Service is an important component my life and career. I have dedicated a great deal of time as a professor working on service in a number of ways. Agnes Scott College provides amazing opportunities to engage and I have also been heavily involved in national and regional organizations in my field.
In addition to helping and reaching students in the classroom, there are many roles that each professor can play to help students develop and grow. Some of my major accomplishments in this regard include involvement in student organizations, advising and helping students get involved in research in preparation for graduate school or careers. I also serve an advisory role in the Neuroscience honor society, Nu Rho Psi, which honors students with outstanding academic performance in the neuroscience major and have done so since the chapter began at Agnes Scott. Finally, I am the faculty advisor for the Pre-Vet and Animal Services club. It was started in 2017 and has continued growing and providing a support network for students interested in animal or veterinary science.
Another important role that I play in serving students is formal and informal advising. On average, I have 20-25 Psychology and Neuroscience students as my primary advisee each semester and I also advise all Psychology minors. In one-on-one meetings with students, I advise students on graduate school, careers, study abroad and course planning. In addition, I help to review materials and write letters of reference for many students interested in graduate school, dual-degree programs, or other opportunities. I have written letters of recommendation for students applying to Master’s programs, PhD programs, medical school and Physical therapy programs. I have also served as a reference and written letters for programs including Study abroad, Agnes Advantage, Mortar Board, and summer internships. The letter of recommendation is such an important part of an applicant’s materials and I am happy to have played a significant role in helping students find the next step on their journey.
Some of my service work also involves prospective students through regular participation in Achievement Weekend, Scholar’s Weekend and Admitted Scotties days. In the Spring of 2024, I called almost 60 prospective students to help build a connection to Agnes Scott and am always willing to try to play a part in recruiting and retaining students. In addition to prospective students, I also stay connected to Alumnae. I continue to write letters of recommendation and serve as a mentor to students far beyond their graduation date. I regularly attend college Alumnae weekend events, but also stay connected through emails, zoom calls, and meeting for coffee or lunch. I have also served as a committee member on multiple Master’s thesis projects at Georgia State University, including one for an Agnes alum.
It is a great pleasure to be a part of two of the largest majors on campus, Psychology and Neuroscience + Philosophy. I served as co-director of the Neuroscience program from 2016-2023. I also helped propose and execute the merger of the Neuroscience and Philosophy Department to create a cutting-edge interdisciplinary major focused on bridging the worlds of science and humanities in a compelling way. Through this change, we generated new major requirements as well as creating a new course focused on professional success. Along with my co-director, Dr. Larimore, the Neuroscience program at Agnes Scott has remained committed to creating a strong community through social events, gatherings, and hosting an annual research conference, Scotties with Nerves.
I have been Chair of the Psychology Department since 2021. In my first year as Chair, our Department dropped to only three faculty members (myself*, Dr. Blatchley*, and Dr. Hughes, *also serve Neuroscience). As incoming Department Chair, I helped to manage the drastically increased workload of the 3 remaining department members in regards to student engagement and success including tasks such as advising, student clubs, departmental events. This was in addition to standard departmental tasks including assessment, course restructuring, peer evaluations of teaching and more. Since that time, I have served on and chaired many search committees to rebuild the department including searches for Adjuncts, Visiting Assistant Professors, and Tenure-Track positions to cover the courses needed.
In addition to mentoring our new faculty, I also plan monthly departmental meetings and contribute to planning and organizing activities, events, communications, and other needs of the department. As a department, we remain active in creating social opportunities for students to help build community. In terms of the curriculum, we restructured our major requirements in 2021 which required a number of course changes to incorporate professional success elements into our curriculum. These changes help our students prepare for success in our capstone experience and beyond.
Following my promotion to tenure, I have engaged in a great deal of service through faculty governance. I was a member of the Academic Support committee and chaired it in 2018-2019, thereby also being a member of the Faculty Executive Committee that year. I became a member of the Curriculum Committee in 2021 and continued in that role until transitioning to the role of Second Vice President of the Faculty Executive Committee in 2022. In 2023-24, I served as President of the Faculty Executive Committee. This role involves the planning of monthly Faculty Executive Committee meetings, monthly meetings with College leadership including the VPAA and the President of the College, monthly meetings with the full faculty, faculty biannual meetings with the Chairperson of the Board, and structure responses to issues arising through faculty committees or broader faculty. During my tenure as FEC-O President, we oversaw work to expand understanding and engage in dialogue about Artificial Intelligence, revise our General Education, update our Honor Code, adjust policy on faculty positions, represent faculty to various groups including the Board of Trustees, and organize opportunities for faculty to engage in conversation about ongoing issues of importance.
I have also served on a number of other College committees including the Web Advisory Group (2017-2019), Health Insurance Advisory Committee (2020-2021), the Institutional Review Board (2016-2019), the COACHE committee (2022-2023), and currently serve as a faculty representative on Retirement Investment committee.
In addition to committee work, I have served on search committees or helped with interviews outside of my department. In 2024, I was a member of the search committee for Associate Dean For Undergraduate Studies. I also interviewed candidates for the Director and Clinical Director/Coordinator of the Clinical Mental Health Counseling program in 2021-22, as well as interviewing three candidates for the CMHC graduate faculty positions in 2023.
I am currently the co-chair of the Women’s Global Leadership Conference on Inclusive Health Equity. I have organized meetings with a faculty steering committee representing a range of disciplines to generate program suggestions and materials to assist faculty in connecting the content to courses. Through the summer of 2024, I have regularly attended meetings with the broader WGLC, the Marketing and Communications group, and the faculty steering committee.
In addition to my work on campus, I am an active member in my professional associations and community. Reviewing manuscripts is one critical piece of service to the profession. I have served on the editorial board of both Frontiers in Comparative Psychology and the journal Learning and Behavior. I was a co-editor for a special edition on The Science and Practice of Captive Animal Welfare (Volumes I and II). I have also served as an ad hoc reviewer for a variety of journals including PLOS ONE, Behavioural Processes, Journal of Comparative Psychology, Animal Behavior and Cognition, Zoo Biology, Animal Behaviour, Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, PeerJ, Learning and Behavior, Frontiers in Comparative Psychology, American Journal of Primatology and Animal Cognition. This is a time consuming endeavor, but it is critically important to ensure the quality of the literature and protect the science.
In the time following my promotion to tenure, I have served as both Membership Chair and Member-at-Large for the Society for Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Science Division of the APA. I was the Program Chair for the Society for Behavioral Neuroscience and Comparative Psychology Division at the 2019 meeting of the American Psychological Association. The Program Chair is responsible for planning and executing a program of speakers and organizing panels and poster sessions for the annual conference. I went on to serve as the newsletter editor for the Society of Behavioral Neuroscience and Comparative Psychology in 2021-2022 and was elected to be a Fellow of this Division in 2019.
Following tenure, I completed the final year of a three year term (2016-2019) with the Committee for Animal Research and Ethics (CARE) of the American Psychological Association. CARE works to ensure responsible research with animals and my role on this committee involved travel to Washington D.C. twice a year for committee meetings and attending the annual APA conference as a representative of CARE. We also engaged in government outreach and advocacy training followed by annual visits to Capitol Hill in DC to meet with our representatives. As a member of CARE, I was selected to attend a 2018 meeting of the Board of Scientific Affairs to address the future of psychological science. Following my term on CARE, I also continued the advocacy work and was part of a “Virtual Hill Day” in April of 2021 to advocate for the needs of Psychological Science. I was also asked to give a workshop on ‘Advice for New Advocates’ at the APASI Advocacy Summit: Stand for Science to Advance Psychology (see Press Release about the Summit).
In recent years, I have joined efforts with students and faculty for the creation of the Better Together conference. This planning committee originated with Emory University Psychology Department’s Justice Equity Diversity Inclusion (JEDI) initiative to create an event to bring together the Psychology/Neuroscience community from the greater Atlanta area together for a day of learning, sharing, and connecting. Various institutions from the area are included (Emory, GT, GSU, Morehouse, Spelman and Clark Atlanta), and I have represented Agnes Scott in this effort since 2022. In previous years, the conference was held at Emory University and Georgia Tech. This year will be the third year of the conference and it will take place at Agnes Scott in November!
Service to the Greater Community
I make an effort to serve the greater community whenever possible and some of this work represents an extension of my scholarly work to strengthen connections in the community. I regularly volunteer at various elementary and pre-school events, for Girl Scout events, and for local organizations such as the Wylde Center. I have served as an external reviewer on a tenure review committee, conducted a comprehensive program review for Wesleyan College, and have been a reviewer for foundation grants, including the Leakey Foundation.
Some of my community service is Psychology based, but geared towards improving education at the high school level or with the general public. In 2019, I served as a judge for the APA Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools (TOPSS) Competition for High School Psychology Students. From 2019-2022, I also served a three year term on the American Psychological Association’s National Standards for High School Curricula working group: “For the first time in more than a decade, the American Psychological Association has revised its National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula, with an increased focus on the scientific underpinnings of the field and the importance of incorporating diversity into understanding psychological science and mental health.” The new standards were released in 2022 (See press release here).
In 2022, I was selected to act as the Science Liaison for the American Psychological Association and the Behavioral Neuroscience and Comparative Psychology meeting. I have presented a division summary to this group and attend quarterly meetings to strengthen the communication about science within the APA and to the general public.
Finally, an area that is also very important to me is education and outreach throughout the community about science and research. I think it is important to reach people of all ages and I have tried to accomplish this. For example, I have served as an elementary school science fair judge and given invited guest lectures at local universities and colleges. I am an advocate of scientific research in the zoo setting and will share information with the public whenever possible. I have engaged in research on this topic and will continue to do so in an effort to identify ways in which we can educate the general public as an important way to serve the community. Finally, as previously described, I have had opportunities to advocate for psychological research (through the American Psychological Association) by lobbying State Representatives and Congresspeople in Washington, DC. I have been on such lobbying visits to DC multiple times and greatly appreciate the opportunity to serve my profession and my community in this way. Together I believe that these efforts will greatly serve our community by increasing knowledge, awareness and research about science.
