Biography

Biography
I was born in Massachusetts, lived in Tennessee for 10 years, spent most of my growing-up years in Maryland, attended undergrad in Michigan, returned to Maryland for my graduate education, did my internship in Kansas, and was called back to Michigan to teach and raise my two children.  I "married up" when Jenni agreed to marry me in 1996.  We love mountains (especially the Canadian Rockies), day hikes, walks on Sabbath afternoons, Geocaching, The Great Brain series of books, and Chuck (especially the first 2 seasons).  Personally, I enjoy computer programming, video editing, digital still photography, racquetball, ping-pong, and volleyball.  I have a small private practice seeing children and adolescents for psychotherapy in Buchanan, MI.  I have a passion for doing things to a high standard and efficiently.  My pet peeves are dishonesty and not following directions.

 

Current Research or Professional Activities

I am working on publications related to the dissertations which I am currently chairing (e.g., distress tolerance, resilience, and post-doc supervision). I am also interested in research related to children/adolescents in general. Because of my position as director of the Andrews Community Counseling Center, I am also interested in therapy-related research (e.g., outcome research, influence of record-keeping on treatment and treatment outcomes, etc.).

Baltazar, T. & Coffen, R. D. (2011). The role of doubt in religious identity development and psychological maturity. Journal of Research on Christian Education, 20(2), 182-194.
Coffen, R. D. (2009a). The 600-step program for type 1 diabetes self-management in youth: The magnitude of the self-management task. Postgraduate Medicine, 121(5), 119-139. Available online at: http://www.postgradmed.com/index.php?article=2059
Coffen, R. D. (2009b). Can you hear me now?: Psychological issues in school violence at Adventist schools.The Journal of Adventist Education, 72, 11-18. Available online at: http://circle.adventist.org//files/jae/en/jae200972011108.pd
Coffen, R. D. (2013). Teaching standardized test administration using virtual examinees: Rationale, validity, and future directions. Training and Education in Professional Psychology, 7(4), 309-315. doi: 10.1037/a0033347
Coffen, R. D. (2015). Handling common emotionally based behavior problems. The Journal of Adventist Education, 78(2), 36-42.
Coffen, R. & Dahlquist, L. (2009). The magnitude of type 1 diabetes self-management in youth:  Health care needs diabetes educators. The Diabetes Educator, 35(2), 302-308. Available online at: http://tde.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/35/2/302
Good, J., Fox, J., & Coffen, R. D. (2011). Fostering the development of empathy in the classroom: A strategic response to the problem of bullying. TEACH Journal of Christian Education, 5(1), 24-30.
Théodor, L., & Coffen, R. D. (2011). Implementing Christian Multicultural Education. Journal of Adventist Education, 74(2), 41-47.
Théodor, L., & Coffen, R. D. (2012). A multicultural education in the classroom: What it is, and how it helps in development. In C. Valley, E. Kido, M. Beach, & D. Herrmann (Eds.), Peril and promise: Adventist education at the crossroads (pp. 127-135). Riverside, CA: Center for Research on K-12 Adventist Education.