Alumni News

The College of Humanities and Social Sciences is proud to honor Raj Ratwani, MA Psychology '04, PhD '08, with the Distinguished Alumni Award in psychology. Ratwani is vice president of scientific affairs at the MedStar Health Research Institute, director of the MedStar Health National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare, and professor of emergency medicine at the Georgetown University School of Medicine.

The College of Humanities and Social Sciences is proud to honor Karin Orvis, MA Psychology '01, PhD '07, with the 2025 CHSS alumni service award. Orvis has served in senior executive-level roles across the U.S. Federal Government, strategically leading multidisciplinary, interagency teams in designing, implementing, and evaluating enterprise-wide policies and programs.

Each year, the George Mason University Alumni Association celebrates the achievements of alumni at the annual Celebration of Distinction awards program. The Alumni Association recognizes five alumni for their outstanding professional achievements and service to the university, and honors the achievements of alumni from each school, college, and affinity chapter.  

The College of Humanities and Social Sciences is proud to honor Jeff Williams, MA Psychology '93, with the 2024 Distinguished Alumni award in psychology. Williams is committed to improving the security of the software for the world. He has founded and led three highly successful organizations to help solve the problem. Williams is currently the chief technology officer at Contrast Security.

The researchers included several people from George Mason University (GMU) who teamed up with Dartmouth and HP, and received funding from the Swedish and Dutch governments, says Dr. Daniel Shore, chief research officer at Leadership & Effective Teamwork Strategies (LETS), who worked on the study while he was at GMU.

Strickland graduated with a B.A. in psychology at George Mason University in 1998 and received an M.S. in the foundation of education at Troy University in 1999. She played three years at George Mason University, where she played a crucial role in their back-to-back NCAA appearances in 1996 and 1997, reaching the Sweet 16 in 1997.

Industrial Organizational Student Elisa Torres, Graduates Dr. Samantha Dubrow and Dr. David Wallace, and Professor Dr. Steven Zaccaro have published a study about goal-directed action in networks of closely collaborating teams.

Indira Kaur Ahluwalia (BA '90) has released a memoir sharing her journey following a stage IV Cancer diagnosis, "Fast Forward to Hope." 

Eventually transferring to George Mason University where she eventually got her Bachelors of Arts, she had a mentor she did research with on the topics of shame and guilt. Her mentor helped push McGraw personally and professionally.

Adaptable, curious, ambitious, and compassionate may be the best words to describe Master of Social Work (MSW) student Addie Solenberger. When Solenberger learned that her practicum placement – which was required to graduate on-time - was no longer open to students due to COVID-19 she quickly pivoted to join an interprofessional telehealth pilot program.