Dan Strunk, Class of '99
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Honors Alumnus Dan Strunk graduated in 1999 with a double major in Philosophy and Psychology.
“After graduation, I attended the doctoral program in clinical psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. While there, I worked with Rob DeRubeis to study the nature of cognitive biases associated with depression and to study a treatment that seeks to help correct those biases – Cognitive Therapy for Depression. After graduate school, I completed a post-doctoral fellowship with Steve Hollon – which allowed me time to continue the work I started at the University of Pennsylvania and start some new work as well. In 2006, I took a job as an assistant professor of psychology at Ohio State University. At OSU, I have worked to develop my own program of research. I still enjoy ongoing collaborations with my former advisors (Rob and Steve). And, I also enjoy working with undergraduate and graduate students at OSU.”
In relating his current work to his NKU Honors experience, he says, “my experience at NKU was very important to me. Through my experiences at NKU, I gained confidence in my ability to do good quality academic work. Through my study of Philosophy and Psychology I came to recognize that by using both careful thinking and well-conducted empirical tests I could play a part in adding to our understanding in a way that has the potential to be of value.
“My Honors courses served a variety of purposes for me. Sometimes, they allowed me to explore something that I thought was of great interest (but that was quite distinct from my major). Other times, they helped me develop a skill that would be helpful in any context (particularly the courses that emphasized writing). I still think about Dr. Robert Rhode’s suggestions for connecting ideas from one sentence to the next as I write papers in my discipline.
“Taken together, my Honors courses helped me develop confidence in my writing (as Honors courses tended to have greater writing requirements) and they helped me maintain a broader, more interdisciplinary perspective than would have otherwise been possible.”
A fond Honors Program memory of Dan’s is “watching Hitchcock movies for Dr. Zaniello's course. I knew I wouldn't have a career in film, but I loved the course and I think it helped me develop an appreciation for film that I would have almost certainly otherwise never developed.”
Regarding his future plans, Dan says that he hopes to still be in academia and that, "whatever I am doing, I hope it gives me the opportunity to blend my interest in research with my desire to develop and test practical solutions to real-world problems."