Himadhari Sharma has been named the first recipient of the Donald R. Atkinson Diversity Enhancement Award, a new award in honor of Professor Emeritus Donald R. Atkinson for his 30 years of service to the profession of counseling psychology. During his tenure, Atkinson was dedicated to making the Gevirtz School one that is affirming to all. The award is given to support student research or a dissertation in the area of multicultural counseling psychology.
Himadhari Sharma is a Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology doctoral candidate, with an emphasis in Counseling Psychology, working with Dr. Andrés Consoli. She grew up in the Twin Cities, Minnesota, and received an undergraduate degree in business with a specialization in marketing from the University of Minnesota. After graduating, she worked in the healthcare service industry and was on the board of directors for a non-profit reproductive and mental health clinic. She completed her master’s in psychology with an emphasis in clinical psychology at New York University (NYU). There she worked on research in the realm of hearing voices, looking at various topics such as stigma within the general population, and gained experience in an intensive outpatient clinic for eating disorders. She worked internationally with multiple organizations in Bangalore, India. Her current interests include multicultural psychology, access and utilization for mental health services among minority populations (especially South Asian communities), cross-cultural/international psychology, culturally salient and indigenous treatment/therapy methods, and bi-lingual treatment services (Hindi and English).