Lisa Aspinwall receives the 2017 Irwin Altman Outstanding
Psychology Faculty Award

Lisa Aspinwall

Irwin Altman

The Irwin Altman Outstanding Psychology Faculty Award has been established by his family and supported by the university to recognize a faculty member in the Department of Psychology who exemplifies the combined values of teaching/mentoring, research/scholarship and service that Irwin Altman demonstrated throughout his career.

For excellence in research and scholarship, Lisa is described as “a national and international expert in self-regulation and risk perceptions, particularly in the context of genetic testing for familial cancer. Her work in genetic testing for familial melanoma has been ground-breaking and has dramatically improved our understanding of how individuals attend to and appraise genetic testing information, and how these cognitive processes translate into individuals’ efforts to manage their cancer risk through primary prevention and early detection.” Her highly impactful and innovative work is praised as “truly interdisciplinary and well-informed by social psychological models as well as work in health education and communication.” Her research is supported by a current multi-million dollar grant from the National Cancer Institute.

Dr. Aspinwall’s former students praised her mentorship modeled through her research approach, stating her work “has real-world implications and applications, but she also uses her studies as a means to investigate the process of self-regulation and coping from a theoretical standpoint. This perspective has undoubtedly helped to shape my own approach toward research.” Not only has she mentored numerous successful undergraduate and graduate students, but she is also currently a mentor to a junior faculty member for their early career K award from the NIH. Her outstanding teaching in the classroom has been recognized by her receipt of the College’s Superior Teaching Award.

There is no question about Lisa’s dedication and excellence in contributions to service. In the department, she was previously the Social Area coordinator and is currently our Psychology department chair. Faculty have praised her service as chair over the last two years, as “beginning several bold initiatives around diversity” and commended her tireless efforts in recruiting top psychology faculty. She is known as an advocate for the Psychology department. Finally, beyond what she does for Psychology, she contributes on the national level on review panels for the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Cancer Institute, as well as promoting diversity in many organizations such as the GLBT Alliance in Social and Personality Psychology.

"This award is especially meaningful to me given my respect and admiration for Irv Altman and the Altman family. Irv's legacy of contributions to the research literature and to the University of Utah has long served as an inspiration to me, and I am honored to receive an award named for him."

Lisa makes an outstanding contribution to our psychology and university community and we are very lucky and grateful to have her as a colleague. As one colleague stated very well, “The Irv Altman award is about faculty members who are lynchpins in every angle of the psychology department and I cannot think of a better candidate than Lisa Aspinwall.”

Aspinwall notes, "This award is especially meaningful to me given my respect and admiration for Irv Altman and the Altman family. Irv's legacy of contributions to the research literature and to the University of Utah has long served as an inspiration to me, and I am honored to receive an award named for him."