Graduate Accomplishments

Spring 2017

Our 46th Annual Psychology Reserach Festival was held at the Waterfront Activities Center (WAC) last May. After a day full of research talks and yummy snacks, the event closes out with an awards ceremony recognizing faculty and students who went above and beyond in their service to the department.

Libby Marks, Natalia Garcia, Lori Zoellner, Rosie Walker, & Pete Rosencrans		Sheri Mizumori & Nancy Kenney

The 2018 Davida Teller Distinguished Mentor Award went to Lori Zoellner (Adult Clinical), her current students gave a touching tribute to the ways in which she has been an exemplary advisor before presenting her with a certificate. 

Sheri J.Y. Mizumori (Behavioral Neuroscience) and Nancy J. Kenney (Social Psychology & Personality) each surprised each other with awards of service. Sheri most recently completed 9 years as the Psychology Department Chair, while Nancy completed 14 years as the Associate Chair of Graduate Training. 

Additional awards presented: The GPAC service award, an award for graduate students, from graduate students. This year Saethra Fritscher (Animal Behavior student with Mike Beecher) and James Kit Moreland (Cognition & Perception with Geoff Boynton) received the shared honor. Distinguished TA Awards went to Tanner DeLawyer (Behavioral Neuroscience with Steve Buck) and Annie Fast (Developmental with Kristina Olson). This year the Department Service Award went to our GPAC representatives, Annie Fast (Developmental with Kristina Olson) and Ashley Ruba (Developmental with Betty Repacholi) and our Diversity Steering Committee student co-chairs, Arianne Eason (Social Psychology & Personality and Developmental with Cheryl Kaiser and Jessica Sommerville), Sarah Edmunds (Child Clinical with Wendy Stone), and Frances Aunon (Adult Clinical with Jane Simoni). Our summer fellows also received certificates for the Alcor and Hunt fellowships; descriptions of their awards were in our previous newsletter.

Kit Moreland & Saethra Fritscher		Annie Fast & Ashley Ruba		Erika Ruberry, Paige Peterson, &  Rob Mohr		Prerna Martin, Adrian Andelin, & Rosie Walker

Spring quarter is also one of our busiest quarters for accomplishing milestones in our department.

We gained 5 new doctoral candidates: Liz Bird (Adult Clinical with William George), Charlotte Brill (Adult Clinical with William George), Lizzy Karp (Child Clinical with Wendy Stone), Erika Ruberry (Child Clinical with Liliana Lengua), and Linda Zou (Social Psychology & Personality with Sapna Cheryan).

Two students completed their masters': Julie Davis (Behaviorial Neuroscience with Sheri J.Y. Mizumori) and Brian Jackson (Behavioral Neuroscience with David Gire).

Three graduate students completed their PhDs: Sarah Faegre (Animal Behavior with Renee Ha), Valerie Tryon (Behaviorial Neuroscience with Sheri J.Y. Mizumori), and Emma Wampler (Cognition & Perception with Lee Osterhout).  

We closed out our academic year by holding our Psychology PhD Hooding Ceremony on Saturday, June 10, 2017. 

Summer 2017

Dominic Sivitilli (Behavioral Neuroscience with David Gire) spent the summer in Friday Harbor Laboratories in the San Juan Islands studying Enteroctopus dofleini, the giant Pacific octopus. Read about his experience here.  It's a fascinating piece which describes studying and playing with Gaia, giving insight on research process such as the structure of her temporary lab home and tracking her movements.

James Kit Moreland (Cognition & Perception with Geoff Boynton) received a NRSA funding for his research on divided attention. Check out his research spotlight.

Frances Aunon (Adult Clinical with Jane Simoni), A. Paige Peterson (Adult Clinical with Corey Fagan), and James Kit Moreland (Cognition & Perception with Geoff Boynton) passed their general exam and advanced to candidacy. While Joris Vincent (Cogntion & Perception with Steve Buck) and Frances Aunon (Adult Clinical with Jane Simoni) completed their master's degrees. While master's degrees are optional in our PhD program, many of our students will opt for them.

Finally, we said farewell to six of our students who completed their PhD degrees: Nicole Stettler (Child Clinical with Lynn Fainsilber Katz), Jennifer Staples (Adult Clinical with William George), Kristine Thimm-Louie (Child Clinical with Kevin King), Helen Valenstein-Mah (Adult Clinical with Mary Larimer), Joris Vincent (Cogntion & Perception with Steve Buck), and Joyce Yang (Adult Clinical with Jane Simoni).

Autumn 2017

Ezgi Yucel (Cognition & Perception with Ione Fine), received a WRF Innovation Graduate Fellowship in Neuroengineering, co-funded with the eScience Institute, from the UW Institute of Neuroengineering.

Annie Fast (Developmental with Kristina Olson) received a 2017 APF/COGDOP Graduate Research Scholarship. She has previously been awarded a Graduate School Dissertation Fellowship. Please see her research spotlight.

Prerna Martin (Child Clinical with Shannon Dorsey) has received an award from The Society for Implementation Research Collaboration for Outstanding Student Investigator. Previously, Prerna shared her summer research experience in New Delhi slums.

Hilary Lambert (Child Clinical with Kate McLaughlin) won a prestigious dissertation award from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.

Hutch News profiled Psychology doctoral student Vasundhara Sridharan (Social Psychology & Personality with Yuichi Shoda), in this Science Without Borders article.

Megan Ramaiya (Adult Clinical with Jane Simoni) works toward the development of culturally adapted suicide prevention interventions in Nepal.

Libby Marks (Adult Clinical with Lori Zoellner) recently had a first author publication in Psychological Bulletin, "Can't get it out of my mind: A systematic review of predictors of intrusive memories of distressing events."

Join us in congratulating our graduate students on making outstanding advancements in their education, research, and community impact!