2023-2024 PD AWARD WINNERS

---

Atara Lonn is a second year PhD student studying Psychology at Carleton University. Her research focuses on understanding how people can improve the quality of their social relationships, including romantic relationships and friendships. As a secondary interest, she aims to learn best practices in psychological research methods, as well as how to employ high-quality empirical research designs in her own work. The Council of Canadian Departments of Psychology Professional Development Award has enabled her to complete the Sample Size Justification Seminar as offered by Statistical Horizons. Through participating in this seminar, Atara has learned how to conduct high-powered, informative research while balancing resource constraints. She can apply the skills she developed in the Sample Size Justification Seminar to her future research endeavours, which will result in higher-quality research products.   

Jillian Antoun is a PhD candidate in Social-Personality Psychology at Queen’s University. Her main research interests involve how people perceive and interact with others. She is also passionate about using interdisciplinary collaboration to better understand and contribute to behavioural science. Currently, she has an ongoing project with the School of Computing at Queen’s University involving machine learning and psychological research methods. The Council of Canadian Departments of Psychology Professional Development Award has enabled her to successfully complete an Introductory Programming with Python course from the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. This course provided her with a stronger foundation in programming that has resulted in an improved research collaboration and novel research questions that she plans to explore. In addition, she is now able to lead tutorials for undergraduate research assistants in her lab to help them obtain these programming skills that are becoming increasingly needed in the workforce.

Angela Hormiz is completing her first year in the Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology (Psy.D.) program at Adler University. She holds a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Behaviour, Cognition, and Neuroscience from the University of Windsor, where she remains an active member of the Healthy Relationships Research Group. During her time as a research assistant, Angela contributed to numerous studies on intimate partner violence and completed her honours thesis using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis approach to explore undergraduate students’ perceptions and experiences of gaslighting. Her initial research has since been expanded by her lab to investigate gaslighting in various contexts, such as sexual coercion and medical settings.
This professional development award is helping Angela to attend the 2024 Canadian Psychological Association Convention in Ottawa, where she will present a coauthored paper at a symposium. In addition to her academic achievements, Angela serves as the CPA Student Representative of Graduate Programs for Adler University, encouraging her peers to engage with the CPA’s initiatives for their own professional growth. She also works as a Supervisor for Canada’s 988 Suicide Crisis Helpline, a role she has held since 2021, which has significantly enriched her professional development by providing hands-on experience in crisis intervention and mental health support. For her dissertation, Angela plans to implement a mixed-methods approach to explore cultural bereavement among Middle Eastern Canadians.

Kirsten (she/her) is a PhD Candidate in School and Applied Child Psychology within the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary. She holds a Masters in School and Applied Child Psychology from the University of Calgary and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology (hons) and minor in Neuroscience from McGill University. Kirsten is passionate about research and clinical practice with children and youth and has a special interest in working with families with neurodevelopmental disorders. Her research involves the investigation of social-emotional intervention programs for children and adolescents with ADHD. 

The award is supporting Kirsten’s professional development by helping her attend the Supporting Teens’ Autonomy Daily (STAND): An evidenced-based practice for ADHD in adolescence training. Supporting Teens’ Autonomy Daily (STAND; Sibley, 2016) is an empirically supported and award winning treatment program that is tailored to the realities of adolescence and provides skills to struggling adolescents and their parents. Adolescents with attention, executive functioning, and motivation difficulties often struggle at home, school, and with others. This two day live zoom training is aimed at providing specialized training in the delivery of STAND to mental health providers and trainees. Adolescents with attention, executive functioning, and motivation difficulties often struggle at home, school, and with others.