Idaho State University has presented a Distinguished Service Award to Nicki Aubuchon-Endsley, PhD, for her service to the university, community and the field of psychology. Aubuchon-Endsley is an assistant professor of psychology and director of the university's psychology clinic, where she has expanded access to psychological services for the local community. She has mentored students at the high school, undergraduate and graduate levels, and serves on numerous departmental and university-level committees and interdisciplinary teams.
Anjhula Mya Singh Bais, PhD, has earned a spot on the World Economic Forum's Young Global Leaders list of visionary leaders under age 40 for her public education efforts to destigmatize mental illness in Malaysia. She is the only psychologist named to the list. Born in India and now based in Kuala Lumpur, Bais specializes in trauma management and chairs the Board of Governance of Amnesty International in Malaysia.
Karina W. Davidson, PhD, has been named vice chair of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an independent, volunteer panel of national experts in disease prevention and evidence-based medicine that works to improve Americans' health by making evidence-based recommendations about preventive screenings, counseling services and medications. An expert in behavioral and cardiovascular health research, Davidson heads a new research center in Manhattan that is a part of Northwell Health's Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research and is senior vice president of research. She is also a professor of behavioral medicine at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. She has served as a member of the task force since 2014.
The Bush Foundation has presented a $100,000 Bush Fellow grant to psychologist Ia Xiong, PhD, of White Bear Lake, Minnesota. Bush Fellows are leaders selected for their potential to make a positive impact in their communities, from throughout Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and the 23 Native American nations that share the same geography. The grants fund learning experiences over one to two years to help fellows enhance their work or build their leadership skills. Xiong will use her grant to travel to Laos to study ways of integrating traditional Hmong healing practices into modern mental health-care services in Minnesota, which has a large Hmong population.
The Association for Computing Machinery will present the 2018 Turing Award—an accolade often referred to as the Nobel Prize for computing—this month to cognitive psychologist and computer scientist Geoffrey E. Hinton, PhD, for his work to advance artificial intelligence technology. Hinton will share the award, which comes with a $1 million prize from Google, with computer scientists Yann LeCun, PhD, of New York University, and Yoshua Bengio, PhD, of the University of Montreal, for their important work on deep learning and using neural networks to develop better artificial intelligence. Hinton is a computer science professor at the University of Toronto and an engineering fellow and a vice president at Google.
Georgia Southern University has presented this year's Black Heritage Award to Johanna Workman, PsyD, for excellence in mentorship and guidance of African-American students at the university. Workman is both the associate director and clinical services director of the university's counseling center and the creator and director of the Black Campus Forum, a weekly drop-in workshop where black students can connect and discuss their experiences at Georgia Southern.