2023 Anne Anastasi General Psychology Graduate Student AWARD
The Anne Anastasi awards, named for APA past-president and funded by the Anne Anastasi Foundation, are given to two outstanding psychology graduate students, one in the first two years of graduate study and the second in more than two years of graduate study.
2+ years beyond the bachelor's degree
Rita M. Rivera, Psy.D
Rita M. Rivera, Psy.D., CBIS, CTP, CAIP, is a clinical psychology postdoctoral fellow at Yale University. She is a Certified Trauma Professional (CTP) by the International Association of Trauma Professionals (IATP), a Certified Brain Injury Specialist (CBIS) by the Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA), and a Certified Crisis Worker by the American Association of Suicidology (AAS). Rita is the Chair of the American Academy of Clinical Psychology-Division of Graduate Students (AACP-DGS), Student Representative for the APA's Society of Group Psychology and Group Psychotherapy (Div. 49), and President of the Global Student Psychology Committee (GSPC). Her research interests include fields that explore the relationship between physiology and mental health, particularly among minoritized and underserved populations. Rita has clinical experience working with Hispanic/Latinx individuals, displaced populations, college students, and trauma survivors in the United States and her home country, Honduras.
< 2 years beyond the bachelor's
Amber Rusch
Amber Rusch is a rising third-year doctoral student in the Lifespan Developmental Psychology Ph.D. Program at West Virginia University (WVU). She is a member of the WVU Healthy Aging Lab under the mentorship of Dr. Julie Hicks Patrick. She is a WVU Behavioral and Biomedical Sciences (BBS) T32 Training Program research fellow. Amber's research is largely focused on risk factors for cognitive decline, including examinations of adversity across the lifespan, health disparities (including aging in Appalachia), and social determinants of health as predictors for cognitive decline. Currently, Amber is examining the effects of adverse childhood experiences and social determinants of health as predictors of subjective cognitive decline for her Master's thesis.
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