Graduate Student Recognition
AWARDS & FELLOWSHIPS
Alice Smaniotto Aizza (in Ariel Starr's lab) received a fellowship through the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program to support her research on young children’s executive function and language abilities, which began Autumn 2024.
Haylee Swiger, who is mentored by Tyler Jimenez, has been selected as an American Indian and Indigenous Studies Scholar for 2024-25. This entails participating and showcasing her research in a seminar, as well as funding for her research on the psychological effects of blood quantum laws.
Incoming students, Siying Zhang (mentored by Ariel Starr), Jinhan Zhu (mentored by Jennifer Forsyth) and Marth-Root Mbah (mentored by Sheri Mizumori) each received a competitive one quarter GSFEI Top Scholar recruitment award from the UW Graduate School
Incoming clinical graduate student, Jessica Meikle (mentored by Lili Lengua) received a Graduate School Equity & Excellence (GSEE) Diversity Fellowship for her first year of graduate study at the University of Washington.
Incoming clinical graduate student, Saivone Sanchious (mentored by Priscilla Lui) was awarded a Graduate School Equity & Excellence (GSEE) Graduate Excellence Award for 2024-25.
Daniela Seczon, mentored by Scott Murray, was awarded a predoctoral position on the Vision Training Grant (VTG) at UW for 2024-2025. This one-year award supports her vision science research, with training aimed at enhancing interdisciplinary communication, clinical application of vision science, and grant-writing skills essential for scientific independence.
The following incoming graduate students received a Summer 2025 quarter of funding through the Office of the Provost: Huanchen Cai (mentored by Clara Wilkins), Christine Chang (mentored by Priscilla Lui), Yuqing Lei (mentored by Angela Fang), Samuel Lucero (mentored by Mary Larimer), Xinquo Zhang (mentored by Amber Williams) and Tina Zhao (mentored by Andrea Stocco). Congratulations!
Lindsey Green, won a Diversity Professional Development Award from the American Psychological Association, Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology. Liliana Lengua is Lindsey’s faculty mentor.
Chelsea Mackey won the American Psychological Association Dissertation Award ($5000) for her dissertation project, "Hitting Close to Home: A Mixed Method Investigation of Neighborhood Characteristics and Drinking Motives on Alcohol-Related Health Disparities." Mary Larimer is Chelsea’s faculty mentor.
Kayne Mettert (a graduate student in Mary Larimer’s laboratory) received an F31 National Research Service Award from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIH)! This is a 3-year award that will support his research project "Implementation of BASICS: Matching Effective Strategies to Address Common Barriers". Knowledge generated by this research will inform future efforts to optimize integration of BASICS and similar programs, ultimately promoting better public health outcomes and improved student well-being at universities nationwide.
Todd Obilor, mentored by Lili Lengua, was awarded a Graduate School Equity & Excellence (GSEE) Graduate Supplemental Award for the 2024-2025 academic year. This competitive award is based on departmental nominations of students who demonstrate academic merit, financial need, and whose life experiences and/or graduate academic pursuits will contribute significantly to the intellectual and cultural enrichment of departmental programs. Todd also received a UW Medicine LEAH (Leadership Education in Adolescent Health) Fellowship for this current academic year 2024-2025. The UW LEAH program is one of nine interdisciplinary training programs funded by the Maternal Child Health Bureau (MCHB) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. UW LEAH is dedicated to training future leaders in adolescent health with the goal of reducing health disparities, as well as improving health equity and services delivery for adolescents.
Sashi Govier and Edgar Quiroz-Sanchez, two graduate students in the Master of Arts degree in Applied Child and Adolescent Psychology, were also awarded the Graduate Student Equity & Excellence (GSEE)’s Graduate Supplemental Award!
The Arc of Washington State Trust Fund awarded Shana Attar a 2024-2025 Fellowship. The ARC Trust Fund Board was highly impressed with her application revealing her staunch commitment to cross-cultural translational research on the emergence, identification, and early care of autism in culturally and linguistically diverse families. The award is for $5,000. The ARC Trust Fund provides funds for research into intellectual and other developmental disabilities as well as invests in providing stipend awards to graduate students in support of their commitment to providing services and advocacy for the I/DD community. Wendy Stone is Shana’s faculty mentor.
Several students completed the requirements for the Psychology Data Science Option in 2024 – Carol Lu, S. Bahar Sener, and Ishaan Ambrish (advised by Ariel Starr) and Jovani Azpeitia (advised by Sapna Cheryan).
Jovani Azpeita, won the Jenessa Shapiro Graduate Research Award from the Society of Personality and Social Psychology, which provides assistance to graduate students from an underrepresented background with the cost of conducting research in personality and/or social psychology. Sapna Cheryan is Jovani's faculty mentor.
PUBLICATIONS
Z Ferguson (member of the Kaiser Lab) recently published "Bearing witness to police brutality affects psychological and cardiovascular responses in Black Americans and White Americans" in Psychology of Violence, along with J.M. Gallegos T. Dover, K. Mclaughlin, and Cheryl Kaiser.
Chelsea Mackey and Victoria Szydlowski published a paper, "Discovering what young adults want in electronic interventions aimed at reducing alcohol-related consequences," in the journal of Alcohol Clinical and Experimental Research. Here is the link.
MJ Schneider co-authored (along with M. Kite and L. Wagner) a book chapter entitled “Sexual and gender identify prejudice” in 3rd Edition of In T. Nelson (Ed.) Handbook of Prejudice, Stereotyping, and Discrimination, and they also have a new first-authored publication “Simulation requires activation of self-knowledge to change self-concept” in the Journal of Experimental Psychology. MJ is advised by Cheryl Kaiser.
S. Bahar Sener and her faculty mentor, Ariel Starr, have published an article entitled "The Development of the Mental Timeline Is Related to Temporal Memory" in the Journal of Cognition and Development.
Rachel Song and Cynthia Levine published a paper, "Gentrification creates social class disparities in belonging," in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Here is the link.
MASTERS DEGREES AWARDED
Melissa Garcia: Autumn 2024
Cara Guthrie: Autumn 2024
Daniela Munoz Lopez: Autumn 2024
Todd Obilor II: Autumn 2024
PH.D’S AWARDED
Kimberly Bourne (Social Psychology and Personality; Chair: Cynthia Levine): Summer 2024
The effect of school climate on students' experiences: The value of diversity and inclusion in schools and what can be done to increase it
Mariah Corey (Adult Clinical; Chair: Jonathan Kanter): Summer 2024
Temporal Relations, and the Role of Coping Flexibility, in Black Adults Coping Responses to Ethnic-Racial Discrimination
Ella Lombard (Social Psychology and Personality, Chair: Sapna Cheryan): Summer 2024
Identity safety cues in context: Contemporary perspectives on gender, sexuality, and disability disparities
Lauren McClain (Adult Clinical; Chair: Mary Larimer): Summer 2024
Drinking to Cope, Negative Affect, and Affect Regulation: A daily diary study
Malayka Mottarella (Cognition and Perception; Chair: Chantel Prat): Autumn 2024
Alterations of Visual and Auditory Motion Processing in an Early Blind Sight Recovery Patient
Chao Qin (Cognition and Perception; Chair: Susan Joslyn): Summer 2024
Sources of bias in naturalistic decision making under risk
Katherine Seldin (Child Clinical; Chair: Kevin King): Summer 2024
Daily associations between sleep and urgency, and variation by risk for developing bipolar disorder
Noah Triplett (Child Clinical; Chair: Shannon Dorsey): Summer 2024
Applying human-centered design to maximize acceptability, feasibility, and usability of mobile phone supervision in Kenya: a mixed methods pilot study
Liying Wang (Adult Clinical; Chair: Lynn Katz): Summer 2024
An mHealth intervention to promote adaptive coping and medication adherence among HIV-positive Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM) in China