Psychology BULLetin
Newsletter of the Department of Psychology
August 2016
IN THIS ISSUE:
New Faculty
Student Award Winners
and more
INSIDE
3 Psychology Goes Global
4 Meet our Newest Faculty
6 Comings, Goings, Transitions
7 Alumni Spotlight
8 Student Awards
10 Diversity Workshop + EXPO
11 Opportunities for Undergraduates
12 Psychological Services Center
13 Honors and Awards
HELLO FROM THE CHAIR
Dear Alumni and Friends,
Welcome to the latest edition of the USF Department of Psychology Newsletter. I am pleased to
share much good news with you.
We continue to add excellent faculty and staff members to our department. Dr. Michael Braun joined
the Industrial Organizational Psychology Area in August, 2015. Dr. Liz Schotter will join the
Cognitive, Neuroscience, and Social Psychology Area in August, 2016. You can see more about their
backgrounds and research topics in this issue. Jen Briggs joined our department as the new Office
Manager in June. She replaced Michelle Kinzie, who left us to be the Associate Director at the USF
Department of Mental Health Law & Policy.
Dr. Marcie Finkelstein retired in April, 2016, after 35 years of distinguished service to the
Department and to the University. Two faculty have received notable promotions: Dr. Marina
Bornovalova was tenured and promoted to Associate Professor. Dr. Jennifer Bosson was
promoted to the rank of Full Professor.
Another positive and important change: the Department of Psychology has moved from the School of
Social Sciences (SSS) to the School of the Natural Sciences and Mathematics (SNSM), effective
January 2016. The SNSM includes other science departments – Integrative Biology, Cell Biology,
Microbiology, and Molecular Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Geosciences, and Mathematics and
Statistics. With this move, we expect that our faculty and students can more readily participate in
activities in the research clusters in STEM education. Furthermore, as a “hub” discipline, we believe
that the Department of Psychology will play a key role for the development of new collaborations by
connecting researchers, educators, and students in SNSM.
Finally, the Department is planning to significantly expand community internship opportunities for
undergraduates in the near future. We already have a Community Practicum in Mental Health
internship course. In addition, we will soon offer a more flexible Community Internship credit option,
whereby more students can work at pre-approved internship sites or they can seek out their own
internship sites and then register for variable amounts of credit depending on their desired work
schedule. We expect that such internships can include experiences in any topic that is relevant to
psychology, such as mental health, substance abuse, behavioral health, legal issues, forensic
psychology, human resources, animal behavior, applied behavior analysis, test development, and
many more.
Thanks to your support and friendship, we'll be able to go into the new academic year 2016-2017
with continued strength to build on all of our accomplishments. Thank you!
Best,
Toru Shimizu, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair
We hope you enjoy
reading this issue of
Psychology BULLetin.
For the most current
happenings in the
Psychology
Department, please visit
our website
at psychology.usf.edu.
PSYCHOLOGY GOES GLOBAL
VISITING SCHOLARS
Psychology’s world-class researchers have recently attracted Mary Bambacas
from Australia and Shani Pindek from Israel (Spector lab), Pablo Escribano from
Spain (Allen lab), Leandro Sauer from Brazil and Ying Deng from China
(Donchin lab), Arzu and Savas Ceylan from Turkey (C. Nelson lab), Jiawen Xi
from China (Sanocki lab), and David Melcher from Italy (Dubé lab)
STUDY ABROAD
For the last two summers,
Edelyn Verona taught The
Psychology of Crime in London.
She incorporated field trips to
psychiatric hospitals, courts of justice,
London Bridge, and sites related
to Jack the Ripper with readings and
classroom work.
DOCTORAL STUDENTS
Recent doctoral students have
come to the department from
China, Turkey, South Korea, Israel,
Singapore, Trinidad & Tobago,
Bulgaria, Canada, and Pakistan.
CROSS-CULTURAL SCHOLARSHIP
Many faculty have worked with scholars around the world. For example, Joe Vandello collaborated
with a team from the University of Gdansk, Poland, to explore manhood and attitudes about traditional
family roles in a Polish cultural context, extending some of his lab’s findings from the US. Vandello and
Jennifer Bosson are also part of an ongoing working group in Vancouver that is developing work-family
projects. Bosson, scholars in Kent, England, as well as Kevin Thompson, Diana Rancourt, and their
students, are conducting research on predictors of eating disorder pathology. I-O doctoral student
Rachel Jang is doing a 26-country study of life satisfaction differences, and whether we can trust
findings that suggest people in some countries are more satisfied with their lives than others. Tammy
Allen is working with colleagues in Germany and Canada on a cross-national comparative study of
work-family balance that will involve additional collaborators from across the globe. She is also working
with a group of colleagues from different universities in Australia on a program of research to examine
the role of managers in helping employees balance work and family.
Logo courtesy of USF World, which provides invaluable resources to members of the USF community who are engaged internationally.
MEET OUR NEWEST FACULTY
Mike Braun joined the department as an Assistant Professor in the Industrial-Organizational Psychology program
in 2015. Mike is most interested in how to help teams function more effectively in terms of decision making. He
explores both “action teams” (those that are doing something, such as NASA astronauts and military squads) and
“decision making teams” (those that support the former type, such as analysts, scientific researchers, and boardroom
managers). Mike investigates the processes and states that change as teams develop, including their cohesion and
sharing of information and expertise. At the individual level, he investigates teamwork skills, including conflict
resolution, ability to explain, and collaboration. Ultimately, results will help him understand bottlenecks in teamwork
so that he can help improve the flow of information among group members. Although some of Mike’s research is
conducted in the field (e.g., earlier work on scientific teams collecting meteorites in Antarctica), much of it is
conducted with students. For example, he tracks the dynamics of students working on class projects and how their
group processes unfold over time. All these substantive interests connect to Mike’s methodological research where
his intent is to improve methods and statistics used to study teams over time. He is attempting to adapt and amend
econometric, time-series approaches as well as longitudinal, social network approaches in order to be able to draw
inferences about within-person (as contrasted with between-person) change. A native of Chicago, Mike enjoys
outdoor activities such as biking, running, golf, hiking, and walking his dog.
We welcomed Diana Rancourt, a clinical psychologist, to the faculty in 2014. The big issue that intrigues Diana
are how psychosocial factors contribute to disordered eating behaviors. More specifically, she wants to understand
the role peers play in weight gain and weight loss by adolescents and young adults. Peers, she believes, can
provide social support, influence others by means of body-related discussions and behaviors, and serve as sources
of social comparison. Understanding these processes in young people is interesting to Diana because this is a
developmental period when peers are especially important and psychosocial factors are quite complex. In work
with undergraduates, she is exploring how “intersexual competition” (competition with others for romantic partners)
relates to body image and how that relationship might vary by gender. Diana is also conducting more applied work.
She is partnering with the Bariatric Surgery group at Tampa General Hospital to study psychosocial factors that
predict weight-related outcomes for bariatric surgery patients. With researchers at USF’s Diabetes Center, she is
working to understand psychosocial factors that may increase risk of disordered eating among young people with
Type I diabetes, a group particularly vulnerable to negative medical complications of these behaviors. A native of
northern California, Diana enjoys hiking with her husband and dog, visiting the mountains of North Carolina, and
exploring local eateries.
Clinical psychologist and Assistant Professor Rob
Schlauch also came in August of 2014. He is particularly
interested in understanding the ways that people change
problematic drinking behavior. A big question for Rob is
why one treatment approach works for one person but
another works for someone else. He asks, for example,
what personality characteristics differentiate these people
and how the social relationship between client and
therapist (the “therapeutic alliance”) plays a role. Another
question relates to the roles of self-initiated change vs.
treatment in the reduction and elimination of problem
drinking. His research explores other processes of change
such as craving, too. The research requires community
samples of problem drinkers, whom he finds through
newspaper ads. These participants are diverse ethnically
and economically. Both graduate and undergraduate
students assist with Rob’s program of research, which is
funded in part by a 5-year Mentored Patient-Oriented
Research Career Development Award (K23) from the
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. A
native of Long Island (and thus a huge Rangers fan), Rob
enjoys playing golf, watching movies (his favorites include
A few good men and The hustler), and listening to
everything from rap to show tunes, ideally on vinyl.
Liz Schotter is the newest Assistant Professor in the
Cognition, Neuroscience, and Social program, coming on
board in August 2016. Her research focuses on the
coordination of visual perception and cognitive processing
when people read, speak or make decisions. For example,
she studies the processing components underlying reading
(e.g., visual perception, word identification, comprehension,
eye movement control) and how they change
• under different situations (e.g., reading silently vs. aloud,
proofreading, speed reading)
• in response to language (e.g., words that are more vs. less
common, expected, confusable, plausible)
• and for different readers (e.g., children vs. adults, in
different languages, for bilinguals).
Liz’s work primarily uses eye-tracking. In her spare time, she
enjoys camping/hiking, the beach/ocean, brewing beer, and
cooking with her husband Ross. Liz is a native of Brooklyn,
NY, did a brief stint in St. Louis, MO, for college, and has
spent the last 9 years in San Diego, CA.
COMINGS, GOINGS, AND OTHER TRANSITIONS
Professor Marcie Finkelstein retired in Spring 2016 after nearly 35 years on the faculty. Marcie’s
initial research concerned basic processes of color vision. Her more recent work focused
on volunteerism.
Emeritus Professor Paschal “Pat” Nielson Strong XIII died February 20, 2015.
Jennifer Briggs joined the department as Office Manager, replacing Michelle Kinzie who moved to the
Department of Mental Health, Law, and Policy.
Jane Noll was promoted to Instructor III, Marina Bornovalova was promoted to Associate Professor
with tenure, and Joe Vandello and Jennifer Bosson were promoted to Professor.
Tammy Allen became Area Director for the Industrial-Organizational doctoral program, following Paul
Spector’s 15-year tenure. Joe Vandello became Area Director for the Cognition,
Neuroscience, and Social Psychology doctoral program, replacing Judy Bryant who
had served in that role since 2004.
After many years of affiliation with our clinical program, Paul Jacobsen is leaving the Moffitt Cancer
Center and Research Institute to assume a position at the National Cancer Institute in
Rockville, MD.
Jen Briggs
Pat Strong 1988
Marcie Finkelstein c. 1981
Marcie Finkelstein 2016
Melanie Polkosky
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
Melanie Hall
Melanie Hall received her BA in Psychology with
honors from USF in 1985. She went on to get her
MA from USF in Guidance and Counseling in 1988.
For over 25 years, Melanie has worked to better the lives of
children and families in the Tampa Bay area. She began her
career at Moffitt Cancer Center as a Child Life Specialist
helping pediatric patients and their families. For many years
at St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital, she developed programs
and advocated for services at the local and state levels.
Most recently, Melanie serves as Executive Director for the
Family Healthcare Foundation which aims to improve
medical coverage for children in the Tampa Bay area.
In recognition of all her accomplishments, Melanie received
the 2015 Distinguished Undergraduate Psychology Alumni
Award.
Jennifer
Bosson
gives
Melanie
her award
USF is a family affair for Melanie: her husband Alan
Anderson (a star soccer player at USF) and son Derek
Anderson are also alumni.
[The 2016 Alumni Award recipient, retired social worker
Ann Grazier (BA 1964), was profiled in the last
newsletter.]
Melanie Polkosky received her doctorate in Cognitive and
Neural Sciences from USF in 2005. Since then, she’s been an
R&D technology designer, user experience consultant,
teacher, entrepreneur, writer, trainer and corporate/executive
coach, and worked on international philanthropic projects.
She’s had 2 children and survived breast cancer. She’s also
self-published a book called Uncovering Truffles: The
Scarcity and Value of Women in STEM.
Melanie returned to USF in the fall of 2015 to speak to the
department and to students at USF’s Office for
Undergraduate Research about her experiences and in
August to address the USF STEM Academy.
Five key aspects of my USF experience that have helped me in my
career:
1. Teaching: Being a TA was great preparation for being a consultant not only did it help me think on my feet better (answering questions from
students is good training ground for getting grilled by clients!) but it got
me really comfortable talking about a lot of different psychological topics.
Since I developed and taught my own course at USF (Introduction to
Human Factors Psychology), I’m now very comfortable putting together
client workshops and trainings, which I’ve done in several different roles.
In my current role, I teach working professionals looking to get certified in
User Experience (I teach courses called User Experience Foundations,
Practical Usability Testing and Institutionalization of User Experience for
Human Factors International). I think teaching experience directly
translates to a variety of other speaking, such as conference
presentations, and more recently I’ve been doing more speaking on
personal development topics.
2. Statistics and methods: I came to USF having never had a stats
course before and I learned that I loved using statistics to support my
intuition and take strong(er) positions. Statistics skills have been
extremely helpful in differentiating me in the human factors field. I’ve
created a variety of perceptual measures of usability, one of which was
my dissertation, and it became the framework of my entire approach to
consulting and user interface design in speech technology. I’m known for
having a very quantitative approach to usability testing, which has helped
me win any number of large client deals - I could talk numbers and
specifics, which my clients recognize as an asset (after all, who doesn’t
want to quantify their business outcomes?). I call stats my superpower
because I love showing client, skeptics and colleagues how we can
quantify things that they consider unmeasurable. At its core, I apply a
common methodology, regardless of the type of project, technology or
industry - and knowing the importance of consistent, rigorous methods is
part of the foundation I gained at USF.
3. Writing: I love writing and came to USF having been an undergraduate
English major. Writing is another superpower for me - because I chose a
career field where there are not many high quality writers, I’ve had the
opportunity to publish not only the type of academic work we normally
associate with psychology (journal article, book chapter), but also write
several grants, a column and articles for an industry magazine, white
papers, marketing copy, technical documentation for software, and finally
write my own book. USF gave me the opportunity to hone my skills in
academic forms of writing, which I’ve been able to expand into a variety
of different roles.
4. The breadth of psychology: The reason I love psychology is that it
impacts everything - everything eventually comes down to people. Being
a psychologist has made me extremely flexible in how I use my
knowledge - I can (and have) done teaching, consulting, R&D, business
strategy and now I’m moving more toward organizational development,
executive coaching and strategic consulting. Psychology really supports
my broad and ever-evolving interests, so I can follow my curiosity
wherever it leads me.
Melanie in 2005 and 2016
5. Independence of thought: USF also taught me how to be an
independent thinker - how to go into a new area, ask what don’t I know,
and use my knowledge of behavior and methods to quickly put together
an approach. I look at every project like a problem to be solved, so I think
in terms of what’s missing and what existing knowledge can be applied
here.
Stephen and Phillip Deibler Memorial Scholarship Award - awarded to a graduating senior
Psychology major at USF who plans to pursue graduate study in Clinical or Counseling Psychology or
to a first year graduate student in Clinical Psychology at USF
2015: Bethany Edwards, clinical student, is working on a master's thesis examining
prevalence and psychological correlates of varying forms of sex work in college
students.
2016: Juan Zapata, BA with honors 2016, is starting the clinical Ph.D. program at
Marquette University.
PAR Scholarship for Excellence in Psychology - awarded to an exceptional Psychology major at
USF who anticipates graduating in the spring or summer of the following year and plans to pursue
graduate work in Psychology
2015: Christina Barnette is starting our doctoral program
in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, having completed the
department’s honors program.
2016: Yasja Hemmings is a senior actively involved in
several research labs and working as a student assistant in
USF's payroll office. She is considering
graduate study in Student Affairs or
Industrial-Organizational Psychology.
Walvoord Verizon Wireless Work-Family Research Endowment in Honor of Dr. Tammy D. Allen
Award – award facilitates work-family research and encourages high-quality, peer-reviewed
publications
2016: Kimberly French is developing her dissertation on within-person changes in
episodic work-family conflict and health.
DEPARTMENTAL AWARDS TO STUDENTS
To donate to these funds or other funds that support the research and travel of students in Psychology, go to
http://psychology.usf.edu/donate.aspx or search for a fund at http://giving.usf.edu .
Eve Levine Graduate Teaching Award - awarded to an outstanding graduate student instructor in
the Psychology Department who has been the primary instructor in at least two courses
2015: Morgan Lee, an alumna of the clinical program, is an Assistant
Professor in the Department of Health Sciences, University of Colorado Springs
& Brittany Jordan-Arthur recently proposed her dissertation, “The role of fathers in behavioral
parent training: An exploration of parent-related factors in parent and child treatment outcomes.”
2016: Erica Coates is completing her dissertation on the influence of noncustodial African
American fathers on adolescent outcomes and is the Child Outpatient Intern at the VA Maryland
Health Care System/University of Maryland Baltimore Psychology Internship Consortium.
Stephanie and Adele Gilbert Award for Research on Women - award given to a graduate student
who completes a thesis or doctoral dissertation relevant to women's issues
2015: Heather McGinty is now an Assistant Professor-Clinical at The Ohio State University in a
combined clinical and research position in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral
Health within the Wexner Medical Center and James Comprehensive Cancer Center and
Solove Research Institute.
2016: Renee Brown Hangartner, a doctoral student in clinical, is investigating
the cognitions and emotional reactions that occur in the moment of
experiencing behaviors that could be construed as sexual harassment
Richard LaBarba Memorial Scholarship Award - award given to a person who completes a
research project in Developmental Psychology or Developmental Psychopathology and who (as lead
author) submits the manuscript from this work for publication in a national scholarly journal
2015: Robert Selles, ‘16 clinical PhD, completed an internship in Child Clinical
Psychology at Brown University and a dissertation in which he developed a
measure related to treatment worries in anxious youth and their parents. He is
starting a post-doctoral research fellowship at British Columbia’s Children’s
Hospital OCD Program and was awarded the “Scholars of Excellence” Fellowship
which provides up to five years of research funding.
2016: Alex De Nadai, who will complete his degree next summer, is conducting his
dissertation on common therapy factors in pediatric psychiatry. He is clearly having some
culinary adventures while on his clinical internship at the Mississippi Psychology Internship
Training Program.
To donate to these funds or other funds that support the research and travel of students in Psychology, go to
http://psychology.usf.edu/donate.aspx or search for a fund at http://giving.usf.edu .
Department Hosts Workshop for Diverse, Underrepresented Students
The department’s Graduate Student
Diversity Committee received an APA
Commission on Ethnic Minority Recruitment,
Retention and Training grant to hold a 2-day
workshop at USF for 1st and 2nd generation
immigrant and linguistic minority
undergraduate students residing in the state
of Florida. The June 2016 workshop was
designed to increase knowledge among these
underrepresented students about job
opportunities in psychology and about
applying for graduate school.
The event connected students to mentors and
resources in psychology and related
disciplines through panels, discussions, tours,
role-play exercises, and social events. About
30 students from across the state of Florida
participated.
2016
Psychology EXPO
Over 300 people attended
this third annual event.
Guests learned about the
cutting-edge research being
conducted by students and
faculty in the department,
toured research labs and the
clinic, and discussed careers
and graduate school with
USF psychology alumni,
graduate students, faculty,
advisors, and other
professionals.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS
Jessica
Online courses
Responding to increasing interest in online courses, Psychology has recently added a
number of such classes to their offerings for undergraduates. They include Introductory
Psychology, Personality, Motivation, Cognition, and Perception. Notably, two of our
doctoral students, Jessica Hoffman and Alaina Talboy, completed extensive training
and created online versions of Drugs and Behavior and Psychological Statistics,
respectively.
New and improved courses
Alaina
Honors Program Directors Jennifer Bosson and Jamie Goldenberg secured approval
for the honors program to meet university requirements necessary for graduation.
Specifically, the seminar will fulfill a capstone requirement and the thesis will fulfill a
requirement for a writing intensive course.
The product of a lot of hard work, Vicky Phares’ Community Practicum in Mental
Health debuted in spring 2016. This service learning course enabled students to intern
with mental health facilities, social service agencies, and prevention programs serving a
range of age groups.
Advising workshops
The department’s team of undergraduate advisors
has developed a series of workshops on topics that
include careers, preparing for graduate school, and
using LinkedIn and other resources to secure jobs.
Opportunities for research
In addition to those participating in the
department’s Honors Program, hundreds of
students a year conduct research for
academic credit and as volunteers.
PSYCHOLOGICAL SERVICES CENTER
The Psychological Services Center supports the training of students in our Clinical
Psychology graduate program consistent with the clinical science model. Clinical
students provide assessment and therapy services to students from around the
Tampa Bay area (e.g., USF, HCC and Pasco-Hernando State College) as well as
community residents from Hillsborough and surrounding counties. We receive
referrals form a wide range of sources.
Services provided include psychoeducational assessment of learning disabilities and
attention deficit issues aimed at documenting the need for academic
accommodations, neuropsychological assessment of a range of conditions, and
group and individual psychotherapy. Specific therapy services include group and
individual Dialectical-Behavior Therapy and individual treatments focused on Health
Psychology (e.g., body image and eating disorders), Substance Abuse, Concerns of
Veterans and their Families, PTSD, Behavioral Parent Training, Child/Adolescent/
Family therapy, and general adult psychotherapy. The Psychological Services Center
currently has an agreement with the USF Athletics Department to provide
psychoeducational screening and assessment of USF athletes and a contract with
PHSC to provide psychoeducational assessment services.
Our focus on our veterans and their families continues as does our collaboration with
Marc Karver’s group on the Campus Suicide Prevention Project with at-risk groups
on campus. The “Working with Veterans and Their Families” seminar remains popular
with those interested in working with our veterans and their dependents and many of
our students continue to train with our great colleagues at the James A. Haley VAMC.
Given our program’s dedication to a clinical scientist model – to the intertwining of
science and research with clinical application, the use of evidence-based practices
and the need to evaluate the outcomes of our work – the clinic also serves as a
venue for research. Grant projects are often run through the clinic. For example,
Rob Schlauch is currently running his grant-funded research project on Brief
Motivational Interviewing in the clinic. We also use the data collected from our clients
in treatment to describe our clientele, evaluate our services, and examine correlates
of clinical outcomes.
Clinic assistant John Correa
Clinic director Jack Darkes
Clinic director
Jack Darkes
leads a supervision
session
SELECTED 2015-2016 HONORS AND AWARDS
Department Honors graduate Amanda Kerstman won
the 2016 Best Use of the Research Literature Award
from the USF Library. Amanda received the award for
her use of library resources in designing her thesis on
people's tendency to anthropomorphize dolphins at
aquariums.
Lori Foster, a 1999 graduate of the I-O program, is a
member of the White House Social and Behavioral
Sciences Team. The team contributed to the 2015
Presidential Executive Order on using behavioral
science insights.
Two faculty members were elected in 2016 to represent
their Divisions on the APA Council of Representatives:
Steve Stark (Div. 14) and Manny Donchin (Div. 3).
Marc Karver received a 5-year $3.68 million award
from the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services
Administration for his suicide prevention work. This
project is focused on implementation and evaluation of
culturally sensitive, evidence-based suicide prevention
strategies (family outreach, adult gatekeeper trainings,
training mental health professionals to assess and
manage suicide risk, youth coping skills training, crisis
support, referral and linkage training, zero suicide
training, postvention training) in three broad regions of
Florida.
Clinical student Robin Tan received a 2015 American
Psychological Association Dissertation Research
Award.
Clinical student Bethany Edwards won the Cheryl
Wynne Hare student poster award at the Society for the
Study of Psychopathy conference in 2015.
Neuroscience student Heather Soder won the student
poster award at the 2015 meeting of the Society for
Psychophysiological Research.
I-O students Scott Ramsay, Sarah Frick, and
Matthew Grossman were awarded the Best Doctoral
Student Paper for the Organizational Behavior track at
the 2015 Southern Management Association annual
conference.
In early 2015, Tammy Allen along with I-O alumni
Kristen Shockley, Ryan Johnson and Kaitlin Kiburz
were awarded Personnel Psychology’s best paper
award for their research on flexible work arrangements.
Manny Donchin presented the 2015 Lanier Lecture at
the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
In the fall of 2015, Judy Bryant received a University of
Minnesota College of Education and Human
Development Distinguished Alumni Award.
Edelyn Verona became an Associate Editor for the
Journal of Abnormal Psychology.
Recent grants enable Kristen Salomon to collaborate
with researchers in Social Work (on care for children
following trauma), Engineering (on thermal haptics),
and the VA (on physiological reactivity and treatment
outcomes).
Jennifer Bosson became a Fellow of the Society for
Personality and Social Psychology.
Clinical student Monica Wu received the 2015 APA
Division 53 (Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent
Psychology) Student Advisory Board's Student
Achievement Award.
The Impact of Scholarship Support
Since 1992, Dr. Bob Smith and Mrs. Cathy Smith have funded the
Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc. (PAR) Scholarship for Excellence
in Psychology for undergraduate psychology students. Recipients have gone on to a variety of careers,
including as a grant writer and supervisor at St. Joseph's Children's Advocacy Center (Bevin Lynn
Maynard/1998), as the Director of Pediatric Behavioral Therapies in the Division of Tics, OCD, and
Related Disorders in the Department of Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in
New York City (Dr. Ariz Rojas/2003), as a foster care specialist at Devereux Florida Viera (Alana
Whittington/2014), and as teachers (e.g., Kelly Foyle/2007). Recently, Danielle Findley-Van Nost (2009)
graduated from the USF doctoral program in Cognition, Neuroscience, and Social Psychology and is a
post doc in the Office for Undergraduate Research.
All of the recipients are grateful, but perhaps one recipient’s comments sum up their gratitude the best:
“This award has furthered my enthusiasm for the mental health field and its positive, rapid development –
as well as my involvement in this field. Because of this gesture, I believe that the future of psychology and
its future leaders hold great promise.”–Alana Whittington
Department of Psychology
PCD 4118G
University of South Florida
4202 East Fowler Avenue
Tampa, FL 33620-7200
(813) 974-2492
By the numbers:
• Over 1100 students received BAs in Psychology between Fall 2014 and Summer 2016
• 34 students received their PhDs in Psychology during this same period
Psychology BULLetin
For more information about the
USF Undergraduate Psychology Alumni Society
https://www.facebook.com/USFUndergradPsychAlumni
or email President Kim Read [email protected]
Undergraduate Psychology Association (UPA) at USF
https://www.facebook.com/groups/753264268133215/
President: Morgan Taylor
[email protected]
http://psychology.usf.edu/ Department of Psychology
http://cas.usf.edu/ College of Arts and Sciences
http://www.usf.edu/ University of South Florida