Profile

• B.A., Saint Mary’s College, 1994
• Ph.D., University of Maine, 2002
• Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Yale University, 2002 – 2004

Dr. Jonna Kwiatkowski is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Mars Hill University. In addition to Psychology, she works closely with the Art Therapy program, leads the faculty and staff Wellness Committee, and founded the campus Breathing Room where we offer yoga and meditation classes for the community. Her interest in psychology was sparked by her undergraduate professors at Saint Mary’s College, a small liberal arts college in Notre Dame, IN (BA, 1994). After a brief stint as a computer programmer in corporate America, she pursued a graduate degree is in Cognitive Psychology, focused on creative thinking (Ph.D., 2002). In graduate school, she focused on differences in neurophysiological responses (EEG/ERP) to creative tasks and novelty of stimuli. After graduate school, she did post-doctoral research at Yale University (2000-2004) including the topics of giftedness, alternative assessments of intelligence, and assessments of basic cognitive skills and learning disabilities in Zambia. Over the last 10 years, Dr. Kwiatkowski has added the psychology of yoga to her research interests and is particularly fascinated by how yoga and mediation practices can facilitate better use of our cognitive resources for learning, emotion processing, and stress management.

In all of her professional work, she prefers to work with students as research partners. There is nothing better than student curiosity to encourage new ideas! If any of this sound interesting to you, please reach out about the possibility of pursuing your own research goals.