In this Issue:

The year 2025 has been one of both highs and lows. Changes at the federal level have created a precarious climate for science, challenges for international students, less support for diversity-related efforts, and some financial uncertainty for universities across the U.S. Against the backdrop of these challenges, it has never been so important for universities to find new ways to reach out to and support our students, and to engage with the broader community. In the Department of Psychology, we have spent the last year committed to these endeavors. We value your support as we do this.

We are excited to share just a few of these 2025 endeavors in this holiday newsletter. Many of our activities this year have been focused on making a meaningful impact in our local, national, and global community.

The Auditory Perception and Action Lab supported two area high school students in an internship funded by the National Science Foundation. During their internship they participated in all stages of a pilot project concerning difference in vocal pitch production in singing and speaking, culminating in a research presentation given to the lab.

On October 15, 2025, UB’s Psychology Department was delighted to host students from Iroquois High School’s Advanced Placement (AP) Psychology class. Their visit included an in-depth tour featuring: a warm welcome from our department chair, Dr. Jennifer Read; lab demonstrations with Dr. Jamie Ostrov and Dr. Mark Seery; participation in Dr. Joyce Lacy’s interactive Scientific Inquiry class; and presentations on the many subfields of psychology by Drs. Becky Ashare, Federica Bulgarelli, Kim Chaney, and Ann-Marie Torregrossa.

Students also enjoyed a campus walk led by Christa Greenberg, lunch and a presentation by Dr. Wendy Quinton on the benefits of majoring or minoring in psychology, and time to connect with our Psychology Honors students, club officers and majors. Reflecting on their experience, Iroquois students shared: “The energy the professors had and the information they provided helped me decide on my future major and guide me in my psychology journey,” and “I loved learning about the different aspects of psychology and how deep of a topic it truly is.”

Recent graduate Dr. Chihiro Honda presented results from her dissertation at Duolingo, at a symposium for students who –like Chihiro– received funding from that business for dissertation research that informs how we learn spoken language.

Michael Poulin will be chairing a symposium on emotional responses to others’ suffering at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Personality and Social Psychology this coming February in Chicago. The symposium includes speakers from Indiana University, Northwestern University, and Western (Ontario) University.

With a team of UB collaborators, Lora Park published a paper offering advice for how scientists can thrive in times of adversity and societal change.

In the spring, the department hosted Dr. Misha Ailsworth (formerly Inniss-Thompson) as a colloquium speaker. Dr. Ailsworth is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Cornell University who specializes in community-based research. She spoke about her work examining the impact of families, communities, and schools in shaping Black girls’ mental health and wellness using a cultural-assets perspective.

The Psychological Services Center sponsored a workshop for health professionals on protecting parents against burnout on May 7th 2025. Professor Rebecca Schwartz-Mette delivered a keynote address on “Breaking the Cycle of Burnout: Mindfulness Strategies for Caregivers.” Sarah Taber-Thomas, Craig Colder, Jamie Ostrov from Psychology and Stephanie Fredrick from the Graduate School of Education also spoke about how to best support parents under stress. Plans are underway for another event in the spring.

This summer, Psychological Services Center students and faculty began partnering with Journey’s End Refugee Services to provide psychological evaluations for individuals seeking asylum—offered entirely pro bono to help overcome barriers to justice. We piloted this partnership this past summer and it has already become a powerful training and service opportunity. With support, we hope to continue offering this vital resource to those in need.

 The University at Buffalo Developmental Science Research Consortium is an interdisciplinary group of 25 researchers from the Psychology, other UB departments/schools, and other universities studying biological, social, cultural, cognitive, and emotional aspects of development. Our scientists address a broad array of questions that pertain to problem behavior and psychopathology, substance use and addiction, social and emotional development, healthy eating in children, acquisition of language, language disorders, self-transcendence, as well as school readiness and academic achievement.

The UB-DSRC has coalesced to organize a variety of events open to anyone interested in developmental research.  Plans include multiple brown bag meetings in each semester where students and faculty members and invited national and international speakers present their research. An annual research day is also in the works. Visit the Developmental Science Research Consortium webpage for more information about the consortium.

Research labs across UB study how infants and children learn and develop, but we couldn’t do it without help from parents and children in the area.

If you are interested in potentially participating, please sign up for our UB CHILDatabase, and we will contact you for study opportunities! Signing up for the database does not require you to participate in any study.

• You must be the parent or legal guardian of a child < 18 years old, or currently pregnant!
• If you are currently pregnant, feel free to sign up with your due date and we will contact you when your child becomes eligible!
• Be willing to provide basic demographic and contact information (e.g., DOB, email)

For the fifth year in a row, the UB chapter of Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in Psychology, has been awarded a Model Chapter Award! Only 40 out of the 1,150 chapters around the world achieved Model Chapter status in the 2024-25 academic year.

This year, in addition to our usual activities such a school supply drive, board game night, and graduate student panel, our student officers hosted some new events.

• A “Not On The Syllabus” event where a faculty member from the department (Dr. Wendy Quintion) to share her story of how she decided to pursue psychology as a career.
• A tour of the Brain Museum on the University at Buffalo’s south campus. The museum houses nearly 90 brain specimens. The museum’s curator, Dr. Christopher Cohan, concludes the tour by bringing out a real human brain for students to hold.

If you would like to find out more about our events, look for us in Psi Chi Headquarters’ “Eye on Psi Chi” digital magazine.

The chapter also hosted the 6^th annual Western New York (WNY) Undergraduate Psychology Conference last spring with 200 attendees from 12 different institutions. There were 50 poster and 5 oral presentations from students across Western New York.

The generous gifts of alumni and department friends allow us to honor the scholarly contributions of our accomplished undergraduate and graduate students.

Ashmita Mukherjee is the 2025 recipient of the Bugelski Dissertation Award. The $2500 monetary award honors excellence in scholarly productivity during doctoral studies and the significance and quality of the doctoral dissertation project. This award is supported by an endowment in the honor of Dr. B. R. Bugelski, a UB Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Chair of our department in the 1960s. Dr. Bugelski was best known for the advancement of the concept of "secondary reinforcement," an idea that has become a core concept in learning theory. Ashmita received the Bugelski award for her dissertation research on the orexin system and its roles in enhancing the hedonic (i.e., pleasurable) effects of the opioid hydrocodone, and in affecting nicotine’s ability to reduce sensitivity to the unfavorable properties of opioid use.

Izilda Pereira-Jorge is the 2025 recipient of the Robert W. Rice Memorial Award for Early Excellence in Research. Dr. Rice joined the UB Psychology department in 1976 and furthered his research examining quality of work and family life. The $1500 monetary award in his name honors distinguished early career research contributions by a junior graduate student. Izilda received this award for her paper, titled “Marginalized and advantaged parents’ perceptions of identity-safety cues in K-12 classrooms,” in press in Social Psychological and Personality Science.

Bridget Crandall is the 2025 recipient of the Feldman-Cohen Award. Named in honor of two distinguished former faculty, this $750 monetary award is given to the undergraduate whose honors thesis the examining committee, faculty advisor, and honors program director ranked highest. Bridget’s thesis investigated communication deficits and Alzheimer’s disease using the 3xTg-AD Alzheimer's mouse model.

Brittney Greene and Caramia Michno are the 2025 graduate and undergraduate recipients of the Murray Levine Award for Community Engagement in Psychology. Dr. Murray Levine was a SUNY Distinguished Service Professor and a member of the UB Psychology Department from 1968 until 2000.  Murray was among a core group of influential psychologists who helped launch the field of community psychology. This award recognizes original research poised to make a significant impact on the community surrounding UB and is sponsored by the generous support of Dr. Robert Fink, a UB alumnus and one of Murray’s former students.

Brittney Greene received this award for her research focused on using community engagement studios to gather community feedback to help shape assessments for research on cannabis use among cancer patients.

Caramia Michno was honored for her contributions to Bridges International Buffalo, the Ronald E. McNair scholar program, the Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program, and service as a college ambassador for Psychology. She also received the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship to study in Costa Rica.

Thank you for your support of the Department of Psychology. With the support of alumni and friends, we can provide vital resources to enhance our department and provide support for students, research projects and programs.  For example, the department funds an annual Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Grant Program. 

These grants support undergraduate and graduate students on projects and activities that enhance inclusiveness in the field of psychological science. For the 2024-2025, we were able to fund six students: two undergraduates and four graduate students. This included four research projects and assistance to two students to present at academic conferences. 

You can support your department and help to provide for our students by making a gift online. We are grateful for your generosity.