2016 Keynote Speakers
Day One
Dr. Fred Ernst
Ph.D.Clinical Psychologist
April 21st
El Gran Salon
Brownsville Campus
9:25am - 10:25am
Dr. Ernst has a B.S. degree in psychology from the University of Wisconsin and a Masters in clinical psychology from Wichita State University. He finished his training as a clinical psychologist by earning a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University. Since 2005, Dr. Ernst has been a tenured Professor of Psychology at UTPA and UTRGV. In 2016, he joined the Dean’s staff as the Associate Dean for Faculty Research and Development for the College of Liberal Arts. Dr. Ernst initiated and led the development of a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) program, training our graduate students for applied behavioral analytic interventions on children with autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders.
Currently his undergraduate students find research experience in his lab in Psychology’s Behavioral Neuroscience building where they are using animal models to study various forms of psychopathology, currently eating disorders. His human research involving undergraduates focuses on the relationship of the digit ratio phenomenon to gender dimorphic psychopathology. Dr. Ernst and several of his students will be presenting two posters at the Association for Psychological Science in May. He hopes to resurrect his stalled research on the use of antipsychotic drugs in Latino children living in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas where obesity and diabetes are already epidemic and antipsychotic drugs are known to triple the risk of developing diabetes. He is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy and the Board of Directors of Mujeres Unidas.
Day Two
Dr. David W. Hicks
Marine/Estuarine Ecologist and Quantitative Biology
April 22nd
Ballroom
Edinburg Campus
9:25am - 10:25am
Dr. Hicks specializes in the biology, ecology, physiological ecology, and environmental biology of estuarine and marine invertebrates, particularly mollusks and corals. Additionally, he has expertise in experimental design and analyses of biological data. Current research projects range from the restoration of Bahia Grande in the lower Rio Grande Valley, to evaluation of beach management practices on South Padre Island, to monitoring invertebrate and fish community dynamics on natural and artificial reefs in the Gulf of Mexico. He is the Director of the School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Science which offers undergraduate degrees in Environmental Science and Marine Biology and is planning for graduate degrees in Ocean, Coastal, and Earth Science.
B.S., Marine Biology, Texas A&M University Galveston, Texas, 1989
M.S., Biology, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi Corpus Christi, Texas, 1993
Ph.D., Quantitative Biology, The University of Texas at Arlington Arlington, Texas, 1999