D?Alessio, who received her doctorate in applied/experimental psychology from Catholic University, gained experience working with Congress as the Senior Science Analyst at the Health Services Quality and Public Health Division of the U.S. General Accounting Office. Her reputation for tackling complex issues of importance to the Red Cross won her recognition from the service organization. She managed a two-and-a-half-year study of the Food and Drug Administration?s (FDA) oversight of the blood supply. D?Alessio led a team that reviewed FDA regulation of blood and plasma centers and assessed the risks associated with transfusions of blood components and use of plasma derivatives. As part of FDA?s efforts to improve blood safety, the agency implemented 10 of 12 recommendations her team produced.

Yale psychologist Peter Salovey, PhD, has recently studied college students? perceptions about AIDS?and the results, he says, are nothing less than shocking.

Salovey found that nearly nine out of 10 young adults believe they are not vulnerable to contracting HIV, even though 20 percent have had a friend or family member die of the disease. Salovey, director of graduate studies in psychology at Yale University and co-director of the university?s Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS (CIRA), collaborated with MTV to assess young adults? attitudes and beliefs toward sex and AIDS.

Although 85 percent of the 770 12?34-year-old-participants surveyed know how HIV is contracted, only half reported using a condom during sex. Twenty-five percent of participants reported knowing someone with AIDS, but only 2 percent of whites, 11 percent of African-Americans and 16 percent of Hispanics consider themselves vulnerable to the AIDS virus. Those final statistics should be 100 percent, Salovey says.

Young people report the media are not providing them with health information they want and need, Salovey says. Sixty-eight percent say there is not enough public service information about pregnancy prevention, and 56 percent say there is not enough of such information about AIDS.

Three parties collaborated on the study: MTV, CIRA and Horowitz Associates, a marketing and public opinion research firm. Each group wanted to conduct a scientifically based investigation that could have substantial policy implications. MTV funded the project and contributed design ideas. Salovey and his colleague, Michael Merson, dean of Public Health at CIRA, designed the study and analyzed the results.

Horowitz surveyed the participants. Salovey says CIRA and MTV will use their findings to devise programming and public service announcements. Salovey favors a message that hits home.

?People?s general knowledge is very strong?but their knowledge is not personalized. They know there are vulnerable people out there?they just don?t think they are one of them,? he says. ?We need programming that really increases one?s individual sense of vulnerability and responsibility.?

The New Jersey Psychological Association (NJPA) presented Terence G. Wilson, PhD, with the 1997 Distinguished Researcher Award for his history of outstanding contributions to eating-disorder research and alcoholism research.

Wilson is a professor of psychology at the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers University and director of Rutgers? Eating Disorders Clinic.

He also runs a private practice in Princeton, N.J. Wilson accepted a $500 award and plaque at the fall conference of the New Jersey Psychological Association. The award is funded jointly by APA and NJPA to recognize psychologists? significant contributions to research. NJPA will present three awards next year to recognize a distinguished researcher in psychology, a distinguished teacher of psychology and a new researcher in psychology.

Wilson is a member of the National Institutes of Health Task Force on Prevention and Treatment of Obesity, is a former president of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy and has received the APA Distinguished Scientific Contribution to Clinical Psychology Award.

?Jamie Chamberlin

Please send submissions to APA Monitor, 750 First St., N.E., Washington, DC 20002-4242.

Psychologist killed in the line of duty

Bruce VanderJagt, PhD, 47, a decorated Denver police officer, was shot and killed by a skinhead while investigating a suspected burglary. VanderJagt, who had recently completed his PhD in psychology, interrupted a botched home burglary and was shot by Matthaus Jaening, who later killed himself with VanderJagt?s service pistol. VanderJagt?s murder was part of a Denver hate-crimes spree committed over a period of 10 days. President Clinton condemned the crime spree during a visit to Denver, and the White House announced days later that the U.S. Justice Department was opening an investigation into the outbreak of skinhead violence around Denver. APA held a briefing in November on combatting hate crimes to correspond with a larger White House Conference on Hate Crimes.

VanderJagt, who served as a Marine in Vietnam and was an 11-year veteran of the Denver police department, had earned his doctorate at the University of Denver, where he had formerly served as a campus police officer. He planned to stay with the force after earning his degree because he enjoyed the job too much to leave, said a fellow officer.

VanderJagt won Denver?s Distinguished Service Cross twice for valor in the line of duty. He is survived by his wife Anne and his 2-year-old daughter Hayley.