Andrew Choi, recent graduate from the Gevirtz School at UC Santa Barbara, has won the Section for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues (SLGBTi) Outstanding Graduate Student Award for 2019 (APA Division 17). Choi also has been selected for the 2019 Barbara Smith & Jewell E. Horvat Graduate Student Award for Research with Queer People of Color (QPOC) from the Society for the Psychological Studies of Culture, Ethnicity and Race (APA Division 45).
The American Psychological Association Division 17’s mission is to expand understanding of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender populations among Counseling and Psychological professionals, students and all those they impact in their roles as clinicians, teachers, consultants and authors.
The Barbara Smith & Jewell E. Horvat Graduate Student Award for Research on Queer Individuals of Color is named after the American lesbian feminist and socialist, Barbara Smith, and made possible by a generous award from the Horvat family. This award carries a $500 monetary award and a plaque to be presented at the Division 45 business meeting during the APA annual convention, to be held this year in Chicago in August.
Andy Choi earned a Ph.D. from the Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology this June, and will move next to Harvard Medical School for a Postdoctoral Fellowship. His primary research interests focus on identity intersections (e.g., culture, race, sexuality), and the psychological mechanisms through which they are organized and influence mental health. His research has been recognized by the Asian American Psychological Association and the APA Office of Ethnic Minority Affairs and published in outlets such as the Journal of Counseling Psychology and Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity. He completed an APA-accredited predoctoral internship at the University of Hawaiʻi, Mānoa Counseling and Student Development Center in the 2018-19 year.