-Newsletter posted October 30, 2012.

Table of Contents
Letter from the Chair  /  Faculty Notes and Activities  /  Student Notes  /  Welcome New Faculty  /  Alumni Comings & Going  /  In Remembrance
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Dear Western Alumni, Students, and Friends:

Another year has passed and the Psychology Department remains as busy as ever. The department had the great opportunity to recruit two new faculty members who joined us in the Fall of 2012:

- Dr. Adriana Manago joined the department from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Dr. Manago is a developmental psychologist with an interest in identity development in adolescence and early adulthood. She has worked extensively with a Maya community called Zinacantán in Southern Mexico. As well, she has an active research program examining the impact of social networking sites (Facebook) on identity development.

- Dr. Jeff Carroll joined the department from Harvard Medical School. Dr. Carroll is a Behavioral Neuroscientist who studies Huntington’s disease. He collaborates on a website dedicated to awareness of Huntington’s disease: HDBuzz.net. Dr. Carroll spent last year at Western Washington University as a teaching postdoctoral fellow.

Over the past year, we also had an addition of a number of new non-tenure track faculty members:

- Dr. Rachel Severson received her Ph.D. from the University of Washington. She is teaching courses in the developmental sequence.

- Dr. Jennifer Henderson received her Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She is teaching courses in the neuroscience sequence.

- Dr. Sarita Shukla received her Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky. She is teaching a course in learning, as well as courses for Woodring College.

- Dr. Tony Tinsley received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. He is teaching introductory psychology.

The department also saw the departure of a number of faculty members over the past year. Merle Prim retired after 42 years of service. Leslie McDonald-Miszczak stepped down to pursue personal interests. Debbie Chun took a position at the University of Washington. Ethan Remmel passed away. He recorded his thoughts on cancer in a Psychology Today Blog.

The annual celebration of research, PsychFest was held on June 1, 2012. The event was very successful, with over 70 students presenting their research through talks or posters. The keynote speaker was Dr. Eric Eich, a cognitive neuroscientist from the University of British Columbia. All alumni are invited to attend PsychFest. 

The past academic year was productive for faculty research. The faculty authored 37 papers, 17 book chapters and 79 conference presentations. Most of these included student authors. In the case of student conference presentations, the department was able to provide funding from donations to help students travel to conferences like APS in Chicago. These activities are directly reflected in the classroom instruction that students receive, resulting in an up-to-date knowledge base for students. As well, many students participated in service learning components to their courses. For instance, Dr. Barbara Lehman’s Psychology 302 students worked on a needs assessment survey with the Whatcom YWCA.

The activities of students and faculty require increased funding to assure the highest possible quality of education. This is especially true at this time when the costs of higher education are on the rise. Your generous donations to the Western Washington University Foundation in the past have helped us support students in both the undergraduate and graduate programs by providing funding for student scholarships, conference registration fees, travel to conferences, computer software to help support instruction, and computer lab maintenance. We appreciate your support in the past and look forward to your continued support in the future.

Sincerely,

Larry Symons, Ph.D.

Chair, Department of Psychology

October 2012
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Ethan Remmel Scholarship. The Department established a scholarship in Dr. Ethan Remmel's name to support a student with interests in child development. Within the first year, the scholarship was endowed as a result of generous donations by many individuals. An endowed scholarship helps ensure that a scholarship will be awarded every year. Contributions to this scholarship fund can be made by visiting www.wwu.edu/give, selecting scholarship, and typing in "Ethan Remmel Scholarship."

Retired Faculty Celebrate the 50^th Anniversary of the Formation of the Department of Psychology. In May 2010, several currently retired members of the Department of Psychology faculty attend the 50^th anniversary celebration of the formation of the Department of Psychology at the Back 2 Bellingham celebration sponsored by the Alumni Association.  Front row:  Dr. Marcia Lippman, Dr. Evelyn “Pete” Mason, Dr. Frank Nugent. Back row: Dr. Lou Lippman, Dr. Ronald Kleinknecht, Dr. Fred Grote, Dr. Merle Prim, Dr. Larry Miller, and Dr. George Cvetkovich.

Grant Activity. Several faculty received external grants.

Dr. David Sattler is Co-Principal Investigator on Resilient Bellingham Consortium, a $512,742 grant awarded by the Emergency Management for Higher Education Program, U.S. Department of Education. Funding includes support for a psychology graduate student for two years to help improve and evaluate emergency preparedness on campus by participating in a research project. As part of the grant activities, Dr. Sattler produced, directed, and co-wrote Western Emergency Preparedness: Be Safe, Be Ready that informs the Western community about emergency preparedness. Undergraduate students participated in creating the video.

Dr. Jeff King, Dr. Barbara Lehman, and Dr. Deborah Forgays were involved with contributing to an interdisciplinary grant with the Principal Investigator, Dr. Michael Massanari of the Critical Junctures Institute,  and Dr. Jay Teachman (Sociology) to address the issues of “The Complex Patient”. The title of the project is Defining Patient Complexity: Behavioral and Social Science Approaches and features a series of workshops with local healthcare providers to define and work through patient complexity issues. This $50,000 R13 grant was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Jeff Grimm was awarded was awarded a National Institutes of Health grant (NIH R15 grant, #DA016285-03)  of $393731 in support of a program of research entitled Incubation of Craving: Abstinence and Environmental Enrichment Mediated Molecular Adaptations. The grant supports investigation of molecular changes in the brain that underlie sucrose craving that runs from the 2011 Spring Quarter through the 2014 Spring Quarter.  Dr. Grimm was also awarded a diversity supplement to a R15 grant. The award provide $22,567 to support mentoring of Kyaln Dorsey, an undergraduate student, in research focused on incubation of craving from the 2012 Spring Quarter through the 2012 Fall Quarter.

Dr. Janet Finlay was awarded $372,735 from the National Institutes of Health in 2010 to support her research into the neurobiology of schizophrenia. Dr. Finlay’s research will explore whether the N-methyl-D-asparatate receptor (NMDAR), a protein involved in communications between neurons, is responsible for the cognitive impairments caused by schizophrenia. In addition to research supplies, Dr. Finlay’s grant will provide funding for undergraduate student-research assistantships and student travel to research-related meetings.

Service Learning. Several faculty incorporated service learning activities into their classes.

When the Bellingham YWCA executive director, Cheri Kitty, shared her interest in gathering data from sample groups of area women, Dr.  Barbara Lehman jumped at the chance to assist. It was the perfect opportunity for her to invest in the community while effectively teaching research methods. She and her students meticulously gathered data that would have a real effect on YWCA programs. They found that women’s access to community resources and certain quality of life indicators were correlated in various ways to histories of depression, sexual identities and unemployment. Cheri said the survey reports “provide critical information on how the YWCA can support women throughout our community.” Students responded that the hands-on experience was “fun, rewarding and extremely helpful” and that it influenced career direction. Enthusiasm for the project translated into higher performances on exams and quizzes as Barbara notes, “. . . community engagement spilled over into general course engagement.” (NOTE: The following item was taken from the 2012 Center for Service Learning booklet with permission).

Dr. Kate McLean established a service learning component in her Adolescent Development class. Students are working with adolescents at Options High School, the AVID program at Kulshan Middle School, and Sterling Meadows, and are learning how to synthesize research and practice and discovering what constructs and data are most applicable to their placements by observing the youth at each site, and hearing from colleagues at other sites. 

Dr. Todd Haskell’s Cognitive Seminar students partnered with members of the Bellingham Senior Activity Center to explore cognitive changes across the lifespan. Class members collaborated with seniors to put on an informational event in Red Square entitled Deflating Stereotypes about Aging, which aimed to educate members of the campus community about age-related cognitive changes. In addition, students wrote articles on cognition and aging targeting a lay audience; these articles have been assembled into an anthology and donated to the Senior Center.

Students enrolled in Dr. Jennifer Devenport’s Social Psychology Seminar (Fall 2012) are working with the Whatcom Public Defender's Office and Columbia Legal Services on a research project assessing layperson's opinions of juvenile justice and mandatory sentences of life without parole for juvenile murders. These data will inform and assist legislators, judges and commissioners in the sentencing of juveniles who have been found guilty of murder in adult court.

Retirements and Resignations. We express our sincere thanks to Dr. Prim, Dr. McDonald-Miszczak, and Dr. Chun for their many years of dedication and service to the students and faculty of the Department of Psychology and to Western Washington University. We wish all of them the best in their future pursuits.

Dr. Merle Prim retired in at the end of the 2011 Spring Quarter after 42 years of service as a member of the faculty of the Department of Psychology in the area of physiological psychology (now neuroscience). Dr. Prim stated that his research lab was primarily focused on teaching students the basics of learning and condition in non-human animals. During his tenure at Western Washington University he mentored numerous undergraduate and graduate students who completed their doctoral degrees at other institutions. Several of those students returned to Bellingham in June 2011 to honor Dr. Prim for his dedication as a teacher and mentor. The event was hosted by Dr. Scott Ottaway, a former undergraduate student and a colleague of Dr. Prim.

Dr. Leslie McDonald-Miszczak resigned her faculty position as a developmental psychologist at the end of the 2011 Spring Quarter to care for her aging parents and be able to dedicate more time to her two children. Dr. McDonald-Miszczak was instrumental in extending the curriculum in developmental psychology to include courses in adult development and aging. Her research focused primarily on medication adherence issues in the elderly. She also was active in co-creating a new course in health psychology with Drs. Barbara Lehman and Debbie Chun.

Dr. Debbie Chun resigned her faculty position at the end of the Fall 2011 Quarter to accept a similar position at the University of Washington. Dr. Chun primarily taught courses in introductory psychology, abnormal psychology, and health psychology at the undergraduate level as well as a course in personality and psychopathology at the graduate level. She helped develop a new course in health psychology with Drs. McDonald-Miszczak and Barbara Lehman.

The 2011-12 academic year was a jam packed year for the Neuroscience Research Driven Students (NeRDS). A number of the members attended the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting in Washington DC in November 2011 which quite exciting and a few of our members even presented in the poster sessions. Every month members of the NeRDS met to discuss a recently published journal article on topics ranging from the birth of new neurons in the olfactory bulb to a paper on the link between caspase-2 and Huntington’s disease published by the Behavioral Neuroscience program’s newest faculty member, Dr. Jeff Carroll. We have run a number of outreach programs with local elementary and middle schools in Bellingham teaching students basic neuroscience concepts which have been a lot of fun. On campus, the members of the NeRDS participated in the Compass to Campus program, educating visiting 5^th graders about the brain and basic sensory functions…the highlight had to be the Jelly-Belly taste tests! In addition, the members of the NeRDS hosted an information fair for 1^st and 2^nd year students to learn more about the Neuroscience program at Western. Members of NeRDS regularly have study sessions for the introductory neuroscience students, which is a great learning experience for everyone involved. Congratulations to the new officers for the 2012-2013 academic year: Lianne Hodgson (President), Edwin Glueck (Vice-President), Annalisa Unbedacht (Budget Authority), Thuyanh Nguyen (Publicity), Nicole Bazar (Outreach Coordinator), and Lucille Zhang (Journal Club Coordinator). The members of the NeRDS have been working on a full revamp of their website and have held a few club publicity events (see http://www.wwu.edu/neuroscience).

During the 2011-2012 academic year, the WWU Psychology Club held weekly meetings and occasional events. Our weekly meetings were casual and generally we chatted about our classes, our plans for the future, and possible events or outings for the club. Some of our events included movie nights where we chose a psychology-related film or documentary to watch as a group, inviting graduate students to come in for question and answer sessions, social events like bowling nights or meeting at Mallard Ice Cream for treats, bake sales to raise money for club activities, and participating in Relay For Life during Spring quarter 2012. Find us on Facebook! Search “WWU Psychology Club” and check us out! Rowan Marsh is serving as the President of the Psychology Club for the 2012-2013 academic year.

Samuel Moss, a student in Dr. Jackie Rose’s research laboratory, was awarded the distinction of Outstanding Poster at the 2012 Sigma Xi competition during the 2012 Scholar’s Week. There were over 180 posters, of which 12 were selected for this distinction and were highlighted at the Alumni Association’s Back 2 Bellingham weekend (May 18-20). Samuel graduated with a major in Behavioral Neuroscience in June 2012.

Outstanding Graduate Award

2011 Outstanding Graduate in Psychology: Zoe Barnow.

2012 Outstanding Graduate in Psychology: Claire Bomkamp.

Scholarship Awards

2011 Tuition Fee Waiver Scholarship: Paris Emam

2011 Adams-Woodring Scholarship: Heather Wrenn

2012 Mees Memorial Scholarship: Deborah Spencer, Annabelle King, Theresa Knudson
2012 Tuition Fee Waiver Scholarship: Taylor Klein

2012 Adams-Woodring Scholarship: Alisha Yoder
2012 Ethan Remmel Scholarship: Alexa Middendorf

Alexa Middendorf (right) and Dr. Rebecca Goodvin present a poster at PsychFest 2012. Alexa is the first recipient of the Ethan Remmel Scholarship.

Like Dr. Remmel, Alexa has experience as a pre-school teacher. In her application, Alexa stated "I plan to pursue a graduate degree in developmental psychology with an emphasis in early childhood social, emotional, and cognitive development. I am particularly interested in self-concept development via social experiences with parents, preschool teachers and peers. Additionally, I intend to continue foster parenting indefinitely and believe my education and experience will enhance my ability to support and advocate for children.” Associate Professor Emeritus Dr. Fred Grote was among the members of the scholarship selection team. The Department is thankful to all those who contributed to the scholarship and to honor our colleague. To contribute to this scholarship, please  visit www.wwu.edu/give, click the scholarship box, and type “Ethan Remmel Scholarship”.

Dr. Adriana Manago is a new assistant professor at Western Washington University specializing in cultural developmental psychology. She earned her Ph.D. in developmental psychology from UCLA in 2011 with a certificate of interdisciplinary training in developmental psychology and anthropology from the FPR-UCLA Center for Culture, Brain and Development. Her dissertation, “Shifting Meanings for Gender and the Family in a Maya community in Chiapas, Mexico” won UCLA’s 2011 Millard Madsen Distinguished Dissertation Award for the best developmental dissertation. In 2011-2012, Dr. Manago was a post-doctoral research fellow in the department of psychology at the University of Michigan studying the influence of new media on adolescent social development.

Her current program of research focuses on the influence of culture change, particularly a shift away from rural agrarian forms of living and increasing use of digital communication technologies, on adolescent social development in different cultural communities, including in an indigenous Maya community of Zinacantán, among Arabs and Bedouins in Israel, and among European American and Latino youth in the United States. Dr. Manago will be teaching developmental psychology courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Dr. Tony Tinsley is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, a professor in the WLRA International Centre of Excellence at Wageningen University in The Netherlands, and a research associate in psychology at Western Washington University. He has taught at the University of Oregon, University of Florida, and Southern Illinois University at Carbondale (where he was director of the doctoral training program in counseling psychology), and he has held appointments as a visiting scholar at the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, and the University of Washington.

Dr. Tinsley is the lead editor of the Handbook of Applied Multivariate Statistics and Mathematical Modeling, the Senior Editor of Volume 2 (Personal Counseling and Mental Health Problems) of the Encyclopedia of Counseling, and the author of more than 150 publications dealing with leisure, vocational psychology, and psychological measurement. He served as the Editor of the Journal of Vocational Behavior for nine years, as the editor of Passages, as a Guest Editor of the Journal of Counseling Psychology and Leisure Sciences, an Advisory Editor of Contemporary Psychology, an Associate Editor of the Encyclopedia of Career Decisions and Work Issues, and an Associate and Book Review Editor of the Journal of Leisure Research. Dr. Tinsley is a recipient of numerous honors including the research award of the American Rehabilitation Counseling Association and the Allen V. Sapora Research Award for excellence in leisure psychology research. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, Western Psychological Association, and American Psychological Society, a former Chair of the Commission on Assessment of the American College Personnel Association, a former member of the Board of the Council of Counseling Psychology Training Programs, and a former President and secretary-treasurer of the Academy of Leisure Sciences. Dr. Tinsley will teach Introductory Psychology at Western Washington University.

Amanda Hahn (MS, 2009) recently accepted a post-doctoral fellowship in the Face Research Lab of Dr. Ben Jones at the University of Glasgow. Amanda’s research focuses on the endocrinological underpinnings of motivation and mate preferences. In particular, she is interested in shifts in inter- and intra-sexual behaviors across the menstrual cycle. Amanda is currently exploring cyclical variations in mating behaviors and the impact that hormonal contraceptive use has on these behaviors. As a PhD student at the University of St Andrews Amanda worked in the Perception Lab supervised by Dr. David Perrett. She completed her Master's Degree in Experimental Psychology at Western Washington University as a member of the Human Cognition and Neural Dynamics Lab.

Cheri (Johnson) Wells (MS, 1996) is the Tribal Liaison at Northern Arizona Regional Behavioral Health Authority in Flagstaff, Arizona. Her work involves ensuring access to behavioral health services for Title XIX and XXI eligible American Indians in northern Arizona, increasing local capacity at Tribal Behavioral Health agencies on the Reservations through collaboration and technical assistance, and Develop local crisis protocol including raising awareness on the Arizona Tribal Involuntary Commitment Process.

Aaron Sawyer (MS, 2005) recently completed my doctoral degree in clinical psychology at the University of Missouri-Columbia. His work concentrates on child and family treatments. Dr. Sawyer is present in a position as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Kennedy Krieger Institute in Washington, DC where he provides office-based child and family therapy to a diverse range of clients from the Baltimore and Washington, DC areas. 

Virpi Sidler (MS, 1987) works for the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services provides mandated child protective services, preventative and therapeutic services, foster care and public adoption services for the LA metropolitan area with a population of nearly 10 million residents. As a Liaison for fiscal and human resources functions, her work focuses primarily on facilitation of fiscal matters, development of contracts and hiring of staff as well as managing specific projects.

Wakana (Tsuru) Kim (MS, 2001) is the Manager of Clinical Data Management at Gilead Sciences, Inc. in Seattle, Washington.

Todd Brittain (BA, 2003) is an Ophthalmology Resident at St. John Providence Health System in Warren, Missouri. He received his D.O. in Medicine at Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences in Kansas City, Missouri in July 2012 and a Master’s degree in Business Administration focusing on healthcare management and leadership from Rockhurst University.

Johnica Hopkins (BA, 2001) is an English Language Instructor at Chosun University in South Korea. In June 2011, she received her MA in Teaching English as a Second Language (TOESL) from the University of Washington.

Scott Bates (MS, 1994) is presently serving as the Associate Vice-President for Undergraduate Research at Utah State University in Logan, Utah.

Samantha McGarrity (BA, 2012) is a group facilitator intern at Catholic Community Services in Bellingham, Washington.

Sonya (Lizasuain) Landas (MS, 1998) received her PhD in Higher Education from Old Dominion University in 2011. She is currently an associate professor of psychology at Tidewater Community College in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Daphne Tsao (MS, 2009) is a clinical social worker in private practice with Vancouver Coastal Health in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Robert Winningham (BA, 1994; MS, 1996) is currently the Chair of the Department of Psychology at Western Oregon University in Monmouth, Oregon.

Cooper Dean (BA, 2003) completed a pre-doctoral internship at the Western Washington University Counseling Center to fulfill the requirements of his doctoral program in clinical psychology at the Pacific University School of Professional Psychology in Portland, Oregon. In September 2012, he began a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh.

Sarah Tragesser (BA, 2000; MA 2002) is an assistant professor of psychology at Washington State University—Tri-Cities

Please let us know about your “comings and goings” so that we can include them in the next Department of Psychology Newsletter. We are always interested in the paths that your lives have taken after you graduated from Western Washington University. Your news items can be sent to Dr. Dale Dinnel, Dr. David Sattler, or Dr. Alex Czopp.

Ethan Ryan Remmel, 41, an Associate Professor of Developmental Psychology at Western Washington University, died at home on Monday, June 13, 2011, ten days after teaching a graduate developmental psychology class and a year after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. He graduated from Yale University with a dual major in computer science and psychology. After working in the Silicon Valley for several years with leading software companies, Dr. Remmel left a lucrative career in software development to return to his love of education, service, and young children. Dr. Remmel earned his PhD in psychology from Stanford University under the direction of Dr. John Flavell. He joined the faculty of the Department of Psychology at Western Washington University in the 2002-03 academic year. He was honored to have been nominated for an outstanding teaching award, reflecting his passion for teaching. Dr. Remmel’s research focused on theory of mind development in hearing impaired children. A scholarship in Dr. Remmel’s name has been established to support a student with interests in child development. Donations to this scholarship fund can be made by visiting www.wwu.edu/give and typing in “Ethan Remmel Scholarship”.