Meet Your Faculty In Residence
Dr. Cheryl Grills, Leavey 5 Professor of Psychology and Chair of the Psychology Department
B.A. Yale University
Ph D. University of California, Los Angeles
Dr. Cheryl Grills is a clinical psychologist by training with a current emphasis in Community Psychology. Dr. Grills is the founder and director of Imoyase Community Support Services, a non-profit program evaluation and counsulting organization serving community-based organizations and foundations around the country.
Dr. Grills is a graduate of Yale University and UCLA. Her research interests, publications and current projects include African-centered models of treatment engagement with African Americans; substance abuse prevention and treatment, community psychology; community mental health, prevention, and the provision of research and program evaluation services to community based organizations.
Dr. Grills consults nationally on a number of issues particularly regarding matters of cultural and social competence, multiculturalism and Africentric interventions. She has also studied under traditional medical practitioners in Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal and is a registered member of the Ghana National Association of Traditional Healers. She is the President-Elect of the National Association of Black Psychologist.
Contact Dr. Grills at
cgrills@lmu.edu Dr. Michele Hammers, Hannon HallAssistant Professor, Communications Studies Department
B.S. Boston University
M.A. Arizona State University
J.D. University of Texas at Austin
Ph. D Arizona State University
Dr. Hammers is a former lawyer whose graduate studies focused on rhetorical criticism, critical media studies, and social movement and public sphere studies. In addition to her training in rhetoric, Dr. Hammers is trained in qualitative research methods and utilizes field research and interviews in her ongoing study of the ways in which the female body is perceived and understood in various public and professional arenas. Dr. Hammers teaches introductory and advanced research methods; she also teaches a course on the rhetoric of popular culture and one on persuasion and social influence. She has presented her scholarship at professional conventions and is active in the National Communication Association’s pre-conference seminar series as both a participant in and co-organizer of the public sphere studies seminar. Her article critiquing the ways in which Ally McBeal constructed images of female professionalism appeared in a 2005 issue of The Western Journal of Communication. She is also the author of a chapter in an edited volume on Ally McBeal. Her most recent publication, a rhetorical analysis of The Vagina Monologues, is appeared in the Fall 2006 issue of Women’s Studies in Communication. Dr. Hammers is currently working with student research assistants on a qualitative study of college students’ discourse surrounding weight and fitness and the impact of popular media resources on both body image and knowledge of health-related issues.
Contact Dr. Hammers at
mhammers@lmu.edu 
Dr. Joseph LaBrie, S.J., Sullivan HallAssociate Professor of Pyschology
B.S. Marquette University
M.S. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
M.D. Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley
PhD. University of Southern California
Joseph LaBrie, S.J., assistant professor of psychology, is the director of Heads UP!, a comprehensive alcohol awareness and treatment program that aims to curb problem drinking by LMU students. HeadsUP! was named a model program by the U.S. Department of Education—one of only five programs so designated nationwide.
Contact Dr. Labrie, S.J. at
llabrie@lmu.edu