Meet Psychology’s Newest DOVE Fellows

Two incoming Department of Psychology graduate students, Chris Madden and Katya Scott, have won the prestigious Diversity of View and Experience (DOVE) Fellowship from the University of Minnesota Graduate School. The DOVE Fellowship is the only University-wide award given to incoming students and it includes funding for tuition, health care benefits, and a $25,000 stipend. In addition, awardees have the opportunity to participate in the First-Year Institute, a signature transition program hosted by the Graduate School Diversity Office (GSDO) meant to support students as they tackle their first year. The competition for the DOVE is stiff as students must first be admitted to a PhD program, then nominated by their Department for the DOVE, and then compete University-wide. The DOVE Fellowship was created for "academically excellent students who are looking to advance equity, diversity, and social justice," and our Department is proud to have two fellowship recipients this year, which is the maximum number possible per department in any given year. Both Chris and Katya come with strong records of academic achievement, on top of working on a day-to-day basis with individuals coping with significant mental health challenges, and their stories exemplify what makes a great DOVE Fellow.

Chris Madden

Chris Madden is a new graduate student in the Clinical Science and Psychopathology Research (CSPR) Program with Regents Professor Robert Krueger as his advisor. Chris grew up in a poor neighborhood. His mother was a single-parent, they lived in public housing, and they often ran short of food. Both his mother and Chris were committed to his education, but they had to pursue non-traditional routes due to limited financial means.  When his mother died at a young age, Chris had to leave school in order to support himself. During this time, Chris worked in a substance use treatment facility and as an assistant manager for Hot Chicken Takeover, a Columbus, Ohio restaurant known for its fair-chance hiring model. Rather than screening out applicants for criminal records or other employment barriers, the company hired based on ability and did not treat these barriers as disqualifying. Chris said that "treating employees equitably required more than non-discriminatory hiring and fair wages—it required actively supporting their efforts to navigate unjust systems." Through both his positions, Chris helped many people confront the structural problems that define poverty. He was able to help individuals expunge old or incorrect criminal records, and he supported others in passing their GED.

In describing his academic journey, Chris credited his achievements to the mentoring he received as an undergraduate research assistant in Dr. Kurt Wald's moral psychology lab at the University of North Carolina. Chris especially noted how his colleagues pushed him to articulate the possible connections between mental mechanisms and observable behavior. According to Chris, "I was trained to think with openness, precision, and honesty; to challenge my own half-baked assumptions and invite the intellectual and ethical scrutiny of others; [and] to think through the implications of a belief." Chris' undergraduate thesis work focused on why people stigmatize those who struggle with substance use. The answer? They see substance use solely as a moral failing. Now as a DOVE fellow, Chris intends to expand on what he learned:

Using tools from behavioral genetics, clinical neuroscience, and individual differences research, I aim to investigate how environmental context and personality mechanisms jointly shape the course and treatment of psychopathology. One-size-fits-all approaches often fail to capture the complexity of individual needs. I hope to broaden my field by targeting this complexity.

Katya Scott

Katya Scott is a new graduate student in Counseling Psychology with Professor Melissa Ertl as her advisor. A second-generation immigrant raised in Maryland, Katya spent her childhood summers visiting her grandparents in Ukraine. After Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022, Katya's grandparents came to the United States and Katya "witnessed firsthand the cultural isolation and lack of institutional support they experienced after their arrival." As a dual major in Psychology and Art at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, Katya worked to use her knowledge and resources to help Maryland’s Ukrainian community. Working with her advisor, Dr. Elizabeth Nutt Williams, and an art therapist for her undergraduate thesis, Katya established a pilot art therapy program for local Ukrainian refugees. These sessions created a space for the participants to process their experiences, connect with one another, and share resources, thereby gaining support and better integrating into their new community in Maryland. Having been careful in choosing the location for the therapy, the parameters of the art projects, and multiple other details, Katya helped create a situation where people were able to come together to build their own networks.

Katya’s undergraduate work showed her the importance of implementing inclusive, community-based interventions for underserved groups.  After graduation, Katya worked as a postbaccalaureate trainee at the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) for two years, where she developed an interest in substance use and chronic pain, as well as the relationship between the two. At the University of Minnesota, Katya aims to study health disparities that contribute to substance use and chronic pain, as well as how to improve health equity through community-based interventions for people struggling with these conditions. She plans to begin this endeavor by exploring how substance use is related to social determinants of health in a diverse sample of cisgender women. In order to be an insightful researcher and a helpful therapist, Katya is committed to doing community-based participatory research where researchers work to understand and be guided by the communities with whom they are working. In addition to this work, she hopes to connect with Minnesota’s Ukrainian community and explore the potential for further programs to support mental health and foster connection. Katya summed up her intentions as a DOVE fellow by recalling how she felt upon the conclusion of her art therapy work with Ukrainian refugees:

As I left the final session, I’ll never forget seeing the participants remain behind, lingering together. This project taught me the value of both working with the communities I intend to serve and taking a holistic approach to mental health support.

We know that past behavior is often a strong indicator of future behavior–the DOVE selection committee clearly banks on this heuristic as well, deciding to award these two promising young scholars. Both Chris and Katya have successfully overcome many challenges to be here, preparing them well for the intensified rigors of graduate school and scholarly life. The Department of Psychology is proud to have them among its ranks, supporting them as they work to achieve the laudable goals they have set for themselves and the impact they seek to have.