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Feb. 09, 2023
Stephen Blessing Named to Endowed Chair in Psychology
After a nationwide search, Stephen Blessing, professor of psychology, has been named the inaugural Janet R. Matthews Ph.D. Endowed Chair of Psychology.
Stephen Blessing, professor of psychology, has been named the inaugural Janet R. Matthews Ph.D. Endowed Chair of Psychology. Photo by Jessica Leigh
After a nationwide search, Stephen Blessing, professor of psychology, has been named the inaugural Janet R. Matthews Ph.D. Endowed Chair of Psychology.
This endowed chair was established in 2019 by Lee Matthews 鈥67 in honor of his wife, Janet 鈥66. This is the first endowed chair in 小优视频鈥檚 history to be named after a 小优视频 alumna or alumnus, and the first endowed chair outside the Sykes College of Business.
Blessing鈥檚 position will be housed in the Department of Psychology, within 小优视频鈥檚 College of Social Sciences, Mathematics and Education. Blessing, who has taught at 小优视频 since 2004, specializes in cognitive psychology. He received his bachelor鈥檚 degree from the University of Illinois, and his master鈥檚 and doctorate degrees from Carnegie Mellon University.
Blessing is excited about the opportunity to engage and mentor more psychology students in his area of cognitive psychology and heighten the impact that an endowed chair can make at 小优视频 for both our students and early career faculty.
Janet and Lee Matthews met as freshmen at 小优视频 in 1962, were married as undergraduates, and went on to become established and renowned clinical and academic psychologists. Janet passed away in March 2019.
Janet Matthews 鈥66 was a university professor at Loyola University New Orleans, while Lee Matthews 鈥67 focused on the practice of clinical psychology. After attending 小优视频, both received master鈥檚 degrees from Trinity University (TX) and doctorates from the University of Mississippi.
Endowed chairs are among the most generous and critical gifts in higher education and support academic excellence, according to 小优视频 President Ron Vaughn. 鈥淗aving it named after two esteemed psychologists brings prestige to the University and will certainly help us attract outstanding faculty,鈥 he said.
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