Dr. Bruce Carlson
By Bruce Carlson
Chair and Associate Professor of Psychology
After a hiatus of many years, the department’s newsletter returns, albeit in an electronic format. For those of you who have not been on campus for some time, there have been many changes to the department, some of which are detailed in the stories contained in this newsletter.
Faculty and Staff Changes
This year, we added one new faculty member, Jenny Howell, who will be introduced to you in one of the stories in this newsletter. Two other faculty members left the department this year. Steve Patterson resigned following his election as mayor of the city of Athens, and Rodger Griffeth retired to Virginia to be near family.
We have seen some changes to our staff in the past year, too. Kelly Pero is now our Department Administrator, replacing Anita Mondo, who retired to Florida, while Anne Morrison was hired to replace Stephanie Kearns, who moved to the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs. Jean Anne Myers was hired to fill Anne’s spot.
Facility Changes
In the last year or so, we have witnessed changes to our facilities. Most notably, as part of its long-term plans to significantly strengthen undergraduate advising, the department renovated space on the second floor of Porter Hall for the department’s Advising and Resource Center. Recent graduates will be familiar with the multitude of programs, workshops, and other events conducted by the staff of the Advising and Resource Center for the benefit of psychology majors and minors. If you are not a recent graduate, you may be interested in becoming acquainted with the advising center through the accompanying story in this newsletter.
Teaching and Research Excellence
While much has changed, much remains the same. The department continues to excel in both teaching and research.
The department’s undergraduate and graduate curricula continue to evolve, with the addition of several new courses in the last few years. The steady increase in student teaching evaluations that we’ve seen over the last two decades as well as the numerous teaching awards bestowed on our faculty reflect the faculty’s commitment to teaching and mentoring excellence.
With respect to research, we remain one of this university’s pre-eminent doctoral programs. In the 2014-15 academic year, department faculty received more than $3 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and numerous other agencies and foundations. In the two years from 2014 through 2015, department faculty presented more than 300 papers at professional conferences and published more than 200 peer-reviewed journal articles as well as several books and book chapters. Our 22 faculty served as the Editors or Associate Editors of 10 professional journals, and they served on 36 editorial boards. In addition, our faculty and students have recently earned a wide variety of honors and awards, including Peggy Zoccola’s selection as one of the recipients of the 2016 APA Early Career Achievement Award, which is described in this newsletter.
Of course, we are just as proud of the accomplishments of our alumni as we are of our faculty, students, and staff. In this newsletter, you will be introduced to some of our current students and be brought up-to-date on some of our alumni.
Engage with Our Students
As active researchers, our faculty are very adept at involving our undergraduate students in research and advising them on getting into graduate school. But we have found that we are not nearly as expert at helping our students prepare for careers right after graduation. So we are looking to you, our alumni, to help us provide resources for students interested in getting a job right out of college with their Bachelor of Arts degree.
Here are some ways that you could help:
- Share your experiences about entering the job market.
- Share job and internship opportunities.
- Visit campus and talk to students in classes and club meetings.
- Share stories about how internships and fieldwork prepared you for the job market.
- Be available to mentor students from afar—via phone or email.
Our Advising and Resource Center, created a decade ago to improve undergraduate advising, is coordinating this new effort to connect alumni and students. If you are interested, contact our assistant chair for undergraduate studies, Susan Tice-Alicke, who runs the advising center, at psychadvising@ohio.edu.
Thank you for the opportunity to keep in touch with you and for your continued support of our efforts, here at OHIO.
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