Deborah Richardson, professor of psychology, has been appointed director of the Education Research Fellowship for the Medical College of Georgia’s (MCG) Education Discovery Institute.
“I’m so delighted to have been selected for this position,” says Richardson. “I’m working with a great group of collaborative researchers who are dedicated to seeing their students become the best professionals in the medical field.”
The fellowship is comprised of MCG faculty who conduct specific medical education projects. Such projects have included devising a curriculum to help third-year medical students develop goals and directing learning for their senior year and residency as well as instructing residents on how to communicate information to new mothers about caring for newborns.
Richardson was named an adjunct professor of medicine at MCG in June. She is also director of ASU’s Center for Teaching and Learning, and she says that this new role may have been a factor in her selection to direct the research Fellowship at MCG. “Being the director of ASU’s Center allows me to gain more experience in higher education research to assist the educational practices of the ASU faculty,” says Richardson. “There is no doubt in my mind that my position at ASU prepared me for what MCG was looking for to help their faculty.”
In her new role at ASU, Richardson plans to implement four initiatives to help the educational practices of faculty: conduct workshops and presentations that focus on teaching skills; provide support for a leadership group of department chairs; form a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning committee to support faculty travel to professional development workshops and presentations on how to start a program of research for teaching and learning; and encourage new faculty members to hold meetings to exchange tips on teaching.
An active researcher, Richardson is co-author of a leading textbook, Human Aggression; author of seven chapters on interpersonal aggression or personal relationships in textbooks or edited volumes; and author or co-author of over 50 articles in professional journals and over 125 presentations at regional, national, or international conferences. In addition to her extensive research on interpersonal aggression, she has developed educational research projects addressing how student interaction affects learning and how research experience influences student knowledge about science. Richardson is a certified Medical Education Researcher.
She has served as president of the International Society for Research on Aggression and the Southeastern Psychological Association. She also served on the 2008-09 Commission on Accreditation of the American Psychological Association and is on the editorial board of International Review of Social Psychology. She co-founded and continues to oversee the activities of the Society of Southeastern Social Psychologists.
Before joining ASU in 2000, the Hampton, Va., native served at the University of Georgia, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and Florida Atlantic University. Richardson received a doctoral degree from Kent State University, a master’s degree from the College of William and Mary, and a bachelor’s degree from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Aug 31, 2010
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