Fall 2015 - Psychology - University of Illinois at Chicago

UIC DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY NEWSLETTER
University of Illinois at Chicago
Welcome UIC Psychology Community (Fall, 2015)
As I write this newsletter, we have been enjoying the mild fall weather in Chicago.
Although there continues to be challenges at the state level, UIC remains strong as
a public institution of higher education and Psychology remains strong and successful as a department at UIC. We are optimistic with the new leadership at UIC
that the institution will continue to thrive into the future.
This past spring Psychology graduated the most undergraduates of any major in
LAS. Psychology not only graduates the most undergraduates, but graduates
more students from diverse backgrounds then any other department. The graduation ceremony was further highlighted with both Professor Karina Reyes and Kate
Zinsser receiving Silver Circle Awards for their Excellence in Teaching. The ceremony was topped off with the hooding of several of our graduate students. As
every fall, we now welcome a new group of Psychology graduate students eager to
contribute to the mission.
Fall also brings new faculty into the department. Karl Szpunar has started this fall
in our Cognitive Science program. Sylvia Morelli will be joining us in January in the
Social and Personality program. Bibiana Adames has also joined us as a clinical
assistant professor in the Office of Applied Psychological Service. In addition, we
have hired two new faculty lecturers, Donald Tyler and Christopher Baker.
As always, we feel privileged and thankful that we had the opportunity to have you
as students and friends. So we are always interested in hearing how you are doing and what your latest endeavors are. Please send in suggestions for feature
stories on students, alumni or faculty. We also welcome suggestions on topics
that may be of interest to our department community.
Michael E. Ragozzino, Professor and Head of Psychology
Fall 2015
In This Issue

Alumni
updates

New faculty

Department
news

Graduate alumni
reunion

Giving
GRADUATE ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
Richard J. McNally . Clinical . 1982
What people impacted you the most during your studies at UIC?
My Ph.D. advisor, Steven Reiss, had a major impact on me during my time at UIC. I
learned a great deal from Steve. He accepted me into the clinical program in 1977 and he
supervised my work throughout my time in Chicago. We remain in regular contact via email to this day.
What is your best memory while studying in the Department of
Psychology at UIC?
I have a vivid memory of my excitement upon receiving news of my first scientific publication. Reading the manuscript acceptance letter was quite a thrill. It appeared in Behaviour Research and Therapy and was based on my M.A.
thesis, supervised by Steve Reiss. The excitement of publishing one’s work never wanes, and it is especially fun to
witness the joy my undergraduate and graduate students experience when they become published authors.
Other positive memories are social. During my early years in the program, I had two terrific roommates, Howard
Garb and John Lyons. We hosted some memorable parties back in the 1970s. Both Howard and John have gone on
to distinguished careers in psychology.
What are you doing now in your career and research? I have been in the Department of Psychology at
Harvard University since 1991, and a tenured Professor since 1995. I co-founded the clinical psychology program at
Harvard in 1999 with my colleague, Jill Hooley, and I have been Director of Clinical Training since 2002. I continue
to work in the field of anxiety and related disorders (e.g., OCD, social anxiety disorder, complicated grief, PTSD),
primarily focusing on mechanisms that mediate these syndromes.
What advice do you have for current graduate students for succeeding in a graduate program?
Be mindful of time and task management. Clinical students have so many tasks to juggle – courses, clinical work,
research, working as a teaching assistant – that writing up one’s research can easily get sidelined. Write 15 minutes to
2 hours per day, five days per week. Mornings are best. Remember: the more you write, the easier it gets. Don’t
cram your writing into a single day because doing so is a prescription for writer’s block or burnout.
Dr. McNally’s publications, etc. can be viewed at www.mcnallylab.com
One forthcoming article features an entirely new approach to understanding psychopathology:
McNally, R. J., Robinaugh, D. J., Wu, G. W. Y., Wang, L., Deserno, M., & Borsboom, D. (in press). Mental disorders as causal systems: A causal network approach to posttraumatic stress disorder. Clinical Psychological Science.
Introducing our newest faculty members...
Karl Szpunar
Assistant Professor, Cognitive
Where did you come from before Chicago? After completing my undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto, I was lucky to live in St. Louis, Missouri while pursuing my graduate studies at Washington University in St. Louis
and then in Cambridge, Massachusetts while completing my postdoctoral studies at
Harvard University.
What brought you to UIC? While interviewing at UIC, I was very much
struck by the welcoming character of the faculty, staff, and students. Since coming
to Chicago, my wife and I have been extremely happy with our decision to move here. I am very much looking forward
to a joyful and productive career here at UIC.
What advice would you give to a graduate student for succeeding in a graduate program? In my
opinion the most successful students are the ones who possess the strongest work ethic. However, make sure to develop
a line of work that you are passionate about. Success in graduate school and beyond will come down to putting in a lot
of hard work. If you are working on something that you are passionate about, then the late nights and weekends spent
reading, collecting data, analyzing results, and writing papers will not feel like work.
Where do you see your research going in the future? Oddly enough, I see my future research focusing on
the future. Much of the work in our laboratory focuses on the manner in which human memory can be flexibly used to
create novel simulations of future events. Moving forward, we hope to continue to redefine beliefs about the functions
of human memory; specifically that the primary purpose of memory may not be to remember the past but to predict and
plan for the future.
Fun questions…
What was the last movie you went to? What did you think? The last movie I saw was Get Hard starring
Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart. I like stupid comedies so it was right up my alley. The best part of the movie was that my
wife, who does not share my interest in stupid comedies, actually enjoyed it.
What was the last book you read? The last book I read was One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined
by Salman Khan. Part of my labs research focuses on ways to improve educational materials that are delivered through
online platforms, and so I am always interested to read about what others think about the changing face of education.
Visit Karl’s Lab at
www.uicmemorylab.com
Introducing our newest faculty members (con’t)...
S. Bibiana Adames, Clinical Assistant Professor
Where did you come from prior to UIC? I completed my undergraduate degree in NYC, and when applying to graduate programs I took a strong
interest in coming to UIC because of the opportunity to pursue training in
both clinical and community psychology. I participated in an undergraduate
research training program based at UIC during the summer of 1997, and used
my time here to learn more about the doctoral training program and the faculty here. I started my doctoral training at UIC in the fall of 1998 and graduated in the spring of 2006. After that I took a break from psychology and was
recruited by Chicago Public Radio to work as a host/producer. I did that for a
few years, and during that time I also worked as a life coach and an adjunct
lecturer at DePaul University. A few years ago I decided to return to psychology and took a position at UIC as a post-doctoral clinician, and during that
time I also taught as a lecturer at UIC. I completed my post-doctoral training in the spring of 2015 and I
plan to take the licensing exam in clinical psychology in the fall/spring of 2015.
What is/has been your favorite part of Chicago and/or UIC? My favorite part of my experiences at UIC has been the friends and colleagues I've met along the way. It's gratifying to continue to be
well received, and to be able to continue to identify opportunities for personal and professional growth.
Favorite sport’s team? I don't have a "favorite" sports team, because I don't really follow sports. It's
not that I dislike sports, though. I do love going to sporting events and the idea of so many people coming together for this one interest. I like Cubs games because I think Wrigley's a great place. I like basketball
games because I can't believe those guys are so big and agile! Football games because they're like holidays in this
country, and soccer because they remind me of my home country (Colombia). I do have to say I'm not a big fan of
hockey because I dislike how aggressive the players can be and are allowed to be.
Chris Baker, Lecturer
Where did you come from prior to UIC? I never know how to answer that.
It's kind of like being asked what car you drive. But I can say that I've been everything from an adjunct to a lecturer to an assistant professor to a valet to an employee at taco bell. All of this was in Chicago, except the valet, that was California.
What brought you to UIC? I decided to give up the secure life on the tenure
track to focus on what I do best, cooking and teaching. I'm still working on getting
an oven in my office.
What is/has been your favorite part of Chicago and/or UIC? True story:
I marched with the UIC faculty when they went on strike in 2014, even though I
was an assistant professor somewhere else at the time. I think that says it all.
Favorite sport’s team? Cubs
Introducing our newest faculty members (con’t)...
Alex Demos
Visiting Assistant Professor
Where did you come
from prior to UIC? Before coming to UIC, I spent
two years living in Montreal as a post-doctoral
fellow at McGill University. Before McGill, I spent
five years as PhD student
in rural Connecticut.
What is/has been
your favorite part of
Chicago and/or UIC?
As a former New Yorker, Chicago sort of feels like
home except the accent is all wrong.
Favorite sport’s team? The Academy of Ancient
Music and the Berlin Philharmonic! Musicians are athletes and if you don't believe me, you try doing what
they do. I promise you will probably pass out from
exhaustion at hour 2 of 8 during practice. Also like
sporting events, even classical crowds have been
known to riot from time to time.
Donald Tyler
Lecturer
Where did you come
from prior to UIC?
Prior to coming to UIC, I
served in various capacities at DePaul University
(after earning my PhD
there in Clinical Child Psychology). This included
service as a post-doctoral
clinician with DePaul Family and Community Services, a research associate with
the Cities Mentoring Project (a US Dept. of Educationfunded intervention study), and adjunct faculty in the
Psychology Department.
What is/has been your favorite part of Chicago and/or UIC? My favorite things about Chicago
are all the wonderful neighborhood festivals, outdoor
concerts, and other summer events, plus opportunities to enjoy live jazz, blues, and old-school Hip Hop
any time of the year. My favorite part of UIC is the
amazing diversity of the students!
Favorite sport’s team? Cleveland Cavaliers
Check out our
newly designed
website at
psch.uic.edu
Undergraduate Alumni Spotlight
Yara Mekawi . Psychology . 2010
What made you choose UIC as well
as the subject of psychology for your
undergraduate degree?
What intrigued me the most about UIC
was the seemingly infinite amount possibilities offered to students. I viewed
it as a setting that had the potential to
pave so many different paths, which
excited me. During my time at UIC, I
not only received strong didactic training through coursework, but also obtained valuable research experience as
well as applied work (e.g., internship,
crisis hotline). These experiences were
inherently rewarding, but had the added benefit of helping me determine my
own interests (i.e., what was stimulating to me) and skill set (i.e., areas of
strength and areas for improvement).
As a result, I left UIC with a relatively
strong understanding of what I wanted
to do, and a concrete plan for how I
could get started.
What people impacted you the most
during your studies at UIC?
course) I discovered that she wanted to
ask me if I was considering graduate
school in psychology. I had not, up
until that point, and the resulting conversation ended up being a turning
point for me. This eventually led to
working with Dr. Mary Murphy, who
was formerly a professor of social psychology at UIC. Anyone who has
worked with Dr. Murphy knows that
her energy is contagious and that she is
an inspiring mentor in so many ways.
In terms of professional development,
Dr. Bette Bottoms was a consistent
source of support and encouragement.
One of my favorite things about Dr.
Bottoms is her unwavering advocacy
and willingness to work with students
to make sure that they have the tools
they need to succeed as a psychology
student. The structure of the psychology department also allowed me to foster impactful relationships with graduate students. Among others, Dr. Jennifer Veilleux and Dr. Sylvia Perry,
who are now tenure-track professors,
were sources of infinite wisdom and
guidance about graduate school.
been living in Champaign since then.
Broadly speaking, I am interested in
racial prejudice and discrimination.
Within this large domain, I am pursuing two separate, but related, lines of
inquiry. The first has to do with perpetration of racial discrimination, including research on racial shooter biases,
attitudes about racism, and beliefs
about the acceptability of committing
racial microaggressions. The second
has to do with the effects of racial discrimination on the mental health of
racial/ethnic minorities, including research on the cognitive mechanisms
through which chronic discrimination
can lead to anxiety and depression.
Tell us more about your recent interview with NPR as a result of an
article you published.
Well, it was certainly a learning experience! I was excited that our research
was being disseminated to consumers
in a way that exceeds typical academic
outlet readership. At the same time, it
was challenging to not have much of a
voice in the dialogue that ensued. It
was not so much the “name-calling”
Tell us more about your research
that bothered me, but the fundamental
and what you are doing now since
misunderstanding of basic scientific
graduating UIC.
methods and principles (e.g., referring
After graduating from UIC in 2010, I to the meta-analysis as “cherry picking”). To me, this highlighted the imworked as a research assistant at
Northwestern University for two years portance of fostering stronger relationships between researchers and the genunder the mentorship of Dr. Lauren
Wakschlag. I began my doctoral pro- eral public. Thankfully, these types of
gram in clinical-community psycholo- relationships appear to be growing
gy at the University of Illinois at Urba- now more than ever.
na-Champaign in 2012, and I have
There are so many! The first was Dr.
Kara Morgan-Short, who taught my
writing in psychology course my sophomore year. One day she asked me to Link to Yara’s research and discussion on NPR:
come in to her office, which I immedi- www.npr.org/2015/08/29/435833251/shooters-quicker-to-pull-trigger-whenately interpreted as a sign that I done
target-is-black-study-finds
something wrong and was very nervous! To my relief, when I walked in to
her office (after getting lost in UH, of
WELCOME NEW STUDENTS
The Department welcomed 13 new PhD graduate students in the Fall 2015 semester. They say a
way to a person’s heart is through their stomach, so what a better way to get to know our students
then to ask them …
If you could only eat meal for the rest of your life what would it be? (fr om back r ow, left to r ight)
Colin Iwanski (CLN): An endless bowl of chips and salsa, served with a steaming bowl of pork belly
ramen. Dessert would be apple pie
David Sarmento (COG): Pulled pork street tacos.
Alyssa Blair (COG): Breakfast.
Sushi Shrikanth (COG): Gior dano's pizza.
Katie Bessette (CLN): A por ter house steak with aspar agus and br own r ice; ice cr eam for desser t.
Jess Fogel (BNS): Any for m of potatoes.
Zach Melton (SOC): My grandmother's borek and tzatziki sauce and my grandfather's homemade chicken and dumplings.
Kerry Kinney (CLN): Fettuccine alfredo.
Carlos Rosas (CPR): Califor nia bur r ito (car ne asada, fr ies, and sour cr eam).
Catherine Pichardo (CPR): Mole enchilada with a tamar indo jar r ito on the side .
Marbella Uriostegui (CPR): Posole de puerco topped with lots of repollo and tostadas on the side .
JP Prims (SOC): Cheese pizza with ice cream for dessert.
Sushma Rameshkumar (CLN, not pictur ed): Indian food.
Department News
Graduate student Liana Peter-Hagene (Mentor: Bette
Bottoms) received an NSF award, entitled "Doctoral Dissertation Research: Cognitive Depletion and Motivation
to Avoid Prejudice during Jury Deliberation: A SelfRegulation Perspective on Interracial Group DecisionMaking".
Hirschberg Memorial Research Grant Recipients:
-Gabriela Valencia (Jenny Wiley: Faculty Sponsor) Is It All About
Presentation? Errors in the Letter-Number Sequencing Task
-Krishna Modi (Jamie Roitman: Faculty Sponsor) Modification of
Forebrain Cholinergic Neurons Due to Saporin
-Kiran Malhotra (Pauline Maki: Faculty Sponsor) The Effects of Childhood Trauma on Stress Responsivity in Midlife Women Without MDD or PTSD
Assistant Professor Kristine Molina was this year’s recipient of the Award for Excellence by a
New Investigator from the National Hispanic Science Network (http://www.the-nhsn.org/). The
award is presented to a new investigator for outstanding research and/or publication in the field
of Hispanic drug abuse.
Graduate students Sophie Deldonno (Mentor: Scott Langenecker) and Jacklynn Fitzgerald
(Mentors: Luan Phan and Mike Ragozzino) received NIMH pre-doctoral fellowships.
Graduate student Corey Salo was awarded two grants; The 2015 APAGS Ellin Bloch and Pierre
Ritchie Diversity Dissertation Grant from the American Psychological Association of Graduate
Students AND The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues Grant.
Professor Emerita Stephanie Riger received the Carolyn Wood Sherif Award from APA Division
35.
Media Mentions
Professor
Mark Atkins discusses bullying in honor of October’s National Bullying Prevention Month.
Check out the interview at http://
abc7chicago.com/health/newsviews-dr-marcatkins-national-bullying-preventionmonth/1038900
Professor Pauline M. Maki was featured on NBC's Today website for a new North American Menopause Society (NAMS) Position Statement on Non-Hormonal Treatments for Vasomotor Symptoms and was the featured guest of a 1-hour call-in show on Sirius XM Doctor Radio on menopause.
The Wall Street Journal quotes Claire Christensen, a 2015 UIC Ph.D. recipient in psychology, in
an article about watching television as a family. Christensen, who published a study last year on
using television to improve social-emotional skills in young children, offers some related tips for
Give to Psychology
We are committed to gaining support for our psychology students. We have a
number of awards to fund students and their research and are focused on increasing these award opportunities and enhancing the student experience. Giving is tax-deductible and has an immediate impact on the experience of our students.
Psychology Fund: This is an unrestricted fund used to support the academic mission of the Department of
Psychology. Your gift to this fund will provide support in a variety of areas including new programs and initiatives; faculty and graduate student recruitment; and speakers and special events that will broaden the educational experiences of our students.
Christopher B. Keys Graduate Student Achievement Award: The priority for fund use will go toward a Christopher B. Keys Award for Early Outstanding Research Achievement. This will be made annually to a 1st through
3rd year graduate student who is in good standing in the Department of Psychology at the University of Illinois
at Chicago whose work best exemplifies the tradition of innovative, adventuresome research conducted by
Christopher B. Keys. This fund is also used to support the outstanding achievements of Psychology graduate
students that recognizes their outstanding scholarly accomplishments and excellence in teaching. Your gift will
allow financial support in recognizing outstanding achievements of our graduate students.
Psi Chi Undergraduate Award Fund: This fund is used to provide financial support to undergraduate students
in the Department of Psychology. The department is committed to providing critical financial support to deserving students. Your generosity will help us realize our goal of increasing that support.
To make a donation:
Visit our website at psch.uic.edu, and click on “Give
to Psychology” located on the lower right of the
homepage or call 312.413.4172.
Graduate Student Alumni
Event. May 2016.
Linda Buyer, Gloria Balague and Carla Douros, graduates of our PhD program, are organizing an alumni event for other PhD graduates of the program.
To further plan, details are needed on how many people might be interested in attending and what
they are interested in doing while attending.
A very short survey has been created to get that information. Please take a moment to complete it at
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/UICPSYCH.
Visit the Alumni Facebook page at
www.facebook.com/groups/uicpsychalumni/