Jamie Amemiya, Ph.D.

Jamie is a doctoral student in the Developmental Psychology program. During her undergraduate years at University of California Irvine, she was president of the Women and Criminal Justice Network, a student organization that visited women’s prisons and organized events to fund the transportation for children to visit their incarcerated parents. From these experiences, she became interested in the developmental period of adolescence, a crucial time in the lifespan that is marked by the onset of many problem behaviors, but is also a time of resilience. As such, she is broadly interested in adolescent risk and resilience and generating research that can inform social and legal policy. Currently, she is interested in the effects of juvenile justice involvement on adolescent development, how to promote school engagement among adolescents who are at risk of school failure, and how to facilitate desistance from crime among young offenders. Outside of graduate school, Jamie enjoys spending time with friends and family, watching documentaries, and exploring the city of Pittsburgh.