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The past year was filled with many noteworthy accomplishments. The associates of the Center of Cross-Cultural Research presented two interesting programs. As a part of the Walter J. Lonner Symposium and Invited Speakers series, four psychologists were invited to campus during the Spring Quarter 2007 to present talks in the area of evolutionary psychology. The speakers included Dr. David Buss (University of Texas), Dr. Ara Norenzayan (University of British Columbia), Dr. Dennis Krebs (Simon Fraser University), and Dr. Mark Schaller (University of British Columbia). In the Fall Quarter 2007, the Center for Cross-Cultural Research presented a symposium entitled Counseling Across Cultures. The symposium was designed for practicing counselors and graduate students with the primary objective of demonstrating the relevance of a multicultural perspective to gaining professional excellence in counseling. Presenters of the symposium were authors from around the country contributing to the new editions of Counseling across Cultures (Sage Publications) and Counseling the Culturally Diverse (John Wiley & Sons), as well as other members of the Center for Cross-Cultural Research. More information and photos are at: http://myweb.facstaff.wwu.edu/~cvet/index.htm. Please visit the Department of Psychology website for future events sponsored by the Center for Cross-Cultural Research and the Department of Psychology. The department received ongoing state funding, through the BRAIN Initiative, to enhance the new interdisciplinary Behavioral Neuroscience Program. As a result of this funding, WWU is currently in the process of recruiting three new neuroscience faculty--two will be appointed in the Department of Psychology and one in the Department of Biology. The BRAIN Initiative also allowed us to hire two staff people-- a Behavioral Neuroscience Program Coordinator and an Instructional Classroom Support Technican. These staff positions have been filled by Coco Besson and Gabe Puttrese, respectively. Coco and Gabe are both graduates of the Psychology Department. By winter quarter, the impact of this funding will be even more tangible to our undergraduates, as we enhance library holdings in the neurosciences and provide desperately-needed resources for neuroscience laboratory courses. We thank WWU Administration, WWU Office of External Affairs, and WA State Legislators for bringing this effort to fruition. As time progresses, our curriculum continues to grow. Drs. Todd Haskell and McNeel Jantzen created a new course in the Psychology of Language and Dr. Jim Graham introduced a new course in the Psychology of Romantic Love. I, Dr. Dale Dinnel, have created a new First-Year-Experience course entitled The Psychology of Happiness and Well-Being. The new academic building that will house the Department of Psychology continues on schedule. We are scheduled to move to the new facility, currently named the Academic Instruction Center, by the Fall Quarter 2008. We invite alumni to visit our new facilities (see the photos below of the building in progress).
We are happy to welcome four new tenure-track and three new non-tenure track faculty members to our ranks.
See below for additional information on our new faculty. While we have welcomed several new faculty members to our ranks, one of our faculty members has retired--Dr. Robert M. Thorndike. We would like to take this opportunity to thank him for his many contributions to the Department of Psychology and Western Washington University and to wish him all the best in his future pursuits. In June, the fourth annual PsychFest was held at Western. PsychFest is a local conference in which graduate and undergraduate students present their research in either an oral presentation format or a poster format. This year approximately 70 students presented their research findings. Dr. Mark Schaller, a social Psychologist at the University of British Columbia, delivered the keynote address. In addition, the Outstanding Seniors were recognized and scholarship winners were announced for the 2006-07 academic year. Drs. Mike Mana, Larry Symons, Barbara Lehman, Kristi Lemm, and Jennifer Devenport were instrumental in planning PsychFest. The fifth annual PsychFest is tentatively scheduled for the Spring Quarter 2008. Updated information will be posted on this webpage. We invite all interested alumni to attend. This past academic year has also been productive for faculty research. The Psychology faculty authored 5 books, published 28 journal articles, wrote 10 book chapters, published 8 book reviews, and made 48 conference presentations. These activities are directly reflected in the classroom instruction that students receive, resulting in an up-to-date knowledge base for students. Students also benefited by actively participating in faculty research labs. Approximately 65 students have been involved in the research laboratories of the Psychology faculty in the present year. Student involvement in research extends beyond the classroom setting. In the last year, 7 students were coauthors on published articles while 33 students were involved in professional conference presentations and posters. 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, |
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Dr. Janet Finlay received a large grant through the BRAIN Initiative that allowed the department to hire three tenure-track faculty in the interdisciplinary behavioral neuroscience program. Two of the faculty will receive an appointment in the Department of Psychology while the third will receive an appointment in the Department of Biology. In addition, the BRAIN Initiative allowed for the addition of two new staff members. Dr. Leslie McDonald-Miszczak presented results from her Seniors' Health And Lifesyles Laboratory study at the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics in St. Petersburg, Russia. She also organized a symposium focusing on older adults' medication adherence for the Gerontological Society of America meeting in San Francisco (November 2007). She is also a member of the WWU team working with colleagues at Peace Health to launch the Critical Junctures Institute at WWU that will encourage interdisciplinary health research in Whatcom County. Dr. Leslie McDonald-Miszczak gave a presentation at the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics (IAGG) in St. Petersburg, Russia outlining results from her Seniors' Health And Lifesyles Laboratory study completed last year. She organized a symposium focusing on older adults' medication adherence for the Gerontological Society of America meeting that will be held in San Francisco this November. She is also a member of the WWU team working with colleagues at Peace Health to launch the Critical Junctures Insitute at WWU that will encourage interdisciplinary health research in Whatcom County. Dr. Ethan Remmel co-chaired a symposium on evolutionary perspectives on parent-child relationships at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development in Boston (March 2007). The symposium included panelists from six universities, including Dr. Remmel from WWU and Dr. Jay Belsky of the University of London, who is a major figure in developmental psychology.
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Dr. Joseph Trimble was invited to be a main speaker for the 2007 Diversity Challenge sponsored by the Institute for the Study and Promotion of Race and Culture at the Carolyn A. and Peter S. Lynch School of Education at Boston College. Dr. Trimble was also selected to be the distinguished O’Brien Visiting Professor at Scripps College in Claremont, California. He was presented with a Presidential Citation at this year’s American Psychological Association Convention. Dr. Trimble has been selected as one of four exemplary senior psychological scientists representing various racial/ethnic groups. In Remembrance We are sorry to report the recent passing of a long-time Psychology Department faculty member, Dr. Dave Panek. Dr. Panek taught undergraduate counseling skills courses and was a well-loved therapist in the WWU Counseling Center.
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Joel Gaffney will graduate from the M.S. Experimental program in Fall 2007. He is currently working as a Research Technician in the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience lab of Dr. Adele Diamond, Canada Research Chair Tier 1 Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia. He is working a project on reasoning in toddlers as part of a larger project on autism. Brent F. Olson (B.A. in Psychology in 2005) is currently finishing his masters thesis in the Measurement, Evaluation, and Research Methodology program in the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology and Special Education at the University of British Columbia. Brent is also the Research Methodology Support Graduate Student Peer Advisor for the department. He is planning to go on and get his Ph.D. in the Measurement, Evaluation, and Research Methodology program. Melissa Tehee
(M.S. in Experimental Psychology in 2007) and Dr. Kristi Lemm will
be presenting a poster at the Society for Personality and Social
Psychology annual convention in January, 2008. Melissa is currently in a
JD/PhD program at University of Arizona. |
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| We are happy to welcome four new tenure-track faculty members to our ranks. | |||||
 Dr. Jeff King
received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from The Pennsylvania
State University, and his B.A. in Psychology from the University of
Oklahoma. Dr. King is a licensed clinical psychologist and has provided
clinical services to primarily American Indian populations for the past 20
years. He was director of Native American Counseling in Denver, Colorado
for 13 years. During this time he also taught graduate classes in
cross-cultural issues in psychology for several universities in Denver.
Dr. King most recently worked among the Taos and Picuris Pueblo through
Indian Health Services. He is currently the president of the First Nations
Behavioral Health Association and an active board member of the National
Multi-Ethnic Behavioral Health Alliance. Both organizations advocate at
the national level for cultural competence and the reduction in disparity
in mental health care for Native Americans and other ethnic minority
populations. He has conducted research addressing the following issues:
ethnic identity, substance abuse, teenage pregnancy, the effect of
teaching multicultural counseling on graduate students, strengthening
American Indian marriages, and the cultural validity of psychological
tests across cultures. He spends his free time with his wife Sharon, and
their son, Sam. |
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 Dr. Kate McLean
comes to Western from the University of Toronto, where she was an
Assistant Professor for three years in the Department of Psychology. Kate
earned her doctorate in Developmental Psychology at the University of
California, Santa Cruz. She completed her B.A. at Mills College, majoring
in Psychology. Her broad research interests focus on the development of
identity in adolescence and adulthood. The theoretical foundation of her
work is that developing a coherent sense of self in adolescence and
adulthood involves the construction of meaning-filled stories about the
self that provide one with a sense of unity and purpose. Her current
research investigates two lines of work. First, she examines how narrative
patterns in stories about important autobiographical experiences relate to
age and well-being, as well as to individual differences in personality
and gender. Second, she is interested in the social construction of these
narratives and examines how conversations about important past experiences
predict the development of narrative self-understanding. Kate spends her
free time reading, hiking, practicing yoga and the mandolin (though not
together), cooking, listening to music that has real instruments, and
hanging out with her husband, Lew.
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 Dr. Rebecca
Goodvin comes to Western from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln,
where she earned her doctorate in Developmental Psychology. Her research
is in the area of young children’s social and emotional development.
Specifically, she is exploring how young children develop
self-understanding – of their behaviors, emotions, and personality
characteristics – in the context of parent-child relationships. Her goal
is to understand the early relationship experiences that contribute to
emerging self-concept and emotional competence in young children, with a
special focus on attachment relationships and parent-child communication.
Rebecca is also interested in intervention and early education for at-risk
children and families. She worked for five years at the University of
Nebraska’s Center on Children, Families, and the Law, where her activities
included program evaluations for Early Head Start and research on child
neglect in Nebraska. This year Rebecca will be teaching Developmental
Psychology, Research Methods, and Psychology of Child-Rearing, and she is
currently enjoying all of the interesting questions that her students at
Western ask about development. When she’s not thinking about developmental
psychology, Rebecca enjoys hiking and walking her basset hound at
Boulevard Park. She’s also looking forward to learning to kayak – there
were not many opportunities for this in Nebraska! |
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 Dr. Kelly Jantzen
comes to Western from a Research Assistant Professorship with the Center
for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences at Florida Atlantic University.
K.J. received a PhD from Simon Fraser University where he studied human
brain plasticity and learning. He subsequently moved to Florida Atlantic
University as a post-doctoral fellow investigating behavioral and neural
dynamics. Following completion of his fellowship, K.J. stayed on as an
assistant research professor and continued to use fMRI for investigating
the link between large-scale brain dynamics and cognition. Although
varied, K.J.’s research interests include investigating how we integrate
multiple sources of information, environmental and otherwise, to time and
guide & coordinate action. He is also interested in understanding the
neural basis of disruptions in cognition following mild brain injuries.
Dr. Jantzen will teach courses primarily in behavioral and cognitive
neuroscience. Following 8 years in south Florida, Bellingham offers Dr
Jantzen a refreshing wealth of cultural and outdoor activities as well as
an important lack of hurricanes. In his free time, Dr. Jantzen likes to
relax with his friends and family and chase after his two-year-old son.
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| We are happy to welcome three non-tenure track faculty members to our ranks. | |||||
 Dr. McNeel
Gordon Jantzen comes to Western from the Center for Complex Systems
and Brain Sciences at Florida Atlantic University, where she completed a
NSF postdoctoral fellowship under the mentorship of Betty Tuller. Dr.
Jantzen’s major research interests are in the area of speech perception
and learning. She is particularly interested in how perception affects the
learning process. Her research focuses on examining how the ability of
individuals to learn to distinguish non-native speech sounds depends on
their initial perception of the sounds, how similar the non-native sounds
are to your native language, and changes in neural activity that occur
during the learning process in brain regions that are specialized for
speech. While Dr. Jantzen’s work currently focuses on healthy adults, she
is interested in using neuroimaging techniques to study aphasia patients
to determine if/how information in a patient’s phonological working memory
is either reorganized or relearned and how this affects their ability to
perceive speech sounds. Dr. Jantzen is teaching Cognition and
Motivation. In her free time you can find her with husband KJ and their 2
year-old son at one of the many Bellingham parks or anywhere near the
ocean.
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 Dr. Jonathan
Cook received a Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of
Oregon, an M.S. in Counseling Psychology from Lewis & Clark College, and a
B.A. in humanities from the University of Colorado. Dr. Cook studies the
role of power in social interactions, with a particular focus on minority
group identity, stereotypes, and small group dynamics. He is also
interested in research methods and statistical modeling, particularly in
the application of multilevel models to nested data structures. Dr. Cook
will be teaching social psychology and data analysis courses at the
undergraduate and graduate levels. As a new resident of Bellingham, Dr.
Cook hopes to find time to put in some tele turns at Mt Baker, learn to
sail, and enjoy the area with his partner, Tim, and their new friends at
Western and in Bellingham. |
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Newsletter posted November 26, 2007.
School and Mental Health
Counseling Programs. The School and Mental Health Counseling programs
have been nationally accredited by the Council for Accreditation of
Counseling and Related Educational Programs since 1993. Last year the
programs completed the mandated periodic comprehensive review. We are
pleased to announce that both programs have been awarded full
accreditation status through 2015.
Dr. Aaron
Sheerin completed his dissertation, which focused on neural plasticity
associated with epilepsy, in 2004 in Mike Corcoran's Lab at the University
of Saskatchewan. For the next two years, he was a Senior Fellow in the
Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Washington where
he examined the processes involved in the genesis of epilepsy associated
with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Being a multiple-systems kind of guy,
he wanted to shift gears and examine more closely the network
properties and experience-dependent changes of the basal ganglia in
response to various interventions. In the early part of 2007, he took a
postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Physiology at the University
of Otago in New Zealand, where he learned the single-unit recording
technique. He still remain in awe of the ability to record the activity of
single neurons in vivo (= Neuroscience NERD!). In his spare time he tends
to watch sports, ponder owning a home, dream of being a comedian and
fantasize about being the top athlete in the sport of curling. Oh, he
likes German cars, live music and great food.