Psychologists give back to psychology

The American Psychological Foundation (APF) recognizes the following major donors who made campaign gifts of $10,000 or more and enabled APF to raise more than $7.5 million for its Campaign for a New Era.

• Edwin A. Fleishman, PhD, a former president of the International Association of Applied Psychology and three APA divisions, has also served as editor of the Journal of Applied Psychology. He received APA's Distinguished Scientific Award for the Application of Psychology, the APA Award for Distinguished Contributions to the International Advancement of Psychology and APF's Gold Medal for Life Achievement in the Application of Psychology. His wife, Pauline Fleishman, has served as a social worker, schoolteacher and volunteer worker for social service agencies.

• Asher R. Pacht, PhD, a University of Wisconsin–Madison emeritus clinical psychology professor, recently retired both from independent practice and as director of professional affairs for the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB). He has served on APA's Board of Professional Affairs and the Board of Educational Affairs and has received APA's 1982 Award for Distinguished Contributions to Public Service, the 1988 Harold M. Hildreth Award and the 1993 Karl F. Heiser Award. He was APF's first Rosalee G. Weiss Lecturer in 1994. Currently, he is the ASPPB Foundation's executive officer.

• Married social psychologists Philip G. Zimbardo, PhD, and Christina Maslach, PhD, have both served as presidents of the Western Psychological Association. Zimbardo, a Stanford University emeritus psychology professor, was the 2002 APA president and currently serves as chair of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents. Maslach, the vice provost of undergraduate education at the University of California, Berkeley, was the 1997 Carnegie Foundation Professor of the Year.

Loewy receives 2004 Husted Award

In March, APF and APA's Science Directorate presented the eighth annual Todd E. Husted Memorial Dissertation Award to Rachel Loewy, a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, for her research on improving health-care practitioners' ability to identify prodromal symptoms of psychosis, which, in turn, should enhance their ability to diagnose the earliest symptoms of schizophrenia in young people.

The $1,000 award recognizes outstanding dissertation research that demonstrates the potential to improve mental health services for those with severe mental illnesses.

June Husted, PhD, whose son, Todd, died as a result of severe mental illness, funds the award.

Apply for the Husted Award

APF and APA's Science Directorate seek proposals for the 2005 Todd E. Husted Memorial Dissertation Award. The $1,000 award supports dissertation research on mental illness services with potential to improve services for those with severe and persistent mental illnesses.

Some examples of previous award winners' work include:

• Developing interventions that prevent the deterioration, homelessness and premature deaths of those with serious mental illness.

• Improving the medication and treatment compliance of those with schizophrenia and bipolar affective disorder.

• Improving the identification, diversion and treatment of people who enter the criminal justice system as a result of their mental illness.

• Educating professionals in the criminal justice system about the role of serious mental illnesses in the behavior of mentally ill offenders.

• Increasing access to and use of services and supports for the most treatment-resistant and severely mentally ill individuals.

The deadline to apply is September 15. Applications will be accepted beginning July 1.

To apply, send a cover letter describing the applicant's research interests and career plans, a summary of dissertation research and proposed use of funds, a curriculum vitae and a letter of recommendation to Shana Hawkins, APF program coordinator, at the APA address. For more information and the application, visit www.apa.org/science/dissinfo.html.

APF funds LGB family research

In March, APF announced the winners of its fifth annual Roy Scrivner Research Grants, which award one grant of up to $10,000 to a postdoctoral researcher and two grants of $1,000 to doctoral candidates for exemplary research on lesbian, gay and bisexual family psychology and therapy. The grants are made possible by a bequest from Roy Scrivner, PhD, a counseling and clinical psychologist and former president of the Texas Psychological Association.

The 2005 winners are:

• Nanette K. Gartrell, MD, an associate clinical psychiatry professor at the University of California, San Francisco. Gartrell received the $10,000 postdoctoral award to support the fifth phase of the National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study. The study, which began in 1986, is the largest, longest-running prospective, longitudinal lesbian family study of children conceived by donor insemination in the country. Gartrell and colleagues began the study by exploring the decision-making processes regarding donor insemination and motherhood in prospective lesbian mothers. Now, Gartrell and her colleagues will ask the 17-year-old children to recount their experiences with homophobia as teens and to report on their academic achievements, social networks, physical and mental health, drug use and sexual exploration.

• Katherine A. Kuvalanka, a family studies doctoral candidate at the University of Maryland, College Park. She received one of the two $1,000 Scrivner awards for her dissertation research, which examines the adolescent experiences of young adults who grew up with lesbian and gay parents. Her doctoral dissertation research aims to explore participants' experience during adolescence and develop a theoretical model to explain how adolescents with lesbian and gay parents cope with societal homophobia.

• Cara Bergstrom, a sociology doctoral candidate at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Bergstrom received the other $1,000 Scrivner award for her dissertation research, which used 60 in-depth, qualitative interviews to explore experiences of prospective parenthood among same-gender couples that have had children after coming out and those who plan to remain childfree.

Members of APA Divs. 43 (Family) and 44 (Society for the Psychological Study of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Issues) serve on the Scrivner oversight and awards committees.

--COMPILED BY E. MERCK, P. HUDSON AND Z. STAMBOR

Email this article to a friend or colleague

Cover Page for this Issue