Psychology at Centenary College of Louisiana

Congratulations to psychology instructor and Centenary alumna, Dr. Sarah Irons, on successfully defending her dissertation and earning her Ph.D. in Psychology with a Major Concentration in Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience from Rice University.

Dr. Irons is off to join the psychology department at our ACS sister school, Hendrix College. Congratulations and good luck at your new job! We will miss you, so come visit soon!

Congratulations, seniors! We are so proud of you!

Congratulations to our new inductees to Psi Chi, the international honor society of psychology: Coleman Guidry, Mackenzie Williams, Mackenzie Olinger, Madison Schonberg, and Viviana Rivero.

And thank you to all the members of the chapter who came to welcome our newest members.

Founded in 1929, Psi Chi is one of the largest honor societies in the United States, with more than 1,150 chapters. Psi Chi has inducted more than 750,000 lifetime members who are psychology majors or minors who rank in the top 35% of their class. The organization’s purpose is to recognize and promote excellence in the science and application of psychology.

Well done!! Psychology majors Kennedy Stephens, Paden Sisterhen, Casey Swize, and Jessica Cordova presented research (some of it not even Psychology--YAY for the Liberal Arts!) at the 2023 Research Conference yesterday.

Congratulations to Bella Dominguez, Psychology Major and Centenary's Athlete of the Week!

PSY250 was so excited to welcome visitors to our class from the community this week! So much learning from those wiser than us!

Congratulations to the 8 Centenary gymnasts headed to Nationals in April, including Psychology Majors, Leilani Johnson & Kennedy Stephens!!!!

Congratulations to Centenary Psychology Major and Gymnast Leilani Johnson as this week's recipient of the Coaches' Choice Award, the Midwest Independent Conference.

🎈🎉This semester, Dr. Zunick earned tenure and promotion to Associate Professor of Psychology! Congratulations and well done! 🎉🎈

Thanks to the older and wiser members of the Shreveport-Bossier community who shared their stories and wisdom with Human Growth & Development this week!

Human Growth & Development is back to in-person Service Learning in Fall 2022!

On Wednesday, we celebrated our graduates with a rooftop party. Congratulations, psychology students!! We are so proud of you! 🎉🎓🎉

The 2022 Centenary Research Conference was a huge success! In the spoken presentation sessions, Mallarie Mixon presented her honors thesis, and Kaye Kelley presented her senior seminar project. In the poster session, Gracie Napier, Andrew Turner, and Xian Baumgartner presented their research.

Read more about their projects here:
Confronting Prejudice: https://www.centenary.edu/academics/research-opportunities/research-conference/2022-research-conference-program/2022-research-conference-schedule/confronting-prejudice/
Black Student-Athletes: https://www.centenary.edu/academics/research-opportunities/research-conference/2022-research-conference-program/2022-research-conference-schedule/black-student-athletes/
Vocal Fry: https://www.centenary.edu/academics/research-opportunities/research-conference/2022-research-conference-program/2022-research-conference-schedule/acoustic-properties-of-elicited-and-spontaneous-vocal-fry/

Congratulations, Abigail!! 🎉🎉

Abigail Cruice ’22, was named Centenary’s Student Employee of the Year 2021-2022. She was awarded a check for $100 and a certificate of recognition for her contributions to Centenary through leadership, campus involvement, and service.
Abigail has worked in the Registrar’s office for 4 years. She organized the transition in the office from paper to an electronic form system. Her work has impacted efficiency and response time, and improved customer service. Congratulations Abigail!

from left to right-
Amanda Currie, Assistant Registrar; Abigail Cruice, Centenary’s Student Employee of the Year 2021-2022; Dr. Karen Soul, Provost

Dr. Alexander’s statistics students made paper planes in lab this week and flew them to collect data. Then we trekked down to the lab for some fun and exciting data analysis! Look at those amazing results! 👀♥️🎉

Happy Halloween from the Psychology faculty!

Psychology at Centenary College of Louisiana updated their address.

Congratulations to psychology major, Elena Ring ‘19!!

🎓🎉🎓 A whirlwind day of two commencement ceremonies to celebrate the classes of 2020 and 2021! Congratulations, graduates! We are so proud of you! 🎓🍾🎓

Congratulations to the psychology graduates of 2020! Thanks for letting us celebrate you! 🎉♥️🍾

🎉🎉🎉Senior celebration with the classes of 2020 and 2021! 🎉🎉🎉

Congratulations, Rachel Perkins! We are proud of you and the great work you’re doing!

We would like to give an overdue welcome to Rachel Perkins PT, DPT, to the D&D family. If you have been at our Sanger clinic you have already met Rachel, but if you haven't had the pleasure, here’s a little bit about her:

Rachel attended Centenary College of Louisiana, where she played volleyball and earned her bachelor's degree with a double major in Biology and Psychology in 2016. She then attended UT Southwestern School of Health Professions, where she graduated with her doctorate of physical therapy in 2018. Rachel is certified in Dry Needling, is currently working towards her strength and conditioning certification (CSCS), and hopes to eventually achieve board certification through the APTA as an orthopedic clinical specialist (OCS). Rachel is passionate about working with athletes and facilitating return to sport, as well as using exercise to help people of all ages return to their hobbies, and prior level of function. Outside of the clinic she enjoys running with her dog Jaxson, playing volleyball, and trying new restaurants with her friends. Welcome Rachel!

We couldn’t be prouder of psychology graduate, Toni Ficarra! Keep up the great work, Toni!

A very special shoutout to our amazing NSSLHA Chapter President! This week’s is Toni Ficarra! ☺️👏🏼Let’s find out more about the awesome things she is doing... 🌟✨

Undergrad: Centenary College of Louisiana

Why SLP: I first was introduced to the field of speech and language pathology my sophomore year of high school while volunteering at a skilled nursing facility. I really enjoyed watching the support and treatment the SLP offered the patients and so I reached out to her to shadow her. After my first day, I knew that becoming a speech and language pathologist was the career choice I wanted to make. Communication is essential in daily life to be able to express wants, needs, or ideas. I could not be prouder to be part of a field that positively impacts an individual’s success with effective communication. This field has not only driven my desire to be a clinician, but to also impact the field by conducting research. I am looking forward to driving the success of treatment and evaluation in this field through my passion for research and being a clinician.

Areas of Interest: aphasia, dysphagia, TBI, apraxia of speech, expressive and receptive language, and cognitive communication disorders.

I came to the office to grab some stats books, and I found a bear! What would William James say about that?? (Also here are the instructions so you can have wildlife in your photos too!) ~Dr. A

Senior Rachael Higginbotham presented her honor's thesis research this weekend at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in New Orleans. Congratulations, Rachael!

Our own Dr. Amy Hammond was awarded the Outstanding Teacher Award today at the Founder's Day Convocation

Yesterday, our seniors presented their semester-long projects in Dr. Hammond's Senior Seminar class. Congratulations on completing this important milestone!

It was Elder Visit Day in Dr. Hammond's Human Growth & Development class! So grateful to our alumni and community visitors who enrich our learning experience!

This week, Dr. Jessica Alexander traveled to Montreal, Canada to present research at the 60th Annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, the foremost conference for cognitive psychology. Dr. Alexander presented research done in collaboration with psychology graduate Monica Sewell ‘19 on how font can disambiguate emotionally ambiguous language. Dr. Alexander also presented results from a collaboration with faculty colleagues at other Associated Colleges of the South institutions to produce an online workshop to bring cognitive science findings into the college classroom through training faculty in the science of learning and memory. Thanks to ACS for funding that applied research/teaching project!

Dr. Alexander’s Biological Psychology students got to check out a human brain on the first day of class. 🧠

What a whirlwind of senior fun this week has been! We are so proud of the Psychology 2019 graduates and so excited to see what they’re going to do next! 🎓 🎉 🎈

Congratulations to our student researchers who presented their projects at the Arkansas Symposium for Psychology Students today! You represented Centenary so well!

Today, we celebrated our student researchers at our annual Research Conference. Psychology students made spoken presentations and presented posters. First year students gave a variety of excellent presentations of their Challenge Seminar projects. Congratulations to each of our student researchers!

It was Elder Visit Day today in Human Growth & Development. Many thanks to our visitors for sharing their wisdom with our students!

Thought y’all could relate to this 😂😂

Today we inducted our newest members into Psi Chi, the international honor society in psychology! Congratulations! 🎈🎉