FBI Unit Chief Presents to CPS Students

Gregory M. Vecchi, Ph.D., a unit chief of the Behavioral Science Unit (BSU) at the Federal Bureau of Investigation and graduate of NSU's Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, gave a lunchtime presentation on "Current Research Projects at the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit" at NSU's Center for Psychological Studies on Oct. 20.

The special presentation provided an opportunity for CPS students to learn more about research, training, and consultation activities in behaviorally-based conflict analysis and resolution, crisis management, crisis communication, and global hostage-taking.

CPS Shows Strong Presence at the National Academy of Neuropsychology (NAN)’s Annual Conference

For more information about each poster presented please click here! .

The Center for Psychological Studies was strongly represented by students, faculty and alumni at the National Academy of Neuropsychology’s 29th annual conference which took place in New Orleans, November 11-14, 2009. CPS students,faculty. And alumni produced more than thirty posters. Faculty members Charles Golden, Ph.D. & Wiley Mittenberg, Ph.D., along with CPS alumni Christine Corsun-Ascher Psy.D. (2007), Jessica Garcia Ph.D./Psy.D. (2008) and Robert McCue Psy.D. (1994) assisted 31 students in preparing presentations on their research in the areas of aging and dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease, Attention Deficit Disorder, learning disabilities, and neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders including traumatic brain injury, memory and amnesia, and forensic neuropsychologial practice.

Alumna Patricia Espe-Pfeifer Ph.D. (2002), Clinical Assistant Professor and Neuropsychologist at the University of Iowa Healthcare Department, co-presented a panel for Pediatric Grand Rounds entitled Progression of Neurocognitive Deficits Associated with Juvenile Huntington’s disease: A Pediatric Case Study.” Alumni Jessica Foley, Ph.D./Psy.D. (2007) and Lindsay Hines, Ph.D. (2009) collaborated with colleagues from UCLA to discuss “The Combined Effects of Aging and HIV Infection: Cognitive, Psychiatric, & Functional Sequelae.” Foley completed her post-doctoral fellowship at UCLA and recently accepted a faculty position at Harvard University (Department of Psychiatry). Hines is currently completing a post doctoral fellowship at UCLA.

CPS Professor Receives National Award

Center for Psychological Studies Assistant Professor Shannon Ray, Ph.D. was presented with the 2009 Southern Association of Counselor Education and Supervision President's Service Award during the recent biannual conference of the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision where she presented Training Counselors to Address the Varying Spiritual Needs of Clients in Chronic Pain.

NSU Receives Substance Abuse and Mental Health (SAMSHA) Grant

The NSU Office of Suicide and Violence Prevention (SVP) has been awarded a 3 year/$300,000 grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA). The annual award will be matched by the university each year. CPS Associate Professor Scott Poland, Coordinator of the Suicide and Violence Prevention Office and Associate SHSS Professor Douglas Flemons, Director of NSU Student Counseling Center, are the co-directors and principle investigators for the grant. The project includes a diverse and accomplished group of individuals including Dr. Erin Procacci (CPS alumnus) who will serve as the grant coordinator and Dr. Christian DeLucia (CPS) will serve as the grant quantitative evaluator.

The grant is a unique opportunity for NSU because of its on campus, off campus and online student populations. The Suicide and Violence prevention team (SVP) recognizes that university students are of an age vulnerable to suicide, thus more in need of training and services. SVP’s goal is to “create a human safety net for the entire NSU community, providing training on prevalence of student suicides, detail the warning signs, demonstrate ways to help suicidal students access to crisis and longer-term mental-health resources. Implementation involves increasing awareness of risk and protective factors and reducing the stigma associated with help-seeking behaviors among students attending classes at the NSU Student Educational Centers (SECs).

For more information on SVP activities, visit the web site at http://www.nova.edu/suicideprevention/index.html

Final Fall Hot Topics in Psychology Lecture to Discuss Effects of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

The Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences and the Center for Psychological Studies (CPS) at NSU will present the final lecture of the semester in the Hot Topics in Psychology series on Nov. 12 from 12 to 1 p.m. in the Carl DeSantis building, room 3028. The talk, titled “Beyond 9/11 and War: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Widely Affects the Health of Civilians,” will be presented by Mindy Ma, Ph.D., assistant professor and coordinator of psychology in the college’s Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences; Jeff Kibler, Ph.D., associate professor in the Center for Psychological Studies; and Kavita Joshi, MS, doctoral student in the Center for Psychological Studies.

The presentation will highlight collaborative efforts between the college and CPS to conduct research on cardiovascular health consequences of posttraumatic stress. This research has provided training opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate students. Kibler will provide an overview of these research projects and discuss an ongoing project funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Joshi will present a project that assesses rates of hypertension in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and Ma will describe the collaborative training of students from both programs.

Hot Topics is a brown-bag series—those attending the lectures are encouraged to bring their lunches to the event, providing their own “food for thought.” The series enables students to gain a first-hand perspective of research in specific areas of psychology and also serves to open up potential scholarship collaboration among students and NSU faculty members, as exemplified by this lecture.

For more information on the Hot Topics in Psychology series, contact Jaime Tartar, Ph.D., assistant professor in the college’s Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences, at (954) 262-8192.

CPS Professor Receives APA’s Highest Award

NSU’s College of Psychological Studies (CPS) professor Lenore Walker, Ed.D., ABPP, was recently honored by the American Psychological Association (APA), at their 117th annual convention with an award for Distinguished Lifetime Contributions to Media Psychology.

This is the highest award given by the APA Media Psychology Division to recognize an individual for a sustained body of work in developing, refining, and/or implementing applications, procedures, and methods that have had a major impact on the public and the profession of media psychology. Walker also serves as the APA Council Representative for the Division of Media Psychology.

In addition to being honored, Walker was a participant at the symposium, Sex, Love, and Psychology- A Town Hall Meeting. She also participated in a workshop entitled, Trauma Treatment in Independent Practice-Principles and Resources.

Walker and CPS doctoral students Ruhama Hendel, MS, and Yenis Castillo, MS, exhibited a poster presentation within the poster session: Violence Against Women, Body Image, and Women’s Health Issues. Their poster, Cases of Domestic Violence in Israeli Women highlighted the plight of Israeli women who suffer abuse under the tyranny of highly patriarchal societies in that region of the world.

Walker is the coordinator of the Clinical Forensic Psychology Concentration and a member of the faculty of the Institute for Trauma and Victimization at CPS. Walker is also the Executive Director of the Domestic Violence Institute www.dviworld.org, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the education and training, research and public policy issues around domestic violence with affiliate centers around the world.

She has written 13 books in the area including the now classic, “The Battered Woman,” which has published extensively in journals and book chapters and presented her work at scientific meetings around the world.

Earlier this year, she published the third edition of her groundbreaking book, The Battered Woman Syndrome (BWS). This third edition presents updated data generated at NSU, using the newly modified Battered Women Syndrome Questionnaire (BWSQ), with revised research on topics including posttraumatic stress disorder, learned helplessness or learned optimism, the cycle theory of violence and much more.

Walker has been in the national and local media discussing issues around domestic violence, introduction of the Battered Woman Syndrome in self-defense cases where women killed their abusive partners, and drew attention for her work with the O.J. Simpson defense team. More recently, Walker provided expert commentary in People magazine and USA Today regarding the domestic assault involving entertainers Chris Brown and Rihanna.

CPS 2009 Distinguished Alumna Receives NIH Grant

NSU Center for Psychological Studies (CPS) alumna Joan M. Cook, Ph.D., (1999) of Yale University is the recent recipient of a National Institute of Health (NIH) grant.

The grant addresses a proposed topic for NIH “Strategies to Support Uptake of Interventions within Clinical Community and Setting.” Cook submitted her grant as part of President Obama’s America Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The grant will implement two evidence-based psychotherapies for treating post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among veterans. The research team will characterize and assess the implementation of Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PET) and Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Residential PTSD Treatment Programs. PET involves using mental imagery, writing, and other tasks to safely confront fears and feelings associated with trauma. CPT asks veterans to describe their trauma and then the therapist helps to redirect pervasive and destructive thoughts associated with the trauma.

Cook and her colleagues will collaborate with the Northeast Program Evaluation Center, monitoring all Veteran’s Affairs mental health programming and patient outcomes, and the National Center for PTSD, overseeing the dissemination of PET and CPT nationally among Veteran’s Affairs providers.