Leadership
Dr. Geoffrey Hall’s leadership and lasting contributions to UBC Arts and UBC Psychology were recognized with a 2026 Dean of Arts Award.
Dr. Kristin Laurin and Dr. Toni Schmader were recognized with 2026 Dean of Arts Mentorship Awards. This award celebrates exceptional mentors within the Faculty of Arts.
Dr. Daniela Palombo received a 2026 Women in Cognitive Science Canada+ Mentorship Award. This award recognizes supervisors who go over and above typical mentorship activities to support equity-deserving students in cognitive science.
Dr. Kiran Soma was elected as a 2025 Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada—one of the country’s highest honours for distinguished scholars, artists, and scientists. Dr. Soma was also named a 2025 Distinguished University Scholar. This honour is awarded to UBC faculty who have achieved international recognition as leaders in their field.
UBC Psychology’s Department Head Dr. Toni Schmader held the department’s first faculty retreat. The retreat was an opportunity to build community and have important discussions about the department’s future.
The Department’s Climate Action Committee, Dr. Elizabeth Dunn, Jade Radke, Bonnie Vockeroth, and Dr. Jiaying Zhao, received a 2025 UBC Sustainability Workplace Fund to launch a Travel Decision Guide, Climate Stories, a Labcycle Exchange (CWL login), and host an Earth Day event.
A UBC Wellbeing Strategic Initiative Fund was awarded to Dr. Connor Kerns, Kate Rho, and Lorelai McEwen to develop a Community Advisory Board Toolkit for conducting community-engaged research in Autism-inclusive spaces.
Community and Alumni Engagement
On September 18, 2025, the department hosted the Coming Home to Psychology event during UBC Homecoming. The event included a research showcase and a talk from Psychology alumnus Dr. Jelena Brcic, and live music by the band Pennington Hall.
Dr. Lila Davachi, Professor of Psychology at Columbia University, was the distinguished speaker at our 2026 Quinn Memorial Lecture.
Dr. Samantha F. Anderson, Dr. Suzanne Segerstrom, and Dr. Mahesh Srinivasan shared their research and ideas as part of the department’s 2025-26 Colloquia Series.
The department hosted psychology alumni for an evening of conversation and connection at our first Alumni Mixer on April 23, 2026.
The UBC Psychology Graduate Student Council hosted 2026 Psychfest, an annual event where second-year MA and new PhD students present their research. The keynote speaker was Dr. Oliver John.
Dr. Stan Floresco, Dr. Daniela Palombo, and Dr. Kiran Soma were recognized as UBC Ambassadors who hosted world-class academic conferences that brought scholars to our campus. Dr. Soma and Dr. Floresco co-organized the 29th Annual Meeting of the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology and Dr. Palombo organized the Northwestern Cognition and Memory (NOWCAM) conference.
MA student Marisa Nelson was on the organizing team that bought the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) Satellite Conference on AI in Psychology to UBC’s campus.
