Letter from the Chair

Dear Friends,

As we settle into the winter season, I am pleased to share with you the UW Psychology Winter 2026 Newsletter and a snapshot of the energy, achievement, and community that continue to define our department. Winter is a natural time for reflection, but it is also a moment when the momentum generated by our students, staff, faculty, alumni, and friends comes clearly into focus.

One of the great joys of the year is welcoming a new cohort of graduate students. This autumn, 10 outstanding scholars joined our UW Psychology Department, bringing with them a remarkable breadth of interests spanning developmental science, clinical science, cognition and perception, and social psychology and personality. In our newsletter, you will meet several of these students and learn about their work on topics such as youth coping and emotional regulation; trauma-related cognition and resilience; early neural development and long-term cognitive trajectories; childhood adversity and future-oriented goal pursuit; and the influence of emerging technologies, including AI companions, on adolescent development. Their curiosity, commitment, and creativity strengthen our intellectual community, and we are delighted to support them as they begin their PhD journeys.

A central theme of this issue is our ongoing investment in training that is both rigorous and responsive to the world our graduates will serve. Through the work of our Diversity Steering Committee, we continue to offer the Diversity Science Specialization (DSS), first introduced in 2008. The DSS provides structured opportunities for graduate students to deepen their understanding of how diverse lived experiences, and the systems that shape them, inform psychological science and practice. In this newsletter, you’ll hear from recent DSS recipients about how the specialization broadened their interdisciplinary training and helped them bring new perspectives into their research and clinical work.

We also celebrate an impressive set of graduate student accomplishments. This year’s awards and fellowships reflect the remarkable caliber of our trainees, ranging from NSF Graduate Research Fellowship support for research on early-life adversity and children’s future perceptions, to Graduate School and Provost-supported recruitment awards for incoming students, to dissertation and heritage awards recognizing scholarly excellence and impact. We also highlight students who earned milestones in specialized training pathways (including the Psychology Data Science Option and quantitative training), as well as students whose work is reaching broad audiences through publications across diverse areas of psychological science.

In addition, we recognize the important degree milestones achieved by our students this past year, including multiple master’s degrees awarded and a strong group of newly completed PhDs across our graduate areas. These dissertations reflect the breadth of UW Psychology, from clinical science and global mental health, to cognition and perception, to social psychology and personality, and they represent years of sustained scholarship and mentorship.

Our undergraduate community also has much to celebrate. This fall, we named four Aric Chandler Memorial Scholars, an award made possible through the generosity of the Chandler family, friends, and other donors. The Chandler Scholarship supports transfer students committed to child and adolescent psychology and honors Aric Chandler’s legacy and passion for improving young people’s lives. The recipients’ stories reflect perseverance, purpose, and a shared commitment to expanding access to compassionate, culturally responsive mental health support.

Looking ahead, I hope you will join us for a special spring highlight: our 2026 Distinguished Alumni Lecture, featuring Dr. Cynthia Berg on March 18, 2026. Dr. Berg, a UW Psychology alumna and accomplished scholar and academic leader, will share her pioneering work on how children and adolescents manage the stress of chronic illness, and how supportive family relationships can strengthen resilience.

Finally, I want to express sincere gratitude for your continued support of UW Psychology. Your engagement, whether through mentorship, participation in events, or philanthropic investment, directly advances the education and research that define our mission. I hope you’ll consider making a gift to the Friends of Psychology fund to help us sustain our momentum and continue supporting students at every level.

Thank you for being part of our community. I hope you enjoy this winter edition, and I wish you and your loved ones a healthy, restful, and inspiring season.

Warm regards,

Joe Sisneros
Chair, Department of Psychology
University of Washington

Psychology Names Four Chandler Scholars

Welcoming A New Graduate Student Cohort

Q&A With New Psychological Services and Training Center Director Melissa Durland

2026 Psychology Department Distinguished Alum Lecturer: Dr. Cynthia Berg

In Memoriam: Irwin Sarason

In Memoriam: Mia Hamant