Contact us
Questions, comments, and concerns can be directed to one of the conference planners below. Click on the name for email address.
Dr. Leah LeFebvre
Dr. Josh Pederson
Dr. Casey Totenhagen
Dr. Robert Laird
Dr. Leah LeFebvre
Dr. Josh Pederson
Dr. Casey Totenhagen
Dr. Robert Laird
Meet the conference planners
Dr. Leah LeFebvre (Associate Professor, Communication Studies). Her primary research focuses on exploring the adaptations and modifications in romantic relationship initiation and dissolution practices through emerging technologies and technological adaptations. Currently, she is examining pre-initiation behaviors and rejection processes on Tinder, ghosting as a modernized mediated disengagement, and memorialization in dissolution on Facebook and virtual platforms.
Dr. LeFebvre also studies meaning-making through narration and storytelling processes that inform, reinforce, and reshape relationships during initiation, conflict, and dissolution. She has explored individualistic and relationship sense-making in origin and breakup stories. Her collaborations include many undergraduate and graduate students as well as colleagues from around the United States and world. She cultivates research perspectives utilizing a variety of methodologies and interdisciplinary approaches to answer scientific inquiries. Her scholarship has been published in Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, Social Media+Society, Mobile Media & Communication, Personal Relationships, Discourse Processes, Health Communication, Journal of Loss and Trauma, Communication Education, and Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.
Dr. LeFebvre also studies meaning-making through narration and storytelling processes that inform, reinforce, and reshape relationships during initiation, conflict, and dissolution. She has explored individualistic and relationship sense-making in origin and breakup stories. Her collaborations include many undergraduate and graduate students as well as colleagues from around the United States and world. She cultivates research perspectives utilizing a variety of methodologies and interdisciplinary approaches to answer scientific inquiries. Her scholarship has been published in Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, Social Media+Society, Mobile Media & Communication, Personal Relationships, Discourse Processes, Health Communication, Journal of Loss and Trauma, Communication Education, and Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.
Dr. Josh Pederson (Associate Professor, Communication Studies). His research and teaching focuses on interpersonal and family communication, with a specific interest in studying relational conflict, coping, and repair. Working with collaborators at the University of Alabama and other institutions, Dr. Pederson has cultivated an interdisciplinary perspective for researching human behavior and interaction.
Dr. Pederson's current research projects include exploring the co-emergence of emotional communication and physiological arousal between romantic partners during everyday interaction and learning how parents and adolescent children cope with bullying experiences, among others. To conduct his research, Dr. Pederson has received funding from the University of Alabama and the National Science Foundation. His work appears in scholarly publications including Personal Relationships, The Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, and the Journal of Communication, among others.
Dr. Pederson's current research projects include exploring the co-emergence of emotional communication and physiological arousal between romantic partners during everyday interaction and learning how parents and adolescent children cope with bullying experiences, among others. To conduct his research, Dr. Pederson has received funding from the University of Alabama and the National Science Foundation. His work appears in scholarly publications including Personal Relationships, The Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, and the Journal of Communication, among others.
Dr. Casey Totenhagen (Associate Professor, Department of Human Development and Family Studies). Her research interests include relational quality in adult romantic relationships, with an emphasis on how daily experiences impact relationship quality. Within this domain, she is particularly interested in daily hassles, sexual minority stress, and the stress process. An additional thread of her program of research focuses on understanding the roles of financial literacy, attitudes, and behaviors on well-being, particularly for couples.
Overall, her work seeks to provide empirical evidence of important areas to target in couple’s education programs. She has led and collaborated on projects funded by agencies such as the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, the Mental Research Institute, National Council on Family Relations, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Overall, her work seeks to provide empirical evidence of important areas to target in couple’s education programs. She has led and collaborated on projects funded by agencies such as the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, the Mental Research Institute, National Council on Family Relations, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Dr. Robert Laird (Professor and Chair, Department of Human Development and Family Studies). His specific research interests focus on family and peer relationship contributions to children’s development of social and behavioral competencies and he has co-authored over 50 peer-reviewed papers appearing in such journals as Child Development, Developmental Psychology, and the Journal of Adolescence. He also has served as Associate Editor of Developmental Psychology and on grant proposal review panels for the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health. The National Science Foundation and the W. T. Grant Foundation have funded his recent research projects.
Dr. Laird earned a B.S. in Psychology from Louisiana State University and a Ph.D. in Family and Child Development from Auburn University. He participated in the Developmental Psychopathology Post-Doctoral training program in the Department of Psychology and Human Development at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Laird served on the faculty at the University of Rhode Island, Louisiana State University, and the University of New Orleans before joining the University of Alabama to Chair the Department of Human Development and Family Studies. In his role as Chair, Dr. Laird provides leadership to advance the teaching, research, and service missions of the department in alignment with the mission of the College of Human Environmental Sciences.
Dr. Laird earned a B.S. in Psychology from Louisiana State University and a Ph.D. in Family and Child Development from Auburn University. He participated in the Developmental Psychopathology Post-Doctoral training program in the Department of Psychology and Human Development at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Laird served on the faculty at the University of Rhode Island, Louisiana State University, and the University of New Orleans before joining the University of Alabama to Chair the Department of Human Development and Family Studies. In his role as Chair, Dr. Laird provides leadership to advance the teaching, research, and service missions of the department in alignment with the mission of the College of Human Environmental Sciences.
