APF's Campaign to Transform the Future reaches new heights
Donors from around the world are contributing to APF's Campaign to Transform the Future to secure a better tomorrow as they increase APF's capacity to launch promising careers and solve society's thorniest problems. For information on how you can give, visit the APF websiteopens in new window.
A consulting psychologist supports future generations
Looking to find a more intellectually challenging field, Karol M. Wasylyshyn, PsyD, came to psychology after a 10-year career with a global publishing company. With the encouragement and support of her mentor, psychiatrist David McWhirter, MD, Wasylyshyn decided to pursue a doctorate in clinical psychology.
Today, Wasylyshyn is a highly successful consulting psychologist and pioneer of executive coaching. Incorporating her understanding of business with psychology, she has worked for over 30 years to integrate the understanding and importance of emotional intelligence in the recruiting, development and succession-planning processes of global businesses and community-based organizations. She has consulted with executives around the world, and sees what she calls the "power of psychology as a tool for unearthing insights that help enrich leaders' self-awareness, self-management, attunement to others, compassion and self-compassion."
Now Wasylyshyn is focused on ways to convey what she has learned to the next generation of consulting psychologists. Her $10,000 gift to APF's Society for Consulting Psychology Fund will help achieve that aim. Wasylyshyn hopes her giving will contribute to the society's objectives in "advancing sound research and stellar practice in the field of consulting psychology."
Wasylyshyn's gift — together with gifts from other dedicated consulting psychologists — has helped this APF fund reach its fundraising goal and begin making grants. "I'm grateful that my career — this accidental second career in consulting psychology — made it possible for me to make this gift," she says.
APF has partnered with several APA divisions and other organizations to make funding available in crucial areas. For more information on contributing to the APF Society for Consulting Psychology Fund or another designated fund, visit APF or call (202) 336-5843.
Seven students win travel grants to present at APA's 2015 Annual Convention
The APF Ungerleider/Zimbardo Travel Scholarships help psychology graduate students travel to the APA Annual Convention to present research that has already been accepted for presentation. This year, seven students won the grants and presented their work at APA's 2015 Annual Convention in Toronto last month:
- Joanna Elmquist, a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the University of Tennessee, who presented her project, "Are Schemas Associated with Eating Disorders in a Substance Dependent Population?" The aim of the research is to examine whether early maladaptive schemas predict eating disorder symptomatology among adults seeking residential treatment for substance dependence.
- Grace Ewles, who is pursuing her PhD in industrial-organizational psychology at the University of Guelph. Her research focuses on social support, resilience and well-being in emergency first responders. For her master's thesis, Ewles investigated the role of social support in how people experience guilt about balancing work and family.
- Alexander Jackson, who is pursuing his doctorate in industrial-organizational psychology at Kansas State University. His research focuses primarily on factors that influence judgment and decision-making, especially decision-making biases and errors, in the workplace. His project, "The Dark Triad and Perceptions of Ethical Misconduct," examines ethical decision-making and the role of dark personality characteristics in decision-making.
- Erika Pike, a fifth-year graduate student in experimental psychology at the University of Kentucky. Her research explores inhibitory control following drug-related cues in cocaine users and testing potential medications for stimulant abuse using human laboratory models. She presented her work, "Cocaine-related Images Impair Inhibitory Control in Cocaine Users."
- Sheida Rabipour, who is working toward her PhD in psychology at the University of Ottawa. Her research centers on cognitive training. Her latest work, "Indexing Expectations of Cognitive Training: Influence on Cognitive Performance," examines the effectiveness of computerized programs in improving memory and executive control, as well as psychological well-being.
- Yuki Shigemoto, a doctoral candidate in counseling psychology at Texas Tech University. His research interests are based on a construct developed in the field of positive psychology. Specifically, he is interested in examining cultural differences in personal growth and its relation with resiliency and growth after stressful and traumatic events. He presented his work, "The Effect of Personal Growth Initiative on Posttraumatic Reactions through Emotion."
- Ruifan Zeng, a fourth-year doctoral student in clinical psychology at Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus. Zeng is completing her dissertation on the developmental impact of pediatric epilepsy on neuropsychological functioning. She presented her work, "Impact of Depressive Mood on Cognitive Flexibility in Pediatric Epilepsy Patients."
Two students win Paul E. Henkin Travel Grants
The Paul E. Henkin Travel Grants provide funding to student members of APA Div. 16 (School Psychology) to help offset registration, lodging and transportation costs associated with attending APA's Annual Convention. This grant program aims to enrich the field of school psychology by supporting its promising younger members, as well as to facilitate growth of aspiring school psychology professionals through experiential learning opportunities at the APA convention.
This year's recipients, who each received $1,000 to attend the APA convention in Toronto, are:
- Alaa Houri, a first-year doctoral student in the school psychology program at the University of Minnesota. Her research explores;the socio-emotional and educational needs of immigrant and culturally and linguistically diverse students in various academic settings and expanding current knowledge on supporting these students. She would also like;to explore the issue of racial disproportionality in special education to help ensure students receive optimal and appropriate educational services and supports. For her thesis, Houri is addressing the differences in socio-emotional behaviors of kindergarten students of immigrant and U.S.-born parents.
- Jocelyn Kuhn, a fifth-year doctoral student in the school psychology program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research explores evidence-based practices for diverse learners, particularly students with developmental disabilities and English language learners. At APA's convention, she presented her paper "Advancing Universal Literacy Screening Procedures for Spanish-Speaking English Language Learners," which investigated the psychometric properties and utility of English and Spanish early literacy measures with a large sample of Spanish-speaking elementary students enrolled in dual-language immersion programs.
Budge recognized by Div. 29 (Psychotherapy) Early Career Award
Stephanie L. Budge, PhD, a visiting assistant professor in the department of counseling at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, is this year's recipient of the 2015 Div. 29 (Psychotherapy) Early Career Award. The $2,500 award recognizes an early career psychologist for promising contributions to psychotherapy, psychology and the division.
Budge received her PhD in 2011 from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her research interests are therapists' cultural competence and clients' experiences of identity within psychotherapy. Specifically, she studies how to improve psychotherapy for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning clients. She also focuses on psychotherapy outcomes, including changing the ways outcomes are theorized and collected, as well as how efficacy and effectiveness are conceptualized.
Grantee spotlight: APF grant enables Zacks to explore how people segment behavior
In 2008, Jeffrey M. Zacks, PhD, of Washington University in St. Louis, received the $25,000 APF F.J. McGuigan Young Investigator Prize, which supports early career researchers investigating the human mind.
Zacks used the prize to expand upon his Event Segmentation Theory, an account of how people segment behavior into meaningful events. The theory, first published in 2007, has guided research aimed at understanding how people comprehend and remember complex everyday events. Zacks is now studying how changes in event segmentation affect memory and action in healthy aging, Alzheimer’s disease, post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries. Other researchers have used these tools to study healthy child development, Parkinson’s disease, frontal lobe injury and schizophrenia.
Zacks is professor and associate chair of the department of psychology and professor in the department of radiology at Washington University. He also directs the university’s Dynamic Cognition Laboratory. He and his research team have obtained more than $4 million in National Institutes of Health funding for the lab’s projects since he earned the McGuigan prize.
Zacks says the McGuigan prize allowed him to conduct pilot research that wasn’t yet ready for external support. “Indirectly, it strengthened my case for promotion to full professor and my qualifications for obtaining federal and foundation grant support,” he says.
