In This Issue
- Message from the Dean
- Message from the Associate Dean
- Doctoral Academic Residencies
- Walden Conferences
- Save the Date
- School of Psychology (SOP) Conference
- Save the Date
Program News and Updates
Message from the Dean
During a recent meeting, I was holding a conversation the other day with a colleague regarding measuring student success. From that one conversation, it generated many different interpretations, vastly different perspectives, and several rich sidebar conversations about many other contributing variables. How do we define success? Well, at its simplest definition, success is the accomplishment of a purpose. However, if you shift that to defining student success, it introduces many other factors such as assessment, needs, balance, resources, priorities, and the list goes on. From that perspective, how does that translate into our institution, our school, and our classrooms? How do we juggle our classroom responsibilities while engaging our students, their needs, all the while considering our collective goal of supporting our students to be successful?
Leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others. John Maxwell
It starts with welcoming our students to Walden with a great first-course experience or welcoming our continuing students to a new course in their program. Success is accomplished by a series of milestones like our approach to engaging in communications with our students, responding to their comments on the discussion boards, maybe a quick check-in call, or the feedback on an assignment. Success builds upon gestures such as telling our students “great job!” on an assignment or sharing a comment forward to let them know you appreciate their efforts to engage and understand the materials. At its core, student success is about their experience in our classrooms because their journey to success started by choosing Walden.
Dean, School of Psychology
Message from the Associate Dean
Doctoral Academic Residencies
Greetings! Residency participation is going strong for the School of 
Psychology. All PhD residencies remain virtual and it is likely the residencies this winter through the beginning of 2022 will be virtual as well. We had over 250 psychology participants for the August and October residencies and December’s enrollment is also increasing rapidly. We greatly appreciate our faculty commitment to our residencies and are grateful to our Psychology students who are staying on track with their dissertation programs.
Undergraduate
Student:
B.S. in Psychology alum Nellie Hultman was awarded a very competitive internship at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). She started there on 10/19/21. Please join me in wishing Nellie a huge congratulations for this prestigious opportunity!
Faculty:
Stacy Bjorkman, Senior Core Faculty in the B.S.in Psychology program, recently completed a Distance Teaching and Learning certificate through the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay.
Clinical Psyc, Industrial & Org Psyc, & Behavioral Health Leadership
Clinical Psychology
Revised POS received SOP CAP approval and development has commenced on revised program with Foundations. Foundations will go from a 12 week 5 credit 
course currently to a 6 week 1 credit course focused on setting up students for success in the program. 13 students have graduated thus far in 2021.
Industrial and Organizational Psychology
Evidenced Based Coaching specialization/certificate approval as a CCE approved training provider was recently renewed. Program will continue to serve as an authorized training provider preparing students to sit for the BCC credential examination. 14 Ph.D. students and 45 MS students have graduated thus far in 2021.
PsyD Behavioral Health Leadership
First Academic Program Review process for the program started in October. Focus for next 8 months will be on self-study. YoY retention trending upward. Dr. Aundrea Harris, Post Doc Fellow, welcomed as Contributing Faculty. 15 students have graduated thus far in 2021.
Developmental Psychology
Student milestones (1 or 2) in one sentence- Developmental Psychology doctoral students have their first graduates- 3 students graduated in Summer and Fall of 2021 so far. Twelve doctoral students received approvals for their prospectus(i) and moved forward towards proposal.
Faculty accomplishments, 1 or 2 sentences from each program- Faculty members in MS Psychology and Developmental Psychology have presented and published in peer reviewed journals.
- Drs. Grant Rich, Mickey Langlais, Dinesh Sharma have published booked or in articles in peer-reviewed journals
- Drs. Livia Gilstrap, Grant Rich, and Sally Zengaro have presented at national conferences.
- Drs. Grant Rich, Dinesh Sharma, and Chris Susag have served on national and international panels and committees, and offered valuable services to community including life skills and Suicide Intervention training.
PhD Psychology
It is great to see our PhD Psychology students published with our faculty at the August APA! See:
Sanchez, W., & Bonura, K.B. (2021). Effect of mindfulness-based stress reduction on aggression in adults with intellectual disabilities. Annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, August, 2021. (Virtual)
Bocel, C. A., & Tanguma, J. (2021). Benchmark scores and demographics as predictors of state mathematics assessment scores. Annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, August, 2021. (Virtual)
Other recent faculty research activity includes:
Snider, D. H., Linnville, S. E., Phillips, J. B., & Rice, G. M. (Jan. 2022; already published online). Predicting hypoxic hypoxia using machine learning and wearable sensors. Biomedical Signal Processing and Control, 71(A).
Dr. Linnville notes: My primary interest as a Navy Research Psychologist contractor is the impact of hypoxia (lack of oxygen) to combat pilots in flight in high altitudes and under tremendous gravitational forces. It is a problem. We are looking for a way to assess in real time its impact to the brain while in flight as an early warning signal to the pilot before performance degrades and/or they pass out. We believe we have found the solution. The paper discusses our algorithms we plan to use in a future study in real time.
Dr. Donna Heretick and Walden alum Dr. Inna Learn are conducting online survey research on faculty-student coercive sexual harassment in academia and peer helping responses. Published example of previous research project findings: Heretick, D. M., & Learn, I. (2020). Severity of coercive sexual harassment in professor–student interaction and peer bystander responses. Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences, 14(1), 7. https://doi.org/10.5590/jsbhs.2020.14.1.07
This is a relatively new area of research and there is plenty of room for new research questions to be asked and pursued by this research team! If interested, email donna.heretick@mail.waldenu.edu.
Please note our upcoming PhD Psychology webinars, which are open to students and faculty of all programs:
Join us on Zoom the first Wednesday of the month at 8 PM Eastern time.
Upcoming presentations include:
December 1, 2021: Resources for Student Success! Peer Mentors; SKIL Workshops Dr. Christy Fraenza (Manager, Peer Mentoring) ; Dr. Brenda Hudson (Lead Faculty Walden University's Doctoral Writing Workshop Series) and Dr. Heidi Marshall (Core Faculty for the Center for Academic Excellence)
How to Attend: Go to Zoom: https://zoom.us/j/5585349068
Telephone call in options: Meeting ID 558 534 9068
Smartphone: One tap mobile (audio and video) +13462487799,,5585349068# (Houston) + 16699006833,,5585349068# (San Jose)
Other locations: Tacoma: +12532158782, Chicago: +3126266799, New York: +16465588656, Germantown: +13017158592
Forensic Psychology
What’s new in Forensic Psychology?
Please join us for an upcoming no-cost webinar in December 2021 regarding the Etiology and Psycho-Behavioral Analysis of Stranger and Domestic Stalking on Thursday, December 9, 2021, from 7pm-8:30pm EST.
The purpose of this webinar is to explore, through lecture, discussion and case review, the etiology and psycho-behavioral analysis of stranger and domestic stalking. Participants will explore motivations of stalkers, victim-offender relationships, and levels of psychopathology. Special attention is given to stalking techniques used in cases of domestic violence and escalation of physical and psychological violence, intimidation, and harassment. Some of these techniques include triangulation, cyber-stalking, and the use of the legal system and social media to stalk, harass and manipulate intended victims. Current societal attitudes and law enforcement responses to stalking victimization will be examined. Protocols for threat assessments and risk management techniques will help participants in developing effective responses to stalking victims.
Please look in your Walden email in the upcoming weeks for a link to register for this no-cost event. If you have any questions, you may contact Dr. Kristen Beyer, Program Director of the MS/PhD in Forensic Psychology at Kristen.beyer@mail.waldenu.edu.
Presenter Information: Dr. Eric Hickey is a core faculty member in Walden University’s Forensic 
Psychology graduate program. As the former Dean of the California School of Forensic Studies at Alliant International University and Professor Emeritus at California State University, Fresno, Dr. Hickey has taught many courses addressing serial and mass murder, criminal paraphilia and sexual predators, crime scene investigations, psychopathy and criminal personalities, arson and fire-setting, threat assessment and risk management, school and workplace violence prevention, and victimology.
Dr. Hickey has considerable field experience working with the criminally insane, psychopaths, sex offenders and other habitual criminals. A former consultant to the FBI's UNABOM Task Force, he consults with private and public agencies and testifies as an expert witness in both criminal and civil cases involving sex crimes against children and adults, criminal paraphilia, stalking, homicide, domestic violence and serial/mass crimes.
Dr. Hickey is a member of the Society of Police and Criminal Psychology (SPCP) and currently the Editor-in-Chief for their Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology (JPCP). He has also published several books and articles on the etiology of violence and serial crime. His most frequently cited book, Serial Murderers and Their Victims, 7th ed., 2016, is used as a teaching tool in universities and by law enforcement in studying the nature of violence, criminal personalities, and victim-offender relationships. His expertise is chronicled in dozens of television documentaries including appearances on CNN, History Channel, NPR, Larry King Live, 20/20, A&E Biography, Oxygen, Reelz, Good Morning America, CBC, True TV, Discovery, OWN and TLC.
School of Psychology Updates
Faculty Role Updates
Dr. Brian Ragsdale is the Director of Student Success for the School of Psychology
Dr. Mona Hanania is the Director of Academic Quality for the School of Psychology
Dr. Tracy Marsh is the Faculty Onboarding and Engagement Coordinator for the School of Psychology
The Walden Career Planning and Development Center
The Walden Career Planning and Development Center
The Walden Career Planning and Development Center has a variety of resources to help build your path to maximizing your career choices. The resources and appointments are all FREE. Be sure to take advantage!
- For general information, go to their website.
- To schedule a one-on-one appointment to discuss your career goals, click here.
- The schedule for upcoming Live Webinars can be found here.
- Archived Webinars at the Career Planning and Development Center’s You Tube Channel.
- Become a member of the Walden University of their LinkedIn group where over 4,800 students and alumni are making connections.
Have you checked out the American Psychological Association (APA) Career Center? Get information on jobs, career development, and internships.
Other Career resources are located on the BS Psychology Resource Site and the Psychology Career Exploration Toolkit.
Check out these additional resources:
- Dr. Kit. Psychology
http://www.drkit.org/psychology/ - Major Job Guide
http://www.learnpsychology.org/psychology-major-job-guide/ - O*net Online
http://www.onetonline.org/ - Psychology Job Resources Mega-List
http://psychologydegreeguide.org/job-resources/ - Psychology Internships
Walden Conferences
School of Psychology ( SOP) Conference
The School of Psychology (SOP) will be holding its first virtual no-cost conference for students, alumni, faculty, and prospective students titled “Get Psych’D for the Future!” presented by SOP program directors, core, and contributing faculty. The conference will focus on exploring the depth, breadth, and variety of careers across disciplines within the field of psychology. To kick off the conference, we will host a panel of seasoned faculty who will share their varied work experiences within the field of psychology as well as provide best practices for students who are about to embark upon a career within the field of psychology. Students will also be able to attend program specific presentations to gain additional insights in the subdisciplines of psychology to include clinical, developmental, health, teaching, social, industrial/organizational, and forensic psychology. Gain additional insight and consider career options that you may not have been aware of within the field of psychology. We believe the presentations on varied career paths that will be both stimulating and informative. Watch your Walden email for more information on this event.
PsiChi
Walden’s Chapter of Psi Chi is pleased to announce the induction of 130 new members during the Summer Membership Drive. The next Membership Drive is scheduled for Winter. Students interested in learning more about Psi Chi and the eligibility requirements can visit https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/c.php?g=798585&p=5709212#s-lg-box-18083661 or email psichi@mail.waldenu.edu