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.

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.

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

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

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."

“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.