Dr. Lau-Barraco accepts graduate students from two programs offered through the Department of Psychology at ODU:  Virginia Consortium Program in Clinical Psychology (Ph.D.) and Masters of Science in Psychology.

Dr. Lau-Barraco is strongly committed to mentoring and training future psychologists.  Dr. Lau-Barraco provides guidance on research activities as well as issues related to professional development.  In the context of a junior colleague training model, students are expected to gain more focused training in the initial years; as the student gains more confidence and further develops his or her skill set, the student gains more autonomy and independence.  Each student’s research training is individually tailored to his/her interests and career goals.  Graduate students are mentored to develop their program of research and to gain training in all stages of the scientific process including developing research ideas/thinking critically, designing studies to test those ideas, collecting data, analyzing data and disseminating findings through conference presentations and peer-reviewed publications.  We are an active lab, so graduate students can expect many opportunities for co-authorship and first-authorship on peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations.  Students are expected to develop their master’s thesis as soon as they begin the program and to propose by the end of their second semester.

Because of the emphasis on mentorship, more advanced graduate students are encouraged to work with junior graduate students and all graduate members are encouraged to mentor undergraduate researchers in the lab.  These collaborations allow for graduate students to develop and hone their mentoring skills while more junior members have the benefit of learning from senior students.  Students are encouraged to collaborate with one another on lab projects, presentation and papers.  Ultimately, we strive to create a collaborative and encouraging environment whereby each member is able to grow professionally and personally.