Researchers

			Karen Hwang, Ed.D., recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship in rehabilitation outcomes at Kessler Research Foundation, and is Adjunct Assistant Professor of Medical Rehabilitation at University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey. Her prior research experience has focused on quality of life issues in persons with traumatic disabilities, including stroke, brain injuries and spinal cord injuries. Her current interest is in the medical and psychological correlates of religion and atheism in the US population, and the consequences of anti-atheist discrimination.

			Ryan T. Cragun, Ph.D., is a sociologist specializing in religion. His prior research focuses on the growth and decline of Mormonism, factors predisposing individuals to leave religion, and secular life. He is an Assistant Professor at the University of Tampa, in Tampa, FL. When he's not doing sociology, he enjoys cooking, spending time with his wife, and watching sci-fi.

			Joseph H. Hammer, M.Ed., is currently on pre-doctoral internship at the University of Maryland Counseling Center. Having defended his dissertation in May of 2014, he anticipates graduating with a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Iowa State University in the summer of 2015. He is looking forward to joining the counseling psychology faculty at the University of Kentucky as an assistant professor in the fall of 2015. His research interests include help seeking behavior and cross-cultural psychometrics.

			Jesse M. Smith, Ph.D., is a sociologist who works primarily in social psychology. His substantive research interests include qualitative methods, sociology of religion/irreligion, identity development, the self, and deviant behavior. His dissertation work focused on the individual and collective identity work of contemporary American atheists.

			Joseph Langston, BS, BA, MA, is an independent scholar specializing in social psychology, religion, and atheism. His research interests include quantitative methods, sociology and psychology of religion/irreligion, the history of atheism, and the causes and origins of atheism. His prior research has focused on explanations of the origins or causes atheism, and on the atheist movement and its organizations in America. In Fall 2014, he served his first academic post as Lecturer of Religion in Society at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. He has future plans to pursue his doctorate in research psychology.