Newsletter Article

Graduate Accomplishments

Autumn 2018

At the close of Autumn 2018 quarter after our previous newsletter was published, we had three students complete an optional master’s degree: Natasha Gulati (Adult Clinical Area with Bill George), Miranda Johnson (Cognition and Perception Area with John Palmer), and Megan Ramaiya (Adult Clinical Area with Jane Simoni). We look forward to you continuing onto the Ph.D.!

Winter 2019

Adriana Germano (Social Psychology and Personality Area with Sapna Cheryan) received a travel grant for Early Winter 2019 from the Graduate & Professional Student Senate (GPSS) in order to attend the International Convention of Psychological Science in Paris, France in March to present her poster: Uncovering the costs and benefits to popular diversity programs across schools and workplaces.

Laina Keim (Child Clinical with Lynn Fainsilber Katz) received a Student Travel Award to attend the Society of Pediatric Psychology Annual Conference where she presented her poster entitled: Primary and secondary caregiver depression predicting observed family interaction following a cancer diagnosis: An exploration of the buffering hypothesis. The conference took place in New Orleans, Louisiana in April.

In Winter 2019 quarter, three students pass their general exam and advance to candidacy: Matthew Peverill (Child Clinical Area with Kate McLaughlin), Rosemary Meza (Child Clinical Area with Shannon Dorsey), and Peter Zambetti (Behavioral Neuroscience Area with Jeansok Kim).

We also awarded three masters degrees to: Jessica Burgeno (Cognition and Perception Area with Susan Joslyn), Katherine Manbeck (Adult Clinical Area with Jonathan Kanter), and Yingxue Rao (Behavioral Neuroscience Area with Sheri Mizumori).

In addition to completing her master’s in winter, Katherine Manbeck was selected as a trainee to join the Institute of Translational Health Sciences (ITHS) TL1 Translational Research Training Program this summer. She receives a year of research support and mentoring in the field of translational science. Her research project is called: “Is there a doctor in the house? Addressing racial health disparities with an evidence-based bias reduction intervention” More information on the training program can be found here.

Spring 2019

In our last issue, we included that Margarita Zeitlin (Cognition and Perception Area with Lee Osterhout) was nominated for the campus-wide Excellence in Teaching Award. We learned in March that she was selected as one of two recipients for this award. The honor is shared with a fellow graduate student in the Department of Chemistry (Jeffrey Paz Buenaflor) during an awards ceremony in June. Congratulations! 

Two students completed their general exam and advanced to candidacy: Katherine Manbeck (Adult Clinical Area with Jonathan Kanter) and Bryan Schuessler (Behavioral Neuroscience Area with Jeansok Kim).

Jessica Canning Elizabeth Enright Linda Zou
Jessica Canning Elizabeth Enright Linda Zou

Three students earned their master’s in spring quarter: Jessica Canning (Adult Clinical Area with Mary Larimer), Trent DesChamps (Child Clinical Area with Wendy Stone), and Thea Weiss (Developmental Area with Peter Kahn).

Jessica Canning also received an NRSA research fellowship. You can read her research spotlight here.

Megan Ramaiya (Adult Clinical Area with Jane Simoni) was selected for an American Psychological Association Minority Fellowship Program. We look forward to sharing her research spotlight in a future newsletter. 

Our annual research festival is in its 47th year and was held at the Waterfront Activities Center (WAC) near Husky Stadium. It’s a full morning of research talks by our 1st year experimental students and 2nd year clinical students. After, we have lunch together and an awards ceremony recognizing members of our department.

Elizabeth Enright (Developmental Area with Kristina Olson & Jessica Sommerville) received awards for her many talents and contributions over the years. She received the Distinguished Teaching Award for Graduate Students, the Psychology Department Service Award, and the Graduate Student Service Award. Thank you for everything, Elizabeth!

Linda Zou (Social Psychology and Personality Area with Sapna Cheryan) was also selected to receive the Distinguished Teaching Award for Graduate Students. The graduate student TA award was presented by Ione Fine, who was then awarded as the 2019 Davida Teller Distinguished Mentor!

Jose Ceballos (Cognition and Perception Area with Chantel Prat) along with faculty Andrea Stocco and Chantal Prat (as co-authors), had a paper (The Role of Basal Ganglia Reinforcement Learning in Lexical Priming and Automatic Semantic Ambiguity Resolution) selected as one of two recipients of the Marr Prize by the Cognitive Science Society. This prize is given out annually to the best student-first-authored paper at the conference.

Lizzie Neilson
Lizzie Neilson

Lizzie Neilson (Adult Clinical Area with Bill George) received the College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Graduate Medal. This award is given each year to the outstanding graduate student in each division of the College.

In spring, we had a few graduate students supported on special research awards. The Diversity & Equity Fellowship supports research projects that advance diversity and equity within Psychology and society. Our Spring 2019 Diversity & Equity Fellows were Krystal Parrish (Child Clinical Area with Lili Lengua) and Liying Wang (Adult Clinical Area with Jane Simoni). The Research Broadening Fellowship supports a student who seeks to acquire new skills and learn new techniques by training in another lab for a quarter. Our Research Broadening Fellow in Spring 2019 was Mariah Corey (Adult Clinical Area with Jonathan Kanter).

Kevin Kuehn (Adult Clinical Area with Kevin King) and Margarita Zeitlin (Cognition and Perception Area with Lee Osterhout) completed our Department’s Quantitative Minor, which is led by Brian Flaherty. We now have 26 students who completed this option which we created for our Psychology Ph.D. students who were seeking and completing more quantitative courses for their personal and professional development. 

Jose Ceballos Karen Chang Katy Fladeboe
Jose Ceballos Karen Chang Katy Fladeboe

We had six students graduate from our program with their doctorates in Spring quarter: Jose Ceballos (Cognition and Perception Area with Chantel Prat), Karen Chang (Social Psychology and Personality Area with Yuichi Shoda), Katy Fladeboe (Developmental Area with Lynn Fainsilber Katz), Mi-Seon Kong (Behavioral Neuroscience Area with Jeansok Kim), Kit Moreland (Cognition and Perception Area with Geoff Boynton), Ashley Ruba (Developmental Area with Betty Repacholi), and Linda Zou (Social Psychology and Personality Area with Sapna Cheryan).

Ashley Ruba received a postdoc fellowship in the NIMH Training Program in Emotion Research at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, joining Seth Pollak's lab later this year. While Linda Zou just accepted an Assistant Professor position at the University of Maryland and Jose Ceballos will be joining Google.

Summer 2019

Mi-Seon Kong Kit Moreland Ashley Ruba
Mi-Seon Kong Kit Moreland Ashley Ruba

Tristram Savage-Pinte (Cognition and  Perception Area with Ione Fine) has been awarded an Auditory Neuroscience Training Grant that begins this summer.

Margarita Zeitlin (Cognition and Perception Area with Lee Osterhout)’s research on language was written up in an issue of the UW Daily

In Summer we have several students supported on endowments: the Earl "Buz" and Mary Lou Hunt Endowed Fellowship for Graduate Students in Psychology and the Alcor Endowed Scholarships (Harry and Claire Garlick Peterson). Elizabeth Enright (Developmental Area with Kristina Olson & Jessica Sommerville) and Prerna Martin (Child Clinical Area with Shannon Dorsey) were our Hunt fellows in Spring and Summer, respectively. Megan Ramaiya (Adult Clinical Area with Jane Simoni), Laina Keim (Child Clinical Area with Lynn Fainsilber Katz), and Adam Kuczynski (Adult Clinical Area with Jonathan Kanter) were our 2019 Alcor Fellows.

In addition to the summer endowments, the Psychology Department funds students on a Psychology Department Scholar award, for 2019 Adriana Germano (Social Psychology & Personality Area with Sapna Cheryan) and Pete Rosencrans (Adult Clinical Area with Lori Zoellner) were selected.

Rosie Walker (Adult Clinical Area with Lori Zoellner)  was selected for a Graduate School Presidential Dissertation Fellowship. It provides one quarter of funding, including tuition waivers and health insurance.

We are in the middle of the quarter at the time of our summer 2019 newsletter publishing. Be sure to come back in Winter 2020, to catch up with us and see who has graduated as well as for more accomplishments from our talented graduate students. Have a great summer!