Steven P. Verney

Professor

Photo: Steven Verney
Email: 
sverney@unm.edu
Office: 
Logan Hall, 164
Education: 
Ph.D., San Diego State University/University of California, San Diego, 2000
Lab Website
 
Curriculum vitae
 

Research Area/s:

Clinical Psychology

Research Interests:

  • Cultural factors in cognitive assessment
  • Cognitive aging
  • Physical and mental health disparities
  • Wellbeing in older Native Americans

Profile:

Accepting students?  Dr. Verney is not accepting students for Fall 2025.  

Steven P. Verney, Ph.D., is an Alaska Native (Tsimshian) Associate Professor in the department of Psychology at the University of New Mexico (UNM). He is currently a Multiple Principal Investigator on the NIMHD-funded Health Disparities Center of Excellence to UNM, the Transdisciplinary Research, Equity and Engagement (TREE) Center and a past fellow in the American Indian Alaska Native Program at the University of Colorado. He strives to increase diversity awareness and training and has developed the department’s Diversity Organization (DO!), a student organization to increase diversity awareness and training within the department, and the Cultural Counseling Center, which provides clinical supervision and consulting services to students working with diverse populations. He is also the Area Head for the Mullticultura/Diversity Psychology Emphasis, and the Chair of the department’s Diversity Committee.  He has been involved in several studies investigating cognitive aging and decline in older American Indians, and am the Principal Investigator on a Native health disparities projects investigating a cognitive and motor coordination intervention, rhythm and timing exercises, for cerebrovascular disease in older American Indians, and a community-based research project investigating early education experiences and health literacy in older American Indians. Further, I have been a Multiple Principal Investigator on other grants investigating health disparities in general and in American Indians specifically. I have a broad background in psychology, with specific training and expertise in neuropsychological assessment, including cultural psychology and mental health. I have a demonstrated record of successful and productive research projects, including serving in a leadership role as PI, Co-PI, and Co-I on several NIH-funded projects, and have mentored a variety of underrepresented minority students including undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral students.

Selected Publications

Verney, S. P., Suchy-Dicey, A., Cholerton, B., Calhoun, D., Ali, T., Longstreth, W. T. Jr., & Buchwald, D. (2019). The associations among sociocultural factors and neuropsychological functioning in older American Indians:  The Strong Heart Study. Neuropsychology. 33, 1078 – 1088. doi: 10.1037/neu0000574

Suchy-Dicey, A., Shibata, D., Nelson, L., Cholerton, B., Calhoun, D., Ali, T., Longstreth W. T. Jr., The Strong Heart Stroke Team, & Buchwald, D., & Verney, S. P. (contact author) (2019). Cognitive correlates of vascular abnormalities on brain MRI in the Strong Heart Stroke Study. International Journal of Neuropsychology, 26, 1-13. doi:10.1017/S1355617719001073

Avila, J. F., Vonk, J., Verney, S. P., Witkiewitz, K., Arce, M., Schupf, N., Mayeux, R., & Manly, J. J. (2019). Sex/gender differences in cognitive trajectories vary as a function of race/ethnicity. Alzheimer’s Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, 15, 1516-1523. doi: http://dx.doi.org.libproxy.unm.edu/10.1016/j.jalz.2019.04.006.

Verney, S. P., Gibbons, L. E., Dmitrieva, N. O., Kueider, A. M., Williams, M. W., Meyer, O. L., Manly, J. J., Sisco, S. M., & Marsiske, M. (2019). Health literacy, sociodemographic factors, and cognitive training in the active study of older adults. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. DOI: 10.1002/gps.5051. Retrieved from: https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.libproxy.unm.edu/doi/epdf/10.1002/gps.5051

Verney, S. P., Avila, M., Rodriguez Espinosa, P., Cholka, C. B., Benson, J., Baloo, A., & Pozernick, C. D. (2016). Culturally Sensitive Assessments as Strength-Based Approach to Wellness in Native Communities: A Community-Based Participatory Research Project. American Indian Alaska Native Mental Health Research, 23, 271-293.

Verney, S. P., Bennett, J., & Hamilton, J. (2015).  Cultural considerations in the neuropsychological assessment of American Indians/Alaska Natives.  In Richard Ferraro (Ed.), Minority and Cross-Cultural Aspects of Neuropsychological Assessment: Enduring and Emerging Trends, 2nd edition, 115-158. New York, NY: Psychology Press.

Verney, S. P., Avila, M., Rodriguez Espinosa, P., Cholka, C. B., Benson, J., Baloo, A., & Pozernick, C. D. (2016). Culturally Sensitive Assessments as Strength-Based Approach to Wellness in Native Communities: A Community-Based Participatory Research Project. American Indian Alaska Native Mental Health Research, 23, 271-293.

Suchy-Dicey, A., Shibata, D., Best, L., Verney, S. P., Longstreth W. T. Jr., Lee, E.T., Okin, P.M., Devereux, R., O’Leary, M., Ali, T., Jensen, P. N., Muller, C., Nelson, L. A., Rhoades, E., Madhyastha, T., Grabowski, T. J.,  Beauchamp, N., Umans, J.G., & Buchwald, D. (2016).  Cranial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in elderly American Indians: Design, methods, and implementation of the Strong Heart Stroke Study. Neuroepidemiology, 47, 67-75. doi:10.1159/000443277.

Rodriguez Espinosa, P., Johnson-Esparza, Y., López, G., Benson, J., Moss, N., Avila-Rieger, R., Venner, K. L., Verney, S. P. (contact author) (in Press).  The development and current directions of a diversity specialty clinic: Implications for multicultural training in psychology. Training and Education in Professional Psychology.

Venner, K. L., & Verney, S. P. (2015). Motivational interviewing: Reduce student reluctance and increase engagement in learning multicultural concepts. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 46, 116-123.

Courses Taught

PSYC 408/508 Research with Diverse Populations

PSYC 416/516 Health Disparities

PSYC 374 Cultural Psychology (Online Course Advisory Council Certified, 2018)

PSYC 472 Psychology of Prejudice

Lab

CURRENT GRADUATE STUDENTS IN THE LAB 

 

Alexis Burks, M.A., M.S.

Alexis is a sixth year doctoral student in the clinical psychology program at UNM. Previously, she attended the University of Texas at Dallas where she received her bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in Applied Cognition and Neuroscience. She spent a few years working in the Texas Computational Memory Lab at University of Texas Southwestern studying human memory. Her current clinical and research interests are neuropsychology, health disparities, and cultural considerations in assessment.

Eunice Dahyeh Kim, M.S.

Eunice is a fourth year doctoral student in the clinical psychology program at UNM. Previously, she attended Calvin College (now University), where she received her bachelor’s degree in psychology, and worked at the University of Michigan Psychiatry Department in clinical neuroimaging research on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Her current clinical and research interests involve issues of cultural validity in assessment and treatment, especially as it pertains to forensic assessments and justice-involved minority adults.

Maria McCready, M.A., M.S.

Maria is a third year graduate student in the clinical program at UNM. She graduated from the University of New Mexico with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. Currently, she is working under the mentorship of Dr. David Witherington and Dr. Steve Verney. Broadly, her interests involve the study of normative and atypical development (i.e., developmental psychopathology) within a cultural psychological perspective. More specifically, Maria is interested in developmental similarities and differences of children in the United States relative to other countries, especially Russia; emotional development of children in minority communities; children’s attachment and how it influences their mental health later in life; and the development of bilingualism. Maria is a first-generation immigrant from Russia, and prior to her arrival in the States, she completed her Master’s degree in Russian Studies at Lomonosov Moscow State University.

Katherine Edwards, B.S.

Katie is a second year doctoral student in Clinical Psychology at UNM. After receiving her BA from Michigan State University, she worked as a study coordinator on several clinical trials for Alzheimer's disease and other dementias with the Research Program on Cognition and Neuromodulation Based Interventions at the University of Michigan. She then worked at the University of California-San Diego as a study coordinator looking at the long term impact of combat and brain injury throughout lifespan. She hopes to study neuropsychology, multilingualism and aging, and cultural considerations for assessment.

Prospective clinical psychology doctoral students interested in working with Dr. Verney should have an interest in, and research experience with, at least one of the following:

  • Cultural issues and cognitive assessment
  • Health disparities in ethnic minority, especially Native American, populations
  • Information processing and psychophysiological measures of cognition

Prospective students may contact Dr. Verney at sverney@unm.edu.