Psychology

March 2026

Nate Powell, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience

We are excited to introduce our newest faculty member, Dr. Nate Powell who is teaching a variety of courses, including Sensation and Perception, Systems Neuroscience, Foundations of Neuroscience, and Experimental Techniques of Neuroscience (Practical Neuroscience). In the future, he hopes to add courses on Computational Neuroscience and possibly Neuroeconomics

Powell earned his BA in physics and philosophy from Amherst College and his Ph.D. in neuroscience from University of Minnesota. His research focuses on how the brain works as a “computational machine,” focusing on the prefrontal cortex and cognition.

Powell’s interests include NFL football, Tai Chi, and bikes – riding bikes, fixing bikes, building bikes (he built the bike he rides to Carnegie most days, even when the temperature dips below freezing!). He also is an avid tea drinker and welcomes anyone to stop by his office in Carnegie 208 to share a cup!

“I’m very happy to have found a home here at Allegheny College! My colleagues in Psychology and Neuroscience are wildly talented, supportive, and caring people, and the research facilities are impressive for a small college. And the students are earnest, inquisitive, and very invested in their education (along with about 7 extracurriculars each).”

Professor Alec Dale taught in the Psychology Department for 38 years and in that time, mentored and advised hundreds of students while teaching favorite classes such as Health and Psychophysiology, and Abnormal Psychology.

Dale coauthored multiple professional publications with students and together they presented their research at nearly 100 national and international conferences, including venues in Europe. He notes that he was the first or second reader on several hundred comps and that “each was a favorite at the time.” But he is able to name a few memorable projects: “Andy Alden‘s on relaxation imagery and Amy Overman‘s and Jessica Hoge’s comps on music in the brain.” These last two were also with colleagues Jeff Cross in the Psychology department and the pianist Alec Chien, who was in the Music department. “Herb Klions, the chairman of our department, and I worked with several students on humor and facial expressions in the treatment of anxiety, depression and discomfort: Barb Yovetich, Amy Danzer, Doug Klions…and many more.”

Dale notes that “Allegheny was a wonderful place to work. I was able to do teaching, research and clinical work and went on great sabbatical leaves in Italy, Australia, Virginia, and UCLA. I have fond memories of wonderful colleagues both in and out of the department at Allegheny. There were so many great students to work with!”

Since retiring in 2007, Dale has done a lot of sailing with his charter captain’s license, including to France, Italy, Croatia, Greece and Turkey, as well as the Caribbean. He and wife Sharon sailed their boat across the Atlantic for a year-long stay in Rome after retirement. When not traveling the world, they continue to reside in Meadville, taking advantage of the changing seasons, including many opportunities to ski at Robertson Field this winter and ballroom dancing (which came about after collaborating with Jan Hyatt on the neuroscience of dance).

Dale can be contacted through email at: adale80@gmail.com or on Facebook.

Professor Herb Klions retired in 1993 after almost 40 years of serving the psychology department as a teacher, researcher, academic advisor, mentor, chairperson, and friend.  In that time he also had an active clinical psychology practice, working with the Meadville Medical Center, and, even after retirement, he continued to consult with Allegheny’s Counseling Center.

Klions recalls that when he started at Allegheny, the psychology department consisted of three faculty members and was housed in Reuter Hall.  There was no dedicated lab space so any empirical research had to be conducted in faculty offices.  As department chair, he committed to expanding and strengthening the program, advocating for the department’s relocation to Carnegie where proper lab facilities were available and overseeing the hiring of new faculty members interested in active research (including Alec Dale and Jeff Cross). Klions’s legacy continues to shape the department, reflected not only in the vibrant research culture he helped establish but also in the Herb Klions Student Research Fund, which provides support for students to travel and present their work at professional conferences nationwide.

As he looks forward to his 100th birthday, Klions stays very active physically and mentally, as part of a ukulele band, a wii bowling league, and a poker group, and coordinating a book club.  While his classes in abnormal psychology, statistics, and clinical psychology live on in the memory of many alumni, Klions notes that what he most remembers is that he “hired people who were better than me in their fields.  They were great people and I am really proud of that.”

Help celebrate Herb Klions’s 100th birthday! Cards and messages can be sent to
4041 Heritage Center Drive, Apt. 1033,
Copley OH 44321

hklions@allegheny.edu

You may also honor Klions through donations to his fund supporting student research, the Herb Klions student research fund.

Neuroscience alum, Jessica Schindelar ‘02, recently returned to Allegheny as Associate Vice President for Marketing and Communications, the culmination of almost 20 years in marketing and communicating, including work in crisis communications at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Schindelar notes that “my neuroscience degree, especially my coursework in behavioral sciences while here (and as part of my graduate studies post-college), really helped me to think about people’s underlying behaviors that we are trying to influence via communications. I approach communications from this lens of my neuroscience and psychology background. Allegheny taught me to think critically and ask the tough questions, and it armed me with the problem-solving skills I use every day as a leader.”

While a student at Allegheny, Schindelar spent many hours in the basement of Carnegie, working with Jeff Cross to study the effectiveness of beta-estradiol tissue grafts in an animal model of Parkinson’s disease. She was also active with Gator Activities Programming (GAP), working on promotions and special events. This work allowed her to tap into her creativity while also working with deadlines and managing projects. “These experiences at Allegheny all shaped who I am as a communicator, a leader, and a human,” Schindelar writes.

Ryan Pickering, Associate Professor, was awarded the 2025 Thoburn Award for Excellence in Teaching. The Thoburn is awarded to a junior faculty member who demonstrates “outstanding teaching as evidenced by innovative pedagogy, creative course development, sustained commitment to student learning, and support from faculty, alumni, and students.”

Kristen Warren, Assistant Professor of psychology and neuroscience,received a grant through the Orris C. & Beatrice Dewey Hirtzel Memorial Foundation to purchase a Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) system—comprising a stimulator, coils, navigation tools, software, installation, training, and Electroencephalogram (EEG) interface—for our Learning, Memory and Sleep Lab

Shout out to Courteney Bender ‘18 who returned to the psychology department as an adjunct faculty member for fall 2025, teaching Human Social Behavior. Bender is a Licensed Professional Counselor who is board-certified in art therapy and practices in Erie PA

Zongqi (Zoe) Li, Assistant Professor, recently passed her Examination for Professional Practice of Psychology (EPPP), on her way to being licensed as a Clinical Psychologist in Pennsylvania. Li teaches Adult Psychopathology and Clinical Psychology in the department.

Megan Bertholomey, Assistant Professor, presented the September 2025 Karl W. Weiss ‘87 Faculty Lecture Series: “The role of gonadal hormones in the development of alcohol drinking in male and female rats”.

Members of Psi Chi (the International Honor Society for Psychology) challenged psychology faculty to a “Hot Ones Trivia Contest” in spring 2025. The faculty were triumphant in answering questions on psychology, generational trivia, and Allegheny history. We hope to continue this as an annual event.

During Blue and Gold Weekend 2025, current students had the chance to explore the diverse career journeys of psychology alumni Victoria Pless ’14 (Psychology / Dance & Global Health Studies), Ashlee Sydlik ’09 (Neuroscience & Psychology / Religious Studies), and Kate Flickinger ’12 (Biology / Dance & Psychology). Moderated by department chair Lauren Paulson, the panel highlighted how their Allegheny education shaped their professional paths. Although each alumna’s journey unfolded differently over time, they unanimously reflected on the senior project as a challenging yet transformative experience that proved invaluable in their careers.

More than $1500 was raised for the Alec Dale Fund during Gator Give Day 2025.  This fund helps recent graduates share their senior projects and other Allegheny-based research at professional conferences after graduation, when college funding may no longer be available. Thanks in part to the Dale Fund, and to the continued generosity of our alumni, Andrea Boccia ’25 was able to present his senior project at the Research Society on Alcoholism annual meeting in June 2025.

The Psychology Department’s Lunch and Learn series continues with recent talks by Prof. Courteney Bender on art therapy techniques, as well as Prof. Chris Normile and his JUSTICE Lab students sharing insights from their research on jury decision-making, interrogations, and wrongful convictions.

Allegheny’s chapter of Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in Psychology, has hundreds of alumni members.  With typically about 24 current student members at any given  time, new member induction occurs each year.

“We always had difficulty getting travel funding because the conferences occurred after graduation so I set up a travel fund to help out. It would be great if others could contribute to carry on this tradition of spreading Allegheny‘s fame and supporting our students.” – Alec Dale, Ph.D. Retired Professor of Psychology

Please consider adding to this important fund during Gator Give Day, April 16, 2026.

More than 20 students and their faculty mentors attended and presented at a number of national conferences in the past year, including: American Psychology – Law Society, Alcohol and the Nervous System Gordon Research Conference, the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Research Society on Alcoholism Meeting, Eastern Psychological Association, WPUPC, and the Council on Undergraduate Research

WPUPC 2025 (Western Pennsylvania Undergraduate Psychology Conference)

Students from the class of 2025 presented research talks or posters at the 52nd annual WPUPC, hosted by PennWest University-California.

(left to right) Joshua Salisbury, Lily Kons, Julia Williams, Hannan Hamed, Sarah Willison, Braislee Byrne, Charlote Allen, Aria Zong, Rachel Oberst, Maley Gleason, NealyClare Wheat. Faculty mentors were Monali Chowdhury,  Lauren Paulson, Ryan Pickering, and Kristen Warren.

URCSA 2025 (Undergraduate Research Scholarship and Creative Activities)

Mentorship for students continue in the summer.  Faculty guide the students’ summer projects and presentation.  This presentation is to the campus community at large providing valuable public engagement and Community Based Research experience.  (left to right) Cole Jooste’27 with mentor Lauren Paulson, Karley Johnson ’28 (faculty mentor Megan Bertholomey), and Ian Oliver ’26 (faculty mentor Megan Bertholomey).

Cook-Lahti Symposium 2025

At the end of each spring semester, all Allegheny Community members are invited to gather to celebrate student research, scholarship and creative activities on campus.  These psychology students presented last spring. (left to right) Hallie Johnson ’25 (faculty mentor Megan Bertholomey), Hanan Hamed ’25 (faculty mentor Kristen Warren) and Charlotte Allen ’25 (faculty mentor Christopher Normile).

National Conference Presentations

Christopher Normile, Assistant Professor of Psychology, and four students from the JUSTICE lab presented their studies at the annual meeting of the American Psychology-Law (AP-LS) Society in San Juan, Puerto Rico in March 2025.

• Meghan Boudreau’s ’25 poster was entitled, “It’s All for the Kids, Right?: Psychological Impacts of the Lawful Removal of Children From Their Home.” Based on her Senior Comp, Boudreau made recommendations for more quantitative research into the effectiveness of trauma-informed courts to reduce psychological harm to children removed from their homes.
• Mycah Quevillon ’25 presented the lab poster entitled, “Examining the Influence of Entirely Opposing Confession & DNA Evidence on Mock-Jurors’ Perceptions.” She found that, when evidence was diametrically opposed, participants were more likely to blame the suspect implicated by DNA evidence than confession evidence.
• Hannah Hinterleiter ’24 presented a data blitz on her Senior Comp project titled, “Perceptions of School and Custodial Interrogations.” Hannah found that participants were more likely to find an interrogation done by a school resource officer to be more coercive and severe than one done by a principal (even when the interrogation is exactly the same), but that people were more likely to believe the student was guilty when interrogated by a principal.  Her findings are particularly alarming, because students are not afforded the same legal rights when interrogated by a school administrator compared to a police officer. Hinterleiter’s project was one of the highest rated during review, earning her $500 in funds from AP-LS to present her project. The data were collected thanks to an $850 grant provided last spring by Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in Psychology.
• Emily Eshleman ’24 presented a data blitz on her Senior Comp titled, “Verdicts and Victim Blame: The Impact of Victim Race and Sexuality.” Eshleman found that jurors were more likely to give a harsher sentence when the victim of a crime was homosexual compared to a heterosexual victim, a result that differs from most previous research.  In addition, she found an increase in victim blaming for the heterosexual victim compared to the homosexual victim. The data were collected thanks to an $850 grant provided last spring by Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in Psychology.

Ryan Pickering, Associate Professor, presented two papers at the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues in June 2025: “Overcoming and reinterpreting faculty activism failure” and “Navigating federal threats to academic freedom in the classroom”.  After serving on American Psychological Association’s Council of Representatives, Ryan Pickering, Associate Professor, presented a poster titled “Empowering students as change agents through classroom activities” for Division 2 (Society for the Teaching of Psychology) and gave a talk titled “Ironic exclusion: Reconsidering simulation activities to promote inclusion” for Division 9 (Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues) at the 2025 American Psychological Association convention.

Lauren R. Paulson, Associate Professor, (third from left) presented “From Courses to Collaboratives: Building Lasting Community Engagement in Liberal Arts Settings” with colleagues from Bates College, Macalester College, and Project Pericles, as part of the 2025 Bonner Summer Leadership Institute and Project Pericles Conference at University of Richmond.

Megan Bertholomey, Assistant Professor, and students from the BEER Lab (Behavioral Endocrinology and Ethanol Research)  presented at various conferences.

• Andrea Boccia ‘25 (below) presented two papers at the Research Society on Alcoholism Meeting in June 20: “Exploring The Role of Gonadal Hormones Across Development in Alcohol Self Administration in Male and Female Rats” and “Exploring the Effect of Binge Drinking Using Drinking-In-The-Dark During Early Vs. Late Adolescence in Female Rats.”
• Hallie Johnson ‘25 presented research at the Alcohol and the Nervous System Gordon Research Conference in February, entitled “Interactions between risk choice behavior and ethanol drinking patterns in adult male rats.”
• Joshua Salisbury ‘25 presented research at the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics conference in April 2025.  Their project was entitled: “Effect Of Mifepristone on Voluntary Ethanol Consumption in Traumatic-Stress Exposed Female Sprague-Dawley Rats.”

Shelby Blair, Assistant Professor and students from the FEAR lab (Fear, Anxiety and Endocrine Research) presented their research at the Eastern Psychological Association in February 2026.  Caleb Freeman ‘26 presented “Effects of Acute Progesterone on State-Dependent Pavlovian Fear Conditioning” and Angeline Laufer ‘26 presented “Housing Conditions Impact Pavlovian Fear Conditioning in Female Sprague-Dawley Rats.”

Christopher Normile, Assistant Professor, mentored Nathan Jyachosky ‘25 and presented their research at the Council for Undergraduate Research in April 2025 entitled “Biases in Jury Decision-Making: Autism versus Down Syndrome.”