Marija Davcheva

University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain

Marija Davcheva is a current researcher at the research institute IDOCAL and a PhD student in the doctoral programme of Psychology of Human Resources at University of Valencia, Spain. Her current research topic is job quality, health and wellbeing. She comes from North Macedonia where she graduated in Psychology with Summa Cum Laude. In 2017, she started her Master studies at the renowned Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree (WOP-P) Work Organizational and Personnel Psychology Programme at the University of Valencia for which she was awarded the Extraordinary Student Achievement Award. Besides her international educational experience, she has been an active volunteer and student representative in many international organizations among which, psychology organizations EFPSA  and EFPA (Board of Scientific Affairs). She plans to apply her WOP-P knowledge and experience in Division 15 in order to promote IAAP internationally by strengthening the communication and collaboration network among psychology students worldwide.

Pedro Altungy

Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain

Pedro Altungy is currently a PhD student after having gone through all the previous levels of study in the Complutense University of Madrid. There, he got his degree in Psychology and studied one Master degree in Clinical Psychology and other in General Heath Psychology. He has been part of a research team in the Complutense university since 2014. His current field of expertise is trauma psychological assistance, although his current PhD is in Personality traits and Uncertainty. The mentioned research team is lead by the professor Maria Paz Garcia Vera, president of IAAP Division 6. He has actively collaborated with this Division since 2015, and has had the opportunity to develop with its team different ongoing projects. This experience, along with his vision that the future is build from the present day, will lead the Division into keep its fantastic path and reach more and more students. They will be the ones who will be the professionals of tomorrow!

Vice President

Jennifer Namutebi

Nkumba University, Uganda

Jennifer Namutebi is a Ugandan Psychologist and Consultant whose main interest is in the field of work and organisational psychology. She holds a Master’s Degree in Business Psychology from Makerere University and is pursuing doctoral studies in human flourishing at work. She also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Human Resource Management and an Advanced Diploma in Social Psychology. She currently lecturers at Nkumba University under the school of Business and Information Technology with special focus on organisational and people development disciplines. She’s been involved in various research project in the field of business psychology in the SME and NGO world and has a strong passion when it comes to promoting positive psychology at work and in everyday life. Jennifer has worked on various individual capacity development projects in Africa and is a Business Mentor for the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship (TEF) program aimed at empowering young African entrepreneurs and catalyze Africa’s development. She believes in the IAAP mission and works to promote and create awareness of the Division 15 Agenda among various stakeholders in Uganda and Africa as a whole.

Vice President

Kerry-aman Kaur Fisher

Arden University, United Kingdom

Kerry, a British Master's student at Arden University, embarked on her academic journey as a mature student while concurrently working for the NHS during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pursuing a Masters in Psychology, her career aspiration is to become a Forensic Psychologist. Despite holding a First-Class Honours BA in Criminology and Psychology, she is completing a Conversion Master's in Psychology due to not having undertaken an accredited British Psychology Society undergraduate course.

Her primary academic interests revolve around Personality Disorders and their intersection with individuals involved in or impacted by the Criminal Justice System. Having identified a research gap during her undergraduate course, Kerry aims to further explore this topic and disseminate her findings to both the academic community and a broader audience. Post-Masters, Kerry intends to elevate her career prospects by pursuing a PhD in Forensic Psychology, driven by her lifelong passion for criminal justice and her desire to effect positive change within the field of psychology. 

She has been actively involved in university life volunteering her time as a lecturing assistant as well as be involved in real-life volunteer research projectswithin both Criminology and Psychology. She was a student representative for each respective department collating information from students to help make improvements whilst ensuring the student voice was heard. Active engagement characterises Kerry's involvement in professional societies, including the British Psychology Society and the British Society for Criminology. She was an active member of the British Psychology Society's Student Committee as the EFPSA representative for the UK and served on the Scientific Committee for the European Congress of Psychology 2023.

Leveraging her previous experiences, Kerry aims to utilise her knowledge to enhance the visibility and promotion of IAAP, while fostering stronger communication and partnerships with other organisations to maximise IAAP's global impact on student communities.

Tia Kleiner

York University, Canada

Tia recently graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from York University, Canada. During her time there, she worked in various psychology research labs, cultivating a passion for psychological research. Her undergraduate thesis, "Unmasking the Self: How COVID-19 Changed the Way We See Ourselves," earned the Ivana Guglietti Kelly Prize for Excellence in Qualitative Research. She presented her research at the IAAP's Early Career Marathon and now volunteers with Division 12 and Division 15 of the IAAP. Tia is thrilled about her new role as Secretary of Communication for Division 15 at the IAAP, where she is eager to foster a growing community of psychology students worldwide. Her current research interests are diverse, encompassing cooperation, morality, and identity.

Gabriel L. Medianero Araúz

Universidad de Panamá, Panama

Gabriel L. Medianero Araúz is a Panamanian psychology student pursuing his Degree in Psychology at the Universidad de Panamá. Throughout his studies in psychology, Gabriel has obtained expertise in substance use and addictions, particularly through his training in prevention and intervention programs and his clinical rotation at the National Mental Health Institute in Panamá. His areas of clinical and research interest include health psychology and its relation to environmental and social factors. He has occupied different leadership positions at a national and international level, including being Vice President of the Students´ Psychological Association of the Universidad de Panamá, Student Representative at the Psychology Faculty Council, member of the Students’ Workgroup of the Interamerican Psychological Society (SIP) and Student Representative of his home country at the Global Student Psychological Committee (GSPC). Gabriel uses these leadership platforms to empower and support other trainees in his home country to get involved in psychological research and contribute to the scholarly literature of their region. His work has also been recognized by the national and international organizations, including the Secretaría Nacional de Ciencias, Tecnología e Innovación, Ministerio de Educación in Panamá and the American Psychological Association (APA). He is currently the Ambassador of the Journal of Science Policy and Governance and co-chair of the Special Interest Group of Gender, Sexuality and Aging, of the Division 20, Adult Development and Aging, American Psychological Association.

Ana Kraljevic

Croatia

Ana is a Master's student at the Faculty of Humanities ad Social Sciences in Zagreb. Her main interests lie in the fields of Public Health, Health Psychology and Policy Making, she is looking to develop her career by pursuing a PhD exploring evidence-based health policymaking. Ana has been an active member of EFPSA (European Federation of Psychology Students) and EFPA (European Federation of Psychologists Associations) for multiple years within the Standing Committee on Geropsychology. In the past few years of her mandates, she has worked on developing initiatives highlighting the importance of Advocacy within Psychology and the role Psychologists are taking in Policy Making and civil engagement.
 

Jaime Martín Fernández

Spain

Jaime is a Spanish student with a degree in Psychology from Nebrija
University and a Master's degree in Organizational Psychology and
Human Resources from the Universitat Jaume I. He is a currently working
in the WANT team as an organisational psychologist. In his career, in
addition to organisational psychology, he has been passionate about
international psychology and that is why he started training in this field
two years ago, having as one of his achievements to be one of the
authors of the Spanish chapter of the ‘Handbook of International
Psychology’.

Rayna Sadia

Riphah International University Islamabad, Pakistan

Rayna Sadia is an Assistant Professor at Riphah International University Islamabad, Pakistan. She recently got her Ph.D. in Traffic Psychology from Lingnan University Hong Kong. Her dissertation was about traffic safety and how personal factors (personality traits) of the driver could influence the driving environment in terms of safety of all stakeholders. She aimed to provide an intervention based simulation that could help improve safer roads for everyone, especially in developing countries, where the road traffic accidents have a huge impact on the economy. Along with her research interest in driving behaviors and traffic safety, she worked on terrorism catastrophizing and mental health of adolescents. She has been introduced to IAAP Division 15 in 2018 and since then she upholds the belief that IAAP Division 15 could provide a platform for students and early research careers alike, where they can discuss their issues and work on collaborative projects to help spread the knowledge. You can get in touch with her for any issue relevant to Psychology in Asia or if you want to discuss traffic safety (in general).

Karen R. MacDonald

Yorkville University, Canada

Karen MacDonald is a Master’s student in Counselling Psychology. She is a Student Representative for the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association, Canada’s national professional organization. Before she returned to school as a mature student to obtain a Specialized Honours Bachelor of Arts in Psychology summa cum laude, her career included developing relationships with national and international clients. Her undergraduate research experience included a systematic review of literature according to PRISMA guidelines; a study that contributed to policy at a community organization; and data management for a large longitudinal aging study. Her Honours thesis poster was awarded second place at the Neuropsychology Honours Thesis Research Conference, Toronto. She believes that an international perspective enriches and empowers both the discipline of Psychology and its practitioners. Being a part of this community of like-minded professionals presents important opportunities to collaborate and to gain international experience and a global perspective on our profession’s potential to contribute to the betterment of society. 

Ambassador for North America

Erin Dowling

University of Manitoba, Canada

Erin Dowling is currently a PhD student in the doctoral program of the Brain & Cognitive Sciences area of Psychology at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, MB Canada. Erin completed a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology at the University of Winnipeg in 2015 before deciding to pursue more advanced studies in Psychology at the University of Manitoba, completing a Bachelor of Arts – Honours in 2018, and a Master of Arts in Psychology in 2022.  Her MA thesis “Testing Disfluency as a Strategy to Diminish Illusory Truth Effects”was awarded the Certificate of Academic Excellence by the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) in 2023. Erin’s PhD research, conducted through the Cognitive Inferences Lab (Dr. L. Leboe-McGowan), expands on these findings by exploring how perceptual disfluency of written text (e.g., tHe RoBbEr hAd a GuN) influences memory for misinformation in a mock criminal trial scenario, while manipulating variables including induced suspicion and time delays between exposure to mistruths and sentencing decisions. In addition, Erin’s PhD work examines whether individual differences such as one’s propensity to think analytically or to tolerate ambiguity may exert some influence on one’s ability to discount information in judgments of truth.

Erin began her teaching career in January 2023 and has since taught several undergraduate courses including Memory, Cognitive Processes, and the Psychology of Gender, and was recently awarded Most Outstanding Lecturer for the 2023-2024 year by the Faculty of Arts at the University of Manitoba. As the new Ambassador for North America for Division 15 of IAAP, Erin believes that her ability to connect with undergraduate students and to ignite passion for psychological research is an asset that will ultimately draw more students and early career researchers from North American universities to IAAP and Division 15, along with the many opportunities this division strives to provide. Erin is thrilled to be a part of a diverse, internationally connected community of professionals with shared focus toward encouraging participation in various research endeavors, fostering unique collaborations, and ultimately improving the experience, exposure and potential career opportunities available to young researchers across North America, and beyond.

Jennifer Namutebi

Nkumba University, Uganda

See bio above