Alexi entered the Clinical Psychology Training Program at UNL in the fall of 2015. Prior to coming to UNL, 
she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology with a minor in sociology from Bradley University in the spring of 2015. While at Bradley, she worked in Dr. Amy Bacon's Stress, Emotion, and Alcohol Laboratory examining social factors influencing alcohol use among college students. Her interest in studying relationships between substance use and mental health led her to pursue graduate study under the mentorship of Dr. Dennis McChargue. Her Master's Equivalency Research Project examined relationships among substance use treatment outcomes, PTSD symptomology, and emotional avoidance. She has also developed an interest in neuropsychology and cognitive assessment, and is broadly interested in the effects of alcohol and substance use on cognitive function. For her dissertation, she hopes to investigate questions related to the ways in which substance use behavior impacts cognition as well as contributes to neurological disorders or injuries, most specifically traumatic brain injury.
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Publications:
Bacon, A. K., Cranford, A. N., & Blumenthal, H. (2015). Effects of ostracism and sex on alcohol consumption in a clinical laboratory setting. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 29(3), 664-672. doi:10.1037/adb0000054
Presentations:
Tibbs, J.J., Cranford, A., Little, T.J.R., Schlosser, M.J., & McChargue, D.E. (2017, November). Behavioral Avoidance During Recovery from Alcohol and Substance Use Disorders: PTSD Symptoms as a Moderator between Avoidance Task Performance and Self-Reported Distress Tolerance and Avoidance. Poster presented at the 51st Annual Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Convention, San Diego, CA.
Tibbs, J.J., Cranford, A., Wahlstrom, L.C., & McChargue, D.E. (2017, June). Feedback-Related Negativity, Decision-Making, and College Binge Drinking. Poster presented at the 40th Annual Research Society on Alcoholism Conference, Denver, CO.
Tibbs, J.J., Kennedy, J.L.D., Schlosser, M.J., Cranford, A., Oakland, A., & McChargue, D.E. (2017, June). Avoidance as an Explanatory Mechanism for Poor Outcomes in Treatment for Substance Use Disorders. Poster presented at the 40th Annual Research Society on Alcoholism Conference, Denver, CO.
Cranford, A., & McChargue, D. E. (2016, October). Effects of PTSD symptoms on substance use treatment outcome and the mediational role of emotional avoidance. Poster presented at the 50th annual meeting of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, New York, NY.
Cranford, A., & Bacon, A. K. (2015, November). The effects of post-event processing on social anxiety. Poster presented at the 49th annual meeting of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, Chicago, IL.