John E. Exner Scholar Award

The John E. Exner Scholar Award honors the memory of John E. Exner, Ph.D., a pioneer in personality assessment, by supporting the research of a young personality assessor. Dr. Exner was committed to advancing the science of personality assessment by empirical research in the development and application of assessment instruments. This award honors that commitment by recognizing and supporting a young investigator examining any method of personality assessment.

Meet the John E. Exner Scholar Award Winner, Dr. Jared Ruchensky!

Dr. Ruchensky completed his doctoral studies at Texas A&M University and his pre-doctoral clinical internship at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology & Philosophy at Sam Houston State University.

His primary research interests focus on the assessment and conceptualization of personality pathology, particularly the Alternative Model for Personality Disorders (AMPD). He also studies commonly used psychological instruments, including the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI). His projects largely focus on how effectively instruments measure psychological constructs and the clinical consequences of both the measure and the construct. Dr. Ruchensky is interested in examining these topics in justice-involved and underserved, particularly queer, populations. Dr. Ruchensky is a licensed clinical psychologist in the state of Texas and provides evaluation services. Dr. Ruchensky supervises graduate students in clinical work and research on these topics.