Erin Heerey named as a Western University Faculty Scholar for 2020

April 09, 2020

Erin Heerey, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology

Erin Heerey, Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology, has been named as a Western University Faculty Scholar for 2020.

Heerey joined Western University in 2015, and has an international reputation for her research determining how people use social cues in decision-making contexts. Along with running the Social Behaviour Laboratory, Heerey is an Associate Member of the Brain and Mind Institute. She is currently Associate Chair Undergraduate Affairs, and Chair of the Social, Personality, and Social Developmental Psychology Area in the Department of Psychology.

The Faculty Scholar award recognized significant scholarly achievements in teaching and research.

Heerey has been committed to innovate teaching practices at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Heerey has been leading a team of developers to redesign the course material from the ground up. Pulling from a variety of sources, they have re-designed standard textbook material to encourage critical thinking and the application of course materials to real-world problems. As classes moved online in response to COVID-19, Heerey has helped lead the department’s transition to remote teaching.

In her multidisciplinary research program, Heerey has collaborated with clinical, social and cognitive psychologists, statisticians, and neuroscientists to explore research questions focused on how and why social behaviour becomes disrupted across clinical populations, and how people evaluate and make decisions using social and other cues in social situations. She has made substantial research contributions in autism, social anxiety, schizophrenia, and basic emotion and social psychology

Established in 2005, the Faculty Scholars Award recognizes significant recent scholarly achievements in teaching or research. Nominated by faculty deans and selected by the Faculty Selection committee chaired by the Provost, the recipients have an international presence in their discipline and are considered all-round scholars. Winners hold the title “Faculty Scholar” for two years and receive $7,000 each year for scholarly activities, as well as receiving a citation.