Graduate Accomplishments
Spring 2014
The 43rd Annual Psychology Department Research Festival took place May 28, 2014 at the Waterfront Activities Center near Husky Stadium. At the Research Festival, first year non-clinical and second year clinical students present their research in a 15-minute conference-style presentation followed by 5 minutes of questions and discussion. The department also uses this annual gathering of all our faculty and students to present awards which recognize students for their outstanding contributions to the department in various categories. The following is a list of the 2014 award winners!
 |
| Photo: Danny O'Rourke and Sheri Mizumori |
Danny O'Rourke (Adult Clinical with Ronald Smith) received the Department Service Award for his years of service as the manager of Psychology Department Human Subject Pool. Danny is currently completing his clinical internship with the UW Behavioral Medicine-Neuropsychology program.
Department graduate students honored three of their own for their contributions to the well-being of the student body through leadership with the Graduate Student Service Awards. The recipients were Ashwin Bhandiwad (Animal Behavior with Joe Sisneros), Karen Pang (Child Clinical with Elizabeth McCauley (Seattle Children's Hospital) and Lynn Fainsilber Katz), and Kayla Upshaw (Developmental with Jessica Sommerville).
Our endowments provided 6 awards to support students and their research. The ALCOR and Hunt fellowships enable students make progress on their graduate work or dissertation preparation without being ties to the demands of a paid teaching or research appointment. The recipients of these fellowships for 2014 were listed in an article in our last issue of this newsletter.
The winner of the Davida Teller Distinguished Faculty award was Professor William George (Adult Clinical)! His lab provided many nomination letters and materials to support his record of mentoring graduate students. This award is highly coveted by department faculty because it is based solely on student input and deliberation.
 |
| Photo: The George Lab |
Congratulations to the research presenters and awards recipients at our Research Festival!
Other Significant Achievements by our Graduate Students in Spring 2014:
Connor McCabe (Child Clinical with Kevin King) is the most recent recipient of the Quantitative Minor. This comes as no surprise since Connor is one of our best and favored teaching assistants for statistics in our department! The Quant Minor is facilitated by Brian Flaherty and is available to all psychology graduate students. To date, 13 students have completed the Quantitative Minor.
Five students completed their general exams and advanced to candidacy for the Ph.D.: Haley Carroll (Adult Clinical with Mary Larimer), Meg Grounds (Cognition & Perception with Susan Joslyn), Bjorn Hubert-Wallander (Cognition & Perception with Geoff Boynton), Blake Pellman (Behavioral Neuroscience with Jeansok Kim) and Stephanie Thompson (Child Clinical with Liliana Lengua). When students complete their generals, they receive a pay raise and the opportunity to teach independently as a pre-doctoral lecturer.
The Psychology Department awarded Master of Science (MS) degrees to Colleen Harker (Child Clinical with Wendy Stone), Theresa Hennings (Developmental with Betty Repacholi), Anita Lungu (Adult Clinical with Marsha Linehan), Andy Paves (Adult Clinical with Mary Larimer), James Rae (Social Psychology & Personality with Kristina Olson and Cheryl Kaiser), and Helen Valenstein-Mah (Adult Clinical with Mary Larimer). Students who complete the optional masters are eligible to attend the campus-wide commencement ceremony in the spring.
Five students completed their PhDs in Spring quarter 2014. Student dissertation talks are open to the public and announcements of upcoming talks can be found on the Psychology Department's events calendar (located to the right of the main page). Spring Ph.D. recipients were: Robert Askew (Quantitative with Dagmar Amtmann (Rehabilitation Medicine) and Jane Simoni), Earnest Kim (Behavioral Neuroscience with Jeansok Kim), Jared LeClerc (Cognition & Perception with Susan Joslyn), Jolina Ruckert (Developmental with Peter Kahn, Jr.), and Adrienne Sussman (Animal Behavior with Jim and Renee Ha).
Our recent graduates are now holding positions at Oregon Health & Science University, Google, Northwestern, and Indian Institute of Technology.
At the end of Spring 2014 quarter, we honored all 2013-2014 Ph.D. graduates with a Hooding Ceremony in the newly renovated Husky Union Building. It was a sunny day, filled with many memories and smiles as family and friends supported their grads!
 |
| Photo: 2014 Hooding |
Summer 2014
Frank Schwebel (Adult Clinical with Ronald Smith) received a grant ($12,618) from the Alcohol & Drug Abuse Institute's small grants program.
Hollie Granato (Adult Clinical with William George) received a $1,000 grant from the Grant-in-Aid Program and The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI).
Four students completed their general exams and advanced to candidacy. Congratulations to Hollie Granato (Adult Clinical with William George), Sonya Mehta (Cognition & Perception with Tom Grabowski (Radiology & Neurology) and Geoff Boynton), Lyndsey Moran (Child Clinical with Liliana Lengua), and Jessie Thomas (Cognition & Perception with Ione Fine)!
We had three Master's recipients: Teri Kirby (Social Psychology & Personality with Tony Greenwald and Cheryl Kaiser), Melissa Reilly (Behavioral Neuroscience with Jeansok Kim), and Chelsey Wilks (Adult Clinical with Marsha Linehan).
Eleven new PhDs were awarded in summer, whew! Congratulations to: Marissa Corona (Child Clinical with Ana Mari Cauce), Rick Cruz (Child Clinical with Kevin King and Ana Mari Cauce), Sharon Hsu (Adult Clinical with Mary Larimer), Yong Sang Jo (Behavioral Neuroscience with Sheri Mizumori), Robyn Laing (Behavioral Neuroscience with Jaime Olavarria), Ashley Maliken (Child Clinical with Lynn Fainsilber Katz), Kimberly Nelson(Adult Clinical with Jane Simoni), Hong Nguyen (Adult Clinical with William George), Martin Ryan (Social Psychology & Personality with Yuichi Shoda), Cory Secrist (Adult Clinical with Marsha Linehan), and Melana Yanos (Behavioral Neuroscience with Matt Kaeberlein(Pathology) and Sheri Mizumori).
Our recent grads can be found at UW Biostructures, UW Rehabilitation Medicine, Seattle Children's Hospital, Stanford University, Utah State University, San Francisco Veterans Affairs, and Brown University.
Autumn 2014
Sarah Faegre (Animal Behavior with Renee Ha), was mentioned in an article, in the Saipan Tribune, about her work on Mariana crows and their release from Rota. Sarah is also a National Science Foundation fellowship recipient.
Congratulations to Haley Carroll (Adult Clinical with Mary Larimer), who was recently selected as a 2014 Society for Psychological Research, Research & Training Fellowship award recipient.
Congratulations to Jessica Chen (Adult Clinical with Ronald Smith) who recently received a 2014-15 Stroum Dissertation Fellowship from the Graduate Opportunities and Minority Achievement Program (GO-MAP). The fellowship provides stipend, health insurance, and tuition support for two quarters while Jessica completes her dissertation. Look for her research feature in our Summer 2015 newsletter!
Anita Lungu (Adult Clinical with Marsha Linehan) is the recipient of the 2014 American Psychological Association Dissertation Research Award! Anita was featured for her NRSA-supported research last summer.
More Autumn quarter milestones will be covered in our Summer 2015 issue. Please stay tuned!