About Kourtney:
I'm going into my second year of doctoral training under the mentorship of Dr. JoNell Strough. My training is through the West Virginia University Department of Psychology where I am specializing in Lifespan Developmental Psychology. I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where I obtained a Bachelor of Science in Psychology at Slippery Rock University and then attended Chatham University for a Master's of Art in Psychology.
My academic journey has me now living in the wild and wonderful Morgantown, West Virginia. My roles at WVU are to be a student, researcher, and teaching assistant. Broadly speaking, my research interests include gender development and the effect of how socio-cultural contexts impact the development of interpersonal relationships, attitudes, and identities. This academic year my goal is to keep working on completing my Master's thesis and preliminary exams for my Ph.D. candidacy.
How long have you been a member of Division 1?
I was a member of Division 1 for two years of my Undergraduate Career. Then during COVID-19 I unfortunately did not keep up to date on my membership, so as of May 2023, I am a Graduate Student Member of Division 1.
How did you become involved with Division 1?
My awesome mentors! During undergrad, I started becoming involved by being a student volunteer in the suite. After completing the first year of my doctoral training I decided it was time to get back involved in service work, leading me to reach out to my research lab alumni who are members of Division 1. Overall, I think having so many of my mentors be a part of Division 1 and hearing about the events and support available pushed me to become involved.
How has Division 1 been beneficial to you?
Division 1 is helping to broaden the scope of my skills by allowing me the opportunity to experience professional development through service-based partnership. I also had the chance to meet some really amazing people that helped me figure out my path to graduate school while volunteering. Now that I am in graduate school, I really value having support from an academic community and know Division 1 and its members will provide that support.
What do you hope the future direction of Division 1 might include?
What you hope the future direction of Division 1 might include (how it could better serve you?) I hope to continue building a really solid student committee. The student representative before me (shoutout to Stephanie Miodus!) did a fantastic job setting the student committee up for success and I aim to continue growing the committee. As this is the Society for General Psychology anyone in psych can find their home here. From my personal experiences as a student, sometimes it can be daunting to find where you fit among all the specializations. I hope that Division 1's future encompasses a committee that is open, dedicated, and supportive of the development of the members.