Scholarship winner Jin Kim

Winning this scholarship affirms to me the importance of pursuing a research agenda aimed at increasing the psychological well-being of Asian American populations.

Columbus, OH (PRWEB) March 11, 2013

The Ohio Psychological Association has selected two winners for the 2013 Michael Sullivan Diversity Scholarship. They are Jin Kim of University of California, Davis and David Lick of University of California, Los Angeles.

Jin Kim's research examines disparities in mental health treatment access, utilization, and outcomes in ethnic minority populations, with a particular emphasis on Asian Americans. This study in particular examines psychosocial barriers and facilitators of help-seeking among Asian American college students who are in psychological distress. The overarching goal is to better understand why underutilization has persisted as a major disparity among Asian Americans, and how to address this problem to close the gap in unmet need.

Kim is honored to be a recipient of this year's scholarship. She said, “Winning this scholarship affirms to me the importance of pursuing a research agenda aimed at increasing the psychological well-being of Asian American populations.”

Kim is a fourth year graduate student in social and personality psychology at the University of California, Davis. Her program of research focuses on disparities in mental health treatment utilization and outcomes in historically underserved, marginalized and high-risk populations, and cultural and psychological factors related to treatment utilization in Asian Americans.

David Lick’s research integrates methods from various disciplines to better understand prejudice against members of stigmatized groups. He is especially interested in how low-level features of the target (e.g., facial features, body shape, body motion) and higher-level features of the perpetrator (e.g., identity threat, intergroup contact) interactively shape prejudice in the early moments of person perception. His upcoming study will test how visual exposure to masculine faces affects evaluative biases against real women who vary in their gendered appearance.

Lick received his Bachelor of Arts in psychology from the University of Virginia in 2009. He is currently a second year Ph.D. student in social psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research explores the early stages of interpersonal biases to provide new insights for prejudice reduction.

He looks forward to beginning his research, “I’m honored, humbled and really thrilled to receive this scholarship! It will allow me to pursue a line of research that I’ve been excited about for some time, which has important real-world implications for prejudice reduction.”

The Michael Sullivan Diversity Scholarship Fund supports research, training and community projects in the area of diversity. Dr. Michael Sullivan served as the Assistant Executive Director for State Advocacy at the American Psychological Association (APA). The scholarship was created in honor of his work with APA, state, provincial and territorial psychological associations, and his commitment to diversity and inclusion. It has been funded by gifts, grants, contributions and bequests that have been made in honor of Dr. Sullivan over the years since he retired from APA.

This year there were 20 applications for the scholarship. Applicants were from Suffolk University, Indiana State University, University of Florida, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Columbia University, University of Cincinnati, Indiana University, John Jay College, University of California-Davis, Ryerson, University, UCLA, University of Michigan, Pacific University, Baylor University, The Chicago School, Pepperdine University, University of Maryland and the University of California-Santa Barbara.

This is the sixth year for the scholarship. Past winners are:

2012: Marisa Franco and Anahi Collado-Rodriguez, University of Maryland

2011: Ana Fernandez, Long Island University/Brooklyn Campus

2010: Ariz Rojas, University of South Florida

2009: Sangetta Parikshak, University of Kansas

2008: Janelle Hines, University of Cincinnati

Additional information about the Michael Sullivan Diversity Scholarship is available at http://www.ohpsych.org/visitors/foundation/. The call for applications for the 2014 Scholarships begin in the fall of 2013.

Located in Columbus, OH, the Ohio Psychological Association is a membership organization of approximately 1,600 Ohio psychologists. Its mission is to advance the creation, communication and application of psychological knowledge to benefit society and to improve people’s lives in Ohio. For more information, or for a psychologist referral, visit http://www.ohpsych.org.

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