Heather Austin, Ph.D., Adolescent Medicine, is the recipient of the 2019 Dr. Helen L. Coons Leadership Institute for Women in Psychology Scholarship awarded by the American Psychological Association.

Dr. Austin, has been invited to serve a three-year term starting in 2020 on the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine Health Services- Mental Health Committee. She has also been offered the position of mentee in the UAB Healthcare Educators Academy.

Dr. Austin and her colleague, Dan Marullo, Ph.D., Pediatric Psychology, in the Behavioral Health Ireland Center at Children’s of Alabama have been appointed as liaisons to the American Psychological Association (APA) Deep Poverty Initiative. APA President Rosie Phillips Davis, Ph.D., ABPP, has made examining psychology’s role in ending deep poverty a key initiative of her presidential year. This initiative will establish ongoing collaboration between psychological science and the public and private sectors through advocacy efforts, user-friendly science-based resources and partnerships to effect population-level change. The American Psychological Association proposes moving beyond understanding causes and consequences of poverty - towards using psychological science as a catalyst to address and help solve deep poverty. Please visit the American Psychological Association website for more details.