Congratulations to Psychology 2025 Faculty Excellence Award Winners!

05/08/2025
By Jamie Trottier

The 2025 UMass Lowell Faculty Excellence Awards honor the exceptional achievements of UMass Lowell faculty who have demonstrated outstanding commitment to teaching, mentoring and community engagement. Awardees were nominated by their colleagues and students, and selected through a competitive review process by the Faculty Excellence Awards Committee.

Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching: Hannah Johnson

Hannah Johnson in addition to being the Co-coordinator for the Psychology department, is also the faculty advisor for the Psychology Club and UMass Lowell chapter of Psi Chi. She has mentored Honors students conducting independent research and prepared them to present at the Student Research Symposium. Collaboration and engagement is an essential part of her teaching philosophy.

Johnson helps is adept at helping students become critical thinkers. Whether through debates, writing, or presentations, she aims to help students synthesize knowledge in ways that prepare them for academic and professional success. Her students discuss the broader societal impact of understanding research, engage in structured debates using empirical evidence, and analyze real-world cases and connect them to class materials.

Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching: Rebecca Markovits

Rebecca Markovits is the Co-coordinator for the MS in Applied Behavior Analysis and Autism Studies program as well as the coordinator for the Applied Behavior Analysis graduate certificate program. As an online instructor, Markovits leverages collaborative learning and active student responding (ASR) to create close relationships with students, and also help those students develop relationships with one another.

One student shared “Dr. Markovits possesses a unique ability to make even the most complex material engaging and accessible to students. Her courses are intellectually challenging and deeply enriching, but it is the way she fosters critical thinking and inspires students to apply theoretical knowledge in real-world contexts that sets her apart. She does not just teach — she transforms her students, encouraging them to reach their highest potential by creating an atmosphere of intellectual curiosity and growth.”

Award for Excellence in Faculty Mentoring Faculty: Joseph E. Gonzales

Joseph Gonzales is the Chair of the Psychology Department and frequently serves as a resource for colleagues as they navigate and plan their own career trajectories. He has actively facilitated collaborations that elevate faculty members’ research profiles and create institutional impact. A recent example includes leading the development of two MRI grant proposals (2023, 2024), aimed at bringing large-scale infrastructure to campus.

Similarly, Gonzales has coordinated with faculty in Criminal Justice and Education to align Quantitative Graduate course offerings. This benefits graduate students’ training and supports faculty in those programs by increasing enrollment and enabling regular offerings of graduate-level courses, thereby enhancing teaching portfolios and instructional diversity.

Award for Excellence in Community Engagement: Stephanie Block

Stephanie Block’s community-engaged work is deeply rooted in a commitment to social justice and student support. At UMass Lowell, she has served as the faculty advisor for the Navigators Club — a student-led organization that supports students who are formerly in foster care, housing insecure, or otherwise without traditional support systems. Her national leadership includes serving on the Data and Safety Monitoring Board for the NIH-funded study Stress, Memory, and Rumination in Maltreated Adolescents (UC Irvine, Award 1R01HD113752-01A1), a role in which she helps guide ethical and scientific rigor in high-impact research.

Block is also the recipient of the American Psychological Association (APA) Division of Child and Family Policy (Division 37) Section on Child Maltreatment Mid-Career Award for Outstanding Work in Child Maltreatment. She has used her service to build bridges between academic psychology and community practice, creating meaningful pathways for collaboration and translation of research to real-world impact.