30 Years with Jerome Short

Many of us call Mason our home and have for quite some time. Dr. Jerome Short has been with us in the Psychology department for 30 years now and we are here to celebrate him! 

What is your position title at Mason?

I am an Associate Professor of Psychology and a Licensed Clinical Psychologist.

What is your professional background?

I have a B.A. in Psychology from St. Norbert College in Wisconsin, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Arizona State University. I did a one-year internship at Yale University that was required for the Ph.D.

How long have you been involved with work in Clinical Psychology? Besides your time at Mason.

I started work in Clinical Psychology in 1983 by serving as a paid research assistant to a professor who was a Clinical Psychologist. I have taught courses, done research, and conducted psychological assessments and psychotherapy since 1984 at Arizona State, Yale, and Mason.

What was the field of Well-being/help-seeking/mental health like when you first got involved?

When I started, the mental health field was more focused on treating and preventing anxiety, depression, and substance abuse and did not emphasize helping people increase happiness, enhance meaning in life, and develop more satisfying personal relationships. There was a high level of stigma to help-seeking and mental health treatment.

What were some of the main challenges?

The research was slow and consisted of participants writing answers to questions on paper. Then we coded and keypunched data in computer terminals. I requested journal articles from libraries and authors and photocopied thousands of pages from paper journals. We had to meet with people in-person to assess, treat, and prevent their problems. There was little insurance coverage for mental health services.

In looking back, have you seen many changes?

Technology has accelerated information gathering and sharing. Data collection is online and often continuous and automatic with smartphones, smartwatches, sensors, and computers. Now, psychological assessments and psychotherapy often occur online with Zoom instead of in-person meetings. There is more integration of physical and mental health with large benefits from daily exercise, nutrition, deep sleep, and people’s positive beliefs and positive emotional experiences on their overall mental health and functioning.

Would you say Mason is doing everything they can to be a better well-being university?

We are doing well. There are many courses, presentations, learning communities, and events. We should do more to evaluate the effectiveness of our activities and programs.

What would you consider your greatest accomplishments?

I have taught 230 doctoral students how to do assessment, psychotherapy, and consultation, and nearly all have become licensed clinical psychologists who have helped thousands of people. I have chaired 22 completed dissertations and served as a committee member for 43. I taught approximately 3500 undergraduates in about 130 courses where they learned ways to assess and improve their own mental health. I have chaired 15 senior honors theses and served as a committee member for 13. I have created in-person and online courses in Clinical Psychology and Psychological Fitness, and concentrations and minors in Clinical and Health Psychology. I have designed, conducted, and evaluated mental health interventions for more than a thousand people in the Alexandria elementary, middle, and high schools, Greenspring Village for older adults, and Mason students. I have created a website of 67 local externship descriptions and selection procedures at gmu.edu that each year about 300 doctoral students at 12 DC-area doctoral programs use to match with yearly training experiences. I have maintained an externship website for 25 years.

What are some of your fondest memories so far?

I wrote a book review of Hillary Clinton’s Living History and gave it to her at her book signing at the Fair Lakes Walmart. It was published in Presidential Studies Quarterly along with my article on First Ladies and mental health policy which led to an interview about Rosalynn Carter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. I enjoyed interviews about my research by reporters for The Washington Post, New York Magazine, the BBC, and local TV and radio stations. I love interesting research meetings, classes with enthusiastic students, thesis and dissertation defenses, hearing and seeing well-known campus speakers, and graduation ceremonies.

What are some key issues you will be addressing with your research in the future?

I am a research collaborator on the Mason Health Starts Here project which assesses new freshmen volunteers with psychological surveys, physical exams, and biospecimen collections in their first semester. Then we conduct follow-ups every semester until graduation. We currently have approximately 800 students participating from the past 3 years. We are trying to evaluate the physical and psychological health of Mason students over time and compare them with adults in other national databases. We also want to identify the relative contribution of different factors to predict their health and functioning over time.

Please share one memory of a funny situation/ scenario that you have encountered during your time at Mason?

My first official communications from Mason were two letters: the job offer letter and the rejection letter that said I would not be hired because I (my name) was chosen instead. Another memory is from recent winter graduation, where I talked to a previous student and her identical twin who both graduated a semester earlier. They and their father were all working for Mason. I asked whether the twins took any online courses because I read that more on-campus students than off-campus students took online courses. They both said they had taken online courses while living on campus. Their father did not know this and asked “What was I paying for? You could have lived at home and taken online courses.” One of the twins was a graduate student and said that she and her sister, who was no longer a student, shared the same ID to use Mason recreational facilities at different times of the day.

Tell us what the Psychology Department means to you on a personal level, in 15 words or less.

I appreciate and enjoy working with enthusiastic colleagues, students, and staff in the Psychology Department!