Psych Faculty and Students Represent MMC at Virtual Conference

Originally scheduled for March and postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak, the Eastern Psychological Association’s (EPA) annual conference was held virtually on June 17 and 18, 2020.

Participating in the conference were several members of MMC’s Psychology Department, including faculty members Cheryl Paradis, PsyD, Professor of Psychology; Nava Silton, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychology; and Linda Solomon, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology; and students and alumni Amanda Anzovino ’19, Kayla McCusker ’21, Patrick Riley ’20, and Willa Zimmerman ’21.

This year’s conference celebrated the 125th anniversary of EPA. In addition to the traditional program of keynote addresses, symposia, papers, and posters organized in several content areas, a number of special sessions were added to highlight the history of psychological research, including a lecture by keynote speaker, Alexandra Rutherford, Associate Professor of Psychology at York University in Toronto.

MMC’s students, faculty, and alumni presented on four different topics—check out their presentations below:

A Comparison of Female Police Officer Representation in U.S. Municipal Police Forces from 1998 to 2018 by Amanda Anzovino
(sponsored by Cheryl Paradis, PsyD, and Linda Solomon, Ph.D.)
The Relationship Between Flexibility of Mindset and Freshman Adjustment to College by Kayla McCusker and Linda Solomon, Ph.D.
College Students’ Attitudes Towards Fringe Beliefs and Identities by Willa Zimmerman, Cheryl Paradis, Psy.D, Daniel S. Mundy MD, and Kanishk Solanki MD
Got Talent? Assessing the Efficacy of the First Mental Health-based Realabilities Comic by Patrick Riley, Nava Silton, Ph.D., and Amanda Anzovino

Psychology Major

New MMC Center Helps Students Find Creative Paths in Health Care

Professor Nava Silton has had a varied career in health and human development. She’s created graphic novels about the adventures of children with visible and invisible disabilities and produced an off-Broadway musical about disabilities and bullying. Levar Burton and The Jim Henson Company are developing two of her projects for the small screen.

But she wouldn’t have been able to envision it in her early days as a premed student; back then, she thought building a career in health meant following a narrow professional track. “I remember thinking, okay, maybe I’ll be a physician or teach in a medical school,” she said. “I’d always been creative, but I never thought it would relate to any professional goals I’d have in health.”

That changed when she took a developmental psychology class that showed her how rich and exciting the field could be and worked with a professor who helped her realize that creativity could be an asset in health—and not just a passion she pursued on the side.

Now, as the director of MMC’s new Center for Health, Human Development, and Creativity, Dr. Silton is helping Marymount Manhattan students reach that same understanding from the moment they step foot on campus.