Department of Psychology

College of Humanities and Sciences

Current StudentsGive

Message from the chair

Kevin AllisonDear alumni and friends,

We’re excited to connect, or reconnect, with you and share updates about VCU’s Department of Psychology.

It was an incredibly active summer, and the fall semester has taken off with a robust start. Last academic year, we proudly graduated 516 undergraduate and 23 graduate students. We’re extremely excited to see what the rest of this academic year brings.

This year the department will be home to more than 1,700 undergraduate majors, and we welcomed 21 new students to our doctoral programs, bringing our total to 108 graduate students.

We’re also excited to have welcomed two postdoctoral fellows to the department this fall: Sivenesi Subramoney, Ph.D., and Tava West, Ph.D. Subramoney completed her doctorate in psychological sciences this year at the University of California, Merced, with a focus on developmental psychology and a certificate in quantitative methods. She completed her master’s in neuropsychology from the University of Cape Town. West completed her doctorate in psychology in 2024 from Howard University and earned certification in Python.

This semester we are also excited that Chelsie Dunn, Ph.D. (M.S.’18, Ph.D.’22), and Catherine Wall, Ph.D. (B.S.’16, M.S.’23, Ph.D.’25), rejoined our department as teaching colleagues. Dunn graduated with her doctorate in health psychology from VCU and has worked as a senior research associate at VCU’s Research Institute for Social Equity. Wall earned her doctorate in health psychology from VCU in 2025, having received our department’s Outstanding Health Student and LGBTQ Ally awards. We’re excited to have these exceptional individuals become members of our faculty.

While we are excited to note newcomers to our psychology community, we also want to take a moment to acknowledge the notable contributions of two recently retired faculty, Tom Eissenberg, Ph.D., and Tim Donohue, Ph.D., who made immeasurable contributions to the department. Eisenberg was the director of the Center for the Study of Tobacco Products, a World Health Organization Collaborating Center. Donohue served as a teaching assistant professor at VCU and as faculty adviser for PsiChi, the international honor society in psychology.

We also want to extend congratulations to several department colleagues on their notable accomplishments:

  • Congratulations to Heather Jones, Ph.D., on receipt of $3.6 million in funding to support the VCU Primary Care Psychology Training Collaborative.
  • Congratulations to Fantasy Lozada, Ph.D., who was honored with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.
  • Congratulations to Richard Bargdill, Ph.D., for receiving one of VCU’s 2025 Excellence in Pedagogical Innovation Awards, which recognize extraordinary contributions in classroom innovation.
  • In addition, congratulations to Annie Haynos, Ph.D.; Oswaldo Moreno, Ph.D.; and Chelsea Williams, Ph.D., who are among the recipients of the 2025 National/International Recognition Awards, which recognize exemplary contributions in research during 2024.
  • Congratulations to Jessica Brown, Ph.D. (M.S.’10, Ph.D.’13), who was promoted to associate professor.
  • Ashley Miller, a graduate student in the health program, has received a three-year NRSA F31 grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute for “Trajectories of pediatric asthma control: Examining sleep’s influence in adolescence.” Her mentoring team includes Robin Everhart, Ph.D.; Natalie Dautovich, Ph.D.; Suzanne Mazzeo, Ph.D.; Roy Sabo, Ph.D.; and Dr. Stephanie Crewe, M.D.
  • Also join us in acknowledging the excellent work of our 2024-25 Departmental Faculty Award winners:
    • Jared Keeley, Ph.D., Outstanding Service
    • Jennifer Joy-Gaba, Ph.D., Outstanding Teaching
    • Kris Hood, Ph.D. (M.S.’05, M.S.’07, M.S.’09, Ph.D.’12), Outstanding Scholarship
    • Shawn Jones, Ph.D., Outstanding Community Engagement
    • Heather Jones, Ph.D., Outstanding Mentoring

With classes well underway, the department is engaged in a range of activities to support the implementation of our strategic planning from spring 2025. Notably, we’ll be continuing work examining the opportunity to develop a distinctive online undergraduate degree program.

Beyond the work and accomplishments noted above, the newsletter has stories on how alumni experiences at VCU have supported their careers and the ways they continue to contribute to the department. You’ll also get insight into some of the exciting research work of our faculty.

We hope you’ll also connect with us to share what you’re up to, and we welcome learning from you about the ways you would like to connect with the VCU psychology department.

Best,

Kevin W. Allison, Ph.D.

Professor and Department Chair

VCU Department of Psychology