In Honor Of…Alice F. Healy
Honoring scientists who have made important and lasting contributions to the sciences of mind, brain, and behavior.
Alice F. Healy, PhD
College Professor of Distinction and Director of the Center for Research on Training
University of Colorado, Boulder
Alice F. Healy has been an outstanding researcher, editor, teacher, collaborator, and colleague for over four decades. Healy is College Professor of Distinction and Director of the Center for Research on Training at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She received her bachelor’s degree from Vassar and her doctoral degree in psychology from The Rockefeller University. After several years as assistant and associate professor at Yale, she joined the faculty at University of Colorado where she has been recognized with all three of the department’s faculty awards for research, teaching, and service.
Healy has a longstanding history of rigorous basic research with application to questions important to the general public as well as to the government and military. Her interests span memory and cognitive processes, particularly the areas of training, long-term retention, reading, short-term memory, psycholinguistics, and political decision-making. Reflecting the relevance of her research to crucial questions in these areas, Healy’s work has been steadily funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the United States Army, the National Science Foundation, the United States Air Force, the United States Navy, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the Spencer Foundation.
She has published 250 articles and chapters in professional journals and books; edited eight books on research related to experimental psychology, learning, memory, and training; and is a co-author of the textbook Cognitive Processes as well as the 2014 trade book Train Your Mind for Peak Performance: A Science-Based Approach for Achieving Your Goals.
Healy has served as Chair of the Psychology Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), as President of the Rocky Mountain Psychological Association, as President of American Psychological Association (APA) Division 3, as Chair of the Society of Experimental Psychologists, and as a member of the Governing Board of the Psychonomic Society. She also served as Associate Editor of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition and as Editor of Memory & Cognition, thus becoming the first woman as sole editor of a major journal in experimental psychology. She is a fellow of APA (Divisions 1 and 3), the American Psychological Society, the AAAS, and the Society of Experimental Psychologists.
Perceptive about both research and students, Alice continues to be a beloved role model, mentor, and inspiration to a long line of undergraduate and doctoral students who have had the great privilege of learning to conduct scientifically sound and engaging research in her lab. She makes each of her advisees feel that the care and pride she has for her students are so strong that they are surpassed only by her love for her husband, Bruce, and daughter, Charlotte.
Alice Healy’s students and colleagues are delighted to honor her for her contributions to the field, to our research, and to our lives.
Individuals Honoring Alice Healy:
Immanuel Barshi, NASA Ames Research Center
Francis A. Beer, University of Colorado, Boulder
Robert A. Bjork, University of California, Los Angeles
William Bonk, Pearson Knowledge Technologies
Angela Brega, University of Colorado, Denver
Susan Chipman
*Deborah Clawson, The Catholic University of America
Nelson Cowan, University of Missouri
Richard Gerrig, Stony Brook University
David Havas, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
Chizuko Izawa, Tulane/Stanford Universities (retired)
Walter and Eileen Kintsch, University of Colorado, Boulder
James Kole, University of Northern Colorado
Andrea Levitt, Wellesley College
Kathleen McDermott, Washington University in St. Louis
*Danielle McNamara, Arizona State University
Timothy McNamara, Vanderbilt University
Julia Moravcsik, SAVO Group
Michael Mozer, University of Colorado, Boulder
James Nairne, Purdue University
Richard Olson, University of Colorado, Boulder
Peter and Martha Polson, University of Colorado, Boulder
Robert Proctor, Purdue University
Lynne Reder, Carnegie Mellon University
Valerie Reyna and Chuck Brainerd, Cornell University
Tim Rickard, University of California, San Diego
Henry L. Roediger, III, Washington University in St. Louis
*Vivian Schneider, University of Colorado, Boulder
Marc Sebrechts, The Catholic University of America
Grant Sinclair
Bob Spencer, University of Colorado, Boulder
Robert Sternberg, Cornell University
Liang Tao, Ohio University
Rebecca Treiman, Washington University in St. Louis
Tor Wager, University of Colorado, Boulder
Adam Young, University of Colorado, Boulder
*FABBS Foundation would like to thank Drs. Deborah Clawson, Danielle McNamara, and Vivian Schneider for nominating Dr. Healy for this honor and for leading the effort to spread the word about her nomination.
