Elizabeth Loftus, PhD, has won the international John Maddox Prize for Standing Up for Science, which honors individuals who face hostility or difficulty while promoting sound science. The prize is presented by the journal Nature, the Kohn Foundation and the charity Sense About Science. Loftus is a distinguished professor of psychology and a distinguished professor of social behavior and criminology, law and society at the University of California, Irvine. She is best known for her research on the "misinformation effect," in which the memories of eyewitnesses are altered by exposure to incorrect information.
Mark McCourt, PhD, has been elected to a three-year term on the National Association of IDeA (Institutional Development Award) Principal Investigators national committee. The committee protects and promotes the IDeA programs established by the National Institutes of Health in 1993 to broaden the geographic funding for biomedical and behavioral research. McCourt is a professor of psychology at North Dakota State University and director of the university's Center for Visual and Cognitive Neuroscience.
The University of Louisville has presented its annual Grawemeyer Award in Psychology to Marsha Linehan, PhD, of the University of Washington (UW). The $100,000 prize honors her work to develop Dialectical Behavior Therapy, which has been shown to be effective for treating patients who struggle with suicidal ideation and borderline personality disorder. The therapy teaches mindfulness, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness and emotion regulation. Linehan is director of the UW Behavioral Research and Therapy Clinics, Center for Behavioral Technology.
APA's Executive Director for Public Interest Gwendolyn Puryear Keita, PhD, retired in January after nearly 30 years at APA. Keita was instrumental in developing the field of occupational health psychology and convened three major interdisciplinary conferences on psychosocial and behavioral factors in women's health. She is also well-known for her many books, presentations and briefings to Congress on depression and violence, as well as for her international outreach on civil rights and discrimination; women's health and mental health depression and intimate violence; and occupational stress and health.
Clinton Anderson, PhD, is serving as interim executive director. Anderson, who has also been at APA for 30 years, has helped the association become an international leader in improving the health and fulfillment of human rights of gender and sexual minorities. He has helped APA secure more than $3 million in funding for work on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues with U.S. schools.
APA's Merry Bullock, PhD, retired in December after 20 years at the association. Bullock served as senior scientist, associate director, and acting executive director in APA's Science Directorate before serving as senior director of the Office of International Affairs for 11 years. Under her direction, APA expanded its memorandum of understanding outreach program, which created 21 partnerships with psychology organizations worldwide, developed the APA Learning Partner Program, and expanded programs to promote international understanding and exchange.
The office's new director is Amanda Clinton, PhD. A former APA congressional fellow, Clinton served on the faculty at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez, for 10 years and has held visiting researcher/scholar positions at the International Psychoanalytic University and Humboldt University in Berlin. She was also a Fulbright scholar in Medellin, Colombia.