Regional Faculty Advisor 2008-09 Award Winners
The Psi Chi Awards Committee is pleased to announce the 2008-09 winners of the Regional Faculty Advisor Awards. Each winning advisor is presented a $500 check and a plaque to display in his or her department. The awards are intended to identify outstanding Psi Chi faculty advisors and to promote the purpose of Psi Chi. Listed below is a summary of the backgrounds and accomplishments of these worthy winners.
Southeastern Region
Christina Sinisi, PhD (bio)
Charleston Southern University (SC)
Western Region
Brian R. Metcalf, PhD (bio)
Hawai‘i Pacific University
WINNERS' BACKGROUNDS & ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Christina Sinisi, PhD, received a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Hollins College (VA) in 1986, and her master’s and doctoral degrees from Kansas State University. After completing her degrees, she took a temporary instructor’s position at Georgia Southern University. In 1994, she came to Charleston Southern University. She has taught at Charleston Southern for 15 years and is a tenured, full professor. She is married to Kyle Sinisi, a professor of history at the Citadel, and has two children, Scott and Lindsey.
The Charleston Southern University chapter of Psi Chi was founded in 1994; Dr. Sinisi became advisor in 1999. During her tenure as advisor, the chapter has been awarded the Southeastern Regional Chapter Award and the Ruth Hubbard Cousins award in 2004. This is the second time the chapter has nominated her for the advisor award, and she is very grateful for the wonderful students she’s been privileged to work with and get to know. As a Baptist university, Charleston Southern’s mission stresses service, and Psi Chi has endeavored to integrate that with the society’s own focus on science. The chapter participated in over 20 service projects during the 2008-09 school year including: a car wash for the Crisis Ministries homeless shelter, a food drive for the homeless shelter, a collection drive for the battered women’s shelter, another collection drive for the Ronald McDonald House, and both the local Memory and Juvenile Diabetes Walks.
From Stevens Point, WI, where he received his bachelors, Brian Metcalf ’s MS and PhD in biopsychology were earned at the University of Georgia. After teaching and doing research at Morris Brown College (GA), he is now associate professor at Hawai‘I Pacific University in Honolulu. His courses include Introduction, Statistics, Research Methods, Social, History & Systems, and Biopsychology.
Dr. Metcalf ’s research interests have included studying alcohol reactivity differences during depression in rats, applying chaos theory to animal operant behavior, social stressors and
neuroendocrinology in hamsters, the psychopharmacology of so-called “club drugs” such as GHB, false memories, eyewitness memory, and why people believe strange things (such as in psychic ability, alien abductions, astrology, and other paranormal phenomena). Other activities and interests include computers, photography, reading, learning, and listening to music. In addition to serving as the advisor to the HPU chapter of Psi Chi, Dr. Metcalf is the advisor to the award-winning Psychology Club.