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Awards for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest--Senior Career Awards: Phyllis A. Katz, PhD, and Melba Vasquez, PhD. Katz is recognized for her extensive research into the developmental processes that underlie the acquisition of race and gender attitudes in children. She is currently the director of the Institute for Research on Social Problems in Boulder, Colo. She earned her PhD from Yale University in clinical and developmental psychology in 1961 and has been involved in teaching and research ever since. She taught at Queens College, New York University, and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Early in her career, she worked on improving the academic performance of inner-city schoolchildren, but most of her scholarship has focused upon the development of gender roles and racial attitudes in children. She has published extensively in these areas.
Katz has been active in editorial work and in APA activities. She was the founding editor of Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, the first publication devoted to scholarly research on women's issues, serving as editor until 1991. She also served as editor of the Journal of Social Issues, 1995-2000. Within APA, she has served as president of Div. 9 (Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues) and Div. 35 (Society for the Psychology of Women) and on APA's Council of Representatives, Finance Committee, Investment Committee and the Committee on Women in Psychology.
She has been the recipient of several awards, including the Committee on Women in Psychology's Leadership Citation, Div. 35's Carolyn Sherif Award, the Div. 46 (Media) Award, Div. 9's Outstanding Service Award and the APA Public Policy Award.
Vasquez is recognized for her various leadership capacities within APA. She is a psychologist in independent practice in Austin, Texas. She is president of APA's Div. 17 (Counseling) and is a member of the Committee for the Advancement of Professional Practice. She is past president of APA's Div. 35, and as such, co-hosted the National Multicultural Conference and Summit in January 1999, as well as NMCS-II in January 2001. She has served on the APA Policy and Planning Board, the Ethics Committee and on the Ethics Committee Task Force (ECTF) for revision of the 1981 Ethics Code, and she currently serves on the ECTF revisions committee for the 1992 Ethics Code. She has served as chair of the Board of Professional Affairs and as chair of the board for the Advancement of Psychology in the Public Interest.
Vasquez is an APA fellow of several APA divisions, a member of Divs. 31 and 44 and is a diplomate of the American Board of Professional Psychology. She has received numerous awards, including the Janet E. Helms Award for Mentoring and Scholarship in Psychology and Education, Div. 17's John D. Black Award for Outstanding Achievements in the Practice of Counseling Psychology, APA's Committee of Women in Psychology Award, the Distinguished Service Award from the Academy of Counseling Psychology, American Board of Professional Psychology, the Texas Psychological Association's Outstanding Contribution to Public Service Award and Div. 45's Distinguished Career Contributions to Service Award.
Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest--Early Career Award: Brian Smedley, PhD. Smedley, a psychologist who has worked in public policy settings in Washington, D.C., since 1993, is being honored for his work to address the needs of racial and ethnic minority communities, particularly with regard to health and health-care disparities.
Smedley is a senior program officer in the Division of Health Sciences Policy at the Institute of Medicine (IOM), where he most recently served as study director for the IOM report, Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care. Previously, Smedley served as study director for the IOM reports, Promoting Health: Intervention Strategies from Social and Behavioral Research; The Right Thing to Do, The Smart Thing to Do: Enhancing Diversity in the Health Professions; and The Unequal Burden of Cancer: An Assessment of NIH Research and Programs for Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved.
Smedley came to the IOM from APA, where he worked on a wide range of social, health and education policy topics as director for public interest policy. Prior to working at APA, Smedley served as a Congressional Science Fellow in the office of Rep. Robert C. Scott (D-Va.), sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Education Policy Division of the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, N.J. Among his awards and distinctions, Smedley was awarded the National Academy of Sciences' Individual Staff Award for Distinguished Service in 2000.
Smedley received his PhD in clinical psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1992, where he was a Ford Foundation predoctoral and dissertation fellow.
Distinguished Contributions to Research in Public Policy: Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, PhD. Brooks-Gunn is the Virginia and Leonard Marx Professor of Child Development and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. She is the first director of the Center for Children and Families at Teachers College and is co-director of the Institute for Child and Family Policy at Columbia University. She earned her PhD at the University of Pennsylvania.
Brooks-Gunn has served on three National Academy of Science panels and was a visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation. She was president of the Society for Research on Adolescence. She is associate editor of the Society for Research in Child Development's Social Policy Report. Brooks-Gunn is the author of more than 340 published articles and 14 books. She has received the Urie Bronfenbrenner Award (APA's Div. 7, Developmental), the Vice President's National Performance Review Hammer Award, the Nicholas Hobbs Award (APA's Div. 37, Child, Youth and Family Services) and the John B. Hill Award from the Society for Research on Adolescence.
Her specialty is policy-oriented research focusing on family and community influences on the development of children and youth, and interventions, programs and policies aimed at enhancing the well-being of children living in poverty and associated conditions. Her books on this topic include "Consequences of Growing Up Poor"; "Escape from Poverty: What Makes a Difference For Children?"; "Adolescent Mothers in Later Life"; and "Neighborhood Poverty: Volumes I & II".
Brooks-Gunn conducts research on transitional periods during childhood and adulthood. Her related books include, "He and She: How Children Develop Their Sex Role Identity"; "Social Cognition and the Acquisition of Self"; "Girls at Puberty: Biological and Psychosocial Perspectives"; "The Encyclopedia of Adolescence"; "Transitions Through Adolescence: Interpersonal Domains and Context"; "Conflict and Cohesion in Families: Causes and Consequences"; and "Adolescent Lives" (in press).
