Health Psychology Professorship honors past faculty member

The Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of psychology will add a new professorship this year in memory of a former Professor Emerita who studied health psychology in older adults and was among the first to document the interconnected challenges confronted by the elderly and their caregivers.

The Gail M. Williamson Distinguished Professorship in Health Psychology will bring a senior researcher to the department who will focus on psychological issues from a health perspective. Williamson was passionate about the topic and conducted extensive research in health psychology, particularly in aging and family populations during her time at UGA. 

“Her work was primarily focused on the bidirectional health-related influences of older adults needing some sort of care, and their caregivers, most often spouses or adult children,” said UGA department of psychology professor and department head Stephen Miller. 

Rates of caregiving for older adults in the United States continue to rise as the Baby Boomer generation ages.  According to a 2015 survey conducted by the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP, an estimated 39.8 million adults in the United States have provided unpaid care to an adult in the last year. Williamson’s work aimed to create insights about caregiving practices and their positive and negative health effects.

“Her work was particularly instrumental in informing us about the informal caregiving practices of caregivers and how those fall into conceptually distinct dimensions of quality of care,” said Miller. “She coined several labels for these quality of care dimensions including “potentially harmful behavior” at one end and “exemplary care” at the other. She was the principal investigator on more than 10 years of National Institutes of Health (NIH) supported research into these factors.”

Broadly, health psychology examines how biological, psychological and social factors influence health in both positive and negative ways, Miller explained. The department hopes that this new professorship will honor her legacy and continue to expand our knowledge of the interface between behavior and health outcomes.

“As we have learned more about this influence on health, it provides us with evidence-based methods and ideas on how to manipulate these variables to improve our health, or understand how our behaviors, genes and thoughts negatively impact our health,” he said. “It is the intention of the Gail M. Williamson Distinguished Professorship in Health Psychology to bring to UGA an eminent Health Psychologist to continue the broad work of Gail in advancing our knowledge of factors influencing our health, and to use the position to learn more about improving the health of all.”

The professorship is funded jointly by her life partner, Dr. David Shaffer, her son and daughter-in-law, Dr. and Mrs. Todd Williamson in the amount of $250,000, with a match from the University of Georgia Foundation. The UGA department of psychology is currently accepting applications for the position, with the professorship beginning in Fall 2019. For more information, please visit: https://psychology.uga.edu/job-postings.

Written by Jessica Luton