Averi Gaines, a fourth-year student in the Clinical Psychology Program working with Dr. Michael Constantino, was awarded the eighth annual Keith Rayner Memorial Graduate Student Research Award.  Her project, titled Relative Valuing of Psychotherapist Characteristics and Performance Data Among People of Color, will help the field combat uniformity myths and responsively situate the prospective use of therapist effectiveness data within appropriate cultural contexts. Study findings will also provide organizations with precise guidelines for when and how to make therapist assignments in a manner that is responsive to the preferences of patients with marginalized racial/ethnic identities.

The Keith Rayner Memorial Graduate Student Research Fund was endowed in 2015 in honor of Dr. Keith Rayner, who died of multiple myeloma in January of 2015. Keith was a Distinguished University Professor and a member of the PBS faculty for 30 years (1978-2008). He pioneered the use of eye-tracking methodology for understanding the cognitive processes involved in reading and visual perception, and served as an inspiration to his many colleagues and students.

The Rayner Fund supports something Keith valued highly: graduate student research.  Awards from the endowment support research expenses including equipment purchases, data collection, professional travel, or summer stipends.  We are proud of the Rayner Fund, and of the student research it supports.  The more the endowment grows, the more can be awarded each year.