Awards/Honors

Read the Introduction Chapter: What’s Racism Got To Do With It? Black Women & Girls, Sexual Abuse, & Liberation

Winner of the 2024 Frank W. Putnam Award for Outstanding Book that significantly contributes to our understanding of trauma and dissociation-International Society for the Study of Trauma & Dissociation (ISSTD).

March 2024

Winner of the the 2022 Outstanding Contribution Award in Training and Education in Professional Psychology (TEPP) presented by the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC)

Impact Statement

Public Significance Statement—The use of the Graduate Record Examination Quantitative Score (GRE-Q) in psychology Ph.D. program admissions may interfere with the field’s efforts to create a racially and ethnically diverse workforce that can meet the educational, training, and intervention needs of diverse populations. In a study of psychology Ph.D. students in a Carnegie-classified Highest Research Activity (R1) large Midwestern university, we found that strict guidelines that bar admission into the psychology doctoral program for students with low GRE-Q scores would have disproportionately impacted underrepresented minorities (URMs), resulting in 44% being barred admission versus only 17% of their White/Asian/Pacific Islander American counterparts. With the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic sparking reappraisal of the GRE, practical implications include introducing holistic review protocols into the admissions process, while educating faculty on how heavy emphasis on the GRE-Q contributes to inequitable exclusion of capable URMs.

Link to Article

May 2022

Dr. Gómez has been awarded the American Psychological Association (APA) Division 35 (Society for the Psychology of Women) Section 1 (Psychology of Black Women) Carolyn Payton Early Career Award for her collaborative article, Black Women and Girls & #MeToo: Rape, Cultural Betrayal, & Healing (Gómez & Gobin, 2020). For junior scholars, the award celebrates creative work that makes a major contribution to the understanding of the role of gender in the lives of Black women.

Excerpted notes of Gómez’ acceptance of the award:

“To Dr. Payton- In Who Must Do The Hard Things?, her American Psychologist article, she discusses the importance of APA taking stands on social issues. Reading the article was both enriching and depressing.

Published in the year I was born, 1984, and still, my professional and scientific credibility does get questioned as I am a proud public scholar, advocate, and activist—not as an add-on to my work as an academic, but as central—my raison d’etre. I do the work so that it can make differences, large and small, individual and systemic in the world.

From Dr. Payton: ‘Who must do the impossible things? Those who care.’ I absolutely refuse to not care.

I’ll generously interpret this award as putting me at least in some proximity even as a junior baby, as the legendary Dr. Payton. For that, I am newly rejuvenated to do both the hard things and the impossible things and am eternally humbled and grateful.”–Dr. Jennifer M. Gómez

August 2021

Stanford University CASBS Fellow (2021-22)

Dr. Jennifer M Gómez has been awarded the Stanford University CASBS Fellowship for the 2021-22 academic year!

CASBS, or the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, brings together deep thinkers from diverse disciplines and communities to advance understanding of the full range of human beliefs, behaviors, interactions, and institutions. A leading incubator of human-centered knowledge, CASBS facilitates collaborations across academia, policy, industry, civil society, and government to collectively design a better future.

Gómez’ plan for the CASBS Fellowship Year is to write her first academic book: The Cultural Betrayal of Black Women & Girls: A Black Feminist Approach to Healing from Sexual Abuse (Publisher: American Psychological Association; 2023).

Filmed January 2022, I discuss the content of the book and my writing process in Cultural Betrayal & ‘Conundrums’: The Making of a Book, at the BUSSW Equity & Inclusion Speaker Series.

For more information on the book, see My Book section of my website.

2021-22

From the 2020 National Academy of Sciences (NAS) 157th Annual Meeting– Picture from NAS’ U.S. Kavli Frontiers of Sciences Symposium

Researchers, Left to Right:
Dr. Sarah Tuttle, Astronomer
Dr. Kathryn Clancey, Anthropologist
Dr. Jennifer M. Gómez, Clinical Psychologist
Dr. Rebecca Calisi Rodríguez, Neuroscientist
Dr. Lauren O’Connell, Biologist
Dr. Sushmita Roy, Computational Biologist
Dr. Hannah Wakeford, Astronomer
Dr. Eden King, I/O Psychologist

APHA 2020 Betty Cleckley Minority Issues Research Award

Dr. DeAnnah Byrd, Dr. Jennifer M. Gómez, and Dr. Lisa Ficker won the American Public Health Association Aging & Public Health Section 2020 Betty Cleckley Minority Issues Research Award for our manuscript, “Is It All About Racism? The Role of Avoidant Coping on Cardiovascular Health & Blood Pressure in Older Blacks.”

The purpose of the award is to recognize individuals in aging and public health research who have made a significant impact on the lives of older people who are members of minority groups. Minimizing health disparities and improving access to health and long-term care services are important issues for minority populations in the U.S.

November 2020

APA Division 56 Award

Along with Dr. Joan Cook, awarded the American Psychological Association (APA) Division 56 2020 Award for Media Contributions to the Field of Trauma Psychology.

“This award recognizes the creators of media presentations for lay audiences that educate the public in a scientifically sound manner about the psychology of trauma.”

August 2020

National Academy of Sciences (NAS) 30th Annual U.S. Kavli Frontiers of Science

Dr. Jennifer M. Gómez received an invitation from National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to attend the NAS’ 30th Annual U.S. Kavli Frontiers of Science Symposium.

This symposium series is the NAS’ premiere activity for distinguished young scientists.

Attendees are selected by a committee of Academy members from among young researchers who have already made recognized contributions to science, including recipients of major national fellowships and awards and who have been identified as future leaders in science.

From Today@Wayne Press Release:
“I’m not surprised that Jennifer was invited to this high-level scientific meeting given the quality of her scholarship and her passion for groundbreaking research,” said Ambika Mathur, associate provost for STWD and dean of the Graduate School. “Being part of the Kavli Symposium and her appointment as a Ford Fellow marks an important milestone in the PFT experience at Wayne State, and we are so proud of her impressive accomplishments.”

December 2018

NIH NICHD Trainee Award

Dr. Jennifer M. Gómez was a Trainee Award for the 2018 Summer Training Institute for Research in Child Abuse and Neglect, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

January 2018

Outstanding Dissertation in the Field of Trauma Psychology

Awarded by the American Psychological Association Division 56 to Jennifer M. Gómez for Cultural Betrayal Trauma Theory.

June 2017

National Center for Institutional Diversity (NCID): Diversity Scholars Network

Invited Member

“Members of the Network are identified for their commitment and contribution to diversity research and scholarship.” – Diversity Scholars Network

March 2017

Best Article of 2016

“Shifting the focus: Nonpathologizing approaches to healing from betrayal trauma through an emphasis on relational care” won the Richard P. Kluft Award for Journal of Trauma & Dissociation 2016 Best Article!

Authors: Jennifer M. Gómez, Jenn Lewis, Laura K. Noll, Alec Smidt, & Pamela Birrell

“This article provides an excellent framework for understanding the complexities of working with survivors of trauma. It successfully describes the danger in pathologizing reactions to extreme stress and discusses an adaptive treatment model, relational cultural therapy, that emphasizes the importance of the relationship when working with survivors. The article incorporates both empirically supported treatment options as well as influences from all spheres of the socioecological model, including the importance of empowerment, in treating individuals who have experienced complex trauma.” –JTD Selection Committee

As of 25 August 2019, the article has received over 6,750 views.

March 2017

Cited in Annual Report of the Director of Public Health

The above article was quoted in the Annual Report of the Director of Public Health, Adverse Childhood Experiences, Resilience and Trauma Informed Care: A Public Health Approach to Understanding and Responding to Adversity. (Scotland)

“There is a risk that professionals are seen as placing the ‘pathology of trauma within the individual – often an individual who has been deeply betrayed – instead of within the person(s) or environment(s) responsible for the betrayal’121. Gomez et al argue that ‘a nonpathologising model of trauma takes the stance that the abnormality is generally in the situation rather than the person. When the trauma is relational, it is the nature of the act that is unhealthy and not the individual who has experienced the act.’”—p. 52

Association of Black Psychologists

My dissertation on cultural betrayal trauma theory is featured in The Association of Black Psychologists Student Circle Research webpage.

February 2017

WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY (2019-22)

WSU Academy of Scholars Junior Faculty Award

Won a 2020 Wayne State University Academy of Scholars Outstanding Junior Faculty Award.

“The Academy of Scholars is committed to recognizing outstanding excellence in scholarship and in creative achievement of the faculty members at Wayne State University. The Academy’s founding purpose was and has remained to raise the scholastic prestige of the university by bringing the most prominent academic experts to campus under its aegis and to create a community of scholars from among its most celebrated researchers…This [Outstanding Junior Faculty] award is given annually on the basis of outstanding academic accomplishments to 3 or 4 junior faculty members…You were selected from a group of excellent candidates based on their nomination dossiers and independent evaluation letters, which our selection committee collected.”