Dr. Marissa Ericson

Marissa received her Ph.D. in Clinical Neuroscience from the University of Southern California and B.A. from Cornell University. Marissa is currently a Principal Statistician at University of California Irvine, as well as data scientist and research consultant at USC, Chapman University, and UCSB META lab. Marissa is also a Professor and Dissertation Chair at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology and California Lutheran University, teaching courses ranging from Dissertation, Academic writing, Cognitive Processes, Brain and Behavior, and Child and Adolescent Abnormal Psychology to Undergraduate and Graduate Statistics, Research Methods, and Psychology of Happiness.

Her research spans many psychological and physiological content areas. Her early research focused on the electrocortical, neuropsychological, and psychophysiological etiology of several psychopathologies, namely schizophrenia spectrum disorders (specifically schizotypal traits) and adolescent aggression and psychopathic traits, using a wide range of psychophysiological and brain-related modalities (EEG, ERPs, EKG, sEMG). She now focuses her research on well-being, positive psychological outcomes, resilience, and mindfulness-meditation interventions.

Marissa has been a subject matter expert in cognitive processes, human aggression, developmental psychology, and brain-bio-behavior. She has extensive experience with complex data sets, study design, and statistics of all levels. She has authored, co-authored, and provided statistical support for many peer-reviewed publications in the broad areas of psychology, neuroscience, and survey design.

Marissa’s highest goal is helping others to achieve their highest goals! She has served as dissertation chair and consulting with hundreds of students, editing chapters, analyzing data, and editing full dissertations. She has also served as a methodologist and statistician for doctoral and thesis students at several universities. She has worked with numerous students in psychology, neuroscience, PsyD, and MFT programs.

Perhaps her favorite aspect of the dissertation is to help students develop the entire project, starting with the research question. As a methodologist and statistician, she takes a bird’s eye view of the entire project, assessing and helping students to design the research plan/protocol and eventual statistical tests a student would need to complete. With a solid plan from the start, students are able to more efficiently and effectively achieve their goals!