The Department of Psychology is honored to have Dr. Richard Slatcher joining the department as the first Gail M. Williamson Distinguished Professor in Health Psychology. The Williamson Professorship celebrates the life and recognizes the professional contributions provide by Dr. Williamson as a beloved faculty member of the UGA Department of Psychology.

Congratulations to UGA sociology, psychology, and criminal justice student Hannah Dickens, whose work on theories and practices associated with the cessation of criminal behavior has been published in The Classic, the Writing Intensive Program’s journal of undergraduate writing and research. You can read "Theories of Desistance from Crime and the Norwegian Penal System" in the current issue, 3.2, online at http://theclassicjournal.uga.edu/.  Great work Hannah!

Dr. Katie Ehrlich is a recipient of the 2019 Association for Psychological Science Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions. Named for the first elected APS president, this award celebrates the many new and leading-edge ideas coming out of the most creative and promising investigators who embody the future of psychological science. Dr. Ehrlich's work investigates the social determinants of health in children, specifically examining how stress exposure is linked to children’s antibody response to vaccination. Congratulations Dr. Ehrlich!!

Big THANK YOUs out to our great Psychology faculty for going out of their way to make sure our students receive the very best teaching, training, and development assistance for their careers.

Dr. Isha Metzger and Dr. Janet Frick recently presented to Cedar Shoals High School Peer Leadership students on the issues of trauma and human development. Together, they discussed the field of psychology, development, trauma, and the ways that early experiences shape later development. The students enjoyed being able to ask questions and learn from Dr. Metzger and Dr. Frick as prominent members of the field. Thanks for your community outreach, Dr. Metzger and Dr. Frick!

Congratulations Dr. Katie Ehrlich on receiving a Jacobs Foundation Early Career Research Fellowship! The Jacobs Foundation Fellowship Program is a globally competitive program for early and mid-career researchers conducting interdisciplinary work related to children and youth. Dr. Ehrlich's work focuses on how children's relationships and life experiences influence their mental and physical health utilizing a variety of methods, including clinical health outcomes, measures of cellular function, and measures of adaptive immunity. Congratulations Dr. Ehrlich!

The Psychology Department is pleased to welcome Dr. Albert Powers from Yale University Department of Psychiatry for a special guest lecture on Wednesday, January 30th at 3:30pm in Psychology Room 120. Dr. Powers is the Medical Director of Yale Psychosis Research Clinic and will giving a talk titled "Conditioned Hallucinations: Toward Development of Computational Markers for Early Diagnosis and Personalized Treatment." Welcome Dr. Powers!

Congratulations to Dr. Anne Shaffer who just received an R34 grant from NIMH! The project is a collaboration with Dr. Claire Aarnio-Peterson, a 2014 UGA clinical psychology graduate who is now at Cincinnati Children's Hospital and Medical Center. Dr. Shaffer and Dr. Aarnio-Peterson are piloting an enhancement of Family Based Therapy for adolescents with anorexia that targets family emotion communication. Congratulations Dr. Shaffer!

Dr. Allison Howard just received the Office of Sustainability Faculty mini-grant to support her teaching and enhance her classes with virtual reality using two Oculus Go. The Office of Sustainability gives these mini-grants with the objective of enhancing teaching of sustainability. Dr. Howard will be using two Oculus Go in her sections of Comparative and Physiological Psychology this semester. She will use the headsets to allow students to "visit" primatology field sites, glaciers, penguins in Antarctica, etc.