Stacey Scott, PhD ’03
Professional Achievement, College of Engineering, Letters, and Sciences
Stacey Scott, PhD ’03 is a professor of psychology and she leads the social and health psychology PhD program at Stony Brook University in New York.
At Viterbo, Scott graduated with her Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a minor in Spanish. She continued her studies at the University of Notre Dame, earning both her MA and her PhD in psychology.
Scott is a faculty mentor for the Psychology Student Alliance at Stony Brook, and a member of the Stony Brook Aging Interest Network.
After earning her degrees, Scott continued her training as a postdoctoral fellow at the Georgia Institute of Technology and then as a postdoctoral fellow at Pennsylvania State University’s Center for Healthy Aging.
She started her faculty career as an assistant professor in the School of Aging Studies at the University of South Florida.
Scott was excited for the opportunity to grow her own lab, where she could train PhD and MA students and work with them on their expanding research, on topics related to stress, emotions, and health across the lifespan. She accepted the position as an assistant professor in the psychology department at Stony Brook in 2016.
Remembering her time at Viterbo, Scott shared, “As a first-generation college student, I was incredibly fortunate to find my way to Viterbo. The class sizes, faculty availability, staff support, and programming created a transformative experience. I could speak in class and join activities comfortably.”
Viterbo psychology faculty, Richard (Mort) Morehouse, Pamela Maykut, Debra Murray, and Ronald Schafer led class sessions and projects that kept her thinking. She said that her dear friends encouraged her to talk about ideas and discussions.
Scott’s advisor and mentor, Pamela Maykut, made a big impact. “She changed the trajectory of my career and life. She asked me to join her and several senior students who were preparing a research grant proposal for the ASIANetwork Freeman Fellows Program.”
She went on to say that at the time, she was a second-year student and had not yet taken a research methods course or even written a paper of that scope. “It was an intense period of reading, writing, and rounds of revisions, but I quickly realized I loved it.”
Their grant proposal was accepted, and she designed a study about children's understanding of death. Data that she had collected at a La Crosse Catholic school and at a Tibetan refugee school in India was presented at several conferences.
“I worked as a research assistant with Mort Morehouse on a program evaluation for the Healthy Families La Crosse project. It was wonderful to chat with and learn from Morehouse, who has such expansive knowledge and joy in ideas,” she said.
Viterbo courses, a study abroad in Mexico, and Spanish Club activities led by Mirabel Bird and Vicente Guillot shaped Scott's approach to news and information. “I learned how to read more widely about current events and history, and I learned more about my role as a citizen and community member.”
Her husband Krishna Veeramah is a faculty member in ecology and evolution at Stony Brook. They live on Long Island with their 4-year-old son. Most of their family is based in Wisconsin, the UK, and Mauritius (a beautiful island in the Indian Ocean), Scott shared. “We recently visited family outside of London and explored castles, Roman ruins, and neighborhood playgrounds."
Scott’s nominator, Mort Morehouse, emeritus faculty in the psychology department, shared that Scott was an exceptional student. Her work at Viterbo resulted in scholarships to Notre Dame. Her work on stress includes national disasters, normative but major life events, chronic stress, and daily hassles and disruptions.
Scott enjoys celebrating her own students’ success and helping them remember their achievements and contributions.
