The city of Los Angeles has presented an African American History Month Hall of Fame Award for Education to Thomas A. Parham, PhD. Parham grew up in Los Angeles and has served as the president of California State University, Dominguez Hills, since 2018. Before that, he spent 38 years in academic, clinical and administrative roles at both the University of California, Irvine, and the University of Pennsylvania. Throughout his career, Parham has also been involved with social advocacy, mentoring and other youth and community empowerment efforts throughout the Los Angeles and Orange County areas.
The National Academy of Sciences has recognized five psychologists for their extraordinary accomplishments in science. Richard N. Aslin, PhD, of Haskins Laboratories and Yale University, won an Atkinson Prize in Psychological and Cognitive Sciences for his research on vision and speech perception in infants; Susan Elizabeth Carey, PhD, of Harvard University, also won an Atkinson Prize in Psychological and Cognitive Sciences for her research on the development of abstract ideas in adults and children; Christina Maslach, PhD, of the University of California, Berkeley, won the Award for Scientific Reviewing for her research on job burnout and employee well-being; Michael C. Frank, PhD, of Stanford University, won a Troland Research Award for his work on children’s language; and Nim Tottenham, PhD, of Columbia University, also won a Troland Research Award for her work on brain development underlying emotional behavior.
Reed College in Portland, Oregon, has named social psychologist Kathryn Oleson, PhD, as its new dean of faculty starting July 1. Oleson has been a member of the college’s psychology faculty since 1995. Her research focuses on making higher-education classrooms more inclusive and effective so that all students thrive. Oleson is also the inaugural director of Reed’s Center for Teaching and Learning, which helps faculty improve and develop their teaching and strengthen interpersonal dynamics in their classrooms.
Frank McAndrew, PhD, has won an Exceptional Achievement Award from Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. McAndrew, who is the Cornelia H. Dudley Professor of Psychology, was honored for his work with the media to showcase his research on evolutionary psychology and for his exceptional service to the school. He has chaired the college’s institutional review board and psychology department, coached the wrestling team and is the founder of the school’s environmental studies program.
Glendale Elementary School in Madison, Wisconsin, is being renamed in honor of Virginia Henderson, PhD, a school psychologist who died in April 2019. Henderson worked as the school’s psychologist from 1976 to 1991, then as a diversity consultant for the Madison Metropolitan School District until she retired in 1997. She was known throughout Madison for her philanthropy and volunteer work and she founded the city’s African American Ethnic Academy, a program for children that emphasizes African American heritage and STEM activities.
The governor general of Canada, Julie Payette, has invested Peter Suedfeld, PhD, as an Officer in the Order of Canada, a distinction for Canadians who have made outstanding contributions to the country in service or innovation. Suedfeld, a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of British Columbia, is being honored for his more than five decades of research on how people respond to extreme or stressful environments, such as space travel or work at polar research stations.