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Hello From the Chair of the Department of Psychology
[10.14.2016]

Dear Alumni and Friends,

Welcome to the latest edition of the USF Department of Psychology Newsletter. I am pleased to share much good news with you.

We continue to add excellent faculty and staff members to our department. Dr. Michael Braun joined the Industrial Organizational Psychology Area in August, 2015. Dr. Liz Schotter will join the Cognitive, Neuroscience, and Social Psychology Area in August, 2016. You can see more about their backgrounds and research topics in this issue. Jen Briggs joined our department as the new Office Manager in June. She replaced Michelle Kinzie, who left us to be the Associate Director at the USF Department of Mental Health Law & Policy.

Dr. Marcie Finkelstein retired in April, 2016, after 35 years of distinguished service to the Department and to the University. Two faculty have received notable promotions: Dr. Marina Bornovalova was tenured and promoted to Associate Professor. Dr. Jennifer Bosson was promoted to the rank of Full Professor.

Another positive and important change: the Department of Psychology has moved from the School of Social Sciences (SSS) to the School of the Natural Sciences and Mathematics (SNSM), effective January 2016. The SNSM includes other science departments – Integrative Biology, Cell Biology, Microbiology, and Molecular Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Geosciences, and Mathematics and Statistics. With this move, we expect that our faculty and students can more readily participate in activities in the research clusters in STEM education. Furthermore, as a “hub” discipline, we believe that the Department of Psychology will play a key role for the development of new collaborations by connecting researchers, educators, and students in SNSM.

Finally, the Department is planning to significantly expand community internship opportunities for undergraduates in the near future. We already have a Community Practicum in Mental Health internship course. In addition, we will soon offer a more flexible Community Internship credit option, whereby more students can work at pre-approved internship sites or they can seek out their own internship sites and then register for variable amounts of credit depending on their desired work schedule. We expect that such internships can include experiences in any topic that is relevant to psychology, such as mental health, substance abuse, behavioral health, legal issues, forensic psychology, human resources, animal behavior, applied behavior analysis, test development, and many more.

Thanks to your support and friendship, we'll be able to go into the new academic year 2016-2017 with continued strength to build on all of our accomplishments. Thank you!

Best,

Toru Shimizu, Ph.D.

Professor and Chair

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