Welcoming New Faculty Members
We are thrilled to introduce you to our new faculty members in autumn 2021: Drs. Jennifer Forsyth, Milla Titova, Tyler Jimenez, and Vibh Forsythe Cox; Clara Wilkins and Lucía Magis-Weinberg will join in winter quarter. Our new additions bring cutting edge research and innovative courses and teaching methods that will advance our department’s mission.
Clara Wilkins, Associate Professor and Earl R. Carlson Professor, Social and Personality Program
Clara Wilkins is a social psychological scientist whose research examines prejudice, stereotyping, and the self. Her research explores how social change affects high-status groups’ perceptions of victimization. She also examines how variation in racial and ethnic minorities’ physical appearance shapes stereotyping and identification. The overall goal of her scholarship is to understand social inequities and how to minimize their negative effects on individuals, groups and society.
Dr. Wilkins earned her PhD and MS from the University of Washington and her BA with honors from Stanford University. She was previously a tenured faculty member at Wesleyan University and Washington University in St Louis. She is a fellow of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology and has received funding from the National Science Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Templeton Foundation. Her work has been featured in several major media outlets including the New York Times and National Public Radio. She also serves on numerous editorial boards including the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, and Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology. Dr. Wilkins will join the psychology department in winter quarter 2022.
Jennifer Forsyth, Assistant Professor, Clinical Program
Dr. Jennifer Forsyth is a clinical psychological scientist whose research concerns the genetic, neurobiological, and environmental mechanisms underlying schizophrenia and related disorders. Ultimately, Dr. Forsyth aspires to improve our ability to predict the future development of psychosis, and develop better targeted interventions to alter disease trajectory. Her research has been well funded by APA, the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology, the National Science Foundation, the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation/NARSAD, and the National Institute of Mental Health.
Dr. Forsyth earned her BA in psychology with a minor in global development studies from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and her PhD in clinical psychology and a minor in neuroscience from UCLA. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at UCLA, focused on functional genomic methods for characterizing the effects of genetic risk variants for schizophrenia and related disorders on the brain. Dr. Forsyth joined UW's psychology department in autumn 2021.
Lucía Magis-Weinberg, Assistant Professor, Developmental Program
Dr. Lucía Magis Weinberg is a cross-cultural developmental psychological scientist whose work investigates the transition to adolescence, with a focus on neuroscience, technology usage, and well-being. Her main interest as an interdisciplinary developmental scientist, with training in medicine, experimental psychology, and cognitive neuroscience, is to advance our understanding of early adolescent development. Her most recent project is a significantly cultural and developmental grounded school intervention in Peru and Mexico which explores growing up in the digital world. She is also the Executive Editor and co-founder of Neuroméxico, a leading Latin-American science outreach website.
Originally trained as a medical doctor at the National Autonomous University of México, Dr. Weinberg then completed her MSc and PhD with a focus in developmental cognitive neuroscience at University College London. After, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Weinberg’s scholarship was funded by the Bezos Family Foundation, Jacobs Foundation, and National Council for Science and Technology. Dr. Weinberg will join the psychology department in winter quarter 2022.
Milla Titova, Assistant Teaching Professor, Psychology
Dr. Milla Titova is an assistant teaching professor in the psychology department and directs the Happiness and Well-Being Lab. Her research concentrates on positive psychology, happiness and well-being, specifically, how cultural and personality differences affect people’s well-being levels, and the experience of happiness and positive emotions. She also investigates how people’s relationships with the places and spaces that they occupy connect to happiness and well-being. Her published articles discuss topics such as the effects of gratitude and optimism and attributional assessments of happiness and unhappiness.
Dr. Titova earned a BA in psychology from Hiram College and a PhD in social/personality psychology from the University of Missouri. Dr. Titova joined UW's psychology department in autumn 2021 and will be teaching Social Psychology, Personality, and Cultural Psychology, among other courses.
Tyler Jimenez, Assistant Professor, Social and Personality Program
Dr. Tyler Jimenez’s is a social psychological scientist whose research integrates individual and population-level data to address social inequality and injustice - focusing particularly on health and policing. By examining individual- and population-level phenomena, often with real-world data, Dr. Jimenez’s work identifies causal factors, provides high-powered conceptual replications, and informs how lab findings manifest in realworld settings, contributing to a holistic understanding of racism necessary for achieving racial justice. His work also examines fatalistic health beliefs, attitudes toward equitable health policies, and cultural revitalization programs. As a member of Nambé Pueblo, Jimenez seeks to improve indigenous health and well-being through research, teaching, and community action.
Dr. Jimenez earned his BA in psychology from Fort Lewis College and PhD in social and personality psychology from the University of Missouri. Dr. Jimenez also served as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Research Scholar. Dr. Jimenez joined UW’s psychology department in autumn 2021 and will expand the undergraduate curriculum with a new course in Native American psychology.
Vibh Forsythe Cox, Clinical Associate Professor, Clinical Program and Director of the Marsha M. Linehan Dialectical Behavior Therapy Clinic
Dr. Vibh Forsythe Cox is the clinical director of the Marsha M. Linehan Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Clinic at the University of Washington, where she sees clients and teaches and supervises psychology graduate students learning the foundations of DBT. Dr. Forsythe Cox is a trainer and consultant for Behavioral Tech, LLC (BTECH) the training company founded by Dr. Linehan, Professor Emeritus of Psychology.
Dr. Forsythe Cox is a licensed clinical psychologist who earned a BA in psychology from the University of Kentucky and PhD in clinical psychology at The Ohio State University. She is a DBT-Linehan Certified Clinician, and a board member of the International Society for Improvement and Teaching of DBT. Forsythe Cox joined the UW's psychology department in autumn 2021.