Erin Kang - Recipient of the 2026 Presidential Excellence Award in Research, Scholarship, or Creative Activity, Tenure-Track Faculty category; Honorable Mention in Student Engagement in Research, Scholarship, or Creative Activity category (Link: https://www.montclair.edu/president/presidential-excellence-awards/)

Erin Kang - Outstanding Mentor Award, Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) Autism Special Interest Group

Erin Kang - Korean-American Scientists and Engineering Association (KSEA) Prof. Chin Ok Lee & Ms. Kwang Hee Kim Excellence Award

Caroline Candy - Recipient of the 2026 Outstanding Student Employee Award

Caroline Candy & Tali Filstein: Spring 2026 Special Research Award. MSU PhD Program in Clinical Psychology

Arabella Peters: 2025-2026 Student-Led Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities Grants Program 

Mary Isaac Cargill: 2025-2026  New Jersey Psychological Association Dissertation Grant

Jacob Gutierrez: Alex Dubé Award Winner from the Entertainment Community Fund.

Jacob Gutierrez & Julia Rozum: Orpha Lutz Scholarship from the Psychology Department (picture in the lab photos) 

Jacob Gutierrez - other updates:

1. Finalist for the Hispanic Scholarship Fund (scholarship winners selected this summer). Selected as a finalist out of 56,000+ applicants.

2. Selected as a member of the inaugural NJPA Leadership Academy cohort of 7 for 2026. 

3. Appearing in Netflix's new series "Big Mistakes" starring Dan Levy, Taylor Ortega, and Laurie Metcalf. It premiered on April 9. 

4. The Graduate School Micro-Internship Program. Building Community-Oriented Autism Inclusion & STEM Engagement Programs for Local High School Students. 

Arabella Peters is a recipient of the Student-Led Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities (SL-RSCA) Award from Montclair State University, which supports graduate and undergraduate students under the guidance of a faculty mentor through projects such as theses, dissertations, culminating applied projects and capstone projects.

Emily Lynch, Hailey Lynch, and Michael House were awarded the CHSS Unpaid Internship/Externship Scholarship through Montclair State University for Spring 2025.

Haylee Garcia and Hailey Lynch received Orpha M. Lutz Scholarship for their involvement in research.

Mary Isaac Cargill received a Dissertation Grant from the New Jersey Psychological Association Foundation.

Caroline Freden received a two-year predoctoral fellowship from the New Jersey Governor’s Council for Medical Research and Treatment of Autism to carry out the Community Helper Autism Training (CHAT) Project.

Mary Isaac Cargill received both the Graduate Student Research Award and Dawn Gemeinhardt Student of Excellence Award from the New Jersey Psychological Association (NJPA). The former award is presented to a graduate student in psychology who is either attending a New Jersey college or university or interning in a New Jersey institution or an NJPA student affiliate, who has demonstrated exceptional research potential as determined by his or her academic department. The latter award recognizes an NJPA member who has demonstrated exemplary student leadership and initiative through significant contributions to the organization.

Rachel McDonald received the 2024 Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Student Travel Award.

Michael House was awarded the Wilson Center Junior Researcher Fellowship (September 2024)

Michael House was awarded the CHSS Student Travel Award for ABCT (October 2024)

Michael House was awarded the Spring 2024 Policy Brief Competition on Climate Justice. Announced but the Research on Interdisciplinary Global Studies (RIGS) with a $200 prize for the award.

Natalia Cifuentes Macias received the 2024 Orpha M. Lutz Fund Scholarship from Montclair State University, recipients of this award were nominated by a faculty member. (April 2024)

Natalia Cifuentes Macias and
Michael House are recipients of the Simons Foundation Shenoy Undergraduate Research Fellowship in Neuroscience (SURFiN), where undergraduate students gain hands-on research experience and contribute to neuroscience research under the mentorship of early career scientists. (July 2024)

Natalia Cifuentes Macias is a recipient of the Student-Led Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities (SL-RSCA) Award from Montclair State University, which supports graduate and undergraduate students under the guidance of a faculty mentor through projects such as theses, dissertations, culminating applied projects and capstone projects. (October 2024)

Wasayef Bsharat received the 2024 Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship in Autism Spectrum Disorders from the Autism Science Foundation.

Ava Costa and Emily Lynch received the College of Humanities and Social Sciences’s Unpaid Internship Scholarship in the amount of $1500.

Ava Costa, Efi Mazis, Michaela Reynolds and Wasayef Bsharat received the 2023 Orpha M. Lutz Fund Scholarship from Montclair State University, recipients of this award were nominated by a faculty member.

Britney Jeyanayagam received the International Society for Autism Research’s (INSAR) Student and Trainee Award for the 2023 Conference.

Mary Isaac Cargill received a grant from the Dean’s Office in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS) at Montclair State University to support her research exploring autism stigma and knowledge among racial and ethnic minority groups.

Mary Isaac Cargill and Sadaf Khawar graduated as Advanced Medium-Term Trainees from the Leadership and Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (LEND) program at Stony Brook University. They each completed over 100 additional training hours in this capacity to further their interdisciplinary knowledge of autism and other neurodevelopment disabilities.

Sadaf Khawar successfully defended her dissertation proposal on 9/23/23: “Trends and Barriers in Service Utilization in South Asian and MENA families with Autism in the United States: A Mixed Method Study”

Sadaf Khawar was awarded the 2023 Society for the Science of Clinical Psychology [SSCP] Dissertation Award [$500]

Britney Jeyanayagam, Emily Lynch, Greg Hartle, and Lydia Wei received the 2022 Orpha M. Lutz Fund Scholarship from Montclair State University, recipients of this award were nominated by a faculty member.

Dr. Erin Kang was included in Spectrum's 2022 40 Under 40 list. Honorees on this list are young researchers who are regarded as rising stars for their work on autism-related science across the globe.

Dr. Erin Kang was awarded the 2022 SRCD Small Grants Program for Early Career Scholars. The grant will support research understanding of how differences in neural and behavioral presentations of flexible thinking in children on the autism spectrum relate to clinical presentation.

Dr. Erin Kang is the 2022 recipient of the Slifka/Ritvo Innovation in Autism Research Award, which honors the most meritorious and innovative research ideas of junior investigators.

Dr. Erin Kang receives 2022 Brain & Behavior Research Foundation Young Investigator Grant in collaboration with Carrie Masia

Eden Fowler-Benton received the International Society for Autism Research’s (INSAR) Student and Trainee Award for the 2022 Conference.

Nardin Yacoub received a grant from the Dean’s Office in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS) at Montclair State University to support her research study for the second year project titled, “Effects of perspectives, age, and gender on route descriptions in children.”

Sadaf Khawar was awarded the 2022 Elsie Ramos Memorial Student Poster Award for her poster, “Is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy via Telehealth Effective? A Pilot Study During the COVID-19 Pandemic to Support Parents of Developmentally Disabled Children.”

Sadaf Khawar received a grant from the Dean’s Office in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS) at Montclair State University to support her dissertation study titled, “Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Service Utilization in Families with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Comparative Analysis of Minority and Immigrant Families in the United States.”

Sadaf Khawar received the 2022 International Society for Autism Research’s (INSAR) Virtual Research Internship in Autism and Cultural Diversity.

Sadaf Khawar received the International Society for Autism Research’s (INSAR) Diversity Travel Award for the 2022 Confrence.

Sadaf Khawar received the 2022 Diversity Professional Development Award from the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology (SCCAP) .

Eden Fowler-Benton received the 2021 Orpha M. Lutz Fund Scholarship from Montclair State University, recipients of this award were nominated by a faculty member.

Kristen Schiavo received the 2021 Orpha M. Lutz Fund Scholarship from Montclair State University, recipients of this award were nominated by a faculty member.

Rachel McDonald received the International Society for Autism Research’s (INSAR) Student and Trainee Award for the 2021 Virtual Conference.

Willow DeFilippo earned The Valerie Fund Academic Scholarship: Academic scholarship offered to pediatric cancer survivors treated by the Valerie Fund who show exceptional academic achievement and civic mindedness. They have received this scholarship from 2020-now.