As the new chair of the Psychology Department, I am committed to creating a community that is diverse and inclusive. To that end, we are in the process of updating our curriculum. The changes will include diversity and inclusion content across our courses. In addition, we will be adding a new diversity requirement for all psychology majors that will include courses specifically designed to highlight issues of diversity and inclusion. I am also dedicated to fostering research productivity, including support for student-involved and student-led research opportunities. Our psychology students continue to be actively involved in research activity, even during the pandemic, when many faculty members evolved their current lines of research into studies that their students could conduct remotely or online.

I hope that you and your families have a safe and happy 2021. We would love to hear from you about your accomplishments and successes – please connect with us on Facebook and Instagram!

Dr. Meredith Patterson, Psychology Department Chair

Inaugural Anderson Award Winner

Recipients are outstanding seniors accepted to graduate school or completing an internship in applied psychology, broadly defined as clinical or forensic psychology, educational psychology, human resources, industrial/organizational psychology, or community psychology. Elise Adamopoulos, who has started a clinical psychology Ph.D. program at Palo Alto University in Palo Alto, CA, was the first winner of the Anderson Award in May 2020. Congratulations Elise! Thank you, Dr. Anderson, for the generous contribution and to the selection committee including Drs. Charisse Chappell, Heidi Fritz, Yuki Okubo and Meredith Patterson. Elise was mentored by Drs. Rhyannon Bemis and Yuki Okubo.

Faculty Spotlight on Dr. Mark Walter

Alumni Spotlight: Allysa Miller, 2017

Left: Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town, where Allysa was teaching digital literacy to an all-women’s group to help them develop professional skill sets to gain access to employment opportunities. 

Right: Allysa on safari in Western South Africa visiting a local elephant sanctuary in Plettenburg Bay.

What are you currently up to?

Currently, I am community support advocate for Go Getters Inc. I am working with those who are dual diagnosed with mental illness and substance abuse disorder. My job consists of just about everything from helping individuals with medications and entitlement benefits, to helping them learn daily living skills to establish independence and, overall, a healthy well-being. I also stay involved with my mentors from an internship I did over a year ago now, Connect 123. I have been collaborating with other women from my program, internationally, to redevelop our career path and to share ideas on how to evolve in the next steps in our careers.

If you would like to be featured in a future newsletter, we would love to hear from you.

Please email Dr. Rachel Steele at rrsteele@salisbury.edu.