Congratulations to Jennifer Truitt on being selected as the Student Spotlight Award winner for May 2025!
The purpose of this award is to highlight students who are doing important work in the CBS community whether for research, clinical, and/or volunteer-humanitarian efforts.
This is a way to highlight their achievements, let the ACBS community know important work students are doing, and possibly provide a platform for mentoring, collaboration, professional development, and conversations around highlighted areas.
Learn more about Jennifer Truitt
Background of CBS Research/Clinical/Volunteering efforts/achievements
I am a graduate research assistant in the PROSOCIAL Lab at University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC), which conducts research on psychotherapy, relationships, intimacy, and loneliness through a behaviorist lens. In my first year of attending ACBS Worldcon, I gave two symposium talks on the application of contextual behavioral science in psychotherapy research and practice. I have also given a guest lecture in an undergraduate course at UMKC to introduce behaviorism to psychology students. I mentor undergraduates and masters students in understanding the science of interpersonal relationships through a radical behaviorist lens.
For my first peer-reviewed publication, I contributed to a chapter on the history of Functional Analytic Psychotherapy that is currently in press. I received a $25,000 grant from The Jed Foundation and Victoria’s Secret PINK to conduct my master’s thesis, which is currently in progress, and to advance the understanding of BATD-R and FEBA. My masters thesis is a treatment study that examines the role of social environment in behavioral activation among a sample of LGBTQ+ young adults who experience loneliness and depressive symptoms. I am comparing a waitlist control condition to Brief Behavioral Activation for the Treatment of Depression (BATD-R) and FAP-Enhanced Behavioral Activation (FEBA). As part of my project, I will provide training to other student therapists and share behavioral activation techniques with local LGBTQ+ organizations.
Autobiography
I am a second-year PhD student in Clinical Psychology, studying with Dr. Daniel Maitland and the PROSOCIAL Lab. I was born and raised in Texas, and received my Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and History from Rice University. After completing my first year of graduate school at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, I moved to University of Missouri-Kansas City to continue my research with Dr. Maitland. I am interested in how contextual behavioral sciences can be leveraged to improve lives, especially among marginalized populations such as LGBTQ+ young adults. When I am not conducting research or seeing therapy clients, I enjoy gardening and writing music. Fun fact: I have had my pilot’s license since I was 17.
Future goals
I hope to have a career in academia where I can conduct research that incorporates clinical practice and encourage future scientists, especially those from marginalized backgrounds, in making the world a better place using the contextual behavioral framework.
Publications
Maitland, D. W. M. & Truitt, J. K. (In Press) The Theoretical Foundations and History of Functional Analytic Psychotherapy. In Li, W., Griffith, G., Shapiro, S., & Zhu, Z. (Eds.) Palgrave Handbook of Third-Wave Psychotherapies. Palgrave Macmillan.