Caitlin Rancher, Ph.D., a former student in our program, received funding for her K award proposal: “A Brief Intervention to Enhance Supportive Parenting and Treatment Engagement Among Families Waiting for Trauma-Focused Services”. Long-term, this award will generate an effective intervention that addresses the needs of families affected by trauma, which can be scaled up to address other public health epidemics that impede supportive parenting and child development. Huge congratulations to you, Caitlin!

🎉 I’m excited to share my K99 will be funded by @NICHD_NIH! We will be looking at the best way to deliver the Project Support Positive Parenting module to families on the waitlist for trauma services. pic.twitter.com/kGdjUeNPrA

— Caitlin Rancher, PhD (@CaitlinRancher) April 13, 2023

We are so proud of our graduate student, Sierra Rufino, for winning the Dean’s Award at SMU Moody’s 2023 Research & Innovation Week Graduate Poster Session for her research in “Volitional Change in Pathological Personality: Can People Change Their Maladaptive Traits?”, co-author: Nathan Hudson. Congratulations, Sierra!

Congratulations to our graduate student Bree Geary for receiving the Society of Behavioral Medicine’s 2023 Distinguished Student Excellence in Research Award to support her dissertation testing the effects of autonomy-supportive instructions in yoga!

We are thrilled to introduce our newest faculty member, Dr. Poonam Dubal, who will be joining as the SMU Psychology Clinic Director. Dr. Dubal earned her doctorate in School Psychology from Loyola University Chicago (APA-Accredited). She completed her doctoral training at Cypress Fairbanks ISD (APA-Accredited) and postdoctoral training at Irving ISD and Momentous Institute in Dallas, Texas. To learn more about Dr. Dubal, visit our website.

Congratulations to our graduate students, Sumaiyah Syed and Julie Pham who won the PSI/APGS Junior Scientist Research Fellowship, which comes with a $1,000 stiped! The fellowship recognizes outstanding research-oriented students who are entering their first year (or first semester of second year) of graduate study to help them begin successful research programs/projects.

We are excited to welcome our newest faculty member, Dr. Sarah Kucker, who is joining SMU in January 2023! She has previously held faculty positions at Oklahoma State University and the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. To learn more about Dr. Kucker and her research, visit our website.

Huge congratulations to two of our graduate students, Melissa Sitton and Sumaiyah Syed. Melissa’s research on “Adolescents Who Have Experienced Sexual Abuse: Non-Supportive Responses, Self-Blame, and Trauma Symptoms” and Sumaiyah’s research on “Depression,  Inflammation, and the Moderating Role of Metformin: Results from the MIDUS Study” tied for the Psychology award!

Dr. Stephanie Wilson has received an Early Stage Investigator Paper Award from the 14th NIH Matilda White Riley Behavioral and Social Sciences Honors. According to the NIH, this award is given to “emerging scientists whose research reflect Dr. Matilda White Riley’s vision of research excellence in health-related behavioral and social sciences.”

Congratulations Dr. Wilson!

Congratulations to Kenzie Stonebarger in being selected as the recipient of the 2021 SMU Department of Psychology Senior Award for Outstanding Performance!