Faculty and Staff News

Amy Ai Named Fellow by the American Psychological Association

Dr. Amy Ai, Associate Professor in the School of Social Work, has been named a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA). It is just one of several awards she has received in the past few years.

Fellow status is awarded by the APA in recognition of outstanding and unusual contributions to the science and profession of psychology. “You can take deep personal and professional satisfaction from this special recognition by your peers,” wrote Sonja Wiggins of the APA. “The field of psychology is certainly enhanced by your diligent work and commitment, and the public is better served.”

This past summer, Dr. Ai was chosen by the Association for Gerontology Education in Social Work (AGE-SW) to receive its prestigious Leadership Award.

This award recognizes a faculty member who has made significant contributions in research related to aging and in teaching and scholarship. These contributions include publications, grant-funded research, presentations at major conferences, and inclusion of gerontological content in the curriculum.

Dr. Ai, whose research and scholarship run wide and deep, is also Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and the American Psychological Association. In 2005, she received a Fulbright Senior Scholar Grant in Social Work to serve as an international scientific adviser on a major cardiac project at two cardiac centers in Germany.

Among Dr. Ai’s scores of publications is “Spiritual or religious involvement related to end-of-life decisions in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery,” published in the International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine. Her 2006 article “Psychosocial mediation of religious coping: A prospective study of short-term psychological distress after cardiac surgery” was published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

Dr. Ai is also Hartford Geriatric Faculty Scholar and Affiliated Researcher of Integrative Medicine in the University of Michigan (UM) Health System, as well as principal investigator for the Templeton Project on Spirituality and Cardiac Rehabilitation at the UM. She received an MS, MSW, MA, and PhD in psychology and social work from the University of Michigan.

Dr. Ai was presented with her AGE award at the Gerontological Society of America’s 60th Annual Scientific Meeting in November 2007.