Northcentral University

Department of Dr. Bettina Shapira Chair; Department of Psychology Hi everyone, As you all know, once we merge with National University, the Department of Psychology will move out of SBSS and will merge with the JFK School of Psychology. Since the merger is planned to take place July 1, it is with a bit of a heavy heart to acknowledge that this most likely will be the last time that the Department of Psychology will give updates in the SSBS newsletter. I want to take the opportunity to look back on our time together and how it all started. Until 2015, we had a School of Marriage and Family Sciences and a School of Psychology. In July of 2015, the position of the Dean of the School of Psychology was eliminated, and all School of Psychology functions were moved to James, the Dean of the School of Marriage, and Family Sciences. I still remember the evening in July when Bob Hausmann called. At the time, he was the Dean of the School of Psychology. That evening he started the conversation by saying: "if you are not sitting down right now, I would suggest you take a chair and sit down," and then he said: "Today was my last day at NCU." I can't tell you how much I was shocked, surprised, and saddened. The next day I learned that our new Dean is Dr. James Billings. I knew James a little bit, but I had no idea how all of this would work out. In October of 2015, the SSchool of Marriage and Family Sciences and the School of Psychology merged into one school, the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, which at the time provided broader support and additional resources to ensure success for the two newly created departments. It was a bit of a rocky start for the Department of Psychology in the new School of Social and Behavioral Sciences. In the beginning, we didn't quite speak the same language, and we had very expectations about leadership and leadership styles. PSYCHOLOGY 6

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