Dr. Amanda Morris MEDICINE OF THE MIND On Riverside Drive in the heart of Tulsa, OSU’s Hardesty Center for Clinical Research and Neuroscience is bringing together experts in medicine and life sciences and providing them with the space and equipment to mitigate the impacts of addictive behavior disorders. One of the experts housed in Tulsa is CAS’s own Dr. Amanda Morris, a professor in the Department of Psychology, who describes the Hardesty Center as a “hidden gem for OSU.” “We have definitely delivered on the promise that the Hardesty Center would be built upon interdisciplinary approaches and collaboration,” said Morris, referencing a 2021 statement by Dr. Julie Croff, founding executive director of the National Center for Wellness and Recovery in Tulsa. NCWR, like the Hardesty Center, is part of the OSU System. “OSU Psychology has a strong presence on the OSU-Tulsa campus, with over 75 undergraduate students,” Morris said, adding that they’re able to fund numerous doctoral students from CAS as well as other disciplines like public health. “We support research projects that benefit students and faculty across campus, and we look forward to growing our impact on both graduate and undergraduate student learning at OSU.” Morris is involved in several NIHfunded projects in Tulsa, including the Center for Integrative Research on Childhood Adversity, which was established in 2016 as the first national interdisciplinary research center designed to integrate biological and behavioral approaches to the study of adversity and resilience. She is also a co-leader of the Healthy Brain Child Development study, which involves university recruitment sites in 27 locations around the U.S. “We collect data from pregnant mothers and their newborns from across the country in hopes of better understanding brain development and the potential effects of exposure to substances and other environmental, social and biological factors,” Morris said. “We have been following the children for 10 years, collecting brain data through MRI and EEG at our Tulsa center.” Through her extensive involvement in a range of research projects, Morris has a strong appreciation for the power of transdisciplinary research across the life sciences and beyond. “Cutting-edge neuroscience research is being conducted in Tulsa by a number of CAS faculty and students,” Morris said. “This research is bringing national recognition to OSU and is helping us better understand factors that influence brain development and health.” OSU COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES 15
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