Drexel University Graduate College recently announced the recipients of the 2023 Graduate Excellence Awards. These awards recognize high-achieving graduate and professional students across disciplines in mentorship, scholarship, civic engagement, service, research and teaching assistance. Congratulations to the College of Arts and Sciences students who were honored with these awards! 

According to Dr. Elizabeth Lombardo, our mental health is our superpower. Lombardo will share her science-based knowledge and advice with the class of 2023 as the keynote speaker at the CoAS commencement ceremony on June 15. She speaks more about her career path and offers words of wisdom to graduates in this Q&A.

Congratulations to the College of Arts and Sciences faculty and students who were honored at the 11th annual Celebrating Drexel Authors event. Hosted by the Drexel University Libraries and the Office of the Provost, this event recognized members of the Drexel community who authored or edited books or highly-cited journal articles in 2022. 

Associate Professor of Psychology Pamela A. Geller, PhD, and her team have been supporting new mothers with postpartum depression (PPD) since 2016 through their Mother Baby Connections program. Now, they're developing MommaConnect, a mobile app that would facilitate virtual treatment for those struggling with PPD. 

Lashae Williams, a PhD candidate in clinical psychology, received an inaugural Internship Scholarship from the Society for Black Neuropsychology. She is one of two trainees to receive this award, which eases the financial burden of the internship application process.

Congratulations to all 10 of Drexel's clinical psychology doctoral students who matched for internships at high quality sites! Congratulations also to their mentors. Matching is a highly competitive process and 100% match rate to top-notch sites is another important metric of the strength of the clinical psych doctoral program at Drexel.

"The new year provides us with an opportunity to not only review our past year, but also to prepare for the future," says Drexel University College of Arts and Sciences Carl R. Pacifico Professor of Neuropsychology Eric Zillmer, PsyD. Zillmer shares eight tips for staying on track with your goals in 2023.

Before being proven as addictive and damaging, cigarettes gained the attention of children through relatable slogans, cartoon characters and attractive designs. Only with marketing regulation and research detailing the destructive effects of tobacco did smoking slowly become less attractive to its young audience. But the marketing of harmful substances to vulnerable populations hasn’t gone away entirely. Instead, it has switched focus to another product: ultra-processed foods, commonly known as “junk food.” Erica LaFata, PhD, an assistant research professor in the Center for Weight, Eating and Lifestyle Science (WELL Center), was recently awarded a grant to explore food addiction in relation to ultra-processed foods.

Growing up in South Brunswick, New Jersey, psychology major and student advisory board member Sanjana Oak rarely saw herself represented on the television screen. When she did, that character was grossly stereotyped or there only for comedic relief. What was worse, in real life, her peers expected her to behave in that same way. Curious about whether her experience was unique, she set up a research project through the STAR (Students Tackling Advanced Research) Scholars Program in the Pennoni Honors College.

In February, 100 percent of eligible doctoral candidates in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences programs matched with exceptional internship placement sites. This included three out of the eight students matching with the VA San Diego/University of California, San Diego—one of the leading internship sites in the country.

For individuals convicted of a summary offense, such as retail theft, who have had no subsequent arrests for a designated number of years, expungement—the erasure of a formal arrest or conviction record—may be a path to a fresh start...

Researchers who conducted a small randomized trial of a form of non-invasive brain stimulation called tDCS (transcranial direct current stimulation) have found mechanistic evidence supporting its ability to help patients with moderate to severe major depressive disorder (MDD).

The I Am Psyched! national touring exhibit has returned to Drexel and is being presented in person this month after last year’s virtual presentation due to the pandemic.

Researchers from the Psychological and Brain Sciences department in the College of Arts and Sciences at Drexel University and the Center for Violence Prevention at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) recently published a study investigating various factors that may contribute to identification of relationally aggressive students, including their academic competence, prosocial behavior, popularity and gender.

Evangelia G. Chrysikou, PhD, from the Department of Psychology, has been appointed to a 3-year term as Associate Dean for Research to provide leadership to all research and scholarly/creative inquiry programs in the College of Arts and Sciences.

On Tuesday, June 8, 2021, the College of Arts and Sciences will celebrate the achievements of the Class of 2021 with a virtual commencement. The ceremony will be live-streamed from Mandell Theater, where a small party of dignitaries and speakers will gather.

Kirk Heilbrun, PhD, a professor of psychology, has been the Drexel Ombuds since 2018, and specializes in lending an ear and offering advice to any Dragons in need.

Researchers from the Center for Weight, Eating and Lifestyle Science (WELL Center) in the College of Arts and Sciences at Drexel University systematically reviewed numerous independently published guidelines for having conversations with children about weight status to analyze their content, consistency, actionability and scientific support. They recommend future guidelines unify their messages for caregivers and health care professionals and be better supported by scholarly data.

A new neuroimaging study out of Drexel University's Creativity Research Lab points to an answer of what may have driven the evolutionary development of creativity.

A new brain-imaging study out of Drexel University's Creativity Research Lab sheds light on the controversy on which side of the brain is responsible for creativity by studying the brain of jazz guitarists during improvisation. 

We are pleased to recognize the recent grants, publications, presentations, awards and honors of the members of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Mona Elgohail, a PhD candidate in the clinical psychology program in Drexel University’s College of Arts and Sciences, brought her clinical training to a city in Jordan near the Syrian border in order to make a difference in “the worst humanitarian crisis of our time.”

We are pleased to recognize the recent grants, publications, presentations, awards and honors of members of the College of Arts and Sciences.

As Donna M. Murasko, PhD, prepares to end her 16-year tenure as dean to return to the faculty, the College of Arts and Sciences will move ahead under new leadership with the appointment of Maria T. Schultheis as interim dean, effective July 1.

Fifteen Drexel students stood bright-eyed and eager to entertain in front of cameras rolling at a local hospital. Part of a Drexel community-based learning course dubbed Story Medicine, the students were there to engage sick and disabled children through live broadcast programming, using skits to infuse laughter with a little education.

Jennie David, a 4th year graduate student in the Clinical Psychology PhD program, recently had a personal narrative published in the New England Journal of Medicine, titled "The Chair Grant."

After serving as Administrator of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) under the Obama Administration, Robert L. Listenbee, Esq., will return to Philadelphia as a Stoneleigh Foundation Visiting Fellow.

“My life was forever changed by a man whose leg had been amputated,” says Elizabeth Lombardo, PhD, a clinical psychologist and national media consultant, recalling a former patient at the Baltimore Veterans Association Medical Center. At the time of their meeting, Lombardo had just graduated from Duke University with her master’s in physical therapy. “I knew if I could get him up on the parallel bars, he’d be able to walk,” she says, “and I could teach him how to transfer in and out of his wheelchair.” She considers that day a sign of her true purpose in life. Soon after, she applied to doctoral programs in clinical psychology and chose Drexel’s program (formerly part of Hahnemann University) because of its location and because of Arthur Nezu, PhD, one of the program’s directors, with whom she interviewed.

Kayci Vickers and Jillian Tessier both recently received research awards from the Council on Brain Injury.

Mary Godfrey and Jillian Tessier both received Psi Chi Research Grants.

Keisha April, Stephanie Singer, Alice Thornewill and Elizabeth Gale-Bentz were awarded 2017 American Psychology-Law Society (AP-LS) Student Presentation Awards.

Read a review of the second edition of "Thinking Parent, Thinking Child", Myrna Shure's updated book.

Mona Elgohail, a clinical psychology PhD student mentored by Pamela Geller, PhD, has been awarded two travel grants.

For the approximately 8 million Americans who suffer from binge eating disorder, help could be just a download away. Psychologists in Drexel’s Laboratory for Innovations in Health-Related Behavior Change are developing a new smartphone application that aims to tackle binge eating, and they are seeking study volunteers to test it out. The app, called iCAT+, is for patients who suffer from binge eating disorder or bulimia nervosa.

You might call the one-year anniversary of Drexel’s Graduate College “the great rollout.” For the past year, with inaugural Dean and Executive Vice Provost James Herbert, PhD, leading the way, the college has moved into its new home and set in place a long list of initiatives. Now it’s time to mobilize.

The Drexel Department of Psychology is hosting multiple student- and community-oriented events during Brain Awareness Week, March 14-18, with the goal to educate community members about current trends in scientific research as it relates to brain health across the lifespan and, more generally, to raise awareness about healthy brain habits.

Middle school students in West Philadelphia will learn strategies to achieve better physical and emotional health through a new collaboration between Drexel University and the Sixers Youth Foundation, a charitable initiative of the Philadelphia 76ers.

The new Psychological Services Center on Drexel's campus now offers high-quality, scientifically informed, affordable psychological services for the community and clinical training opportunities for doctoral students.

In the first pilot study asking adults on the autism spectrum about their experiences with driving, researchers at Drexel University found significant differences in self-reported driving behaviors and perceptions of driving ability in comparison to non-autistic adults. As the population of adults with autism continues growing rapidly, the survey provides a first step toward identifying whether this population has unmet needs for educational supports to empower safe driving – a key element of independent functioning in many people’s lives.

Two new treatment methods under investigation at Drexel University aim to help people reduce binge-eating behavior. One is a smartphone app designed to alert peopleat times when they are at risk for binge behaviors, among a comprehensive suite of other features. Another treatment is a new, evidence-based approach to small-group behavioral therapy.

Due to a complex and vicious cycle of biological and behavioral factors, dieters and weight loss researchers know, the more weight you’ve lost, the harder it is to keep it off. But eating disorder research has largely overlooked this influence, and Dr. Michael Lowe, a professor of psychology at Drexel University, has published a flurry of research studies showing that needs to change.

Researchers at Drexel University have found that a majority of women with bulimia nervosa reach their highest-ever body weight after developing their eating disorder, despite the fact that the development of the illness is characterized by significant weight loss.