Successful Doctoral Dissertation Defenses
Jessica Caballero, Role of the Prefrontal Cortex in Reward Seeking Behaviors, Advisor: David Moorman
Lauren Haliczer, Social Stressors, Emotional Responses, and NSSI Urges and Behaviors in Daily Life, Advisor: Katie Dixon-Gordon
Albert Lo, Acculturative Parenting Cognitions: Bicultural Socialization Beliefs of Chinese American Parents, Advisor: Harold Grotevant
Molly Mather, Neural Precursors of Apathy and Depressive Symptoms in Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment, Advisor: Rebecca Ready
Benjamin Zobel, The benefits of Spatial Separation on the Cortical Representations of Speech Sounds, Advisor: Lisa Sanders
Successful Master's Thesis Defenses
Cierra Abellera, Effects of Interracial Contact on University Students' Perceptions of Inclusion, Advisor: Evelyn Mercado
Marielena Barbieri, The Impact of Social Distancing and Loneliness on Adolescents' Mental Health During COVID-19, Advisor: Evelyn Mercado
Brooke Burrows, How Sending and Receiving Impact Statements on Past Ingroup Suffering Influences Conflict Reconciliation Attitudes, Advisor: Bernhard Leidner
Grace Cho, Cultural Influences on the Pathway from Adult Disconnection to Problematic Alcohol Use: A Moderated Mediation Study of Suicide Attempts in Adolescents, Advisor: Hal Grotevant
Eleni Kapoulea, Loneliness and Cardiovascular Disease Risk in the United States and Japan: The Moderating Effects of Nationality and Interdependence, Advisor: Rebecca Ready
Stylianos Syropoulos, The Dual Process Model of National Identification: Harmonious and Dangerous Worldviews as Antecedents of National Attachment and Glorification, Advisor: Bernhard Leidner
Elinor Waite, Borderline Personality Disorder and Learning: The Influences of Emotional State and Social versus Nonsocial Feedback, Advisor: Katherine Dixon-Gordon
Alumni Updates
Jessica Caballero is currently working as a Project Manager at Genentech.
Alice Coyne, a recent graduate from the Clinical Psychology program, was recently awarded the following four professional awards: (1) Student Trainee Award, North American Society for Psychotherapy Research; (2) Best Intern Research Paper, Charleston Consortium; (3) Student Travel Award, North American Society for Psychotherapy Research; and (4) Dissertation Award, Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration.
Awards and Honors
Andrew Cohen and Luke Remage-Healey have been promoted to Professor.
Joonkoo Park has been awarded tenure and promotion to Associate Professor.
Natasha de la Rosa-Rivera, a 4th year PhD candidate in the Neuroscience and Behavior Program, has received a R36 Dissertation Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to complete and further her research looking at the neuroanatomical organization of visual memory and perception across aging. Read about the details of her project here.
Marielena Barbieri has received the Jenessa Shapiro Graduate Research Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. The award is named in memory of UCLA professor Jenessa Shapiro, who promoted diversity and inclusion in her lab, at the university, and in the field of psychology.
Heather Muir, a 5th-year student in the Clinical Psychology program, was recently awarded the following two professional awards: (1) Student Trainee Award, North American Society for Psychotherapy Research; and (2) Jeffrey E. Barnett Psychotherapy Research Paper Award, Division 29 (Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy) of the American Psychological Association.
Averi Gaines, a 3rd-year student in the Clinical Psychology program, was recently awarded the following professional award: Student Trainee Award, North American Society for Psychotherapy Research.
Eleni Kapoulea was selected to be a student representative to the Council of Directors of Clinical Psychology (CUDCP), which promotes the advancement of education and training in clinical psychology. Eleni also was selected to be the Biopsychology representative on the APA Science Student Council. The APA Science Student Council (SSC) advocates for the needs of research-oriented graduate students.
Kirby Deater-Deckard is a 2021-22 STRIDE Faculty Fellow. The STRIDE Faculty Fellowship Program is sponsored by the Provost’s office and the Office of Equity and Inclusion, and complements other efforts to support faculty diversity, harnessing the knowledge and experience of our faculty to advance diversity, equity and inclusion in recruitment.
Linda Tropp is a 2021-22 UMass ADVANCE Faculty Fellow. Through a combination of research, programming, and practices, UMass ADVANCE seeks to understand systemic and intersectional inequalities at UMass and to lay the groundwork for a fairer, more equitable, diverse and inclusive campus.
Brooke Burrows, a Ph.D. student in in the psychology of peace and violence program in the department of psychological and brain sciences, was recently awarded funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support a six-month internship. Part of NSF’s INTERN program, the award is designed to provide non-academic research experience and training to graduate students.
Trisha Dehrone, PhD student in the psychology of peace and violence program, was recently awarded funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support a six-month internship. Part of NSF’s INTERN program, the award is designed to provide non-academic research experience and training. 
Stylianos Syropoulos, a third-year student in the Psychology of Peace and Violence concentration in the Social Psychology program working with Dr. Bernhard Leidner, was awarded the sixth annual Keith Rayner Memorial Graduate Student Research Award. His project, titled “De-polarizing" American Society: Emphasizing Intergroup Similarities versus Differences as a Mechanism for Decreasing Political Polarization and Hostility, will study whether an emphasis on the dissemination of psychological findings with a focus on intergroup similarities, and not differences, as is the norm of the field, can promote harmony and cooperation between Republican and Democrats. The ultimate goal of the project is to highlight ways through which the dissemination of psychological research can depolarize the American electorate.