Skip to main content
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences University of Florida

Alumni Communications

At the Spring Awards Ceremony, we highlighted faculty and graduate student achievements since the prior ceremony.  Several of these had been announced in emails during the past year but the most recent ones (prior  5 months actually) had not been highlighted prior to the ceremony.  Hence, in case you missed it, here are recent notable achievements.

Faculty Awards

  • Dr. Tim Vollmer received a 2021-2022 Doctoral Dissertation Advisor/Mentoring Award from the Graduate School in recognition of his support of graduate education and sponsorship of student research that reflects the highest standard of excellence.
  • Post-Doctoral Associate Dr. Ciobha McKeown has been nominated for the Association for Behavior Analysis International (Verbal Behavior Special Interest Group) Clinical Supervisor Award.
  • Dr. Feihong Wang received the Imaginative or Innovative Approach Award (2021 Exemplary Online Awards) for Abnormal Psychology from the Center for Teaching Excellence.  CTE also designated this as an Exemplary Course.

Graduate Student Awards

  • Lindsay Lloveras & Pearis Bellamy received Graduate Student Teaching Awards for 2021-2022.
  • Pearis Bellamy also received the 2022 APA/APAGS Award for Distinguished Graduate Student in Professional Psychology; she has also been selected for the prestigious leadership training program by the Society of Counseling Psychology (Division 17 of APA).

New External Funding Awards

  • Dr. Peter Kvam has a new subaward on from his on-going collaborative NIDA-funded project examining Varieties of Impulsivity in Opiate and Stimulant Users.
  • Co-PI: Dr. Bonnie Moradi (Women’s Studies) received a conference grant from the Spencer Foundation for: An Interdisciplinary Convening on Using Intersectionality Theory in Quantitative Research: Seeking Shared Expectations on Review and Publishing Standards.
  • Drs. Nicole Gravina MPI and Kerri Peters MPI received a new grant from the Administration for Community Living (DHHS). This project will explore the status of behavior analysis services in Florida in order to identify barriers to increasing the number of personnel.
  • Dr. Kate Ratliff received an NSF RAPID grant to study the impact of state and federal policy on intergroup attitudes and mechanisms underlying attitude change in response to policy changes.  The RAPID project draws upon legislative change in Texas focused on abortion rights and anticipated judicial rulings on the statute.
  • Dr. Natalie Ebner received a NIH/NIA 5-year R01 on Characterizing and modulating neurocognitive processes of learning to trust and distrust in aging.  Her team will use behavioral, neuroimaging (fMRI and real time fMRI neurofeedback training), as well as computational approaches in healthy individuals across the adult age range as well as individuals at particular risk for Alzheimer’s disease.
  • Dr. Ebner also received an award from the Ed and Ethel Moore Alzheimer’s Disease Research Program to conduct a collaborative project with UCF.
  • Dr. Ebner also serves as the Primary Mentor on K-Award recently awarded to Meredith Berry in the Department of Health Education & Behavior (Psychology faculty affiliate).
  • Dr. Brian Odegaard received a 2022 Young Investigator Award from the Office of Naval Research to conduct his project: How Attention and Metacognitive Biases Influence Perceptual Decision-Making in Peripheral Vision.  See ONR announcement at https://www.onr.navy.mil/en/Media-Center/Press-Releases/2022/2022-ONR-YIP-Awards
  • Drs. Colin Smith and Marjorie Prokosch (post-doctoral associate) are Co-Investigators on a 2 year NOAA project titled “Prioritizing Spatial Justice in Neighborhood Revitalization: Adaptation and Resilience Building in Jacksonville.”   Dr. Prokosch will be starting a new Assistant Professor position in the Psychology Department at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
  • Dr. Adam Barnas received a postdoctoral fellowship grant from the Ed and Ethel Moore Alzheimer’s Disease Research Program, Florida Department of Health, to continue his research and training with Drs. Weisberg and Ebner on Novel Behavioral and Neural Markers of Alzheimer’s Disease Progression.

Other highlights

  • Dr. Ryan Duffy was named Editor of the Journal of Vocational Behavior.
  • Dr. Kate Ratliff has been promoted from Associate to Senior Editor for Psychological Science.
  • Dr. Neil Rowland’s new book, Thirst and Body Fluid Regulation: From Nephron to Neuron, was published in December 2021.
  • Nature reported on a recent article by Dr. Steve Weisberg in discussion of methods to develop more reproducible workflows in code in research.

Congratulations and terrific work!

Best, Julie

Julia A. Graber, Ph.D.

Professor & Chair