Dear Alumni and Friends,

I write to you as the new head of the Department of Psychology, and I am excited to share with you all our department has accomplished this past year. First, let me introduce myself and the leadership team. I’m a Professor of Industrial-Organizational Psychology and I’ve been at UGA since 2013. Prior to serving as Head, I served as Associate Head and Director of Graduate Studies. Drew Abney has stepped into my former role as Associate Head, Rich Slatcher now serves as Director of Graduate Studies, and Trina Cyterski continues to serve as our Director of Undergraduate Studies. 

The 25-26 academic year was an exciting and productive one. We welcomed six new full-time faculty members to our department. Our new tenure-track professors include Assistant Professors Jessica Flannery, Max Herzberg, and Dylan Richards, and Associate Professor Sierra Carter, who also stepped into the role of Director of the Center for Family Research. Our new non-tenure track faculty are lecturers Paul Moon and Jeffrey Nightingale, who previously both served as limited-term instructors for the department. Our faculty and students had many outstanding accomplishments this year, ranging from prestigious awards to competitive grants, some of which are highlighted in this newsletter.

Our undergraduate and graduate programs continue to evolve to meet the demands of today’s environment and to prepare our students for the workforce of the future. Our new neuroscience major, developed in partnership with the Department of Cellular Biology, officially launched in spring of 2026. We also expanded our experiential learning offerings for undergraduates through new faculty-led programs in Italy, Argentina, and the Netherlands. On the graduate side, we expanded our PhD areas from three to four. We now offer PhDs in clinical psychology; cognitive neuroscience; social, developmental, and health psychology; and industrial-organizational psychology, in addition to our professional I-O master’s program offered at our Gwinnett campus. 

Our programs are only as strong as the people that support it, which is why the department has prioritized building community and creating a supportive, adaptive, and resilient departmental culture. Internally, last year brought new opportunities to bring our faculty, students, and staff to connect with each other outside of the classroom. We restarted our annual departmental picnic after a several year hiatus and held a faculty retreat to strengthen our shared commitment to innovative, high-quality research, excellent undergraduate and graduate education, and inclusive excellence. Externally, we found new ways to connect with our alumni and the broader community. We established new paid internship opportunities with corporate partners and hope to expand further in the coming years. 

We held our inaugural Building Connections event, featuring a research showcase and speed mentoring that gave graduate students the chance to connect with alumni and professionals in the field. This coming year, we’re offering our second iteration of the Building Connections event—this time for our undergraduate majors. If you’d like to be involved in this event, be sure to fill out our interest survey included in this newsletter. And follow us on our new LinkedIn Page to stay updated on events throughout the year.

This past year, donor generosity continued to strengthen our department in meaningful ways. I'm pleased to share that Professor Emeritus Dave Shaffer has endowed a professorship to support social developmental psychology. We also received generous gifts to support our undergraduate and graduate students. Alumnus Raj Shingadia (BS Psychology '01) and his wife Julia have made a planned gift through their estate to support undergraduate experiential learning, and alumna Becky Winkler (BS Psychology ’98) provided a gift to support I-O graduate student conference travel. Many thanks to these donors and to everyone who has contributed to the department. Your gifts are deeply appreciated. I want to wish everyone the best for the year ahead. And if you ever find yourself in Athens, please get in touch!

--Malissa Clark, Department Head