Congratulations to Rutgers doctoral students, Molly Nowels, MS, MA, and James Terhune, PsyM, MSc, who were selected by the IFH selection committee for the 2023 Howard Leventhal Scholarship for Trainees. The scholarship provides two students with the funds to pursue dissertation research and jump start their investigative careers.

Nowels, who is pursuing her doctorate in health systems and policy from the Rutgers School of Public Health, is focusing her research on health outcomes related to palliative care. Her goal is to identify treatments and interventions that can be delivered by palliative care specialists and primary care physicians to support the behavioral health of patients experiencing serious illnesses.

Nowels hopes her dissertation will shed light on the relationship between palliative care services and suicide morbidity and mortality among older adults with metastatic cancer and inform her future research on services to support people with cancer.

Terhune, who is pursuing his doctorate in clinical psychology from the Rutgers Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, is focusing his research on loneliness and social determinants of mental health. There are many factors that increase the risk of experiencing loneliness and the effects of loneliness can impact various aspects of one’s physical and mental health. Terhune’s research goal is to learn more about the relationship between loneliness and depression and how loneliness may impact the course of depression.

The Howard Leventhal Scholars will share the progress of their work through a presentation to Institute faculty and staff after the course of a year.

Howard Leventhal, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and Board of Governors Professor, furthered health psychology research through theoretical and empirical contributions spanning the fields of emotion, illness behavior, and illness attribution.