Malyon-Smith Scholarship Award

The Malyon-Smith Scholarship is named for two founding past-presidents of the Division, the late Alan Malyon and the late Adrienne Smith. It is a fund that annually awards up to $1000 to selected graduate students in psychology to advance research in the psychology of sexual orientation and gender identity. The award represents one of the Division's major efforts to mentor and support science in LGB psychology by encouraging the work of young researchers. Faculty members are strongly encouraged to inform students of this award so that we can continue to insure the future of LGB research in psychology.

Applicants must be currently enrolled full-time in a Department of Psychology at the graduate level. Applications from students in allied disciplines, such as social work and sociology, cannot be considered at this time.

2007 winner

Keren Lehavot - University of Washington
Proposal: Minority Stress and Gender Expression Among Sexual Minority Women

2006 winner

John E. Pachankis - State University of New York at Stony Brook
Proposal: Mental Health and Sexual Risk-Taking Correlates of Rejection Sensitivity in Gay Men

Past winners

  • 2005 Francisco Javier Sanchez, Tisha Wiley, Salma Ackbar, Julie Duhigg
  • 2004 Mary Jane Phillips and Jonathan R. Flojo
  • 2003 Marcie Herbert
  • 2002 Nicole Noffsinger-Frazier, Joseph A. Turner
  • 2001 Kristi Ketz
  • 2000 Mark Bidnell; Trevor Hart; Debbie Robinson; Jamie McMinn
  • 1999 Jod Taywaditep; Dawn Szymanski, and Jonathan Mohr
  • 1998 Roxanne Uradomo, Lynne Harkless, Dawn Szymanski
  • 1997 Craig Waldo, Peter Newman
  • 1996 Merris Hollingsworth, Meredith Tomlinson
  • 1995 Ronald Fredrick
  • 1994 Karen Jordan

Guidelines for Applicants

A complete application consists of:

  • 1 cover sheet
  • 1 copy of the applicant’s curriculum vitae
  • 1 copy of the IRB approval notice (if applicable)
  • 6 copies of the application (which consists of the project description first and then the budget worksheet)
  • 2 self-addressed stamped envelopes

The project description must be prepared according to APA style (i.e., in accordance with the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th ed.). The project description must be formatted in a standard, 12-point font, double-spaced, with 1-inch margins and may not exceed 10 pages plus references. Applications must also be designed to permit an anonymous review -information identifying the applicant and institution should not appear anywhere in the application other than on the cover sheet, CV and IRB approval.

The project description should generally include: (a) the background and rationale for the project; (b) a brief statement of the relevance of the project to sexual orientation and/or gender identity issues in psychology; (c) the methodology, including descriptions of the participants, instruments, procedures, and data analysis; (d) anticipated or achieved findings; and (e) discussion of the (anticipated) findings and the potential implications of those findings for the field. The methodology section should be explicit regarding the choice of quantitative versus qualitative methods and describe why those methods can better answer the specific research question(s) than would the other methods. The participant section should address the ethnic and cultural diversity of the (anticipated) sample, where appropriate, and the procedures section should describe how ethnic, cultural, and other diversity issues are handled in the project, where relevant.

The project budget must describe anticipated costs for the overall project, other sources of funding for the project (both those already awarded and those applied for), and a statement as to how the Malyon-Smith Scholarship funds would be spent.

Applications may ONLY be submitted via physical mail. No electronic submissions will be accepted. Applicant packets should be mailed to the postal address below. The blank application cover sheet and blank budget worksheet below are formatted to permit being cut-and-pasted into the word processor file.

Deadline: Applications must be postmarked on or before February 1. Express or Overnight mailing should not be necessary as the postdate on the package should reflect the deadline. Late applications will not be reviewed.

Applications that fail to meet the above guidelines will not be reviewed.

Each proposal shall be evaluated by two or more reviewers using the following criteria: (a) relevance to the objectives of Division 44, (b) completeness, logic, and relevance of the literature review to the development of the research question(s), (c) clarity of the description of the research question(s), (d) appropriateness of the methodology to answering the research question(s) including, for example and where appropriate, sampling methods, sample size, established validity of instruments, and statistical/analytical techniques, (e) overall originality and novelty of the theory, research question(s), and methodology, (f) quality and completeness of the interpretation of the (potential) results, and (g) feasibility of the project to produce meaningful results.

The Chair of the Division 44 Scholarships Committee will notify the award recipients. The names of the award recipients will be announced at the APA Convention in August, in the Division 44 newsletter, and on the Division 44 webpage and listserv. Award recipients must submit a 1500-word abstract of the project for publication in the Division 44 Newsletter. Award recipients must acknowledge the Malyon-Smith funding in all publications and presentations resulting from the project. Award recipients are also encouraged to submit proposals to present the project’s findings at the Annual APA Convention.

For answers to questions about applications and to submit a completed application:

Cisco Sánchez, Ph.D.
Department of Human Genetics
UCLA School of Medicine
695 Charles Young Dr. S #5524
Los Angeles, CA 90095-7088
Lab phone: (310)267-2456
Fax: (310)794-5446
Email