About our authors
Danae L. Hudson, Ph.D. is a professor of psychology at Missouri State University. She grew up in Vancouver, Canada, and graduated with a first-class honors bachelor’s degree in psychology from Simon Fraser University. She received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Louisiana State University, which is where she met her best friend and co-author, Brooke Whisenhunt. She completed her predoctoral internship at the University of British Columbia Hospital and postdoctoral residency at The Forest Institute. Since 2003, she has taught Introductory Psychology and Abnormal Psychology and various clinical psychology graduate courses at Missouri State University. She is currently the Graduate Program Director for the clinical psychology graduate program. From 2010 to 2013, Dr. Hudson served as the team leader for a large-scale redesign of Missouri State University’s Introductory Psychology course. Since the implementation and successful outcomes of the redesigned course, she has published scholarship of teaching and learning research in peer-reviewed journals and presented at national and international venues on course redesign, utilizing educational technology, and best practices in teaching. She served 2 terms as a Provost Fellow for Teaching and Learning at Missouri State University and is actively involved in the American Psychological Association, specifically, Division 2: The Society for the Teaching of Psychology (STP). She served as the Director of Teaching Resources in Psychology for 4 years and in 2021 was elected to the Executive Committee as Vice-President for Membership. In 2018, she was invited to be a member of the Introductory Psychology Initiative, an APA committee charged with developing national standards for introductory psychology. Her work on this 3-year committee resulted in publishing an introductory psychology census and an edited book, Transforming Introductory Psychology: Expert Advice on Teacher Training, Course Design, and Student Success. She has worked closely with Pearson Education for over a decade and in 2018, she and her co-author, Brooke Whisenhunt, published a Revel first-edition text for Introductory Psychology. She has been married to Geoff Hudson for 20 years and they have 3 amazing, talented, and caring children, Sophie, Sylvie and Noah. They live in Springfield, Missouri, with their beloved Cardigan Welsh Corgis, Maggie and Winnie.
Brooke L. Whisenhunt, Ph.D. is a professor of psychology at Missouri State University, where she has been a faculty member for the past 20 years. She grew up in rural Arkansas and graduated from high school in a class of 35 students. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Arkansas in 1997, where she was a Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude graduate. She obtained her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Louisiana State University in 2002. She completed her predoctoral internship at the University of British Columbia Hospital in Vancouver, Canada. Her research has focused on body image, obesity and eating disorders, in addition to the scholarship of teaching and learning. She teaches undergraduate courses, including Introductory Psychology, Abnormal Psychology and Teaching of Psychology, in addition to graduate-level courses in psychological assessment. In addition to her academic position, Dr. Whisenhunt has been a licensed clinical psychologist since 2003. She has conducted thousands of clinical assessments over her 20 years as a practicing psychologist. She was heavily involved in redesigning the Introductory Psychology course at Missouri State University from 2011 until 2013, which led to significant improvements in learning outcomes. She and her colleagues have published multiple peer-reviewed scholarly articles about this redesigned class and other topics related to the scholarship of teaching and learning. In 2018, she and her co-author, Danae Hudson, published a first-edition text for introductory psychology. She has presented across the country about pedagogical strategies to improve learning, decrease institutional costs, and improve retention in psychology courses. She has been married for 25 years and she has 2 teenage daughters. She is a huge sports fan and enjoys traveling and spending time outdoors with her family.
Deborah C. Beidel, Emeritus received her B.A. from the Pennsylvania State University and her M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh, completing her pre-doctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. At the University of Central Florida, she is Trustee Chair and Pegasus Professor of Psychology and Medical Education, and the Executive Director of UCF RESTORES, a clinical research center dedicated to prevention and treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in military personnel, first responders, survivors of mass violence and sexual assault. She holds American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) Diplomates in Clinical Psychology and Behavioral Psychology and is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychopathological Association, and the Association for Psychological Science. She is past Chair of the Council for University Directors in Clinical Psychology (CUDCP), a past Chair of the American Psychological Association’s Committee on Accreditation, the 1990 recipient of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy’s New Researcher Award, and the 2007 recipient of the Samuel M. Turner Clinical Researcher Award from the American Psychological Association. In 2017, she received the Research Exemplar Award from the National Institute of Health and Washington University, St. Louis given to investigators who lead a research laboratory that produces high-quality, high-impact federally funded research and has an outstanding reputation for leadership and integrity in the research environment. She was editor in chief of the Journal of Anxiety Disorders and author of more than 300 scientific publications, including journal articles, book chapters, and books, including Childhood Anxiety Disorders: A Guide to Research and Treatment and Shy Children, Phobic Adults: The Nature and Treatment of Social Anxiety Disorder. Her current academic, research, and clinical interests focus on the integration of technologies such as virtual reality and artificial intelligence to enhance treatment outcomes for PTSD and other anxiety disorders. She is the recipient of numerous grants from the Department of Defense and the National Institute of Mental Health, and the Autism Speaks Foundation. She is also a wife, an active participant in community service organizations, and a rescuer/adopter of shelter cats and dogs.
Cynthia M. Bulik, Emeritus is the Distinguished Professor of Eating Disorders in the Department of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she is also Professor of Nutrition in the Gillings School of Global Public Health, Founding Director of the UNC Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders. Her research has included treatment, basic science, epidemiological, twin and molecular genetic studies of eating disorders and body weight regulation. She has active research collaborations in 21 countries around the world.
Melinda A. Stanley, Emeritus is Distinguished Emeritus Professor in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Stanley is a retired clinical psychologist who previously served as Head of the Division of Psychology and McIngvale Family Chair in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Research. She also was a senior mental health services researcher within the Health Services Research and Development Center of Innovation, Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Houston, and an affiliate investigator for the South Central Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center (MIRECC).
