Loyola Marymount University has named Cheryl Tawede Grills, PhD, the President’s Professor in the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts, the highest honor for faculty at the university. Grills has served on the faculty for 34 years and her research focuses on supporting low-income communities of color and creating community-centered models of promoting mental health. Grills also serves as commissioner and vice chair of the Sybil Brand Commission for Institutional Inspections, which evaluates conditions and practices in adult jails and prisons in Los Angeles County.
The Council of Undergraduate Research has elected Sarah K. Johnson, PhD, to a 3-year term on its executive board. Johnson is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology and the neuroscience program at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Her previous roles on the council have included serving as vice chair of the psychology division from 2015 to 2020 and as chair of the oversight committee of the National Conferences on Undergraduate Research.
The University of Nebraska–Lincoln has presented an Outstanding Teaching and Instructional Creativity Award to Kenneth Kiewra, PhD. The award recognizes Kiewra’s research on the role parents play in nurturing talent in children and his SOAR to Success instructional method, which guides both students and teachers on the best ways to improve academic performance through better note-taking and other strategies. Kiewra is a professor of educational psychology at the university and lectures throughout the country about learning techniques and talent development.
The International Council of Psychologists has presented the Fukuhara Advanced International Research and Service Award to Susan A. Nolan, PhD, for her outstanding contributions to international psychology. Nolan, a professor in the Department of Psychology at Seton Hall University in New Jersey, focuses her scholarship on mental health stigma and assessment in higher education. She is president of APA’s Div. 2 (Society for the Teaching of Psychology) and was previously one of APA’s nongovernmental organization representatives to the United Nations. From 2015 to 2016, she was a U.S. Fulbright Scholar in Bosnia and Herzegovina studying challenges in higher education.
The University of Houston has presented Awards for Excellence in Research, Scholarship, or Creative Activity to psychologists Elena L. Grigorenko, PhD, and Anka A. Vujanovic, PhD. Grigorenko directs the university’s GENES:IS Lab and, along with her team, recently won a $2.2 million grant from the U.S. Office of Naval Research for research on a virtual reality personality assessment tool that could improve the way the Navy screens and selects people for military service. Vujanovic is the director of the university’s Trauma and Stress Studies Center and leads the center’s First Responder Program, which works to enhance the health and well-being of firefighters, police officers, and other emergency responders.
Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser has appointed psychologist Amber Hewitt, PhD, as the city’s first chief equity officer. In this role, Hewitt will lead the city’s newly established Office of Racial Equity, which aims to promote racial justice and eliminate racial disparities. Hewitt most recently served as the director of health equity at Families USA, a Washington, D.C.–based national consumer health advocacy organization. Prior to that, she was an APA health policy fellow in the office of U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and taught at the University of Akron.