Awards Committee

The Awards committee identifies and publicly recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to NYSPA and to psychology. The committee invites members to nominate their colleagues for four categories of awards which are outlined below.

Award nominations are received year round and presented at the Annual Convention.

Please include as much relevant information as possible in your nominating statement. The awards are presented at the NYSPA Annual Convention

Interim Chair: Alan Hack, PhD

Committee Members:

James Dean, PhD
June Feder, PhD
Gwen Gerber, PhD
John Northman, PhD
Carolyn Springer, PhD

NYSPA’s current President is on the Committee ex-officio.

Awards

NYSPA's Award for Diversity 

The NYSPA Diversity Award is given to a psychologist who has demonstrated a notably sustained strong commitment to diversity and inclusion within the NYSPA programs and goals.

Distinguished Service Awards

These awards are presented to psychologists who have demonstrated an unusually strong commitment to NYSPA's programs and goals. Ordinarily 3-5 services awards are presented each year.

The Allen V. Williams, Jr. Memorial Award

The Allen V. Williams, Jr. Memorial Award is NYSPA's highest honor and is given on the basis of any one, or more, of the following criteria:

• sustained service to the profession; 

• significant involvement in the board issue of the profession;

• a unique contribution to the profession;

• and a unique contribution to NYSPA

The Beacon Award for Advocacy

This award is presented to a psychologist whose leadership and/or advocacy activities has established a guiding light for the profession of psychology.

The Sidney A. (Bud) Orgel Memorial Award

The Sidney A. Orgel Memorial Award was established in 2005, to recognize an early career psychologist member of NYSPA that has shown exemplary leadership qualities. This memorial award honors Dr. Orgel's commitment to mentoring future psychologists and his service and passion for the profession. The award includes a cash award.

The Lifetime Achievement Award

NYSPA's Lifetime Achievement Award was created in 2016 by President Roy Aranda to recognize contributions of NYSPA members over the whole of a career, rather than or in addition to single contributions. The Lifetime Achievement Award is given to members who made significant and substantial lifetime contributions to the profession and NYSPA in recognition of their excellent work.

The Joanne Lifshin Mentorship Award

The Awards Committee of NYSPA recognizes others that exemplify the incredible ability to mentor early career psychologists and students to become leaders, like the late Dr. Joanne Lifshin. 

Criteria:

• Nominate a psychologist who has demonstrated outstanding leadership in mentoring students, early career psychologists, and peers within the profession.

• Provide a description of the activities, examples of their mentoring and at least one referral of an individual that was mentored by the nominated individual.

• If the person nominating the psychologist is the individual who was mentored, please indicate this in the nomination.

The Roy Aranda Student Social Justice Award

This award will be made to a student who has made a contribution in one or more of the following areas:

• Research (including dissertation)

• Innovative programming

• Journalism

• Advocacy