Psychology Department

Pyschology Department

Psychology Department News

Summer 2008

  • June 9: KatySue Tillman, a doctoral candidate in counseling psychology with an emphasis on school counseling, will be joining the faculty in the Fall 2008 semester. She anticipates completing her doctoral degree in August. The Department welcomes her.
  • June 2: The Psychology Department main office will be in Humanities 4 during the summer due to the closing of Faculty Tower for new air conditioner installation. We will return to Faculty Tower when it reopens for the fall semester.
  • May 31: Dr. Min Ju has left the university as of the end of the spring semester. The Psychology Department is sad to see her go, but wishes her much luck in the future.

Spring 2008

Fall 2007

  • Dec 31: MS in Mental Health Counseling student and swimming champion Michelle Coombs was featured in a Dec 25 article in the Times Herald Record.
  • Dec 28: Dr. Glenn Geher was selected to receive the Alumni Association's 2007 Distinguished Teaching Award, which is to be awarded at a ceremony on campus January 19.
  • Dec 20: Recent M.S. in Mental Health Counseling graduate Michael Reisner has been hired by Ulster-Greene ARC as an applied behavioral specialist.
  • Dec 7: Faculty member Jonathan Rust passed his doctoral dissertation defense on Nov 28. Congratulations, Dr. Rust!
  • Dec 5: MS in mental health counseling student Michelle Coombs was selected the Division III ECAC Swimmer of the week after leading the Hawks to a fifth place finish at the Winter Championships. Details here.
  • Nov 12: Drs. James Halpern and Phyllis Freeman were awarded a $13,000 grant by the National Institute of Mental Health - National Institute on Drug Abuse for Health in support of the Institute for Disaster Mental Health's April 2008 conference, "Healing the Scars of War,' which will provide mental health workers with the best practices in assisting returning service personnel experiencing stress reactions. The award also will support research on the perceptions of training needs and research gaps of those providing mental health support for regional military personnel and their families. Assisting them are undergraduate psychology major Rachel Fish, and psychology graduate students David Anchin (MA Psychology Program), Diane Grimaldi, Meredith Johnson, and Jaymie Lowitt (MS Mental Health Counseling Program). The Conference also is supported by awards from the New York State Office of Mental Health and the SUNY New Paltz Campus Auxiliary Services.
  • Nov 5: Dr. Glenn Geher will be interviewed regarding Evolutionary Psychology on a show called "Mind Matters" on WWUH of Hartford, CT. This interview will taped Thursday, Nov 8, from 5:00-5:40 and broadcast later this year.
  • Oct 29: Second-year graduate students in the Psychology Department's Mental Health Counseling program Brandon Roman, Allison Trusso. Laura Caccavone, Diane Grimaldi, and Keith Rico volunteered with the American Red Cross as disaster mental health volunteers on Sept. 11 at a memorial ceremony at Ground Zero. Details available in NewsPulse.
  • Oct 15: Dr. Jonathan Raskin has been elected a fellow of the American Psychological Association. He was elected by Division 32, the Society for Humanistic Psychology.
  • Oct 4: Lecture: Dr. Donna Coch of Dartmouth College will present a lecture on "Mind, Brain, and Education: A New Science of Learning" on Oct 9 at 6:30 p.m. in LC 100.
  • Aug 23: The Psychology Department welcomes Dr. Corwin Senko to the faculty as a new assistant professor. Dr. Senko earned his Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research interests include achievement motivation and goal-setting processes, intrinsic motivation, and students' learning strategies. Welcome Dr. Senko!
  • Aug 22: Dr. Jonathan Raskin gave the address at SUNY New Paltz's Twenty-First Annual Convocation. His address was entitled "Overcoming That 'Sink'-ing Feeling."

Spring 2007

Faculty

  • The Psychology Department wishes a warm farewell to Dr. Jason Carter, who is leaving the faculty at the end of the spring semester. He will be missed!
  • Dr. Jonathan Raskin has been selected to receive a State University Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities.
  • Dr. Jonathan Raskin has been selected as a recipient of the 2007 SUNY Research Foundation Research and Scholarship Award. He received the award at a dinner reception in Albany on May 2.
  • Dr. Melanie S. Hill, along with her students Amanda Dixon, Meredith Johnson, Claire Lipton, Regina Musicaro and Pashmina Rashad, presented their research "Exploring Women's Diverse Experiences of Sexual Objectification" at the 32nd Annual Association for Women in Psychology Conference in San Francisco, CA in March. The presentation included a series of four separate sub-projects: Powerful or Powerless? Diverse Emotional Reactions to Sexual Objectification Experiences; The Power of the Context: Positive, Negative, and Conflicted; Hooking Up: Objectification, Sexual Liberation, or Rape?; and Venturing Inward: The Experience of Women Interviewing Women.
  • Dr. Glenn Geher's research on Mating Intelligence is the focus of an article in the March 31, 2007 issue of The New Scientist written by Dan Jones and titled " The Love Delusion."
  • Dr. Jonathan Raskin has been selected to receive the Carmi Harari Early Career Award for Excellence in Scholarship from the Division of Humanistic Psychology of the American Psychological Association. He will receive the award at the 2007 APA Convention in San Francisco this August.
  • Dr. Glenn Geher's research on evolutionary psychology and romantic relationships was covered in the January/February 2007 Psychology Today cover article, "Love's Loopy Logic."

Students

  • Michelle Coombs, Heather Mangione, and Regina Musicaro have been awarded the Richard Panman Scholarship award. Congratulations to all three of them on this well-deserved honor.
  • Congratulations to the following students, who have been nominated by the Psychology Department to receive the honor of being recognized as Outstanding Graduates by the college at May commencement: Michelle Coombs, Heather Mangione, Regina Musicaro, Kimberly Stanistreet-Clouston, and Stacie Walker (undergraduate students); Justin Krass (graduate student)
  • Psychology majors Regina Musicaro and Kimberly Stanistreet-Clouston have been selected to receive the Chancellor's Award for Student Excellence. Congratulations to them both!
  • Psychology major Michelle Coombs was named the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Winter Chancellor's Scholar Athlete for women's swimming. She also became the first female SUNY New Paltz national champion as she claimed the 100 freestyle with a time of 50.84 at the 2007 NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships held in Houston,TX.

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