Regional Faculty Advisor 1999-2000 Award Winners
The Psi Chi Awards Committee is pleased to announce the winners of this year's Regional Faculty Advisor Awards. Below is a summary of the backgrounds and accomplishments of these worthy winners. Follow the link to the right of each winner's name to read the corresponding letter of nomination.
Eastern Region (tie)
John J. Boitano, PhD (bio | letter of nomination)
Fairfield University (CT)
Vincent Prohaska, PhD (bio | letter of nomination)
Herbert H. Lehman College, CUNY
Midwestern Region
Thomas Wrobel, PhD (bio | letter of nomination)
The University of Michigan, Flint
Southwestern Region
John Davis, PhD (bio | letter of nomination)
Southwest Texas State University
WINNERS' BACKGROUNDS & ACCOMPLISHMENTS
John J. Boitano, PhD, has taught and conducted research at Fairfield University for 32 years in the area of brain-behavior relationships involving drugs and lesions. He received his master's and doctorate at Fordham University. He had a one-year USPHS postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Brain Research at the University of Rochester. His students have always been involved in his research; for example, 35 undergraduates have published with Dr. Boitano or have coauthored presentations at conventions. A number of these young men and women have gone on to graduate school or medical school and have become practicing scientists or physicians. In fact, in 1990 at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in St. Louis, 13 of Dr. Boitano's former students presented 25 papers. Dr. Boitano has a total of 27 publications, 28 convention presentations, and 16 colloquia or seminars as part of his record of accomplishment.
In 1995, Dr. Boitano spent a sabbatical abroad as Visiting Professor at the University of Plymouth, Plymouth, UK, which was partially supported by a research grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, UK. While in the UK, Dr. Boitano gave many talks at universities in England (Oxford, University College, London), Scotland (University of Edinburgh), and Ireland (Trinity College). Dr. Boitano was president of the New England Psychological Association (1992-93) and of the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience for the United States (1997-98). This past summer he gave five talks in four countries: two in France at the International Behavioral Neuroscience Society Meeting, one at the Institute of Physiology at the Academy of Sciences in the Czech Republic, one at the Centre for Neural and Adaptive Systems in the UK, and the last one at the Psi Chi National Convention at APA in Boston. He has recently been appointed Director of Neuroscience at Fairfield University and was awarded the 1999-2000 Elizabeth DeCamp McInerney Chair in the Health Sciences at Fairfield University.
Vincent Prohaska, PhD, grew up in the Bronx, one of the five boroughs of New York City. Following a rather nontraditional educational route, he earned his AA degree from Bronx Community College of the City University of New York (CUNY) in 1973. Ten years later, he earned his BS degree in elementary education from Adelphi University (although all the course work for this degree was completed at night in an extension center in midtown Manhattan). In the fall of 1983 he finally left the Bronx for graduate study at the University of Chicago, from which he earned his PhD in educational psychology/child development in 1990. He then returned to the Bronx to take a position as assistant professor in the Psychology Department at Lehman College, CUNY. Currently he is associate professor and has been chair of the department since 1995. He became the faculty advisor to the Lehman College Psi Chi Chapter in 1991.
Prof. Prohaska's research interests involve memory for when events occurred, memory illusions, and procrastination. He currently holds a grant to study time, procrastination, and temporal orientation from the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) as part of the Minority-Research Infrastructure Support Program (M-RISP). In 1997 he was the recipient of the Lehman College Excellence in Teaching Award. He has been very active in advancing undergraduate research; his students have presented at EPA, APA, APS, as well as at local conferences. He was elected to a three-year term, beginning July 2000, as a psychology councilor for the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR). In addition, he is the chair of the Society for the Teaching of Psychology (APA Division 2) Task Force on Instruction Research Awards, which makes grants to faculty for research on the teaching of psychology.
Thomas A. Wrobel, PhD, is an associate professor of psychology at the University of Michigan-Flint where he has taught since 1986. For the current academic year he also serves as senior advisor to the chancellor. He received his BA from Manhattan College, and his MA and PhD from Wayne State University in clinical psychology. He teaches courses in abnormal psychology, psychological assessment, and health psychology. He has taught previously at Wayne State University, the University of Dayton, and Eastern Michigan University.
Wrobel has served as the faculty advisor of the University of Michigan-Flint Psi Chi Chapter for the past eight years. During that time the chapter has had an active program of service and activities for the psychology majors. For the past four years, he has accompanied a group of the chapter's officers to the annual APA Convention and the Psi Chi National Convention held there. This year is the 25th anniversary of the University of Michigan-Flint Psi Chi Chapter, and Wrobel's 25th year as a Psi Chi member, having been inducted as a charter member of the Manhattan College Chapter.
John M. Davis, PhD, is a professor of psychology and faculty advisor of the Psi Chi Chapter at Southwest Texas State University. His education in psychology includes a BA from Oklahoma City University and MS and PhD degrees from the University of Oklahoma. Currently Dr. Davis's greatest professional satisfaction comes from encouraging and supporting his chapter's motivated Psi Chi students. During his tenure, his chapter's membership has grown dramatically and has also become much more active. At the local level, Davis's service as faculty advisor included organizing the chapter's 15th anniversary celebration in 1997. In addition, he helped obtain two computers for the chapter's Psi Chi reading room, and in 1999, worked to organize and hold the first Southwest Texas State University Psi Chi student conference, which attracted faculty and student delegates from Texas and surrounding states. Regionally, Davis has sponsored many student research presentations at the Southwestern Psychological Association regional conventions, and each year he has accompanied students to the annual Texas Christian University Psi Chi Convention. Nationally, Davis has served as a discussion leader at the 1998 Psi Chi National Miniconvention in San Francisco.