SCRA Awards and Fellows
Here we highlight the extraordinary work of our members, both those recognized by SCRA and those who have won awards from the APA.
Congratulations to the 2014 SCRA Award Winners!
Dr. Anne Brodsky: Recipient of the 2014 SCRA Award for Distinguished Contributions to Theory and Research in Community Psychology
Dr. Brodsky’s contributions cover various topics of central importance to community psychology. The award refers to both theory and research and she has significant contributions in both areas (theory- resilience, PSOC; research – qualitative methods). Her contributions regarding research relate not only to engaging in excellent research but in writing about methodology itself and contributing to the development of qualitative methodology. Her work has substantially enhanced our understanding of women’s engagement in multiple roles (i.e., parent, change agent) and the ways in which sense of community and empowerment are intertwined.
She has also been successful in “giving psychology away” and in facilitating the development of others who can contribute to the discipline. Dr. Brodsky’s work embodies community psychology values and concepts – largely on processes that support community-based/social action, empowerment, and community-level self-determination.
Dr. Sam Tsemberis: Recipient of the 2014 SCRA Award for Distinguished Contributions to Practice in Community Psychology
Dr. Tsemberis has built an impressive and sustained body of work around issues of homelessness. Pathways to Housing, an organization that he founded, and the Housing First program that stemmed from it has had lasting impacts in many communities throughout North America and now in other countries as well. By challenging prevailing models of responding to homelessness and systematically supporting implementation of the housing first model in locations with different norms and resources, Dr. Tsemberis provides an exemplar of community practice.
Watch a video of Dr. Tsemberis discussing his work here.
Dr. Manuel Riemer: Recipient of the 2014 SCRA Early Career Award
Dr. Manuel Riemer has a stellar professional record for any individual, let alone an early career person. Dr. Riemer is a vibrant academic thinker who works to use Community Psychology to contribute to understanding and implementing climate change intervention theory and practice. He also studies the intersection of climate change and poverty both locally and globally. He is an Associate Professor at Wilfrid Laurier University, and also Director of the Community, Environment, and Justice Research Group which is part of the Centre for Community Research, Learning and Action at Wilfrid Laurier University, a group that partners with local agencies and groups to conduct research. Dr. Riemer is bringing an entirely new and important element to Community Psychology; that is the role and application of Community Psychology in global climate change.
Dr. Susan Eckerle Curwood: Recipient of the 2014 SCRA Best Dissertation in a Topic Relevant to Community Psychology Award
Dr. Susan Eckerle Curwood received her Ph.D. in Community Psychology from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. She is currently a Senior Research Associate in the Centre for Research on Inner City Health at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. As project leader for the Urban Angel Fund for Homeless People, her work focuses on developing, implementing, and evaluating new initiatives for homeless people with mental health challenges.
Dr. Susan Eckerle Curwood’s dissertation entitled, The “Warrant of Common Sense”: Ideology and Poverty in Canada and the United States, investigated the link between ideology and practice in the area of poverty reduction in the United States and Canada. Using a multiple case study approach, the study demonstrates the extent to which ideology influences the definition of poverty as a social problem, ideas about appropriate intervention, and the solutions that are seen as possible or desirable. The award was merited by the overall scholarly excellence of the dissertation. This work represents a conceptual innovation and has important implications for research and action in our current economic climate.
Dr. Lindsay Satterwhite Mayberry: Recipient of the SCRA Emory L. Cowen Award for the Promotion of Wellness.
Dr. Mayberry received her Ph.D. in Human and Organizational Development from Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow trainee in the Division of General Internal Medicine & Public Health at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. With support from a National Research Service Award from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, she is working to identify areas for family intervention for adults with type 2 diabetes. She plans to develop sustainable and cost-effective family-based community interventions to support the patients’ diabetes-management while also improving health outcomes for other family members.
Dr. Lindsay Satterwhite Mayberry's dissertation entitled, “Family Processes in the Context of Housing Instability and Intensive Service Use: Implications for Parenting and Caregiver Wellbeing”, used a mixed-method approach to explore the effects of various housing intervention (i.e., homeless shelters, transitional housing programs, short-term housing subsidies) on family processes and caregiver wellbeing. The dissertation presents a community-based homelessness service model that would connect families with resources more effectively in their communities while avoiding many of the negative effects of the continuum-of-care model on healthy family processes. Her dissertation focuses on both promotion of positive wellbeing and prevention of dysfunction in families thereby furthering a notion of wellness espoused by Emory L. Cowen and hence an excellent tribute to his lifelong work.