NJPA Academic & Scientific Affairs Awards & NJPA Poster Session 

View our virtual 2020 Awards video here



The 6 NJPA Academic & Scientific Affairs Awards:  

The Distinguished Researcher Award is given to a psychologist who has a distinguished record of research in any area of psychology and holds a full-time academic or scientific position. Awardee receives a certificate and can select a graduate student to receive a $300 scholarship in the award recipient’s honor.

The Distinguished Teacher Award is given to a psychologist who has a distinguished record of teaching in any area of psychology and holds a full-time academic or scientific position. Awardee receives a certificate and can select a graduate student to receive a $300 scholarship in the award recipient’s honor.

2020 Winner - Melany Rivera - Maldonado, PhD  acceptance speech 

Dr. Rivera Maldonado is a  professor and Director of Clinical Training at Felician University's Psy.D in Counseling Psychology program.  She works tirelessly to ensure optimal performance of all students in the program. She assisted greatly in ensuring the program received an APA accreditation site visit in a very short amount of time. Dr. Rivera Maldonado also encouraged and assisted several students with their dissertation and research interests and goals. With her guidance, students surpassed their personal academic goals and were able to achieve greater success. Dr. Rivera Maldonado always went beyond the extra mile to help all students in need. She hosted meetings and webinars to assist students with their externship and internship application process, she offered mock interview meetings and groups for any students who expressed an interest, she even kept abreast of any and all externship or internship opportunities that students may not have come across and made sure to circulate these opportunities among the cohorts regularly. Dr. Rivera Maldonado was a true leader and ally to all students at Felician University.

The Emerging Researcher Award is given to a psychologist who has made a substantial contribution to research in any area of psychology, is a full-time academician or scientist, and has received a doctoral degree within the past 10 years. Awardee receives a certificate and $100.

Undergraduate Student Researcher Award:
This award is presented either to an undergraduate psychology major attending a New Jersey college or university who has demonstrated exceptional research potential as determined by his or her academic department.

Graduate Student Research Award:
This award is presented to a graduate student in psychology who is either attending a New Jersey college or university or interning in a New Jersey institution or an NJPA student affiliate, who has demonstrated exceptional research potential as determined by his or her academic department. This research should have been completed within the last two years. The awardee is invited to present his/her research as a poster at the NJPA Fall Conference. 

The 2020 Graduate Student Research Awardis presented to Christopher Watkins, and Co-Authors A. Keshani Perera, Bryan Alava, and Fernanda Moura for their research on “Exploring the Relationship Between Racial Microaggressions and Clinical Symptomatology in Ethnic Minority College Students.” The authors are doctoral students at William Paterson University.

Christopher Watkin

A. Keshani Perera

Fernanda Moura

This award is presented to graduate students in recognition of outstanding scholarly work, Master’s Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation, from any specialty within a psychology graduate program in New Jersey. The works nominated should be superior in quality, design, and especially, represent a significant contribution to psychology or society as a whole. Each graduate program is asked to nominate one student in each category. 

The 2019 NJPA Academic & Scientific Affairs Awards: 
2019 Distinguished Teacher Award Winner - Daniel Mahoney, EdD
2019 Graduate Student Research Award Winner - Sekinat Kuku
2019 Master’s Thesis and Doctoral Dissertation Award Winner - Shoshana May
click here for 2019 award details

Details to come about the NJPA Academic & Scientific Affairs Awards Nominations Call:
Self-nominations are encouraged and nominees need not be members of NJPA. The Committee on Academic and Scientific Affairs reserves the right to make all final determinations on which awardees will be selected. The awards are not necessarily issued each year.  

 NJPA 2020 Poster Session Presentations!

View the 11 Poster Presentations from the 2020 Virtual Fall Conference Here

Poster submissions discuss research (for example, psychological research, clinical research, applied research etc.) that has not been presented or published elsewhere.  All submissions are reviewed and evaluated by a review committee. We welcome your involvement in our organization and encourage authors to seek membership in NJPA. 

Stay Tuned for the 2021 Poster Session Submission Call

  Click here to learn about the NJPAGS!

  Students: New Jersey Psychological Association Graduate Students