Fall 2023

In non-academic-related news, members of the lab went to Top Golf for the lab social of Fall 2023! The lab enjoyed swinging (and missing) golf balls during one of the final warmer days of the season.

From left to right: Kendra Rigney (member of Dr. Sarah Ehlke’s lab), Emily Renzoni, Abby Braitman, Jennifer Shipley, and Rachel Ayala Guzman.

RSA 2023

The lab attended the 46th Annual Research Society on Alcohol (RSA) Scientific Meeting in Bellevue, WA. All members enjoyed some fun downtime as well as presenting findings from their research.

First photo from left to right: Abby Braitman, Jennifer Shipley, Rachel Ayala Guzman. Second photo from left to right: Rachel Ayala Guzman, Abby Braitman, and Megan Strowger. Third photo from left to right: Jennifer Shipley, Megan Strowger, Rachel Ayala Guzman, and Abby Braitman.

Lab members Rachel Ayala Guzman (first photo), Jennifer Shipley (second photo), and Megan Strowger all presented posters. Megan also chaired a symposium titled, “Novel Approaches to Examining the Effects of Both Mass Media and Social Media on Alcohol Use Among Adolescents and Young Adults” and presented a talk titled “Effects of Viewing Alcohol-related Social Media Content Shared by Important Friends on College Drinking: A Longitudinal Examination” (third photo). Lab director, Abby Braitman, co-chaired a symposium titled, “Promoting Maintenance of Reduced Alcohol Use Across the Drinking Spectrum: Novel Insights on Mechanisms of Action” and presented a talk titled, “Emailed Boosters After Computer-delivered Interventions Extend Maintenance for Heavier College Drinkers”.

Spring 2023 Student Grants and Awards

Jennifer Shipley was awarded the ODU Summer Research Award from the Graduate School which comes with $3,000 to support her dissertation research.

CPA 2023

The lab attended the Collaborative Perspectives on Addiction (CPA) Annual Meeting. Abby Braitman, Jennifer Shipley, Rachel Ayala Guzman, and Megan Strowger all presented as well.

Abby (above) presented a talk titled, “Predictive Value of Specific Social Network Analysis on College Drinking: Beyond Non-specific Norms” at the symposium titled, “Novel Measurement and Assessments for Understanding Addiction Across Diverse Populations”.

Megan Strowger (top), Rachel Ayala Guzman (middle), and Jennifer Shipley (bottom), all presented posters. For more information on their posters please see the “Conferences” page.

3MT

Megan Strowger was a finalist in Old Dominion University’s Graduate School’s sixth annual 3-Minute-Thesis (3MT^®) competition. She practiced hard for several months beforehand to prepare a talk that was 2 minutes and 50 seconds long about her preliminary dissertation findings. Her talk was titled, “Don’t Picture This: Exploring the Link Between Seeing Alcohol Content on Social Media and College Drinking Over Time”.

Inaugural Polysubstance Use Symposium 2022

Jennifer Shipley and Abby Braitman attended the Inaugural Polysubstance Use Symposium in New York, NY. Jennifer presented a poster and was the recipient of the student scholarship award. For more information on her poster, please see the “Conferences” page.

Megan Strowger organized and presented at the symposium titled, “Towards a Deeper Understanding of the Intersection between Social Media and Alcohol Use Across the Lifespan”. Her talk was titled, “Following More Social Media Influencers Who Share Alcohol-related Content is Linked to College Drinking”. She also presented a poster.

Rachel presented a poster too. More details on Megan and Rachel’s posters can be found on the “Conferences” page.

ODU College of Sciences Award Ceremony 2022

Jennifer Shipley won the Outstanding MS Thesis award, and Abby Braitman won the Outstanding Undergraduate Research Mentor award.

Spring 2022 Student Grants and Awards

Megan Strowger was awarded the F31 Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (NRSA) from the National Institute on Alcohol Effects and Alcohol-Associated Disorders. Megan was also awarded the ODU Summer Research Award from the Graduate School which comes with $3,000 to support her dissertation research.

Spring 2021 Student Grants and Awards

Jennifer Shipley won the Graduate Student Research Award from the Society for Health Psychology (Division 38) which came with $2,000 to support her thesis research.