Achieve for Scientific American: Psychology (1-Term Online)

Deborah Licht is a professor of psychology at Pikes Peak Community College in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She received a BS in psychology from Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio; an MA in clinical psychology from the University of Dayton; and a PhD in psychology (experimental psychopathology) from Harvard University. She has three decades of teaching and research experience in a variety of settings, ranging from a small private university in the Midwest to a large public university in Copenhagen, Denmark. Deborah has taught introductory psychology, psychology of the workplace, abnormal psychology, the history of psychology, child development, and elementary statistics, in traditional, online, and hybrid courses. Working with community college students for nearly two decades has been very inspiring to Deborah; the great majority of students who attend community colleges often must overcome many challenges in pursuit of their dreams. Deborah continues to be interested in research on causal beliefs, particularly in relation to how college students think about their successes and failures as they pursue their degrees.

Misty Hull is a seasoned educator and administrator within the Colorado Community College System. She currently serves as the Dean of Academic Success for Allied Health at CCA. Prior to this role, she spent over two decades at Pikes Peak State College (formerly Pikes Peak Community College), where she was a Professor of Psychology and co-chair of the Psychology Department. She also held leadership positions as the Associate Dean for Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences and served as the State Psychology Discipline Chair for the Colorado Community College System from 2002 to 2010.

She is well-known in the academic community as a co-author of the textbook series Scientific American: Psychology (published by Macmillan Learning). Her professional expertise includes:

• Instruction: Teaching a wide range of courses including Introductory Psychology, Human Sexuality, and Social Psychology.
• Student Support: Serving as the coordinator of the Student Crisis Counseling Office and focusing on research related to student persistence in higher education.
• Workforce Development: Advocating for micro-credentials to provide accessible entry points into behavioral health and healthcare careers

Coco Ballantyne is a New York based journalist and science writer with a special interest in psychology. Before collaborating with Misty Hull and Deborah Licht on the Scientific American: Psychology series, Coco worked as a reporter for Scientific American online, covering the health, medicine, and neuroscience beats. She has also written for Discover magazine and Nature Medicine. Coco earned an MS from the Columbia University School of Journalism, where she received a Horgan Prize for Excellence in Critical Science Writing. Prior to her journalistic career, Coco worked as a teacher and tutor, helping high school and college students prepare for standardized tests such as the SAT, GRE, and MCAT. She also worked as a physics and math teacher at Eastside College Preparatory School in East Palo Alto, California, and as a human biology course associate at Stanford University, where she earned a BA in human biology.