Professor Magai is the founding Director of the Intercultural Institute on Human Development and Aging, a research facility devoted to the study of ethnic and cultural issues in development. The Institute serves as the setting for Professor Magai's research, and provides training opportunities for undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral level psychologists and other social scientists. She is a Fellow of APA, APS, and GSA, and is a charter member of the International Society for Research on Emotion, has over 100 publications and has held 30 research grants. Professor Magai serves as the Dean of Research for the Long Island University Brooklyn Campus.

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Having completed his doctorate in psychology at the Psychology Department, University of Canterbury, New Zealand in early 2000, Dr. Consedine´s dissertation interests, centering around emotions, development, and personality, were immediately applied to the study of aging, ethnicity and health during a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at Long Island University´s Intercultural Institute. Dr. Consedine was recently promoted to Deputy Director of the Institute and continues to work within the Psychology Department at Long Island University (Brooklyn Campus) as a Research Assistant Professor.

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Ms. Adjei completed her Masters of Public Administration at the Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service at New York University in May 2001. Although most of her work has been predominantly in the health care industry, she has always had an interest in health disparities research. Ms. Adjei is currently enrolled at Teachers College, Columbia University where she is pursuing a Doctor of Education degree in Health Education in the Department of Health and Behavioral Studies.

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Dr. Ungar completed her Ph.D. in psychology under the mentorship of Dr. Carol Magai at Long Island Univerity. Her dissertation interests, centering around emotions, parent-adolescent communication, and autobiographical memories are being applied to the study of aging, ethnicity and health during a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at Long Island University´s Intercultural Institute.

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Beginning her career as a Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Bombay, India, Ms. Adalja switched to Journalism when she moved permanently to New York. Her writing, interviewing, editing and people skills soon led to her branching out to the related field of Public Relations and Project Coordinator for an independent film production company. In the past 10 years, Ms. Adalja has published news stories, news analyses, her poems and scripts. Her background in ethnicity and literature, added to her interest in studying human development, has made her a part of the Institute since 1999 where she is now employed as a Research Associate.

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After getting her B.A. in History and Psychology from Pace University, Ms. Blanshteyn completied her MS in Psychology at Baruch College, CUNY (2003) with a concentration in Industrial Organizational. Born in Odessa, Ukraine, Ms. Blanshteyn brings her first-hand experience and insight into the emotional experiences and behavior of Eastern Slavic peoples to bear in her research activities at the Institute. She worked as an interviewer and research assistant on the Institute’s project "Psychosocial deterrents to breast cancer screening," and is currently heading the Institute’s project on “Ethnicity and socioemotional functioning in later life." Ms. Blanshteyn’s avocational interests include history and travel to other countries.

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Ms. Wyman finished her Human Resource Bachelor's Degree with honors in 1999 at the Colegio Universitario Monterrey / Universidad Autonoma de Centroamerica in Costa Rica. She has a background in recruiting, organizational development diagnosis, and training. Currently, she is working at the Institute, doing bilingual recruiting and translation of research instruments, and is Project Coordinator for an NCI-funded study on stress and prostate cancer.

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Over the years, Mr. Zeichner has largely focused on visual art. he has done portrait commissions, murals, book cover illustrations, and also taught painting and drawing at Stuyvesant Continuing Education for 9 years. Before coming to the Institute, he worked as an interviewer for several public opinions research companies, and served as a counselor at the Postgraduate Center for Mental Health. Here at the Institute, he has also worn a few hats. he started as an interviewer, working in several studies dealing with dementia and depression. In these studies, severely demented nursing home residents were screened for depression using a series of interviews and the Max system of facial expression coding. He also provided artwork and photography for Dr. Magai's CD-Rom on coding facial expressions. Later, he was hired as internal coordinator for a breast health study and during the last year he has been using the Max system to code a series of videotapes from a study on emotion inhibition. Presently, he is running subjects in the psychophysiology lab for another study. He is currently working towards a degree in art education at LIU.

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Dr. Ramirez completed his doctoral degree in psychology at City College of The City University of New York with a specialization in Clinical Neuropsychology and a subspecialization in Clinical Psychopathology, while on a National Science Foundation Fellowship. In August, 2003 he completed requirements for a Postdoctoral M.S. degree in Psychopharmacology, In addition to being licensed to practice psychology in New York, Dr. Ramirez is certified in hypnosis, in the treatment of substance use disorders, is an Associate Fellow of the Biofeedback Certification Institute of America (BCIA) and is certified in clinical biofeedback. He also currently serves on the Board of Directors of the New York Neuropsychology Group and is a past Board member of the Head Injury Association of New York State-as-well as the International Society for Professional Hypnosis. Dr. Ramirez has made over 200 professional presentations and has provided training in the assessment of cognitive disorders as well as psychotic and affective psychiatric symptoms throughout North America and Europe. He has also produced, written, and directed over 50 training films covering a wide variety of psychiatric disorders. His clinical interests include neuropsychological assessment, psychopharmacology, biofeedback, individual and couples psychotherapy, and hypnosis.

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After specializing in neural science for his Bachelor's degree, Professor Wong has charted, with his work, the gamut of clinical psychology in the areas of biocognitive studies, neuropsychology, child and adolescent psychiatry, and clinical training and research. In the last decade, his research and teaching interests have concentrated on ethnicity in literature and psychology, emotion and motivation, and ethnicity in clinical theory and practice.

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Over the past two decades, Professor Dropkin has built a substantial knowledge base and clinical approach toward understanding the recovery pattern of patients diagnosed with cancer of the head and neck. Dr. Dropkin has conducted seminal research on the manner in which patients cope with the facial disfigurement/dysfunction attendant to radical cancer surgery. To enrich this scientific work, several instruments have been designed to enable the valid and reliable measurement of important variables in this area. Professor Dropkin is currently an Associate Professor at Long Island University School of Nursing.

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Professor Ricardo Gutierrez de Zubiaurre received a degree of Professional Photography from Universidad Iberoamericana A.C., Mexico City. He also attained a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from the School of Visual Arts in New York City and a Masters of Fine Arts in Computer Art also from the School of Visual Arts. He has extensive experience in digital production, print, interactive presentations, audio and video, 3D, systems administration, and web development. Professor Gutierrez has designed, developed, and managed scalable applications that include: web sites, intranets, electronic publication and distribution systems, content management systems, and client support for the Investor Relations Services Industry.

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From 1996-1999 Mr. Arnold majored in Psychology and English at Rutgers University, where he was trained in psychobiography. He then studied philosophical psychology and qualitative research at Duquesne University, and finally came to LIU where he is a PhD candidate in clinical psychology. He is currently beginning a dissertation on annihilation anxiety, and finishing up an externship at the NY Psychoanalytic Institute. His primary interests are in the areas of psychopathology, psychodynamic theory, and psychobiographical research.

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Ms. Sabag was a double major in philosophy and psychology at Tel-Aviv University in Israel . As an undergraduate, she worked as a counselor/tutor in an inpatient psychiatric center. After completing her degree, she worked as a research assistant studying an innovative neuropsychological treatment for depression. In 2000, Ms. Sabag moved to New York City to pursue further studies in psychology. She has worked for the Intercultural Institute for four years. Her primary duties have included helping to create a comprehensive coding system to examine regularities in the relations between emotions and behavior as well as coordinating a large study examining developmental differences in emotional behavior.

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Ms. Tchatchanachvili began her career as a Lecturer in Russian Literature (Associate Professor) at the University of Georgia , Georgia . Ms. Tchatchanachvili further pursued her interest in Psychology, studying relationship patterns in different ethnic groups and their impact on adult relations, as well as the influence of social context on the individual. After she immigrated to the US , Ms. Tchatchanachvili completed her BS in Computer Science and worked as a programmer. Currently she is responsible for managing the extensive database generated by the Institute's multi-modal emotional disclosure studies, coordinates recruitment for ongoing research and translates research instruments.

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Ms. Morgenstern is currently in her third year of graduate studies in the clinical psychology program in Long Island University . She has worked at the Intercultural Institute since 2002 in the capacity of Research Assistant. During her time she has worked on survey projects relating to prostate cancer screening and physical activity measurement in Brooklyn's diverse Caribbean populations, as well as on experimental projects relating to cancer threat and self-disclosure.

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After varied careers in the fields of housing, health care, counseling, and non-profit management, Ms. Anderson has brought a unique perspective to the Intercultural Institute. A life-long Brooklynite, she has cultivated affiliations with local institutions that serve the psychosocial, physical, and economic needs of the Borough's residents. Since early 2005, Ms. Anderson has worked as a Research Assistant on studies examining the relationship between personality, emotion, health and behavior where she runs experimental sessions, codes facial data, and helps coordinate participant scheduling.

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LaTanya Parsley has a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from St. John's University and has undertaken extensive volunteer work in Bermuda , assisting with cognitive therapy for learning disabled populations as well as group therapy sessions at a local psychiatric hospital. Currently, Ms. Parsley is employed as a Research Assistant for the U54 grants "Facilitators and Barriers to Prostate Cancer Screening in Older Males of African-American and African Caribbean Descent" and "The Development and Validation of a Physical Activity Questionnaire in Three Ethnic Groups". Ms. Parsley aspires to become a clinical psychologist and plans to pursue her doctoral studies in 2006.

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Angela Rose has a Bachelor's degree in Health Promotion and Science. In 2004, she was a Breast Health Outreach Assistant Volunteer for the American Cancer Society, Long Island University and Columbia University through a grant funded by the Avon Foundation. During her time at the American Cancer Society, she attended numerous community events where she did presentations and provided literature and pamphlets to minority women in the Brooklyn community about the importance of breast health and mammography screening. Currently, Ms. Rose is employed as a Research Assistant for the U54 grants "Facilitators and Barriers to Prostate Cancer Screening in Older Males of African-American and African Caribbean Descent" and "The Development and Validation of a Physical Activity Questionnaire in Three Ethnic Groups". Ms. Rose is pursuing a Masters in Public Health with a concentration in Community Health from Walden University .

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Dr. Kudadjie-Gyamfi obtained her doctoral degree under the mentoring of Dr. Howard Rachlin, a distinguished professor at SUNY Stony Brook whose numerous NIH grants facilitated Dr. Kudadjie-Gyamfi's research in self-control and decision-making. Since obtaining her degree, Dr. Kudadjie-Gyamfi has taught at the Psychology Department of Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus. She is Psi Chi's Faculty Advisor and also serves as Associate Coordinator for the National Institute of Mental Health Career Opportunities in Research (NIMH-COR) Honors Program for minority students. More recently, she has begun applying her decision making expertise to the area of cancer screening.

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Jessy Pierre-Louis has a BA in Psychology from LIU. She began working at Dr. Magai's Intercultural Institute in 1997 as a research interviewer, and was appointed Project Coordinator for the "Psychosocial Deterrents to Breast Cancer Screening" study. She has worked as the Breast Health Outreach Coordinator-Brooklyn for an Avon Foundation-funded project linking the American Cancer Society, LIU and Columbia University , and is currently the Project Coordinator for two U54 projects examining psychosocial deterrents to prostate cancer screening and patterns of physical activity; both projects differentiate among Brooklyn's diverse Caribbean communities. Most recently, she has been funded for a U54 pilot grant aimed at increasing breast cancer awareness and mammography among women from these groups .

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Ren Soeiro
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