Sheldon Cohen is the 2008 recipient of the Excellence in Health Psychology Research Award. Sheldon is particularly worthy of this award. For over 30 years, he has helped us to understand the roles of social and psychological factors in health and well-being. This includes work on psychological stress, social networks, positive and negative affect, personality and social economic status. Much of Sheldon’s work has focused on how these psychosocial factors influence immunity, particularly susceptibility to infection, but also their influence on the onset and progression of asthma, cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Along the way, Sheldon has published numerous theoretical and empirical papers. His work has appeared in the best psychological journals but also in the elite medical journals. He has also produced a handful of seminal review papers on topics such as stress and disease, social support, depression and immunity, and positive affect and health. Taken in their entirety, Sheldon’s papers have been cited over 14,000 times. He has been elected to the National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine, and has received lifetime distinguished contribution awards from the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, and the American Psychosomatic Society. Earlier in his career he received the “Junior” Award for Outstanding Contributions to Health Psychology from Division 38. That earlier award was in recognition of the early contributions that he made to the field of health psychology. The present award reflects that contributions that he has made across his lifetime. Both awards are warranted and well-deserved.

This year’s recipient of the Division 38 Excellence in Health Psychology Research by an Early Career Professional Award is Dr. Julienne Bower. Professor Bower completed her B.A. at Brown University in 1988 and her Ph.D. at UCLA in 1998. She completed her clinical internship at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute and Hospital. From 1998 through 2001, Dr. Bower was a postdoctoral fellow in the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, then an Assistant Research Psychologist in the Division of Cancer Prevention and Control Research within the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. From 2001 through 2006, Dr. Bower held an Assistant Professor-in-Residence position in the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences with a primary appointment in the Cousins Center. In 2006, Dr. Bower joined the UCLA Department of Psychology as Assistant Professor.

Dr. Bower develops and tests conceptual models of the interrelationships among psychological and behavioral parameters, biological factors, and disease, including specific pathways from psychological responses through to the biological processes that influence disease and health outcomes. Dr. Bower has more than 40 publications, many appearing in top journals in psychology, health psychology, and medicine.

Dr. Julie Bower is a highly creative scientist in health psychology who is working on vital questions involving reciprocal relations of psychological parameters, biological processes, and health outcomes. Moreover, Professor Bower is a talented teacher and mentor and a valued academic colleague. We are delighted to confer this award on behalf of Division 38.

The Timothy B. Jeffrey Memorial Award of $3000 is given by Division 38 in conjunction with the American Psychological Foundation. It recognizes the work of these full time providers of face to face patient services, in individual or group settings.

Dr. Meit has held the position of Professor of Family Medicine with the West Virginia University School of Medicine and most recently served as head psychologist at the world renowned Cleveland Clinic. A 1989 graduate of Florida Tech’s PsyD program, he has just recently assumed the position of Chief Psychologist and Vice Chair, Department of Psychiatry, with Summa Health System (Akron, OH). As shared, his clinical practice focuses upon integrated behavioral health/primary care medicine, with specific interests in Geropsychology. He is a former two-term member of the APA Council of Representatives and currently serves as a commissioner to APA’s Commission for the Recognition of Specialties and Proficiencies in Professional Psychology. In fact, convention scheduling being what it is Scott is, at this very moment, part of a CRSPPP sponsored panel on “Ethics and Specialization” over at the convention center.