John R. Graham Award for Distinguished Mentorship in Personality Assessment
The John R. Graham Award for Distinguished Mentorship in Personality Assessment is given to individuals who have fostered excellence in the field of personality assessment by their mentorship of students and junior colleagues. Excellence in mentorship is reflected in the quantity of their mentees, its direct impact on their careers, including the quality of their accomplishments in personality assessment. The mentor’s influence on the next generation may be evident through training programs, research supervision, and/or clinical training.
Eligibility Criteria:
A nominee must be (or if retired, must have been) a member of the Society for Personality Assessment. Individuals who provided mentorship in research and/or clinical activities are eligible for the award.
Required Materials for Nomination Packet:
- A single letter of nomination signed by three supporters. The letter must be written by a mentee of the nominee and:
- Summarize the nominee’s influence on students and colleagues;
- Reflect the range of the nominee’s influence; and
- Focus on the nominee’s mentoring rather than on other professional accomplishments.
- A current curriculum vitae
- A list of the nominee’s mentees, occupations, and selected relevant accomplishments
Meet the Jack R. Graham Award Winner, Dr. Mark Blais!
Dr. Mark Blais received his doctoral degree in clinical psychology from Nova Southeastern University. He completed his internship and post-doctoral fellowship training at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), where he served as Associate Chief of Psychology from 1998 through 2014. He is the Founding Director of the MGH Psychological Evaluation and Research Laboratory(PEaRL) and Associate Professor of Psychology (Psychiatry) at Harvard Medical School. The PEaRL provides comprehensive psychological assessments to adults with complex psychiatric conditions, conducts clinical assessment research, and trains the next generation of assessment psychologists.
Dr. Blais’s career has focused on enhancing the theoretical foundation and clinical utility of multimethod psychological assessment. As the MGH Adult Clinical Psychology Internship TrackCoordinator, he taught the Advanced Psychological Assessment Seminar and developedPersonality Focused Assessment as a teaching aid. He has authored or co-authored more than 130 peer-reviewed papers and 40 book chapters and has co-edited two books. Dr. Blais is an award-winning teacher receiving nine “Excellent in Teaching Awards” and a mentor and has been a core faculty member in the MGH APA-accredited psychology internship for over 20 years. In 2009, he received the American Psychological Association’s Theodore Millon Award for "Advancing the Science of Personality Psychology." He is the co-author of the SPECTRA: Indices of Psychopathology.
