Governor Tate Reeves has appointed Mississippi State University (MSU) associate professor Kevin Armstrong, PhD, to the state governing board regulating practicing psychologists. Armstrong is serving a 5-year term on the Mississippi Board of Psychology. In addition to his board duties, Armstrong supervises doctoral students training in MSU’s Psychology Clinic.
Michael J. Bernstein, PhD, professor of psychology at Penn State Abington, was elected president of the Society for Experimental Social Psychology, an international organization dedicated to advancing research on the psychology of social interactions. He will take the helm in 2026 after serving as an executive council member in 2024 and as vice president in 2025. Bernstein’s research focuses on how groups affect individual member’s feelings and behavior.
The Society for Music Perception and Cognition, a scholarly organization dedicated to the study of music cognition, honored Amy Belfi, PhD, an associate professor of psychological science at Missouri University of Science and Technology, with both its Mentorship Award and Early Career Award. Belfi’s research includes studies on music and autobiographical memory, musical imagery, and musical anhedonia.
Derek Griffith, PhD, was named the Risa Lavizzo-Mourey Population Health and Health Equity University Professor in the School of Nursing and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Most recently, Griffith served at Georgetown University as a professor of health management and policy, founder and director of the Center for Men’s Health Equity, and codirector of the Racial Justice Institute.
Louisiana State University (LSU) named Keena Arbuthnot, PhD, as dean of the Pinkie Gordon Lane Graduate School. In this role, Arbuthnot will oversee more than 160 graduate degree programs. She will also hold the Joan Pender McManus Distinguished Professorship in the College of Human Sciences and Education. Arbuthnot formerly held the positions of vice president and chief data officer at LSU.
Harvard University professor of psychology Samuel J. Gershman, PhD, is one of six academics to win the 2024 Schmidt Science Polymath award. Founded in 2021, the New York-based Schmidt Science Polymath Program recognizes unconventional, cross-disciplinary work that otherwise might be difficult to finance. Gershman’s previous work drew specifically on mathematics and artificial intelligence. His current research involves studying learning and memory in single-cell organisms.
Kate Bruce, PhD, a professor in the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) Department of Psychology, received the National Collegiate Honors Council 2024 Sam Schuman Award for Excellence in Honors Education at a Four-Year Institution. Bruce served as the director of the UNCW Honors Scholars Program from 1999 to 2011 and founding director of the Honors College from 2011 to 2018. She also founded the UNCW Center for the Support of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships to provide support for the scholarly activities of all UNCW students.
Grant Shields, PhD, an assistant professor of psychological sciences at the University of Arkansas, was awarded the 2024 Dirk Hellhammer Award from the International Society of Psychoneuroendocrinology. Shields is recognized for his work in psychoneuroendocrinology on the effects of stress on episodic memory and executive functions.
