I fell in love with psychological research during my Master’s program through a Graduate Research Assistantship. Over the years, I have worked on many research projects in paid and volunteer capacities. These projects span research in special education, anti-human trafficking, minority STEM student retention, counselor characteristics, and counseling publication trends. I believe that research supports clinical work by determining efficacy, and by focusing efforts on traditionally understudied individuals and groups, the field of psychology can bolster the mental and emotional wellbeing of all people.
I am currently working on my doctoral dissertation, which is focused on gathering information about the grief experiences of Gen Z young adults. My study utilizes an inclusive definition of grief by inquiring about experiences related to non-death loss as well as death loss. This perspective is important as the grief literature has primarily focused on bereavement loss.
Publications
Mills, L. K., Mahoney, G-E., Monroig, M., & Kepley, L. N. (2025). A content analysis of human trafficking research addressing mental health [Manuscript submitted for publication].
Hammond, M. S., Girresch-Ward, S., Rochester, N., Lehmann, J. S., Leachman, R., Kepley, L. N., & Roberts, T. N. (2023). Validating the engineering fields questionnaire for use with African American science, technology, engineering, and mathematics students. Journal of Career Assessment, 32(3), 482-503.
Erford, B. T., Chang, C. Y., Crockett, S. A., Byrd, R., Johnsen, S. T., MacInerney, E. K., Menzies, A., Milowsky, A. I., Saks, J., Wills, L., Zhang, X., Alder, C., Anderson, B., Barstack, S., Bradford, E., Choi, J., Cummings, J. A., Fuller, A., Gayowsky, J., … Yu, C. (2023). An omnibus synthesis of author and article publication characteristics in 22 counseling journals from 2010 to 2019. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development, 56(3), 187–208.
Rippeto, M., Stewart, E., Chowning, M., Karkhanis, S., Erford, B. T., & Kepley, L. (2021). A metastudy of Adultspan Journal: An analysis of publication characteristics from 1999 to 2019. Adultspan Journal, 20(1), 17–28.
Menzies, A., Kepley, L., Crockett, S. A., Erford, B. T., Byrd, R., & Aier, B. (2020). A meta-study of the Journal of Mental Health Counseling: An analysis of publication characteristics, 2000–2019. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 42(3), 206–219.
Leah Kepley, M.Ed. 