Psychology Department Faculty, Students, and Staff are Recognized for their Work

The psychology department faculty, students, and staff have had some impressive accomplishments over the last year. Below is a brief snapshot of some recent happenings.

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Dennis Molfese

Dennis Molfese, professor of psychology, received a University of Nebraska President’s Faculty Excellence Award for research, creative activity, teaching and engagement. This award was announce in Nebraska Today. Dennis also received an award from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to examine the relationship between income and child development through the first three years of life.

Trey Andrews

Trey Andrews, assistant professor of psychology, received a Scholar Award from the Great Plains Institutional Development Award-Clinical & Translational Research. The four-year grant will operate through a subaward from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences and funds research in which Dr. Andrews is developing a tool to reduce mental health stigma and improve mental health literacy among Hispanic victims of violence.

Kate Theimer, David Hanse

Kate Theimer, graduate student, Clinical Program, and David Hansen, professor of psychology, published an article in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence (“Attributions of blame in a hypothetical child sexual abuse case: Roles of behavior problems and frequency of abuse”) which revealed that youth with multiple sexual assaults were especially susceptible to receiving blame. Their article is featured in Nebraska Today.

Eve Brank

Eve Brank, associate professor of psychology, and Director for the Center on Children, Families, and the Law, received an award from the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services in order to train child welfare professionals to protect children from abuse and neglect. This award is highlighted in Nebraska Today. For her work with Scientific Resources and the Law (SRL) Brank also received the inaugural Tammy and John Allen Partnership Seed Funding Award through UNL’s College of Arts and Sciences.

Jeff Stevens

Jeff Stevens, associate professor of psychology, received a seed award from College of Arts and Sciences to partner with Prairie Skies, Inc. to establish a new research program on canine cognition and dog-human interaction.

Juan Duque, Whitney Leichner, Holly Ahmann, Jeff Stevens

Juan Duque, graduate student, Neuroscience and Behavior Program, Whitney Leichner, psychology department graduate, Holly Ahmann, psychology department graduate, and Jeff Stevens, associate professor of psychology, published an article in the journal Biology Letters (“Mesotocin influences pinyon jay prosociality”) which revealed a link between a hormone and prosocial behavior in birds. Their article is featured in Nebraska Today. Juan also received Psychology Department’s Graduate Student Classroom Instruction Teaching Award.

Tim Nelson

Tim Nelson, associate professor of psychology, received a Community Research Grant from Children’s Hospital & Medical Center (Omaha) entitled “Research Program Development for an Interdisciplinary Pediatric Obesity Clinic.” The goal of the project is to enhance capacity for high impact interdisciplinary research conducted within the HEROES pediatric obesity clinic. Tim also received the Psi Chi and Undergraduate Psychology Organization’s Psychology Teacher of the Year Award.

Abbey Reimer, Michelle Haikalis

Abbey Reimer, graduate student, Social and Cognitive Program, Michelle Haikalis, graduate student, Clinical Program, Molly Franz, graduate student, Clinical Program, Mike Dodd, associate professor of psychology, David DiLillo, professor of psychology, and Sarah Gervais , associate professor of psychology, published an article in the journal Sex Roles (“Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder: An initial investigation of the effects of alcohol, attractiveness, warmth, and competence on the objectifying gaze in men”) that found that alcohol consumption increases men’s objectifying gazes of women’s bodies. Their article is featured in Nebraska Today. Abbey also received the Department of Psychology’s Graduate Student Research Mentor Teaching Award, and the David Levine Diversity Enhancement Award.

Maital Neta

Maital Neta, assistant professor of psychology, received an award from the National Institutes of Mental Health entitled, “Functional brain networks mediating individual differences in valence bias,” and a National Science Foundation CAREER award entitled, “Functional brain networks mediating positivity bias in healthy aging.” Maital has also received the Harold and Esther Edgerton Junior Faculty Award from UNL. In addition to the publishing in Scientific Reports see above), Maital has published in the journals Emotion (“The impact of uncertain threat on affective bias: Individual differences in response to ambiguity,” with J. Cantelon, Z. Haga, C.R. Mahoney, H.A. Taylor, and F.C. Davis), and Cerebral Cortex (“Distinct stages of moment-to-moment processing in the cinguloopercular and frontoparietal networks,” with C. Gratton, H. Sun, E.J. Ploran, B.L. Schlaggar, M.E. Wheeler, S.E. Petersen, and S.M. Nelson).

Cynthia Willis-Esqueda

Cynthia Willis-Esqueda, associate professor of psychology, was appointed as an Executive Editor of the Journal of Social Psychology. Cynthia also received a University of Nebraska Layman award, along with El Centro de Las Americas, to conduct a pilot study on dental health and aesthetics, acculturation, and psychological outcomes for Latinx immigrants for 2018-2019. In addition, Cynthia has been appointed as a Co-Chair the Minority Affairs Committee for American Psychology-Law Society.

Ming Li

Ming Li, professor of psychology, received a subaward from the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) to work with Dr. Woo-Yang Kim on his National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke award, entitled, “Functional Characterization of a Causative Gene for Intellectual Disability.” Ming will help characterize behavioral phenotypes of a gene knockout mouse model of intellectual disability and autism. Ming also received a College of Arts and Sciences International Research Collaborations Award for his proposal, entitled, “A Preclinical Study of Mothers with Autism Spectrum Disorders.”

Catie Brown

Catie Brown, graduate student, Neuroscience and Behavior Program, and Maital Neta, assistant professor of psychology, published an article in Scientific Reports (“Cortisol responses enhance negative valence perception for ambiguous facial expressions”) that found a relationship between enhanced levels of stress and the appraisal of ambiguous facial expressions such as surprise as being more threatening. Their article is featured in Nebraska Today.

John Kiat

John Kiat, graduate student, Social and Cognitive Program, Jacob Cheadle, associate professor of sociology, and Bridget Goosby, associate professor of sociology, published an article in the International Journal of Psychophysiology (“The impact of social exclusion on anticipatory attentional processing”) that found neural correlates associated with the increased vigilance that anticipates social rejection. Their article is featured in the Lincoln Journal Star and Nebraska Today. In addition, John Kiat and Jacob Cheadle published an article in the journal Neuroimage (“The impact of individuation on the bases of human empathic responding”) that found neural correlates associated with increased empathic responses to faces that included names, also featured in the Lincoln Journal Star and Nebraska Today.

Becca Brock

Becca Brock, assistant professor of psychology, published alongside Grazyna Kochanska and Lea J. Boldt at the University of Iowa, an article in the special anniversary issue of Journal of Family Psychology on advances in methods and measurement in family psychology (“Interplay between children’s biobehavioral plasticity and interparental relationship in the origins of internalizing problems”). This article provided a sophisticated approach to creating a biobehavioral plasticity index, which has the potential to expand theoretical understandings of how genetics contribute to family interactions and vice versa.

Rick Bevins

Rick Bevins, professor of psychology, has been appointed as Chancellor’s Professor of Psychology.

Caitlin Hudac, Patrick Ledwidge

Caitlin Hudac, former graduate student, Neuroscience and Behavior Program, Patrick Ledwidge, former graduate student, Neuroscience and Behavior Program, and Dennis Molfese, professor of psychology, published an article in the International Journal of Psychophysiology (“History of concussion impacts electrophysiological correlates of working memory”) that revealed neural correlates of working memory ability were decreased among college football athletes with a history of concussion. Their article is featured in Lincoln Journal Star.

Rosa Hazel Delgado, Richard Wiener

Rosa Hazel Delgado, graduate student, Social and Cognitive Program, and Richard Wiener, professor of psychology, received a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award from the National Science Foundation’s Law and Social Sciences Program to explore introducing a rehabilitation model designed to reduce offender's recidivism while also reducing officer's racial and ethnic bias.

Brian Bornstein

Brian Bornstein, professor of psychology and courtesy professor of law, received an award from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Law and Social Sciences program entitled “Calibration in Court,” to study how jurors understand different kinds of expert testimony and its influence on their verdicts. Beginning in January 2018 Dr. Bornstein has been taking a leave of absence from the Department to serve as a program officer at NSF.

Grant Schulman, Natalie Holt

Grant Schulman, graduate student, Clinical Program, Natalie Holt, graduate student, Clinical Program, and Deb Hope, professor of psychology, published an article in the journal Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity (“A review of contemporary assessment tools for use with transgender and gender nonconforming adults”) that focuses on the need to enhance services for individuals who identify as transgender and gender nonconforming.

Carolyn Brown-Kramer

Carolyn Brown-Kramer, assistant professor of psychology, received a 2018 UNL College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Teaching Award, and the Frank Costin Memorial Award for Excellence from the National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology.

Deb Hope

Deb Hope, professor of psychology, has been appointed as Aaron Douglas Professor of Psychology. In addition, Deb and her collaborators in Trans Collaborations received a Great Plains Idea-Clinical & Translational Research pilot award entitled, “Translating tools and expanding partnerships to reduce health disparities in transgender communities.”

Mark Holden

Mark Holden, assistant professor of psychology, received a University of Nebraska Layman Award to explore the relationship between children's spatial abilities (and specifically their understanding of "middle") and their mathematical reasoning.

Mario Scalora

Mario Scalora, professor of psychology, was quoted by National Public Radio on his views concerning motivation surrounding the mass shooting in Las Vegas.

Bob Belli, Carolyn Brown-Kramer, Marybeth Helmink, Joanna Seley, Manda Williamson

Bob Belli, professor of psychology, Carolyn Brown-Kramer, assistant professor of psychology, Marybeth Helmink, psychology advisor, Joanna Seley, psychology advisor, and Manda Williamson, assistant professor of psychology, received Parents’ Recognition Awards from the UNL Parents Association for making a significant contribution to their students’ lives.