Amy Learmonth, Ph.D.

I started out at the University of Arizona in 1999 and moved to Rutgers in 2001.  After three years at Rutgers, I went to Manhattanville College before arriving at William Paterson in 2008.  When I came to William Paterson, I found my academic home.  In 2016, I became a full professor in the psychology department.

My research is with infants, toddlers, and preschool-age children.  Working with little kids is a challenge that requires flexibility and creativity.  It also requires managing bureaucracies, such as the schools and preschools I need to navigate, where knowing the school board’s rules and procedures can make a big difference. 

When I think about the skills a grievance officer needs, I think about listening to all sides of the issue, even-handedly, and making the best decision available.  An example of that kind of decision-making comes from several of my roles with the Eastern Psychological Association.  I was the developmental program officer, a member of the board, and then elected president.  Unfortunately for me, I was the president planning a meeting for mid-March of 2020.  The decision to cancel that meeting was painful, but after listening to the limited expert information available, it became clear that I needed to cancel the meeting I had spent two years planning.  That decision hurt, but it was the right one and the one dictated by the available information.  A co-vice president for grievance should be able to hear even the information she would rather not and use that information to protect members, as I protected the membership of EPA.

I have also been the program director for the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology.  In that role, I planned and set up the meeting for three years, including making decisions about acceptances and rejections, putting talks and posters into sessions with balance and thematic connections.  A co-vice president for grievance should be able to manage complex situations where multiple sources of information need to be put together and synthesized into a coherent whole.

I have been the chair of the faculty promotion committee three times in the last six years.  I have been on that committee for the express purpose of helping my colleagues across the university move up the ranks.  I have been amazed by the varied and fascinating things faculty do.  Advocating for my colleagues is something that makes me happy and one of the major reasons to want to be the co-vice president for grievances.

All these roles require me to navigate complex bureaucracies, track multiple projects at the same time, manage people, and make decisions that matter to large numbers of constituencies.  Our grievance process should be organized and transparent, with a demystified process all our members can rely on for careful, even-handed treatment.  Together with Matt Crick, whose skills complement mine in ways that will strengthen our ability to fight for members, I look forward to the opportunity to support the needs of my colleagues in this new way.

Qualifications:

• Assistant Chair and chief advisor for the Department of Psychology (Spring 2013- Fall 2014)
• Psychology department retention committee (Fall 2013-2015) Chair (2015-2019)
  • Responsible for mentoring faculty through the retention and tenure process
• Track director for the cognitive science honors track (summer 2011-)
  • Managing all aspects of the Cognitive Science track
• Developmental Member of the Program Committee for the Eastern Psychological Association (2009-2012)
  • Evaluating submissions, organizing sessions, and planning the meeting with the rest of the area committee members
• Member of the developmental review panel for the Eastern Psychological Association (2012-2018)
  • Helping review and organize submissions
• Member of the board of directors for the Eastern Psychological Association (2016-2018), term shortened to accept the presidency)
  • Planning for the future of the organization, helping manage the bylaws, and addressing any issues that came up during the planning of the meeting
• President for the 2020 meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association
  • Developing a theme, planning the presidential parts of the program
• Program director for the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology (2018-2021)
  • Reviewing submissions and planning a meeting for an organization that gets many more talk submissions than we have space, unexpected responsibility, and moving the conference online for the COVID pandemic, for which I was awarded a special service award in 2022
• Chair of the University Promotion committee 2021-2022, 2023-2024, 2025-2026
  • Shepherding faculty promotion applications through the university process and deciding which ones to recommend for promotion, even though many more than the small number of promotions met the criteria
• Department promotion committee 2016-2019 and 2021-2022
  • Shepherding faculty promotion applications through the department process, as well as encouraging qualifying faculty to apply