The department of psychiatry of Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons has presented the Robert L. Spitzer Memorial Award to Geoffrey M. Reed, PhD, for his outstanding work on the 11th revision of the “International Classification of Diseases”(ICD-11) for the World Health Organization. Reed is the senior project officer for ICD-11’s mental and behavioral disorders chapter. He established the Global Clinical Practice Networkopens in new window for ICD-11 field studies, a group that now includes more than 14,000 mental health-care professionals in 154 countries.
The American Art Therapy Association has named Christianne Strang, PhD, as its board president. Strang has practiced clinical art therapy for more than 25 years, most recently with people in treatment for anorexia or bulimia. She is a research instructor in the department of psychology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Psychologist and social activist Joseph L. White, PhD, known as “the godfather of black psychology,” died on Nov. 21 at age 84. In the 1960s, White championed the rights of black psychologists and students, prompting the field to be more inclusive of the needs and perspectives of ethnic minorities. He was a faculty member at the University of California, Irvine, for more than 25 years and mentored more than 100 doctoral students in psychology. White also founded California’s Educational Opportunity Program, which has helped more than 300,000 ethnic-minority students earn college degrees.
The Foundation for Personality and Social Psychology has presented SAGE Young Scholar Awards to eight early career psychologists, chosen for their outstanding contributions to personality and/or social psychology. The recipients are: Mark Brandt, PhD, Tilburg University; Molly Crockett, PhD, Yale University; Michael Kraus, PhD, Yale University; Nour Kteily, PhD, Northwestern University; Kristin Laurin, PhD, University of British Columbia; Ryne Sherman, PhD, Texas Tech University; Erica Slotter, PhD, Villanova University; and Joshua Tybur, PhD, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Earl Miller, PhD, and his wife, Marlene Wicherski, have pledged $2 million to Kent State University to fund three scholarships and a professorship in the university’s College of Arts and Sciences. Miller, who earned his undergraduate degree in psychology at Kent State in 1985, is a Picower Professor of Neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-founder of SplitSage, an information technology company in Arlington, Massachusetts. Wicherski is a research consultant based in Boston.
Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser has appointed Amber A. Hewitt, PhD, to serve as a public member on the D.C. Commission on Fathers, Men and Boys, which advises the mayor and city council on public policy related to men and boys. Hewitt is an American Association for the Advancement of Science Policy Fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health and is an adjunct professor at American University and Simmons College.
Organizational psychologist Samuel West, PhD, has founded the Museum of Failure, a collection of history’s failed products and innovations that is based in Helsingborg, Sweden, and is on display in Los Angeles. The collection includes such flops and marketing catastrophes as “Bic for Her” pens and Harley-Davidson perfume. West opened the museum in 2017 to draw attention to the role failure plays in innovation and progress. Read more at www.failuremuseum.comopens in new window.