Dr. Tamara Avant is a developmental psychologist whose educational background is in the longitudinal examination of children’s social development – in particular children with a shy/anxious personality type. She is currently interested in extrapolating this focus to study predictors of college students’ retention through the first year of undergraduate study. Her dissertation investigated the dynamic interaction of the influence of the classroom emotional climate on anxious solitary children’s risk for peer exclusion. Dr. Avant especially enjoys teaching Introductory Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Statistics, and Experimental Psychology.