Faculty & Staff
DIRECTOR
Dr. Sarah Dermody
(she/her)
LAB MANAGER
Theo Quinn
(he/they)
POSTDOCTORAL FELLOW
Dr. Erin Courtice
(she/her)
Dr. Dermody is the Director of the Clinical Addictions Research and Equity (CARE) Lab and Assistant Professor of Psychology at Toronto Metropolitan University. She is trained in the fields of clinical and health psychology, and her research specializes in addiction and social justice. She has received grants from the National Institutes of Health and Canadian Institute of Health Research. She is also a member of the Society for Research in Nicotine and Tobacco and Research Society on Alcoholism.
Theo is a white, able-bodied, transmasculine, queer, and neurodivergent person. In 2022, he graduated from Toronto Metropolitan University with distinction, earning a BA in Psychology and a minor in both Disability Studies and Criminology. In the fall of 2026, they will begin their MPH at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. He is passionate about community care with research interests centered in trans healthcare, gender minority stress, intersectionality, and community-based practices.
Dr. Courtice is a postdoctoral research associate working with the CARE Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University. She received her PhD in Experimental Psychology from the University of Ottawa in 2023, where she also worked as a Part-Time Professor. Broadly, Dr. Courtice’s research examines how people’s interpersonal experiences shape and are shaped by technology. Driven by her commitment to social justice, Dr. Courtice also conducts research that centres 2SLGBTQ+ experiences in various contexts.
PEER RESEARCHER
Argo Basembe
(they/them)
Students & Volunteer Research Assistants
PhD STUDENT
Alexandra Uhrig
(she/her)
PhD STUDENT
Stephanie Penta
(she/her)
MASTERS STUDENT
Anurada Amarasekera
(she/they)
Alexandra Uhrig is a third year PhD student in Clinical Psychology at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University), where she also completed her MA. For her master’s thesis, Alexandra examined heavy drinking, alcohol-related consequences, and peer norms regarding alcohol use in transgender young adults. Her research interests include substance use in marginalized individuals, community-based research, and examining factors that buffer the risk of experiencing substance-use related harms in youth and young adults.
Stephanie Penta is a PhD Candidate in Clinical Psychology at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University), where she also earned her MA in Clinical Psychology. Her master’s research examined the predictors and harms of alcohol and cannabis co-use among transgender and gender-diverse youth. Building on this work, her doctoral research focuses on developing a motive-congruent adaptive intervention for alcohol and cannabis co-use among youth more broadly. Stephanie’s research interests center on the etiology, risk and protective factors, and treatment of substance and polysubstance use, as well as co-occurring mental health concerns among youth and marginalized populations.
Anurada Amarasekera is a second year Masters student in Clinical Psychology at Toronto Metropolitan University. In 2022, Anurada completed her BA in Honours Psychology at Simon Fraser University. Their research interests include using community-based participatory action research (CBPR) to better understand substance use disparities endured by multiple minoritized populations, in particular, 2SLGBTQ+ South Asian young adults.
MASTERS STUDENT
Stephanie Posa
(she/her)
HONORS THESIS STUDENT
Lucas Calcano
(he/him)
Stephanie Posa is a first-year MA student in Clinical Psychology at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University). In 2018 Stephanie completed her BSc in Honours Psychology at the University of Toronto. In 2021, she completed a MSc in Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Toronto. Stephanie’s research interests include nicotine addiction, as well as smoking and vaping cessation. She is also interested in utilizing qualitative arts-based methodologies.
Lucas Calcano is a psychology undergraduate at Toronto Metropolitan University pursuing a minor in biology. He is completing an undergraduate honours thesis at the CARE Lab, with his research interests involving nicotine use in relation to mental health, especially in LGBTQ+ communities. Looking forward, Lucas intends to complete graduate studies in Clinical Psychology.