a behavioral sleep intervention for both youth and adults. Currently, her research interests include reducing barriers to and improving engagement with evidence-based treatments within youth systems, with a particular focus on the sustainment of successful treatments. She is particularly interested in increasing historically underserved populations’ access to such interventions.
GGSE: How have you been spending time since the campus shutdown?
Mullin: I've been spending a lot more time outdoors! Santa Barbara is definitely a great place for that. Despite living in California my whole life, I was never much of a beach person until this year, but I went to the beach nearly every day this summer! I've also spent a lot of time going on hikes and walks in the Santa Barbara area. I like walking around the lagoon on campus to see how many bunnies and racoons I can find along the way. I've also been baking and reading for fun more than I ever did before the shut down! And, of course, Zooming with friends.
GGSE: Who's your favorite thriller writer?
Mullin: This is a great question, because thrillers are my favorite book genre! My favorite thriller novel is Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (no spoilers, but you can't beat that twist in the middle), so she's definitely up there! I also really like Liane Moriarty's books. They're not the classic scary-thrillers, but they are reliably interesting who-done-it types, and I rarely anticipate where the plot is going.
GGSE: What research are you currently working on? What do you plan on doing in the future?
Mullin: I'm in the school psychology emphasis of the CCSP program, and I work with Dr. Jill Sharkey. We're currently working on several projects as a lab. One of the projects I am involved with is a partnership with Noah's Anchorage YMCA Youth Shelter, which serves runaway and homeless youth in Santa Barbara County. We're working with them to maximize the benefit of their interventions for the youth that they serve. I am also working on another project in which we are partnering with Fight Back Santa Maria Valley to evaluate the success of numerous anti-smoking campaigns for children in middle and high school. In the future, I plan to continue working closely with community-based organizations that serve youth. My research interests focus on the implementation and sustainment of interventions which serve youth (particularly historically underserved youth), with a specific focus on examining the barriers to and facilitators of engagement with these interventions. I am so excited to be working with Dr. Sharkey and the rest of my lab!
GGSE: Who, living or dead, do you most admire?
Mullin: These kinds of questions are so hard, because I admire so many people! The person who comes to mind at the moment is Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I admire her politics and her willingness to fight for what she believes in, but what I think I most admire about her is her ability and willingness to explain complex systems in a way that people who are not in politics can understand. I love watching her Instagram live streams, because I always come away from them feeling like I actually learned something about the way that government functions. She has a wonderful way of demystifying the world of politics. I admire this particularly as someone who is in academia, because this field has a propensity for becoming very esoteric and exclusionary as well. I think it's important for anyone in academia to recognize this and do what they can to demystify the process. Thanks, AOC for showing how it's done!