Andrew Choi, recent Gevirtz School Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology graduate, received the APA Edwin B. Newman Graduate Research Award for his dissertation on bisexual health, mentored by Dr. Tania Israel.
This award, presented by Psi Chi, recognizes and awards the most outstanding graduate, empirical research paper. The grant honors Edwin Newman, a cofounder and the first president of Psi Chi.
Psi Chi is an international honor society whose purpose is to encourage, stimulate, and maintain excellence in scholarship of the individual members in all fields, particularly in psychology, and to advance the science of psychology. This international organization has a diverse group of members, including professionals, scientists, faculty, students, and alumni whose mission is to recognize and promote excellence in the science and application of psychology.
For his outstanding dissertation, Andrew Choi received $1,200 and two plaques of honor (for him and his mentor) from Psi Chi. He also received a $1,500 travel reimbursement to attend the 2020 APA Convention in Washington, D.C., recognition during the APF Awards Ceremony, a 3-year free subscription to an APA journal, and a framed APA Presidential Citation. The award was given for Choi’s research entitled, “Syndemic Behavioral Risk and Suicidality among Bisexual Adolescents: A Latent Class Analysis.” The award also recognizes Choi’s research mentor Dr. Tania Israel, professor and CCSP Chair at GGSE.
Dr. Andrew Young Choi is a Psychology Postdoctoral Fellow at Cambridge Health Alliance / Harvard Medical School. He earned his Ph.D. in Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology at UC Santa Barbara, where he acquired an emphasis in Quantitative Methods in Social Sciences (QMSS) and the Certificate in College and University Teaching (CCUT). As a GGSE Student, he was mentored by Drs. Tania Israel and Karen Nylund-Gibson. He completed his APA-accredited Doctoral Internship in Health Service Psychology at the University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa Counseling and Student Development Center (CSDC). He is an APA Minority Fellow, a Pacific Athletic Conference (Pac-12) Postgraduate Scholar, and a UC Regents Special Fellow. Prior to UCSB, he graduated magna cum laude from University of Utah with honors in Psychology and Sociology.
Choi’s research involves using advanced latent variable models to investigate culture-bound constructs, within-group variation, and behavioral health disparities among underserved populations, including ethnic, racial, and sexual minorities. His translational scholarship addresses multiculturally-responsive evidence-based practice for diverse client populations His works have been published in outlets such as the Journal of Counseling Psychology and the Archives of Sexual Behavior and recognized by the Asian American Psychological Association (AAPA), the Society of Counseling Psychology (APA Divison 17), and the Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity, and Race (APA Division 45). He has served on the APAGS Science Subcommittee, and the Editorial Board of the Translational Issues in Psychological Science, and as the Programming Chair for the Committee on Bisexual Issues of the Society for the Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity (APA Division 44).