CSPP: Congratulations CSPP Students & Recent Grads!

When Amy Backos, MA, ATR-BC, was in her second year in CSPP Clinical Psychology PhD program in San Francisco in 2005-6, she attended a conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina sponsored by the International Psychology Congress to further her interest in cross-cultural research. A Registered and Board Certified Art Therapist, Ms. Backos has been working with children and teens for the last eight years. She is employed at Edgewood Center for Children and Families helping emotionally disturbed children express themselves through fine art, knitting, and gardening. Amy's research interests are in the area of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD); she has also been involved in a practicum at the San Francisco VA Medical Center, working in the PTSD Clinic.

David Laramie, a student in the California School of Professional Psychology, is conducting cutting-edge research for his dissertation on the behavioral effects of cell phone use.

The manuscript "The Relationship between Anxiety and Sexual Functioning in Lesbians and Heterosexual Women" by San Francisco CSPP PhD student Tera Beaber and Professor Paul Werner has been accepted for publication in Journal of Homosexuality. Tera Beaber also won the 2007 Bisexual Foundation Award from Division 44 of the American Psychological Association for her dissertation on well-being among bisexual females.

Danielle Schlosser, a student in the California School of Professional Psychology, received a 2007 distinguished student award from Division 42 of the American Psychological Association for her research poster, which assesses therapists’ attitudes towards treating a range of diverse disorders using empirically supported treatments.

Casey Hoffman, a student in the California School of Professional Psychology, received a 2007 distinguished student award from Division 40 of the American Psychological Association for her research project entitled Auditory and Confrontation Naming Following Dominant Hemisphere Temporal Lobectomy.

CSPP PsyD student Ernest Fung has co-authored “Pediatric Transplant Rating Instrument (P-TRI) - A Scale for the Pre-Transplant Psychiatric Evaluation of Pediatric Organ Transplant Recipients,” to be published in the Pediatric Transplantation journal.

CSPP San Francisco student Loren King presented her poster "Euthanasia, Cause of Death, and Responses Following the Loss of a Companion Animal" at the Western Psychological Association annual convention in Vancouver, BC May 4-6.

Current Pain and Headache Reports has published “Does Aerobic Exercise Improve Pain Perception and Mood?” co-written by Sacramento PsyD student Debi Rufi Hoffman.

Los Angeles Clinical PhD students Constandina Palivos and April Thames received the program's first annual research scholarship.

Thordis "Disa" Runarsdottir received a Science Directorate student research award from the American Psychological Association (APA) for her doctoral dissertation "Disordered Eating in Iceland: Prevalence, Correlates and Cultural Insights", that extensively surveyed 700 Icelandic girls and women. She presented her findings at "Psychological Science Superstars: Datablitz!", a special session at the APA Annual Convention in August for excellent graduate school posters sponsored by the APA Science Student Council and the APA Board of Scientific Affairs.

PhD student Sybille Ulrike was profiled in the April 20th edition of the San Francisco Chronicle. That same month she, along with CSPP Professor Rhoda Olkin (also the Executive Director of the Institute on Disability and Health Psychology), presented a poster session of the first dissertation in American Sign Language in the country to the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

Twenty six students from the California School of Professional Psychology presented papers or poster sessions at the 2007 Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association.

Ben Caldwell received the outstanding Dissertation Award from American Association of Marital and Family Therapy (AAMFT) for a dissertation completed in December, 2004. He was recognized at the AAMFT Annual Conference this Fall in Kansas City. Only one person is chosen to receive this award each year. Dr. Caldwell has been recently hired onto the Alliant faculty.

Nick Tolchin, a graduate student at the California School of Professional Psychology in Fresno, was recognized as an outstanding presenter at the 27th Annual Central California Research Symposium on April 21, 2006, and received an award of $250.

CSPP PhD student Shawn Giammattei received the first Connell Persico scholarship award of $3500. Mr. Giammattei was recognized for outstanding scholarship and leadership in the LGBT community: He created a 70-minute video chronicling the history of the lesbian and gay civil rights movement; he completed two years of clinical training at the Alternative Family Institute, a family counseling center where he started a support group for lesbian and gay parents that later became known as the Mamas and Papas Group of San Francisco; and he currently serves on the editorial board of the Journal of GLBT Family Studies published by Haworth Press. More.