News | Department of Psychology

May 14, 2025
Statement of Support
April 25, 2025
Upcoming: Reid Conference 2025
April 16, 2025
Tehya Drummond was offered an award to the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship Program!
June 14, 2023
Allie Silverman received The Distinguished Graduate Teaching Award for the Social Sciences.
April 19, 2023
Marta Grannonico received the Career Starter grant award from the Knights Templar Eye Foundation.
April 19, 2023
Abha Basargekar, Joshua Danoff, Sue Oh, Zoe Roertson, and Shannon Savell advanced to the Final Round of the Grad Thesis SLAM competition!
April 19, 2023
Talyn Steinmann (Jaswal Lab RA) and Kayden Stockwell awarded a Raven Fellowship and the John C. Coleman Distinction
February 28, 2023
Angeline Lillard’s research was featured in a recent BBC report
February 28, 2023
John Darrell Van Horn, Professor of Psychology and Data Science was quoted in this recent news story: Slower brain development puts boys at greater addiction risk: NIH - Washington Times.
February 28, 2023
2023-24 Internship Placements -- Costello; Daniel; Davis; Eberle; Rivens; Savell; and Silverman
September 26, 2022
Christina Carroll is the winner of the 2022 International Montessori Award for New Researcher of the Year.
September 13, 2022
Tobias Grossmann received the 2022 Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
September 7, 2022
Amrisha Vaish received a 2021 Max Planck Institute Sabbatical Award. The award supports scientists by offering a research stay at one of the Max Planck Institutes as well as flexible research funding over a 2-year period.
March 14, 2022
Johanna Chajes and undergraduate Hailey Costello were awarded a Double Hoo Award for their project "The Effect of Time Pressure on Children's Fairness Behavior and Executive Function".
February 21, 2022
Congratulations to Evan Giangrande and Sean Womack who matched to clinical internship sites. Evan will be headed to Harvard Medical School/McLean Hospital and Sean will be headed to the University of Rochester School of Medicine.
November 8, 2021
Kyshia Henderson's recent article, "Confederate monuments and the history of lynching in the American South: An empirical examination," has been featured in a number of news outlets including the Washington Post.
November 8, 2021
Dr. Matt Lerner (UVA alumni, now Associate Professor for Clinical Psychology at the Department of Psychology of Stony Brook University) won the LIFE alumni award recognizing continued excellence in interdisciplinary developmental science post-PhD.
September 28, 2021
Seanna Leath recipient 2022 APA Georgia Babladelis Best Paper Award - Butler-Barnes, Ross, & Lee-Nelson paper “What Happens If They Come for You? An Exploration of Mothers’ Racial Socialization on Discrimination With Black College Women"
September 28, 2021
Jessica Gettleman who won the Psychonomics Graduate Conference Award!
September 7, 2021
Evan Giangrande received the Thompson Award for the best oral presentation at the 2021 Behavior Genetics Association meeting. His talk was entitled "Biometric analysis of within-person Flynn Effects."
September 7, 2021
Seanna Leath and the FHIRe lab were awarded a National Science Foundation CAREER grant - Towards a Developmental Model of Thriving: Bridging Academic, Social, and Psychological Wellbeing among Black College Women to Increase STEM Retention.
August 30, 2021
Zoe Sargent received a Psi Chi APS Convention Society Research Award for her poster titled, Non-Autistic Children Do Not Object to Autistic-like Behaviors. Zoe also received the 2020-21 Summer Mamie Phipps Clark Diversity Research Grant through Psi Chi.
April 21, 2021
Congratulations to Jessica Gettleman and Meghan Costello who were awarded the Jefferson Fellowship.
March 30, 2021
Janelle Billingsley was awarded a Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship.
March 30, 2021
Ilana Ladis was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.
March 22, 2021
Janelle Billingsley was selected for the 2021 Psychology Graduate Student Excellence In Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity Award.
March 22, 2021
Noelle Hurd was selected for the 2021 Psychology Faculty Excellence In Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity Award.
March 22, 2021
Isabelle Moore won a Double Hoo Award for her project titled, "Semantic and episodic contributions to false memory formation."
March 22, 2021
Johanna Chajes was chosen as one of the eight winners of this year's APS Student Grant Competition and will get $500 for her research on intuitive cooperation and executive function.
March 15, 2021
Jessica Gettleman won a Double Hoo Award for her project "The Contribution of Face Recognition Ability and Other-Race Contact to Confidence and Accuracy in Cross-Race Eyewitness Identifications."
March 15, 2021
Meltem Yucel was elected as a Student and Early Career Council representative to the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD).
March 1, 2021
Ian Becker was awarded both a UVa GSASC grant and the American Montessori Society’s prize for the best Master’s thesis.
March 1, 2021
Meltem Yucel and Shannon Savell received Graduate Teaching Awards.
March 1, 2021
Katie Daniel received the Becky Boone Award.
March 1, 2021
Meltem Yucel's website Psych Research List received a Commendation from the Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science (SIPS).
February 28, 2021
Meltem Yucel's 'PsychResearchLink' database receives Commendation from the Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science
February 22, 2021
Congratulations to Miranda Beltzer, Sarah Coe-Odess, and Nauder Namaky who matched with a clinical internship next year. Miranda will be at Cornell University, Sarah will be at Harvard Medical School, and Nauder will be at Brown University.
February 1, 2021
Meltem Yucel was selected to become the Cognitive Development Society's Diversity and Inclusion Coordinator, an Affiliate to Cornell University's Cornell Center for Social Sciences, and a Research Affiliate to the Department of Human Development.
November 23, 2020
Meltem Yucel won a $12,000 grant from Cornell University's Center for Social Sciences (CCSS) to conduct research on children's gossip.
November 16, 2020
Meltem Yucel was selected as a Student Affiliate to UNC-Chapel Hill's Center for the Science of Moral Understanding, directed by Kurt Gray.
October 26, 2020
Dr. Seanna Leath was recently awarded a grant through the Stanford Innovators Program as a co-investigator.
October 12, 2020
Prof. Steve Boker has been granted an honorary doctorate from the Universitaet der Bundeswehr Muenchen.
October 11, 2020
PhD student Taina Quiles and her mentor Seanna Leath are awarded a 2020-21 CERA Racial and Social Justice Mini-Grant
September 21, 2020
Dr. Seanna Leath was hosted on a podcast series
September 21, 2020
Jess Connelly and Katie Krol have received a STAR Pilot Award
September 21, 2020
Meltem Yucel wins the University’s Three Minute Thesis contest!
August 31, 2020
Meltem Yucel won APS Albert Bandura Graduate Research Award and APA Virtual Convention Grant.
August 25, 2020
Welcome New Graduate Students 2020-2021
August 10, 2020
Seanna Leath receives a Society for Research in Child Development 2020 Early Career Scholar Grant
July 17, 2020
Victoria Mauer received the 2020 The Frank Finger Graduate Fellowship for Teaching.
July 7, 2020
We celebrate the retirements of 3 distinguished faculty members this year
June 4, 2020
Department of Psychology Statement on Anti-Black Racism and the Need for Anti-Racist Action
May 8, 2020
Congratulations Psychology Class of 2020! View program and videos here.
April 13, 2020
Meltem Yucel and Andrea Negrete won the Raven Scholarship.
March 30, 2020
Meltem Yucel was awarded a dissertation grant from the UVA Democracy Initiative's Corruption Laboratory on Ethics, Accountability, and the Rule of Law.
March 23, 2020
Andrea Negrete won the UVA Americas Center / Centro de las Américas Fellowship!
March 16, 2020
Congratulations to Tim Wilson, whose article titled, Wise interventions: Psychological remedies for social and personal problems won the 2019 Daniel M. Wegner Theoretical Innovation Prize, awarded by the Society of Personality and Social Psychology!
March 16, 2020
Congratulations to Jess Kansky, who has been selected as the 2019-2020 Student Raven Award recipient!
March 16, 2020
Congratulations to Jessica Stern, who received a postdoctoral Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award! Her project is co-sponsored by Tobias Grossman, Amrisha Vaish, and Joe Allen.
March 16, 2020
Congratulations to Shannon Savell, who won a distinguished teaching fellowship!
March 16, 2020
Congratulations to Allie Silverman, who won a Double Hoo award for her project titled, Understanding the Relationship between eHealth Intervention Users and Human Supportive Figures: Does Gender Matter?
March 2, 2020
Angel Lillard was featured in Springer Nature 2019 Highlights for her article "Shunned and Admired: Montessori, Self-Determination, and a Case for Radical School Reform" in Educational Psychology Review.
February 17, 2020
Dr. Rachel Keen receives a Fellow Ribbon from the American Academy for the Advancement of Science
January 31, 2020
January Accolades-Yucel, Eisen, Stern, Kansky
January 3, 2020
Seanna Leath is recognized with the inaugural 500 Women Scientists Award
January 3, 2020
John Van Horn is awarded the Fellow of Organization for Human Brain Mapping
December 3, 2019
Bobby Moulder and Stefen Beeler were initiated to the Raven Society.
December 3, 2019
Meltem Yucel is awarded the Center for Global Inquiry & Innovation Graduate Research Grant.
November 30, 2019
Bethany Teachman is elected as 2019 AAAS Fellow
September 25, 2019
Matthew Lerner returns to UVA Psychology as a Visiting Associate Professor.
September 25, 2019
Welcoming the first year PhD class.
August 13, 2019
Gilmer Gazette Summer 2019 edition is now available.
July 16, 2019
Congratulations to our 2019 Psychology PhD Graduates!
April 8, 2019
Meltem Yucel won the 2019-2020 GSAS Teaching Relief Fellowship!
February 27, 2018
NBC29 News recently did a short story on Dr. Angeline Lillard’s Hartford study on Montessori education. See url below.