2011 Division 54 Award Winners

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Scott Powers, Sean Phipps, Edward Christophersen and Rebecca Pillai Riddell are the 2011 award winners

Martin P. Levin Mentorship Award

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The Martin P. Levin Mentorship Award was given to Scott Powers, PhD This award, sponsored by SPP and the Levin Foundation, honors a pediatric psychology faculty member who mentors students in an exemplary way, providing professional advice and guidance through various phases of training including earlycareer development. 

 

Powers is a professor of Pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and a member of the Division of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. He directs the Clinical and Translational Research Center for the Cincinnati Children’s Research Foundation. His lab focuses on child behavior, nutrition, and pediatric pain research, with an expertise in clinical trials. 

 

He has held numerous NIH R01 awards as a principal investigator and co-investigator, an NIH K24 Midcareer Mentoring Award, and an NIH NRSA Institutional T32 Postdoctoral Training Award, in addition to research grants from the USDA, national foundations such as the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and Migraine Research Foundation, industry, and local foundations. 

 

Powers has authored over 125 publications and a book.

The Logan Wright Distinguished Research Award was given to Sean Phipps, PhD This award recognizes excellence and significant contributions in establishing the scientific base of pediatric psychology. 

 

Phipps is chair of the Department of Psychology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis. He also holds appointments as adjunct professor in the University of Tennessee College of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, and the University of Memphis Department of Psychology. 

 

Phipps’s research has been supported by the NIH since 1994. His interests focus on children’s coping and adaptation to stress, particularly that associated with chronic or life-threatening illness. He has published extensively on the cognitive and behavioral sequelae of pediatric bone marrow transplantation. Currently, he is focusing on psychological growth and resilience, as well as applying positive psychology models to identify pathways and mechanisms for healthy outcomes in chronically ill children. 

 

He serves on the editorial boards of several journals, including the Journal of Pediatric Psychology. He has been a member of two NIH study sections and several ad hoc grant review panels.

The Lee Salk Distinguished Service Award was given to Edward Christophersen, PhD This award recognizes service to the field of pediatric psychology, including public or political advocacy or leadership. 

 

Christophersen is a professor of Pediatrics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and a board-certified psychologist at the Children’s Mercy Hospital and Clinics in Kansas City. 

 

He has been an innovator in the field of applied pediatric psychology, focusing much of his work on the development, implementation, and dissemination of empirically sound interventions for children and families. 

 

Christophersen is credited for cultivating the psychologist-physician model, helping both professions impact behavioral health and well-child care. He was made an Honorary Fellow in the American Academy of Pediatrics and is regularly invited to present to medical and mental health audiences on behavioral topics. 

 

His impact on the field continues to disseminate through his supervision and mentoring. His substantive record of accomplishments over the past several decades demonstrates his pioneering and enduring efforts in serving the field of pediatric psychology.

The Routh Early Career Award was given to Rebecca Pillai Riddell, PhD This award recognizes significant contributions to the field of pediatric psychology in research, clinical training, and/or service during the early career. 

 

Pillai Riddell is an associate professor of psychology at York University, a clinician-researcher in psychiatry research at the Hospital for Sick Children, and Director of the OUCH Laboratory (Opportunities to Understand Childhood Hurt Lab; www. yorku. ca/ouchlab) in Toronto. Her first research program involves building a working conceptualization on persistent pain in infancy. The goal of her second program of research, the OUCH Cohort, is to establish norms on infant pain expressivity over the first year of life and the role parental behaviors. 

 

Pillai Riddell is a Canadian Institutes of Health Research New Investigator (CIHR) and has also received early career awards from the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation (OMRI), Canadian Pain Society and the Canadian Psychological Association. Her work is currently funded by CIHR and OMRI.