Clarkson University Associate Professor of Psychology Jennifer Knack has received the Outstanding Advisor Award for 2021.
Knack was chosen for the honor by students via advisor evaluation results from the previous fall and spring semesters.
Outstanding faculty advisors of undergraduate students have been recognized with the Outstanding Advisor Award since 1979.
Knack teaches courses on psychology including developmental (lifespan) psychology, health psychology, and social psychology. She also mentors students who are writing their professional experience thesis papers.
Knack’s area of expertise is in the antecedents and outcomes associated with social stressors and social pain (e.g., being bullied). She has examined why people who are bullied have more physical health problems than people who are not bullied, as well as what factors mitigate and exacerbate the association between being bullied and experiencing health problems.
Her research team is currently examining whether people can detect mental health problems/concerns on social media and when people decide to intervene and offer help.
Knack has co-authored published articles, book chapters and encyclopedia entries, many of which included undergraduate students as collaborators. She has presented her work at numerous national and international conferences and as an invited speaker. She was a co-organizer and speaker of the David A. Walsh ’67 Arts and Science Mini-Conference titled Impossible Projects: Power and Alterity in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.
She is also actively involved in STEM education outreach programs. Knack is the mentoring director for Clarkson’s IMPETUS program for 10th-12th graders. She has also been an instructor for the Project Challenge program, the SOAR Lifelong Learning in the North Country program, Horizons program, and Young Scholars program, as well as a mentor for McNair Scholars.
Knack joined the faculty at Clarkson in 2011. She received her bachelor of arts degree in psychology from St. Bonaventure University and her master of science and Ph.D. in experimental psychology from the University of Texas at Arlington
Before coming to Clarkson, Knack was a postdoctoral fellow and part-time professor at the University of Ottawa, a graduate research assistant, laboratory manager and tutor at the University of Texas at Arlington, and a lab instructor at St. Bonaventure University.
