Awards & Fellowships
Barbara Sarason Endowed Fellowship in Psychology – Ana Carolina Cottington and Nancy Gomez Juarez
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, needing a quarter off from being a TA to focus on research.
Earl Hunt Graduate Fellowship Fund –Ariel Li, Carol Lu, and Yuchen Zhao
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 – Mahnoor Hyat, MJ Schneider, and Danny Munoz Lopez
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 – T. Ibe Obilor III, Sharon Wang and Ange Vittone
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.
Nomura Summer Fellowship – Dani Seczon
Steven Nomura left an endowment to the Department of Psychology, allowing for program support and the funding of a summer fellowship award.
Jeffrey Jaeger Fellowship in Clinical Psychology – Sharon Wang
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 – Priya Dahiya
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 – Sarena Sabine, and Kara R. H. Dastrup
These awards are for overall career achievement, outstanding service, and distinction in teaching.
Celine Lu and Priya Dahiya (Child Clinical, both advised by Shannon Dorsey) both received NIH funding F31 grants. Priya for her research project entitled “Expanding Access to Mental Health Services for Maltreated Youth in Child Advocacy Centers: Implementation Determinants and Strategies to Improve Screening and Referral “ and Celine for her project entitled “Integrating multi-level partner perspectives to improve progress monitoring implementation in youth community mental health.” See related article for more information about these awardees.
Yuchen Zhao was awarded The Marsha M. Linehan Term Ph.D. Fellowship in Clinical Psychology for winter and spring quarters 2026. Yuchen is mentored by Angela Fang.
Mikela Ritter completed the Quantitative minor in psychology in 2026.
Jovani Azpeitia completed the Diversity Science Specialization in psychology in Spring 2026. In addition, Jovani was nominated by psychology for a Distinguished Dissertation Award through the University of Washington Graduate School.
Grad student, Daniela Seczon, has been selected to receive a $5,000 student stipend from the Arc of Washington Trust Fund. This this a highly competitive honor that speaks directly to the quality of Daniela's work and her dedication to building a career in the field of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (I/DD). Daniela is mentored by Scott Murray and Jen Forsyth.
McKenzie Hagen received a 2026-2027 American Association of University Women Dissertation fellowship. She also was awarded a week long internship in the 2026 French-American Doctoral Exchange (FADEx) program (1 of 10 students selected) for scientific immersion in France dedicated to precision psychiatry. McKenzie is mentored by Ariel Rokem and Scott Murray.
Annie Xu has been awarded Graduate School Presidential Dissertation Fellowship to use in 2026-2027. Annie is advised by Cynthia Levine.
Chelsea Mackey (Adult Clinical, advised by Mary Larimer) will begin a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Washington in the Psychiatry and Behavioral Science department doing the Integrated Mental Health T32 beginning in August 2026.
Clara Johnson (Child Clinical, advised by Shannon Dorsey) will begin a postdoctoral fellowship at Seattle Children's Hospital in July 2026.
Jovani Azpeitia (Social Psychology and Personality, advised by Sapna Cheryan) will be staying in the Seattle area and will start working at foundry10 as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Youth & Educator SEL Lab (YESEL).
Gabby Gauthier (Adult Clinical, advised by Lori Zoellner) accepted a position as an Advanced Research Fellow in Women’s Health at the Women’s Health Sciences Division, National Center for PTSD, VA Boston HCS.
Hannah Benavidez (Child Clinical, advised by Wendy Stone) will begin a postdoctoral position at Children’s Hospital Orange County (CHOC) in the Oncology track.
Caitlin Stavish (Child Clinical, advised by Lili Lengua) will start a postdoc specializing in assessment and clinical education at the Brattleboro Retreat.
Kate Conroy (Adult Clinical, advised by Mary Larimer) will be completing a clinical fellowship in dialectical behavior therapy at Seattle VA next year.
Lauren Smith (Adult Clinical, advised by Bill George) will be the MIRECC fellow at Seattle VA next year.
Shana Attar (Child Clinical, advised by Wendy Stone) will be a Postdoctoral Fellow, at the Lurie Center for Autism. Harvard Medical School Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA
Sameen Boparai (Child Clinical, advised by Lynn Fainsilber Katz) will be doing the PTSD SUD clinical postdoc at the San Francisco VA starting in August.
Kirstyn Smith-LeCavalier (Adult Clinical, advised by Mary Larimer) has accepted a position as a postdoctoral fellow in the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies in the School of Public Health at Brown University.
Publications
Hunt, C., Glynn, L.M., Davis, E.P., Baram, T.Z., Nievergelt, C., Castillano, G., Cortes, C., Chang, C., Baker, D.G., & Risbrough, V.B. (2026). Anhedonia underlies the association between childhood unpredictability and adult PTSD symptoms: Evidence from three independent longitudinal cohorts. Psychological Medicine.
Lubin, E.J., †Xie, A., †Chang, M.Y., & Kim, Y. (2026). A literature review of the role of paraprofessionals in delivering brief psychological interventions. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research. [Publication]
Dahiya, P., Johnson, C., AlRasheed, R., Gray C.L., Meza R., Whetten K., Okoth D.A., Nyaboke O.A., Dorsey S. (2026) Organization-level determinants for low secondary traumatic stress in lay counselors delivering trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy in Kenya. PLOS Global Public Health 6(5): e0006360.
Hagen, M.P., Provins, C., MacNicol, E. et al. Quality assessment and control of unprocessed anatomical, functional and diffusion MRI of the human brain using MRIQC. Nat Protoc (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41596-026-01352-y
Hones, V. I., Bottoms, M. C., Miles, J. T., & Mizumori, S. J. Y. (2026). The lateral habenula as a link between negative outcomes and adaptive strategy switching. Learning & Memory, 33(4).
Audet, D. J., Hunsaker, A. A., Butler, M. A., Sammeth, C. A., Podolski, A., Argo, T. F., Anderson, D. A., Greene, N. T., & Brown, A. D. (2026). Two-dimensional sound localization during hearing protector use: Human performance and acoustic prediction. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 159(4), 3130–3147.
https://pubs.aip.org/asa/jasa/article/159/4/3130/3386732/Two-dimensional-sound-localization-during-hearing
Johnson, C., Kiche, S., Mbwayo, A., Okoth, D.A., Nyaboke, O.A., Testorf, A., Dahiya, P., Dorsey, S. (2026). Impact of social risk factors on TF-CBT engagement and strategies to mitigate the impact: A qualitative analysis. PLOS Mental Health, 3(4), e0000499.
Malloy Spink, K., Seaver, S, Foster, K.T. (2026) Naturalistic trajectories of coping skill development from adolescence to adulthood: The role of parental support, gender, and subsequent links with psychopathology. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. Preprint: https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/b29ys_v3
Hussein, B., Sun, X., Molaib, K.M., Xu, T., Ram, N., Reeves, B., Robinson, T. “Smartphone use among adolescents during school hours: High-intensity objective observations across different instructional contexts.” Child Development, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1093/chidev/aacag079
Sun, X., Molaib, K., Ram, N., Reeves, B., Desai, M., and Robinson, T. (2026). “Objectively Measured Social Media Use and Weight Concerns and Dieting in Adolescents.” JAMA Pediatrics, 180(2), 212-214. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2025.4744
Park, E., Sun, X., Molaib, K.M., Ram, N., Reeves, B., and Robinson, T. (2026). “Longitudinal Associations Between Adolescents’ Smartphone Distraction Management During Family Time and Their Relationships with Parents.” Educational Psychology, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2026.2619052
Muñoz Lopez, D. E., Foster, K. T., & Magis-Weinberg, L. (2026). Digital stress and well-being among Peruvian adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Preregistered in the Open Science Framework, link to preregistration). 10.1016/j.chbr.2026.100997
Yoo, D., Muñoz Lopez, D. E., Hu, X. D., Yip, J. C., Davis, K. (2026). Generative AI and Creative Mediums for Youth’s Emotion Regulation: An Interview Study with Clinicians. In Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’26), April 13–17, 2026, Barcelona, Spain. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 18 pages.10.1145/3772318.3790909
Kahn, P. H., Jr., Sabine, S., Gray, C. E., Bratman, G. N., *Croitoru, C., & *Navidi, K. (2026). The Presence Scale: A measure of optimal conscious awareness and being without thought. Journal of Happiness Studies, 27(3), 47. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-026-01026-2
Sabine, S., Gray, C. E., Kahn, P. H., Jr., & Bratman, G. N. (2026). Presence Scale Technical Report: Iterative conceptualization, psychometrics, and validity evidence. [Technical Report] https://doi.org/10.6069/96vd-xp38
Wadell, J.T., Acuff, S.F., Schultz, M.E., & Lee, C.M. Acute effects of subjective alcohol effects and negative alcohol consequences on next-day positive alcohol expectancies. Addictive Behaviors, 175(),. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2026.108615
Kang, D., Watts, A.L., Boness, C.L., Schultz, M.E., Dora, J., Lee, C.M., & King, K.M. (2026). Daily life assessment of seven alcohol-use-disorder symptoms. Clinical Psychological Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/21677026261420146
Gray, B.A., Smith-LeCavalier, K. N., Ortiz Caso, I., Pilatti, A., Bravo, A.J., Shute, I., Prince, M.A.(2026). Identifying Themes of Protective Behavioral Strategies for Marijuana Use with Structural Topic Modeling. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors.
Wang, S. S., Blayney, J. A., Jaffe, A. E., Stappenbeck, C. A., George, W. H., & Davis, K. C. (2026). Childhood sexual abuse, adolescent-adult sexual assault, and revictimization: Do emotion regulation and mindfulness buffer associations with post-traumatic stress symptoms? Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 1–21.
Zhu, J., Boltz, T. A., Nuechterlein, K. H., et al. (2026). Investigating pathway-partitioned polygenic risk scores for schizophrenia: Insights into clinical variability in two patient cohorts. medRxiv.
Masters Degrees Awarded
Shivani Pandey, Winter 2026
Keith Jamison II, Spring 2026
Onyx Scheuer, Spring 2026
PhDs Awarded
Jovani Azpeitia (Social Psychology and Personality; Chair: Sapna Cheryan) Spring 2026
Approaches to Educational Equity: How Framings, Narratives, and Rhetoric Shape the Problem and Its Solutions