Sebrina Doyle

Sebrina Doyle’s work currently focuses on the development and testing of mindfulness-based interventions to support health and well-being for staff who work with challenging youth. Sebrina began her career in prevention research about a decade ago after working as a drug and alcohol counselor for a court-mandated drug treatment program. She moved into prevention research because she felt it would be more effective to focus on preventing problems before serious consequences occur. She is strongly committed to understanding what conditions are necessary for evidence-based interventions to be sustained at a high level; this includes how interventions are initially developed to fit within the systems they serve, and the continued use of programs with fidelity once initial funding is removed.

For the past several years, Sebrina has been working on the Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education (CARE) Program, a mindfulness-based stress-reduction program for teachers. Most recently, Sebrina was awarded a contract to create a mindfulness-based self-care program for youth services workers; this collaborative partnership project was forged with the Pennsylvania Bureau of Juvenile Justice Services to help staff who work in juvenile justice facilities throughout the state. In the future, she would like to extend this work to other juvenile services in the Commonwealth. In her free time, Sebrina enjoys finding new hiking and kayaking spots around State College to explore with her family and friends. 

Prevention-related Projects

• 

  Mindfulness-based Self-Care for Youth Services Workers

Long-term impacts on teachers' self-reported social and emotional competence and well-being

Jennings, P. A., Doyle, S., Oh, Y., Rasheed, D., Frank, J. L., & Brown, J. L. (2019). Long-term impacts on teachers' self-reported social and emotional competence and well-being. School Psychology, 76, 186-202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2019.07.009

The relationship between adopting mindfulness practice and reperceiving: A qualitative investigation of CARE for Teachers

Schussler, D.L., DeWeese, A., Rasheed, D., DeMauro, A. A., Doyle, S. L., Brown, J. L., Greenberg, M. T., & Jennings, P. A. (2019). The relationship between adopting mindfulness practice and reperceiving: A qualitative Investigation of CARE for Teachers. Mindfulness, 10, 2567–2582. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-019-01228-1

Exploring relationships between CARE program fidelity, participant responsiveness, and uptake of mindful practices

Doyle, S. L., Jennings, P. A., Brown, J. L., Rasheed, D., DeWeese, A., Frank, J. L., Turksma, C., & Greenberg, M. T. (2018). Exploring relationships between CARE program fidelity, participant responsivenss, and uptake of mindful practices. Mindfulness, 10, 841-853. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-018-1034-9

Cost analysis of ingredients for successful implementation of a mindfulness-based professional development program for teachers

Doyle, S. L., Brown, J. L., Rasheed, D., Jones, D. E., & Jennings, P. A. (2019). Cost analysis of ingredients for successful implementation of a mindfulness-based professional development program for teachers. Mindfulness, 10, 122-130. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-018-0958-4

Coding semi-structured interviews: Examining coaching calls within the CARE for Teachers program

DeWeese, A., Jennings, P. A., Brown, J. L., Doyle, S. L., Davis, R. T., Rasheed, D. S., Frank, J. L. & Greenberg, M. T. (2017). Coding semi - structured interviews: Examining coaching calls within the CARE for Teachers program. SAGE Research Methods Cases, Part 2. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781473958319

Impacts of the CARE for Teachers program on teachers’ social and emotional competence and classroom interactions

Jennings, P. A., Brown, J. L., Frank, J. L., Doyle, S. L., Oh, Y., Davis, R., Rasheed, D., DeWeese, A., DeMauro, A. A., Cham, H., & Greenberg, M. T. (2017). Impacts of the CARE for Teachers Program on teachers’ social and emotional competence and classroom interactions. Journal of Educational Psychology, 109(7), 1010–1028. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/edu0000187

August 18, 2021

Helping special education teachers under stress

Special education teachers are at heightened risk for stress and burnout, which negatively impacts their effectiveness and well-being. With a new five-year, $4 million grant from the Institute of Educational Sciences, Penn State and Georgia State University (GSU) researchers are teaming up with school districts in Georgia to develop and test an adaptation of the Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education (CARE) professional development program to support special education teachers.

Read more.

April 27, 2020

Helping Pennsylvania teachers cope through mindfulness webinars

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Concern for their students and adapting to remote teaching are only a few of the stressors that teachers are facing during the coronavirus pandemic.

Read more.