Graduate Student Recognition
Awards & Fellowships
Barbara Sarason Endowed Fellowship in Psychology – Ishaan Ambrish
Irwin Sarason, Barbara’s husband and Professor Emeritus of Psychology, established the fellowship in honor of the remarkable life and career of his wife, Barbara Sarason, Emeritus Research Professor of Psychology at the University of Washington. The fellowship fund provides financial assistance to graduate students in our department.
Earl Hunt Graduate Fellowship Fund – Sarena Sabine, Z Ferguson, and Annie Xu
This award supports students seeking to conduct independent research. This award was created by our former faculty member, Earl “Buz” Hunt , and his wife Mary Lou Hunt, and is typically awarded to students in their final year to aid in completion.
Alcor Endowed Scholarship Fund – Carol Lu, Ariel Xinyue Li, and Sofia Gray
The Alcor Endowment in Psychology supports students who have produced high quality work during their graduate training and have a need for support to move their project forward in a timely fashion.
James R. Steele Endowed Scholarship Fund – Gabrielle Gauthier and Shivani Pandey
Dr. Steele was an early graduate of the department’s clinical psychology program, and the fund supports undergraduate and graduate students conducting research in clinical psychology.
Jeffrey Jaeger Fellowship in Clinical Psychology – Clara Johnson
The Jeffery A. Jaeger Endowed Fellowship in Clinical Psychology is a fellowship established in honor of the late Dr. Jeffrey A. Jaeger, an alum of the clinical psychology program in the Department of Psychology. It is the family’s hope that this fellowship will provide support for clinical psychology graduate students to pursue their clinical training according to their values with funds that they can use to support their learning and growth as clinician scientists who aim to improve the lives of others as Jeff did and continues to do through his lasting legacy.
Dr. Robert J Kohlenberg Psychology Research Award – Kayne Mettert
This endowed research award was established to honor the late Dr. Robert. J. Kohlenberg, a former faculty member in the Department of Psychology. Dr. Kohlenberg co-conceptualized Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) in the 1980s and was instrumental in furthering the Department’s focus on evidence-based therapies and therapy-relationship work. The award will provide support for graduate student research that is focused on evidence-based therapies
Psychology Department Distinguished Teaching Award – Sukran Bahar Sener
These awards are for overall career achievement, outstanding service, and distinction in teaching.
Rashed AlRasheed will begin as an Assistant Professor at Kuwait University – Faculty of Medicine – Department of Community Medicine and Behavioral Sciences, in Fall 2025. Rashed is advised by Shannon Dorsey.
Jovani Azpeitia received a Graduate School Presidential Dissertation Fellowship to use during 2025-26. Jovani is advised by Sapna Cheryan.
Kara Dastrup was awarded The Marsha M. Linehan Term Ph.D. Fellowship in Clinical Psychology for summer quarter 2025. Kara is mentored by Corey Fagen and Shannon Dorsey.
Each year the University of Washington selects 100 undergraduate, graduate and professional students from all three campuses for the Husky 100. This year, there are four students from Psychology! Congratulations to graduate student, Todd Obilor (who is mentored by Lili Lengua), and undergraduate students Anika Ajwani, Emma Walker, and Anna Fong! Read more about the award and awardees.
Ishaan Ambrish and Carol Lu won the Graduate Student Travel Award ($300) for the Society for Research in Child Development Biennial. Both are advised by Ariel Starr.
Melissa Gasser will start a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the National Center for PTSD, VA Menlo Park, California, in August 2025. Melissa is advised by Bill George.
Carly Gray will start a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the U.S.D.A. Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station in Seattle in June 2025. Carly is advised by Lucìa Magis-Weinberg.
Diana Mi-Jung Kwon will start a Postdoctoral DBT Fellowship at the Seattle VA in August 2025. Diana is advised by Vibh Forsythe-Cox.
Emma PeConga will start a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety (CTSA) in August 2025. Emma is advised by Lori Zoellner.
Lisa Shimomaeda will start a Postdoctoral Fellowship with Evidence-Based Treatment Centers of Seattle (EBTCS), in August 2025. Lisa is advised by Liliana Lengua.
Rachel Song will start as an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Puget Sound in Fall 2025. Rachel is advised by Cynthia Levine.
Frank Song will start a position as a Clinical Psychologist at Boston Consulting Group, in Seattle WA in January, 2026. Frank is advised by Mary Larimer.
Victoria Szydlowski will start a Postdoctoral Fellowship in rehabilitation psychology at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System in August 2025. Victoria is advised by Mary Larimer.
Jasmine Awad received a one quarter dissertation fellowship from the Graduate School Equity and Excellence office for her dissertation entitled “Divided Visual Attention and Fluency in American Sign Language Users: An Experimental Study and Assessment Tool Development.” Jasmine is mentored by Ione Fine.
Annie Xu is one of three graduate students at UW to receive an Applied Research Fellowship through UW Population Health for summer 2025. Annie is advised by Cynthia Levine.
Sameen Boparai, and Chad Miller both completed the Quantitative minor in psychology in 2025.
Cara Guthrie completed the Diversity Science Specialization in psychology in Winter 2025.
Brend Qiu, Annie Xu, Chad Miller, and Jee Hoon Han all completed the requirements for the Psychology department Data Science Minor in Spring 2025.
Publications
Ishaan Ambrish is first author on recently published paper “Does children’s developing understanding of linguistic register impact their social preferences?” appearing in Social Development. https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12797.
Ishaan is advised by Ariel Starr.
Shana Attar, first author, and Hannah Benavidez, second author on a paper entitled “Co-Designing a Novel Service Delivery Pathway to Increase Access to Autism Identification and Care within a Non-Profit Community Organization Serving Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Families” appearing in Autism. Both are advised by Wendy Stone. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/13623613251335702
Jovani Azpeitia is a co-author on “Citing decisions in psychology: A roadblock to cumulative and inclusive science”, accepted in Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science. https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/6kvqg_v2. Two recent UW PhDs, Ella Lombard and Terrènce Pope, are also co-authors on this publication. Jovani is advised by Sapna Cheryan.
Neil Gleason is second author on two articles in 2025. The first, “Compulsive sexual behavior inventory short form (CSBI-SF): Development and psychometric evaluation’ appears in the Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, https://doi.org/10.1080/0092623X.2025.2470214. And the second, “Chemsex and compulsive sexual behavior among sexual minority men,” in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, https://doi.org/10.1093/jsxmed/qdaf021. Neil is mentored by William George.
Carly Gray is first author on recently published paper “The importance of (not just visual) interaction with nature: A study with the Girl Scouts” appearing in The Journal of Environmental Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/00958964.2024.2436166
Carly is advised by Lucìa Magis-Weinberg.
Cara Guthrie, first author, and Sameen Boparai, second author on a paper entitled “Caregiver emotion socialization and child adjustment in the context of pediatric cancer” in the Journal of Family Psychology. Both supervised by Lynn Katz on this research. https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0001323
Jee Hoon Han is co-author with advisor, Susan Joslyn, on a paper entitled “Forecast Uncertainty Information Improves Multi-Alternative Risky Decision-Makin” accepted to Weather Climate and Society. https://doi.org/10.1175/WCAS-D-24-0119.1
Aoi Hunsaker, recently had a paper published in the International Journal of Audiology entitled “Toward improved measurements of bone conduction auditory brainstem responses in infants and adults: Mitigation of stimulus artefact.” Aoi is mentored by Joe Sisneros. Read Aoi's paper.
Emily Iannazzi, is first author on a recently published article “Task-based neural correlates of self-focused attention before and after cognitive behavioral therapy” appearing in Biological Psychiatry. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40221123/
Emily is advised by Angela Fang.
Ariel Xinyue Li is first author on "Reducing Traumatic Memory Intrusions By Timing Their Re-Encoding: An Application of Computational Modeling to Mental Health" appearing in the Proceedings of the 47th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Ariel is advised by Andrea Stocco.
Katie Malloy Spink is first author on “The Effects of Proximal and Distal Forms of Stress on College Student Mental Health and Affective Well-being” appearing in the Journal of American College Health. Katie is advised by Kate Foster. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07448481.2025.2472182
Kimberly Molaib is first author on recently published paper “Agreement Between Self-Reported and Objectively Measured Smartphone Use Among Adolescents and Adults,“ appearing in Computers in Human Behavior Reports. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2024.100569
Kimberly is advised by Lucìa Magis-Weinberg.
Danny Muñoz Lopez is co-first author on a paper titled “Peruvian Adolescent Mental Health Across Two Years of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Four Time-Point Longitudinal Study” published in The Journal of Adolescent Health. https://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(24)00403-8/fulltext
Danny is advised by Lucìa Magis-Weinberg.
Brenda Qiu is second author on a paper published in Nature Communications entitled “Human V4 size predicts crowding distance” Brenda is advised by Scott Murray.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-59101-w
Mira Reichman is co-first author on “Psychosocial support needs and preferences among informal caregivers of ICU patients with severe acute brain injury: a qualitative thematic analysis” appearing in Neurocritical Care, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12028-024-02202-z. Mira is advised by Kate Foster.
Mikela Ritter is second author on “Problem-Solving Skills Training for Parents of Children Undergoing Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation: A Mixed Methods Feasibility Study” published in Cancers. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers17060930 Mikela is advised by Kevin King.
Lauren Smith is first author on "On the ground: Methodological and ethical considerations of a field study on alcohol intoxication and sexual misperception among drinking venue patrons” appearing in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39283077/. Lauren is mentored by William George.
Jinhan Zhu is second author on “Resting state cortical network and subcortical hyperconnectivity in youth with generalized anxiety disorder in the ABCD study” appearing in. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S245190222500062X. Jinhan is advised by Jen Forsyth.
Masters degrees awarded
Nancy Gomez Juarez Winter 2025
Mahnoor Hyat, Winter 2025
Emily Iannazzi, Winter 2025
Celine Lu, Spring 2025
Kayne Mettert, Winter 2025
Haylee Swiger, Spring 2025
Zac Trevorrow, Spring 2025
Ange Vittone, Spring 2025
Annie Xu, Winter 2025
PhDs awarded
Carly Gray (Developmental; Chair: Lucìa Magis-Weinberg) Spring 2025
Exposure to and interaction with nature among children and adolescents: Cross-sectional and longitudinal associations with psychological well-being
Chad Miller (Social Psychology and Personality; Chair: Clara Wilkins) Spring 2025
Causes and Consequences of Bias: Examining high-status groups' social and political attitudes in the context of religious, racial, and gendered change
Sukran Bahar Sener (Developmental; Chair: Ariel Starr) Spring 2025
Beyond Here and Now: How Spatial Representations Support Abstract Thought
Rachel Song (Social Psychology and Personality; Chair: Cynthia Levine) Spring 2025
Social Psychological Challenges to Confronting Neighborhood Inequality