Linda J. Skitka, Professor of Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, has been elected the 2019 president of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP). Skitka will serve as SPSP’s president‐elect in 2018 and past president in 2020.

Skitka is currently serving as a Member-at-Large on the SPSP Board of Directors and comes with great breadth and depth of experience. In the past she has served as the President of the Midwestern Psychological Association, President of the International Society for Justice Research, and was Chair and a founding member of the Consortium for the Advancement of Social and Personality Science. Skitka has also served in editorial positions for several journals and has been recognized for her contributions to mentoring and advising.

“Linda is very well-respected by her peers in the research community, both here in the U.S. and abroad. In addition to being an outstanding researcher, she cares so much about the future of the field and ensuring we are supporting students,” said Chad Rummel, SPSP Executive Director.  “Linda’s dedication to promoting diversity and pushing SPSP to be a central forum for discussion in the field will help SPSP continue to grow.”

Skitka received her PhD from the University of California at Berkeley. Her research includes the study of moral and political psychology, moral conviction, ideological differences, social psychological consequences of terrorism, research methods, and statistics. She has widely published in journals such as Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, and Public Opinion Quarterly.

Cynthia Pickett of the University of California, Davis and Özlem Ayduk of the University of California, Berkeley were both elected as At-Large Board Members and will serve three-year terms.