Forward

Greetings from the Chair

Photo: Sheri Mizumori

Greetings to all of our friends! The 2012-2013 year has hit the ground running with great excitement. We welcomed new cohorts of simply outstanding graduate students and undergraduate majors, many of whom came into our programs with high honors and achievements.  New faculty members Shannon Dorsey, Mary Larimer, and Andrea Stocco also joined the department this fall. Each one adds new dimensions of scholarly activity that will significantly enhance the quality of our research and teaching missions, especially in the areas of adult and child clinical, cognitive, and neurocomputational psychology.

Jill Williams (Advancement and Outreach Coordinator), and her assistant Jolyn Mason, recently joined our department to lead our effort to bring the amazing research results of our faculty and students to the public in the most meaningful and rapid way possible.  Already planned for this year is our annual Edwards Public Lecture series whose theme is The Science of Psychology in the Real World. We also look forward to the roll out of the Mindful Living and Practice Initiative of our Center for Child and Family Well-Being (made possible by a generous donation from Yaffa and Paul Maritz), an initiative that will bring public lectures and professional training meetings on the ‘value of mindfulness in child and family well being.'  Jill Williams comes to us with considerable experience with alumni relations, and as such, she will also lead department efforts to facilitate activities between current (and future) Psychology alums and the department. We are proud that as a large group, our alums have had a broad impact in society. Illustrating this point, psychology alums recently received the College of Arts and Sciences Timeless Award.  

Over the past several years, our department has grown interdisciplinary research initiatives in areas such as child development, diversity science, global psychology, and brain and behavior. These research areas are illustrations of Psychology as a Hub Science that is strategically situated to link a vast array of approaches and methods to solve society’s biggest challenges to understanding behavior. As we continue to build these initiatives by reaching out to colleagues across the UW campus, we will continue to grow our already record number of opportunities for active learning by our undergraduate and graduate students.

I look forward to what promises to be an energetic and impactful year for our department. Thank you for your continued support and interest. I wish you and your family the happiest of holidays and an outstanding new year!

Best wishes

Sheri