Student and Faculty Awards

The Psychology Department has had a great start to the 2011 year with many students and faculty members being recognized for their achievements and receiving awards for these achievements.


Student Awards
Alisha Adams (Doctoral Student)-Preparing Future Faculty Fellowship and Women’s Council Graduate Assistant Fund
Sofie Champassak (Doctoral Student)-NIH funded R25 fellowship
Elizabeth Duval (Doctoral Student)-Women’s Council Graduate Assistant Fund
Chris Fowler (Doctoral Student)-Graduate Studies Minority Doctoral Fellowship
Laura Hancock (Doctoral Student)-Chancellor’s Doctoral Fellowship
Starlyn Hawes (Doctoral Student)-McNair Doctoral Fellowship
Amber Hinton-Dampf (Doctoral Student)-McNair Doctoral Fellowship (renewal)
Jessica Hamilton (Doctoral Student)- Preparing Future Faculty Fellowship (renewal)

Faculty Awards
Dr. Jenny Lundgren-2011 Chancellor’s Early Career Award for Excellence in Teaching. She received this award for her excellent teaching and her commitment to improving teaching within the department. She has taken over teaching the capstone course “History and Systems of Psychology” and has developed and chaired the Department of Psychology Teaching Excellence Committee. She consistently receives stellar teaching evaluations from her students who laud her for being highly-prepared, knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and committed to student learning.

Dr. Kathy Goggin-2010 N.T. Veatch Award from Distinguished Research and Creativity and the 2010 Trustees Faculty Fellowship Award. Kathy received this award in recognition of her “sustained nationally and internationally recognized record of research and her exceptional scholarly achievements at UMKC.” Dr. Goggin is a nationally known scholar who is well respected in her field and whose work is seen as having a national and international impact. Dr. Goggin’s expertise in the area of HIV/AIDS has been recognized nationally and has made her a valued contributor to UMKC.

Dr. Jared Bruce-2010 Trustees Faculty Scholar Award. Jared received this award in recognition of “his exceptional scholarly achievements at UMKC for their stage of professional development and has shown exceptional promise for outstanding future research and/or creative accomplishments.” Dr. Bruce is a neuropsychologist whose research focuses on the cognitive and emotional consequences of various types of brain illness including multiple-sclerosis, concussion, and degenerative disorders. Dr. Bruce has already published a total of 22 papers and has five either published or in press for 2010. He also serves as an ad-hoc reviewer for 13 different journals.

Dr. Jared Bruce also received the psychology students’ yearly choice for honors award at the Spring 2011 Psi Chi induction ceremony.

Congratulations to the students and faculty members for their hard work and dedication. The department is fortunate to have a great group of student and faculty members working to better the future of students and the field of psychology.

UMKC Psi Chi/Psychology Club Spring Induction Ceremony

Psi-Chi and Psychology Club Induction Ceremony
On the evening of Wednesday, April 6th, the UMKC chapter of Psi Chi and the Psychology Club had their Spring induction ceremony, welcoming 36 new members:

Psi Chi: Sophie Briend, Melissa Childress, Tiffany Clouse, Brittany Cole, Holland Davis, Amanda Duplissie, Kristen Flannery, Dillon Hall, Rachel Hampton, Evelyn Howatt, Abigail Judah, Shannon Miller, Josh Munyan, Mariah Phillips, Jedidiah Phipps, Ebony Rivera, Patrick Schmidt, Jane Vanliew, Brian Warman, and Will Yoder.

Psychology Club: Jacqueline Buchanan, Brittany Cole, Erynne Daigneault, Cierra Eaton, Daniel Folk, Angela Gutierrez, Robert Hanson, Kathleen Hipp, Matthew Keepes, Emily Kelly, Sarah Kelly, Natalie Mellem, Krystina Minor, John Osredker, Courtney Richards, and Nick Weiler.


New members in attendance recited the Psi Chi ‘Oath of Membership’ and participated in a candle lighting ceremony.

The 2011-2012 Psi Chi and Psych Club officers also were announced during the Spring Induction Ceremony. We are very excited to welcome the following officers:

Psi Chi:
President: Melanie Somogie
Vice President: Vyshnavi Reddy
Secretary: Holland Davis
Treasurer: Komal Dasani
Historian: Tiffany Clouse
Elections Officer: Josh Munyan

Psych Club:
President: Daniel Folk
Vice President: Jhankar Strozier

Finally, the clubs recognized Dr. Jared Bruce with the 2010-2011 PSYCH (Psychology Students’ Yearly Choice for Honors) Award.

Psi Chi is the international honor society in Psychology. Membership in Psi Chi is for life and you’ll enjoy benefits such as scholarship programs, research competitions, reduced dues for professional organizations like the American Psychological Association (APA) and the Association for Psychological Science (APS), and getting to know fellow psychology majors here on campus at UMKC. Please visit our web site for information about the eligibility requirements.

If you’d like to be involved in a student organization but aren’t yet eligible for Psi Chi, please consider joining the Psychology Club! Psychology Club is the sister organization to Psi Chi and is open to any students who are interested in psychology—there are no membership fees and no GPA requirements.

If you have any questions, please contact the Psi Chi and Psychology Club officers by email at umkcpsichi@umkc.edu, or the faculty advisor, Dr. Bennett, by email at bennettkk@umkc.edu.

"Global HIV/AIDS Workshop at the University of Missouri-Columbia"

On Tuesday, April 19, the University of Missouri-Columbia (MU) will be hosting the “Global HIV/AIDS: Exciting developments in microbicides and adherence” workshop as part of MU’s 2011 Missouri Life Sciences Week, being held from April 18-23. The workshop will focus on the recent scientific advances in the biomedical and behavioral sciences outlining promising results of novel HIV prevention interventions. One of the guest speakers is Dr. Kathy Goggin, Professor of Psychology at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC). Dr. Goggin has dedicated her career to developing behavioral interventions that focus on primary and secondary HIV prevention in communities of color, both, nationally and internationally. Her presentation is titled “The role of behavioral interventions in improving HIV health outcomes” and will be part of the workshop on Tuesday, Aril 19th, 2011 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Dr. Goggin will be presenting from 10:30-11:20 a.m. The workshop is located in the MU’s Monsanto Auditorium in the Bond Life Sciences Center. If you are unable to attend the workshop, it is going to be broadcasted live via web cast at lifesciencesweek.missoui.edu
Please show your support for our fellow faculty member Dr. Kathy Goggin.

Congratulations Graduates

The Department of Psychology Congratulates All Recent Psychology Graduates!

At UMKC’s Fall 2010 Commencement, 50 students majoring in psychology received their Bachelor’s of Arts degree. While we are proud of the many accomplishments of all of our graduates, we want to particularly acknowledge several students whose extreme high academic achievement in both the general education requirement and those specific for the psychology major earned them Departmental Honors.

Departmental Honor Recipients Fall 2010
Hannah Fugate, Chanukya Dasari, Britney Hamm, Amy Higgins, Mary Petrechko, and Hillary Warren.

See some of our Departmental Honor recipients profiled below.


Hannah Fugate








Hillary Warren:


Department Honor’s Questionnaire
1. Where are you from originally (before you came to UMKC)?
a. I am from Kansas City, I have been here since I was 13.
2. Favorite psychology course?
a. Abnormal Psychology because I want to work with patients with severe mental illness.
3. Favorite psychology professor(s)?
a. I have so many! Dr. Land because he made quantitative methods easy for me and made cognitive psych so interesting. Dr. Amanda Bruce because she is so approachable and caring. Dr. Lovelace because he opened my eyes to experimental psychology and has let me work in his lab.
4. Plans after graduation?
a. I am applying to the graduate clinical psychology program here at UMKC, so hopefully I will continue on here at UMKC.
5. Favorite thing(s) about UMKC?
a. The faculty all seem to really care and love their job. I also think the campus is beautiful!


Congratulations again to these students for their hard work and the department wishes you luck in your future endeavours!

Recognizing Students in the Psychology Department

Lauren Buscher, a psychology undergraduate student, was recently recognized for an award at the National Academy of Neuropsychology in Vancouver, Canada. Here is what she wrote about the experience of presenting a research poster and receiving an award.

“My research poster was titled The Relationship Between Self-Reported Cognitive Difficulties and Medication Adherence in Multiple Sclerosis. I presented at the National Academy of Neuropsychology in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and received the Dr. Ted Blau Student Poster Award. The purpose of this study was to examine the association between self-reported cognitive difficulties and medication adherence in Multiple Sclerosis (MS). 74 Secondary Progressive, Primary Progressive, and Relapsing Remitting MS patients were recruited from a local MS specialty clinic. Participants completed questionnaires measuring cognitive difficulties and auxiliary medication adherence. I really would like to thank Dr. Bruce, who helped me through every stage of the research process and writing the poster. I would also like to thank the graduate and undergraduate students that worked in the Clinical Neuropsych Lab who helped answer the many questions I had. I'm happy to be a good representative of the UMKC Psychology Department!”



Another student being recognized from the department is David A. Martinez. He is currently a Clinical Psychology Doctoral student and works closely with his mentor, Dr. Kathy Goggin. Below is a description of David’s achievements thus far.

David A. Martinez was recently awarded a two-year Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH). David is in his fourth year of the Clinical Health Psychology Doctoral program and his mentor is Dr. Kathy Goggin. This award will provide support for David’s dissertation research which focuses on developing a measure to better understand the beliefs that lead to getting tested for HIV among Latinos who attend church. To complete this research, David will be collaborating with leaders from two local Catholic churches, the Black Catholic Implementation Team (BCIT) of Kansas City, UMKC faculty: Dr. Jannette Berkley-Patton and Dr. Tamera Murdock, and Dr. Cynthia Gomez from San Francisco State University.

Psi-Chi and Psychology Club Induction

Fall 2010

On the evening of Wednesday, November 3rd, the UMKC chapter of Psi Chi and the Psychology Club had their Fall induction ceremony, welcoming 36 new members.

Psi Chi: Jennifer Cosby, Kaelene Curry, Danielle Fera, Danthea Fernandez, Gregory Jacobs, Jhankar Kashyap, Allison Koerperich, Thao Nguyen, Karly Schleicher, Abby Sharp, Kyia Sonnier, Bethany Vroom, Britney Waterworth, and Marsha Wood.
Psychology Club: Malorie Champlin, Taneshia Cook, Chrissy Crocker, Kristen Epping, Zachary Hausner, Salvador Hernandez, Jhankar Kashyap, Brooke McCoy, Josh Munyan, Jedidiah Phipps, Katherine Polder, Rachel Regan, Quristion Reliford, Patrick Schmidt, Mallory Sheeran, Ra Nita Simmons, Anna Stelmach, Becca Sterling, Evelyn Welk, Nekisha Wheeler, Brandon Wilson, and William Yoder.

New members in attendance recited the Psi Chi ‘Oath of Membership’ and participated in a candle lighting ceremony. We will be holding another induction ceremony, and accepting applications for both organizations, in the Spring semester.
Psi Chi is the national honor society in Psychology. Membership in Psi Chi is for life and you’ll enjoy benefits such as scholarship programs, research competitions, reduced dues for professional organizations like the American Psychological Association (APA) and the Association for Psychological Science (APS), and getting to know fellow psychology majors here on campus at UMKC. Please visit our web site for information about the eligibility requirements.

If you’d like to be involved in a student organization but aren’t yet eligible for Psi Chi, please consider joining he Psychology Club! Psychology Club is the sister organization to Psi Chi and is open to any students who are interested in psychology—there are no membership fees and no GPA requirements.

If you have any questions, please contact the Psi Chi and Psychology Club officers by email at umkcpsichi@umkc.edu, or the faculty advisor, Dr. Bennett, by email at bennettkk@umkc.edu.

Heartland Health Network (HHN) Event Update

A Community Health Fair which drew over 1000 people to the campus of the Calvary Temple Baptist Church on Saturday, October 30th for fitness, fun, and healthy food was the “kick-off” event for the Heartland Health Network (HHN). In lieu of typical unhealthy carnival fare, healthy food options such as fresh fruits & veggies, yogurt with fresh berries were provided. Chancellor Leo Morton, Dean Karen Vorst, Senator Clair McCaskill and Congressman Emmanuel Cleaver were on hand to offer words of welcome, congratulations and support. Fitness expert Donna Richardson Joyner
spoke to the group about the benefits of fitness and nutrition and enticed the group to participate in a well choreographed exercise routine. Over 15 community health serving organizations distributed vital health information and conducted health screening.


HHN is funded by a 1 million dollar NIH grant awarded to Professor Kathy Goggin in the Department of Psychology (see blog posting dated Tuesday, October 26, 2010). Organizers from HHN specifically hoped to reach African American community with their message of healthy lifestyles and demonstrate the power of collaborations between universities and community partners. Based on comments of attendees, it seems like that goal was achieved.

“The day was a perfect blend of celebration and cooperation among partners working toward a common goal. For too long, the African American community has experienced significant health disparities. Now, at the community level, we are bringing together current health research, health care and health education.” ~ Dr. Leo Morton, Chancellor, University of Missouri – Kansas City


“The sea of people of all ages, eating fresh fruit and having fun with physical activity was confirmation of something that we have known all along. Our vision of a healthier community can be realized as we forge strong partnerships between gatekeepers and stakeholders.”
~ Rev. Eric D. Williams, Pastor- Calvary Temple Baptist Church & Executive Director – Calvary Community Outreach Network