Monthly Archives: January 2015

General Meeting: January 22nd, 2015

Topic: The Effects of Globalization and Trauma on Families in Developing Countries (India and Nigeria)

Speakers: Rashmi Jaipal, Ph.D., and Ayorkor Gaba, Ph.D.

Rashmi JaipalRashmi Jaipal is a Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Bloomfield College, New Jersey, and a Representative of the American Psychological Association at the UN since 2013. As an APA representative, she was a co-chair of the 2014 Planning Committee for Psychology Day at the UN.

Rashmi has a PhD in clinical and cross cultural psychology from the New School for Social Research in 1995, with a dissertation on cultural differences in moral perspective.

While at Bloomfield College, New Jersey, she started a Center for Cultures and Communication and a Diversity Training Certificate program. She ran cross cultural training workshops and a Center initiative called Alternative Visions for the Future, to research cultures of sustainability and build bridges between the local and the global.

Earlier while teaching at Rutgers University, Newark in 1997 Dr Jaipal received a grant to develop cross cultural awareness workshops called the Opening Windows series. They are based on the idea of implicit culture and how it influences perceptions of the “other”. Since then she has presented these workshops at many conferences including APA, NJIT and Columbia University Teachers College Winter Round Table.

Dr Jaipal’s research is on Indian indigenous traditions, on internationalizing the psychology curriculum, and currently on the psychological aspects of sustainable development. She has traveled extensively and cultural diversity is central to her life and work.

Click here to see Dr. Jaipal’s presentation slides.

Ayorkor GabaAyorkor Gaba is a Nigerian-born Clinical Psychologist, American Psychological Association Rep to the United Nations, and  Senior Project Director at the University of Massachusetts Medical School Department of Psychiatry.

In her current role at UMASS she directs state and federally funded treatment research programs focused on adapting treatments to address the unique needs of military populations, expanding and enhancing services to individuals involved in speciality courts (including mental health and veteran courts) and developing female specific behavioral treatments for women with alcohol use disorders.

Across these areas, Dr. Gaba brings her training and expertise in addictions, cultural psychology, and family systems to improve interventions for vulnerable populations.  Dr. Gaba received her doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology at Rutgers University. She has a small private practice and serves as a clinical supevisor to students in the Rutgers doctoral psychology program.

Click here to see Dr. Gaba’s presentation slides.