Whitney Shepherd, B.A.

Whitney

Contact Info

Biography —

Whitney Shepherd is a 2nd year graduate student in the Clinical Child Psychology Ph.D. Program. Her research interests broadly include identifying and understanding underlying factors that contribute to and maintain anxiety in children and adolescents. Specifically, she aims to investigate the role that internal, transdiagnostic factors (emotion dysregulation, attentional biases) and parenting factors (accommodation) play in the onset and maintenance of anxiety. Ultimately, she is interested in how these factors can contribute to the improvement of evidence-based interventions among youth with anxiety disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). In her free time, Whitney enjoys painting, hiking, and watching movies.

Education —

B.A. in Psychology, University of Mississippi, 2022

Selected Publications —

Shepherd, W. S., Trent, E. S., Smarason, O., Sansone, H. S., Ayton, D. M., Palo, A., Candelari, A. E., Goodman, W. K., Guzick, A. G., & Storch, E. A. (2025). Transdiagnostic correlates of family accommodation in anxious youth. Journal of Family Psychology.https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0001388

Shepherd, W. S., Schadegg, M. J., & Dixon, L. J. (2025). Examining the contrast avoidance model to understand the association between generalized anxiety disorder and sleep difficulties. Psychiatric Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-025-10160-8 .

LaPoint, S.C., Simmons, G.L., Heinly, J., Delgado, D., Shepherd, W.S., Brookman-Frazee, L., Storch, E.A., & Maddox, B.B. (2024). “Education would be step number one”: Community mental health clinicians’ training and support needs to treat anxiety in autistic youth. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 117.

Shepherd, W. S., Cho, H. E., Qian, J. H., Wiese, A. D., Rork, W. C., Baig, M. U., Kostick, K. M., Nguyen, D., Members of the BBDC, Murali, C. N., Robinson, M. E., Schneider, S. C., Lee, B., Sutton, V. R., & S torch, E. A. (2024). Psychosocial outcomes of pain and pain management in adults with osteogenesis imperfecta: A qualitative study. Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings. 

Storch, E. A., & Shepherd, W. S. (2023). Improving access in 2023: Evidence-based psychotherapy for autistic youth with anxiety. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 87(1), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1521/bumc.2023.87.1.1

Selected Presentations —

Shepherd, W. S., Trent, E. S., Smarason, O., Sansone, H. N., Ayton, D. M., Palo, A., Candelari, A. E., Goodman, W. K., Guzick, A. G., & Storch, E. A. (2025, April). Transdiagnostic correlates of family accommodation in anxious youth [Symposium speaker presentation]. Presented at the 2025 Anxiety and Depression Association of America Annual Conference, Las Vegas, Nevada. 

Shepherd, W. S., Patrick, A., Moreno-Duron D., Ollendick, T. H., & Allen, K. B. (2025, April). Influence of parental anxiety on child performance on the behavioral approach task: Comparing outcomes with and without parental presence. Poster presented at the 2025 Anxiety and Depression Association of America Annual Conference, Las Vegas, Nevada. 

Shepherd, W. S., Sansone, H. N., Smarason, O., Ayton, D. M., Palo, A. D., Candelari, A. E., Guzick, A. G., & Storch, E. A. (2023, November). Examining anxiety sensitivity and distress tolerance in relation to family accommodation among anxious youth. Poster presented at the 2023 Texas Psychological Association Convention, Houston, Texas.  

Shepherd, W. S., Bivins, E. J., Cho, H. E., Guzick, A. G., & Storch, E. A. (2023, May). Examining the relationship between aggression and emotion regulation within misophonia. Poster presented at the 2023 Association of Psychological Science Convention, Washington D.C.  

Shepherd, W. S., Cho, H. E., Qian, J. H., Wiese, A. D., Rork, W. C., Baig, M. U., Kostick, K. M., Nguyen, D., Members of the BBDC, Murali, C. N., Schneider, Lee, B., Sutton, V. R., & Storch, E. A. (2023, April). Psychosocial outcomes of pain and pain management in adults with osteogenesis imperfecta. Poster presented at the 2023 Osteogenesis Imperfecta Foundation Scientific Meeting, Chicago, Illinois. 

Shepherd, W. S., Schadegg, M. J., & Dixon, L. J. (2021, September). Testing the association between emotion regulation and the contrast avoidance model. Poster presented at the Mississippi Psychological Association 72nd Annual Convention, Biloxi, Mississippi.