Elizabeth Cauffman, Ph.D.
Elizabeth Cauffman is a Professor in the Department of Psychological Science in the School of Social Ecology and holds courtesy appointments in the School of Education and the School of Law. Dr. Cauffman received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Temple University and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Center on Adolescence at Stanford University. At the broadest level, Dr. Cauffman’s research addresses the intersect between adolescent development and juvenile justice. She has published over 100 articles, chapters, and books on a range of topics in the study of contemporary adolescence, including adolescent brain development, risk-taking and decision-making, parent-adolescent relationships, and juvenile justice. Findings from Dr. Cauffman’s research were incorporated into the American Psychological Association’s amicus briefs submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court in Roper v. Simmons, which abolished the juvenile death penalty, and in both Graham v. Florida and Miller v. Alabama, which placed limits on the use of life without parole as a sentence for juveniles. As part of her larger efforts to help research inform practice and policy, she served as a member of the MacArthur Foundation’s Research Network on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice as well as the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Committee on the Neurobiological and Socio-behavioral Science of Adolescent Development and Its Applications. Dr. Cauffman currently directs the Center for Psychology & Law as well as the Masters in Legal & Forensic Psychology program at UCI. For more information, check out Dr. Cauffman’s Curriculum Vitae, this short video about her program of research, and her TEDx Talk.
Email: cauffman@uci.edu
Director of Research: Jordan Beardsleee, Ph.D.
Jordan Beardslee is the Director of Research in the 3D Lab in the Department of Psychological Science. Her program of research examines a variety of psychosocial and behavioral problems during adolescence, with a current focus on the distal and proximal factors associated with substance abuse and violence.
Email: jbear@uci.edu
Director of Clinical Programming: Marie Gillespie, Ph.D.
Marie Gillespie is a CA licensed clinical psychologist and the Director of Clinical Programming in the 3D Lab in the Department of Psychological Science. With experience in trauma-informed and family-based treatments and neuropsychological and forensic assessment, she is interested in program evaluation and intervention development for justice-involved youth and finding methods of interrupting the intergenerational cycle of incarceration for people of color.
Email: marie.gillespie@uci.edu
Project Coordinator: Edna Montes, M.A.
Edna Montes graduated from the Master of Legal and Forensic Psychology program at UCI in 2021, and is currently the Project Coordinator for Dr. Elizabeth Cauffman’s Development, Disorder and Delinquency Lab in the Department of Psychological Science. In this role, Edna oversees the lab’s research projects, including the Crossroads Study, the Young Adult Court Study, and the Road to Reentry Study.
Email: emontesv@uci.edu