Leadership Team

One day, Patricia stumbled upon the science of well-being, and that was the start of her interest and passion in positive psychology. She is keen to learn and read all she can about positive psychology topics, particularly those about well-being. She is fascinated by learning ways to understand and pursue well-being.

Tania’s objective for graduate studies in psychology is to acquire the skills necessary to treat behavioral health issues through an integrative lens. Her clinical interests include the science of well-being, health and behavioral medicine, dialectical behavioral therapy, and trauma-informed care. She is also interested in working with populations with multicultural differences, having been raised by a Peruvian mother and Belgian father. Before returning to graduate school, Tania worked within the pharmaceutical industry where she held roles in human resources, portfolio leadership, and business operations. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Fordham University in New York.

The research program includes one year where students are fully committed to conducting their research project, while taking PhD-courses, followed by doing research part-time once regular studies are resumed. Her research has so far investigated possible down-sides to positivity in problem-solving situations, and has included themes like performance, effort, wellbeing, mental fatigue and self-esteem. She holds a Bachelor in Psychology from UiT, and studied Philosophy for one year at the University of Agder.

Prior to this role, she was involved in research with children with brain cancer at the University of Michigan. She is a master’s graduate of Northwestern University, where she studied how to increase positive emotion and how positive emotion can buffer against negative effects of stress. Though a Detroit native, she earned her undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of St Andrews in Scotland.