Letter of Nomination: Jeanette Altarriba, PhD
University at Albany, SUNY
Dear Psi Chi National Office,
Dr. Jeanette Altarriba has been the Psi Chi Faculty Advisor of the University at Albany Psi Chi chapter for the past eight years. Since her initial year as Advisor in the fall of 1993, Dr. Altarriba has. become an excellent mentor, teacher, supporter and role model to the officers and members of Psi Chi. Dr. Altarriba's dedication, devotion, and commitment to our organization is apparent to each and every member of our Psi Chi chapter. Therefore, the officers. and members of our Psi Chi chapter nominate Dr. Altarriba for the Regional Faculty Advisor Award.
As an advisor and area head of the cognitive psychology department, Dr. Altarriba has continually provided important information and advice to Psi Chi members and other students about various areas of interest. She has made many presentations. on graduate school, the application process, getting a job in psychology, and how to write a curriculum vitae. Also, her participation in faculty panels afforded our members with knowledge in the field of cognitive psychology. Dr. Altarriba has fostered many mentoring relationships with her officers and members offering them advice and guidance throughout their academic career. Dr. Altarriba has made herself available to students with regular office hours and frequent meetings with the chapter's officers. For all her achievements in advisement, she has received the Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award twice and the Achievement Award for Student Advising and Mentoring. Students have benefited by assisting her in research on the psychology of language and in her work on memory and cognition.
In addition to Dr. Altarriba's role as an advisor, her active involvement in the psychology department also benefits Psi Chi members. She is the instructor of three very well liked undergraduate psychology courses: History of Psychology, Memory and Cognition, and Psychology and Language. As a professor, she is thorough in covering the topics at hand and makes herself readily available to assist her students. in. preparing for exams and writing assignments. Dr. Altarriba's courses are so popular among undergraduates that she always has a waiting list to participate in her classes.. Her excellence in teaching has been recognized with the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Excellence in Teaching Award, both presented by the University at Albany.
Beyond her Psi Chi involvement and outstanding teaching, Dr. Altarriba is highly respected in the field of cognitive psychology. She has contributed as editor to two books: Cognition and Culture: A Cross-cultural Approach to Cognitive Psychology and Bilingual Sentence Processing, which is in preparation. She is also the co-author of The Psychology of Language, which is also in preparation. Dr. Altarriba has been awarded many grants throughout her academic career, including a faculty research grant award for her work in bilingual memory. She has also made numerous presentations for both the Midwestern and Rocky Mountain Psychological Associations as well as for the American Psychological Society.
Dr. Altarriba has encouraged our chapter throughout its development to be an organization that is involved in community service. Because of her influence, in 1997, Psi Chi was awarded the Community Service Award from the Capital District Psychiatric Center in Albany, New York. Our chapter has been involved in supporting numerous organizations and charities including Make A Wish Foundation's Adopt an Angel program, Ronald McDonald House, Regional Food Bank of Northeast America, and a blood drive for the American Red Cross. This. semester, in addition to other community service projects, Dr. Altarriba encouraged our chapter to collect relief funds for the September Eleventh Fund. The value of service to our Psi Chi chapter is renewed each semester through Dr. Altarriba's commitment to this ideal.
Dr. Jeanette Altarriba is an exceptional candidate for the Psi Chi Regional Faculty Award. In her experience as our advisor, she has dedicated herself to Psi Chi's purpose, "to encourage, stimulate, and maintain excellence in scholarship of the individual members in all fields, particularly in psychology, and to advance the science of psychology."
Sincerely,
Katherine Moser & Candace Ringwood
Chapter Co-Presidents 2001-2002