Catalina Koptez: Applying interdisciplinary research to public health

Catalina joined the Department of Psychology at Wayne State as an assistant professor in social psychology in August 2013. She obtained her doctoral degree in social psychology at the University of Maryland, College Park and completed her post-doctoral training in addiction and risk-taking behavior at the Center for Addictions, Personality and Emotion Research at the University of Maryland College Park.

At Maryland, Koptez was in a very unique position to conduct basic research on motivation and self-regulation while also exploring its relevance for phenomena of high public health concern (e.g. HIV risk behavior, drunk driving, etc.).

As a faculty member at Wayne, I am privileged to be only one of the many faculty who are working to apply their knowledge and skills of basic social, cognitive, and personality processes to the understanding of health behavior while also training new generations of scientists into this interdisciplinary approach.

Catalina is excited to continue and further develop her interdisciplinary research and actively participate in the training of future generations of psychologists who have the knowledge and skills to address real-world issues and make an impact.