Seton Hall Psychology Faculty and Students Present at APA Annual Convention  

Seton Hall University was well-represented at the American Psychological Association's (APA) Annual Convention, the largest gathering of psychologists in the world, again this year. Eight faculty members from the graduate psychology and counseling programs in the Department of Professional Psychology and Family Therapy, nine counseling psychology doctoral students, and two faculty members from the Department of Psychology participated in a total of 19 presentations.

As part of a symposium chaired by internationally renowned psychologist Dr. Lillian Comas-Diaz, Seton Hall's Minsun Lee, Ph.D. presented her work on "Therapists' experiences of addressing clients' racism: Challenges and lessons learned" to an in-person standing-room only crowd that was also livestreamed on the Feature Stage. This presentation highlighted select findings of a qualitative study examining how therapists address clients' racist comments, including the challenges of linking clients' racist comments to their presenting problem when the initial conceptualization is not well elaborated. Dr. Lee outlined both an unsuccessful and successful case of addressing the client’s racist comments, to identify some potential factors that may contribute to success.

Susan Nolan, Ph.D. served as Co-Chair of a symposium titled "The future of education and training in psychology – Integration of international contexts" with Dr. Brigette Khoury of the American University of Beruit, which was also presented on the Feature Stage. The presentations in this symposium emphasized the importance of - and offered practical suggestions for - including global contexts in psychology education.

Cristina Cruza-Guet, Ph.D. served as Chair of a symposium titled “Strategies to decolonize psychological practices when working with the Latino population” Dr. Cruza-Guet was also elected president of Division 36: Society for the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality and appointed as co-chair of Division 52's (International Psychology) Committee on Latin American Affairs at this year’s convention.

Jessica Jean-Baptiste, Ph.D. and fourth-year doctoral student Chloe Blau co-chaired a symposium titled "Addressing the intersectional and invisible identities of the under-represented homeless population." The purpose of this project was to help establish a better understanding of the intersecting identities that persons who are homeless inhabit and the complex needs they have related to social determinants of health and comorbidities (including mental health and substance use disorders). The presenters also promoted dialogue on how best to meet these needs without stigmatizing and retraumatizing this population.

Peggy Brady-Amoon, Ph.D. chaired "Real DEI: Giving all students opportunities to succeed. This symposium, the 11^th in an annual series of presentations focused on the infusion of diversity in teaching, offered strategies for psychology faculty to identify established practices in teaching and higher education that further inequity as well as practical suggestions for promoting real Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI).Cristina Cruza-Guet, Ph.D. and third-year doctoral student Yuan Hao, MS, contributed to this symposium with their presentation titled "Challenges of International Students."

Marianne Lloyd, Ph.D. chaired a "Data Blitz," in which early career psychologists in cognitive psychology shared the results of their findings in a short talk format with an opportunity for a follow up discussion.

Seton Hall faculty and doctoral students also made individual presentations, including 11 posters:

Brady-Amoon and five of her doctoral students (Simone Robinson, George Perron, Khadija Salim, BluJean Casey, and Ashley Dwyer) presented a poster titled "Ten years later: A follow-up study of diverse low-SES middle school students' self-beliefs" First-year student BluJean Casey presented work done by this team and facilitated a Critical Conversation titled "Closing the opportunity gap: A critical conversation to redefine "at-risk" and rethink success."

Michelle Hanna Collins presented a poster with Pamela Foley, Ph.D. and Minsun Lee, Ph.D., titled "Women law enforcement officers' experience of work and family stressors." Mallory McCorkle presented her work titled "Individuals in an alternative sentencing program and employment experiences." Ryan Sliwak, Lee and Collins presented a poster titled "Where are they now: The narratives of children who lost a parent on 9/11."

Shruthi Jayashankar, Chloe Blau, Yuan Hao, and Foley presented a poster titled "The COVID-19 Experience: Understanding the Effects of a Global Pandemic on the Needs and Challenges Faced by Southeast and East Asian International Graduate Students in the United States."

In a collaboration with Dr. Alex Pieterse, a faculty member at Boston College, doctoral student Cayden Halligan and Lee presented a poster titled "White people developing an anti-racist stance towards anti-Black racism."

Seton Hall prides itself on diversified academic offerings and providing students with the opportunity to showcase their work alongside distinguished faculty scholars on a national level. The Department of Professional Psychology & Family Therapy focuses on training professionals in a wide variety of educational and counseling specialties in nationally recognized, accredited graduate programs that prepare students to work as psychologists or counselors in school and community settings.

Categories: Education