October is "National Work and Family Month," "Emotional Wellness Month," "Depression Education and Awareness Month," and "National Learning and Development Month."

Each topic is, at heart, a focus within psychology, making this a fitting month to spotlight that department. Take a look inside to see how the Department of Psychology is responding to an AI-transformed workplace, a growing need for mental health care, and students seeking new paths into the field. Then, find out how its junior faculty are taking on big research questions that have public impact.

October is also "Right Brainers Rule Month."

Psychology's take: the two hemispheres have their specialties, but the best thinking happens when they cooperate. Celebrate with both.

What Machines Can and Can't Do: I/O Psychology at Baruch in the Age of AI

When Professor Charles Scherbaum teaches his executive course in workplace analytics, his students do everything with AI. "That's how they're actually going to do it on the job," he says. "They're not necessarily going to be the analysts who need to understand the nuts and bolts underneath. They need to understand: I've got these big-picture questions from the organization. How do I get them answered? How do I manage a process?"

In his master's and doctoral courses, on the other hand, students still work through the statistical machinery by hand, because those are the tools they will use. That split captures how Baruch's Industrial/Organizational Psychology programs are meeting a moment of rapid change: not with a single mandate, but with faculty experimenting course by course.

A class on personnel selection now has to treat AI-driven hiring tools as a core subject, Scherbaum notes, "because that's key technology development in the field." Assistant Professor Anna Gödöllei's research on workplace automation, for instance, asks how workers adjust and reshape their jobs when routine tasks disappear. "The mantra for so long has been do more with less, and everybody feels overwhelmed," Scherbaum says. "If we can eliminate tasks that have low value or are repetitive, what does that free us up to do?"

The question runs through his new book, Cognitive Abilities and the Modern World of Work (Cambridge University Press), written with Baruch colleagues Harold Goldstein and Elliott Larson and collaborators in Singapore, Australia, Germany, and the United States. The book surveys how I/O psychology measures intelligence in hiring and argues that the field has leaned too heavily on tests of acquired knowledge, an approach that produces large racial differences in scores and raises questions of fairness.

Scherbaum sees the same debate playing out in AI. "The things that are easily being outsourced and replaced are intelligence as knowledge," he says. What remains uniquely human is the ability to work with others, to reason through novel problems, and to generate solutions no one has proposed before. Those capacities, he adds, are ones the social sciences, humanities, and arts have always specialized in.

The program teaching those capacities is, in Scherbaum's account, the product of sustained investment. Now in his 23rd year at Baruch, he credits a succession of Weissman deans with treating I/O psychology as an area of excellence, and he credits Goldstein's leadership of the MS in I/O Psychology program with building something "really pretty extraordinary" on limited resources. The program's alumni network is a point of pride: the I/O Alumni Networking Night returns on October 22, and Scherbaum expects a strong Baruch turnout at next year's Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology conference in National Harbor, Maryland. Last year, Professor Emeritus Joel Lefkowitz, who founded CUNY's I/O doctoral program, received one of the society's major awards for teaching and mentoring; this year Scherbaum himself was named a SIOP Fellow.



"There are amazing things happening at Weissman in terms of what people are doing," Scherbaum says, "and as focused as we are on doing the work, we just don't really get a chance to tell people about it."

Room for One More Cohort: Baruch's Mental Health Counseling Program Prepares to Grow

Every year, Baruch's Master's in Mental Health Counseling program turns away applicants it would like to admit. The program has always been built around one small cohort that moves through the curriculum together, and director Rose Marie Chatterton has refused to dilute that model to meet demand.

But now, with new resources finally available, beginning in Fall 2027 the program will admit a second cohort.

The 60-credit, New York State–registered program leads to licensure eligibility and satisfies NYS academic requirements for diagnostic privilege. What sets it apart is the teaching. Classes are small and built around group learning, peer feedback, and clinical practice; nearly every clinical course puts students in the counselor's chair. The faculty, full-time and long-serving adjuncts alike, are practicing clinicians or active researchers who "bring into the classroom real-world knowledge and expertise," Chatterton writes.

Field training goes well beyond the state minimum. Students complete a 100-hour practicum in the spring of the first year, then the 600-hour internship New York requires, in settings that range from public schools and community mental health centers to substance-use programs, psychiatric facilities, and private practices. Several each year train through a collaboration with the New York State Office of Mental Health, treating patients with severe mental illness. Graduates, Chatterton says, are "prepared to practice in whatever clinical setting they choose."

The expansion comes as demand for counselors outpaces supply nationwide.

"Our society is currently experiencing a mental health crisis," Chatterton writes. "Our diverse students are well trained to skillfully diagnose and treat clients from a strengths-based approach." A second cohort means more of them, sooner rather than later.

Check out the program here.

Opening Doors: How Psychology Is Widening the Path to Careers

For the Psychology Department, student success starts with access: for working adults finishing degrees they began years ago, for graduates of other fields retraining in psychology, and for undergraduates seeking hands-on experience that makes them career ready. This fall, the department expanded all three.

This semester the department welcomed the inaugural cohorts of two new fully online, asynchronous programs. One is a BA in Psychology for degree completers. The other is a Post-Baccalaureate Training Certificate in Psychology for students who hold bachelor's degrees in other fields. Working with Baruch's Digital Learning Hub, faculty redesigned courses in the clinical and industrial/organizational tracks around best practices in online learning, then built a cohesive sequence that helps returning students regain their academic footing quickly. Co-directors Nahama Broner and Allison Siminovsky lead advising and community-building for both cohorts. Their goal is to extend access without sacrificing rigor or connection.

Next semester, the online post-baccalaureate students will be the first to take Career Pathways (PSY 3000). In this new one-credit course, students complete career inventories, sharpen their CVs, and map the graduate and professional routes open to psychology students. The department plans to eventually offer it to all majors.



On campus, majors can put classroom learning to work through the newly revitalized Practicum in Community Psychological Services (PSY 4035). This four-credit seminar pairs weekly discussion with a 90-hour community internship. Recent placements include hospital units serving patients in diabetes, postpartum, cancer, and emergency care; public schools; agencies supporting children and adults on the autism spectrum; vocational and substance use prevention programs; hospice and palliative care; and crisis intervention services for survivors of violence. Those placements can open doors: over the last two years, 10 practicum students, about 15%, were hired by their internship sites.

For students drawn to research, the department's NSF-funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program, recently renewed with a $377,072 award and now in its 20th consecutive year, places students in year-long, faculty-mentored research and provides stipends so they can dedicate real time to their work. Led by co-PIs Charles Scherbaum, Jaihyun Park, Tatiana Emmanouil, and Patrycja Sleboda, the program has a strong track record: roughly 64% of students who complete it enroll in graduate programs in psychology, medicine, or law.

"In 2021, I joined the REU program as an undergraduate fellow in Dr. Charles Scherbaum's lab without any research experience," says Paisley Shultz, now at the CUNY Graduate Center. "Today, I am a fourth-year doctoral student in industrial-organizational psychology, but I likely would not have even considered pursuing a PhD without the specialized training and mentorship afforded to me by the program and Charles especially."

Read more about the NSF award.

FEATURE: From Internship to Leadership: Two Graphic Communication Alumni Behind the NYC by CUNY Collection

When Hypebeast covered the launch of NYC by CUNY, a new line of university apparel designed by CUNY students, two of the designers it named were Baruch graduates: Milton Gordon and Vera Rilossi, both alumni of the Graphic Communication program in the Department of Fine and Performing Arts.

What the article did not mention is how they got there. Both were recipients of the Rose Nagelberg Foundation Internship Award, which places Graphic Communication students in paid professional internships. Rilossi received the award in 2022 and turned her internship into a full-time position at CUNY's Office of Communications and Marketing, where she now holds a leadership role on the design team. Gordon received the award in Spring 2024 and is now a paid design assistant in the same office.

"The donors' investment in the long-term success of our students is beautifully embodied here," says Professor Zoe Sheehan Saldana, coordinator of the Graphic Communication program.

Read the full Hypebeast story here.

Weissman Welcomes 23 New Faculty