Dana Bakula, Ph.D., is currently a pediatric psychologist at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. Dr. Bakula is a 2020 graduate of Oklahoma State University’s Clinical Psychology program. She completed her pre-doctoral internship at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, her post-doctoral fellowship at Children’s Mercy Hospital, and earned her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri. Dr. Bakula’s research interests include child and family psychosocial adjustment to chronic illness and psychosocial interventions aimed at improving child and family wellbeing. On fellowship, Dana is engaging in clinical research aimed at improving the wellbeing of children with feeding difficulties and obesity, while also working clinically with these populations. Dr. Bakula, has completed research aimed at understanding psychosocial adjustment, wellbeing, and adherence among children and their parents in pediatric rehabilitation, cancer, epilepsy, IBD, DSD, and general medical populations. Dr. Bakula’s dissertation evaluated the psychosocial adjustment of parents of children admitted for inpatient pediatric rehabilitation, as well as associated risk and resilience factors.
Dana Bakula, Ph.D.- Researchgate
Christina Sharkey, Ph.D., is currently an assistant professor at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. Dr. Sharkey is a 2020 graduate of Oklahoma State University’s Clinical Psychology program. She completed her clinical internship at Kennedy Krieger Institute, post-doctoral fellowship at Children’s National Hospital, and earned her Bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University. Dr. Sharkey’s primary research interests focus on understanding and addressing individual, family, and systemic risk and resilience factors that impact child and family psychological distress. As a graduate student, Dr. Sharkey completed research examining modifiable factors predicting patterns of adjustment among AYAs with chronic medical conditions, and families impacted by cancer, IBD, DSD, and other conditions. On fellowship, Dr. Sharkey will be providing clinical care to children and families affected by neuro-oncological conditions and will be conducting clinical research on the interrelationships between child neurocognitive functioning, and child and parent psychological adjustment in the context of pediatric cancer. This research extends directly from Dr. Sharkey’s dissertation entitled, “Neuropsychological Phenotypes of Pediatric Brain Tumor Survivors: A Latent Profile Analysis.”
Christina Sharkey, Ph.D.- Researchgate