Our Team

Katey Franklin,PhD, LSC, LCPC

Director of CMHRR

Laura Stanley, PhD

Associate Professor, School of Computing, Montana State University
Clinical Research Professor, Clemson University/Prisma Health
Director, Human Interaction Lab

Research Interests
Dr. Stanley's research focuses on developing remote and immersive digital health solutions using web/mobile applications, virtual/mixed/augmented reality, wearables, emotional AI, and collaborative robotics. She addresses critical areas such as respiratory disease management, mental health, pain management, and addiction.

Dr. Stanley has published over 95 peer-reviewed publications and secured more than $20 million in research grants from various federal, state, and private agencies. Previously, she was an Associate Professor and Graduate Program Coordinator in the Industrial Engineering Department at Clemson University. Before joining Clemson, she served as a Program Officer in the Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Directorate at the National Science Foundation, where she helped shape the nation's research and graduate education agenda.

Recently, Dr. Stanley was appointed to a three-year term on the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s Digital Health Advisory Committee of the Division of Health Technology in the Center for Devices and Radiological Health.

Frances Lefcort, PhD

Professor, Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, Montana State University

Research Interests
Dr. Lefcort is working to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms that drive the formation of the nervous system, and how disruptions in these pathways can lead to neural developmental disorders.  The major focus of her group's work is the human hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy disorder, Familial Dysautonomia (FD), using various models. FD is a fatal, developmental and progressive neurogenetic disorder and affects both the central and peripheral nervous systems. Their goal is to determine the function of the gene Ikbkap, which is mutated in the human disorder, and to identify potential therapeutics to treat the progressive visual impairment in FD.

Website: http://www.montana.edu/cbn/faculty-staff/lefcort.html

Cara Palmer, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Montana State University 

Research Interests 
Dr. Cara Palmer is the director of the Sleep and Development Lab. Prior to coming to MSU, Dr. Palmer completed her Ph.D. in Life-Span Developmental Psychology at West Virginia University in 2014, and a postdoctoral research fellowship in Clinical Child Psychology at the University of Houston. Dr. Palmer then served as research faculty at the University of Houston within the Department of Psychology and the Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics. Dr. Palmer joined the MSU faculty as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology in 2018.

Dr. Palmer's research is interdisciplinary, and incorporates methodology and theory from developmental psychology, clinical child psychology, social psychology, and behavioral sleep medicine. Research in the lab includes multiple methods to assess daytime emotional and social experiences (e.g., behavioral paradigms, psychophysiological and neural responses, ecological momentary assessment) and to assess sleep (EEG-based polysomnography, actigraphy).

Website: http://msusleeplab.org/

Mark Schure, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Health and Human Development, Montana State University

Research Interests
Dr. Schure is engaged in developing and promoting mental health interventions tailored to meet the needs of rural communities and populations at-risk for poor mental health outcomes. He specializes in community-based research and has worked in several Montana and Oregon rural communities for over a decade.  Currently, he is conducting research on the effects of a digital cognitive behavior therapy program for rural Montanans.  He is also developing and testing a specialized chronic illness management program that addresses mental health issues related to historical trauma among the Apsaalooke nation in Montana.

Website: http://www.montana.edu/hhd/facultyandstaff/mschure.html

Brandon Scott, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Montana State University

Research Interests
Dr. Scott's research examines and separates the relations between anxiety and emotional regulation in youth on a multi-level analysis, including psychosocially and physiologically. His research questions aim to explore the ways the relationship changes over childhood and adolescent development, how different individual and environmental factors influence the relation, and how emotion regulation mechanisms related to anxiety affect health outcomes. 

Website: http://www.montana.edu/psychology/directory/1812074/brandon-scott