About Preston Garraghty
Preston Garraghty transferred to UNC Greensboro to complete a bachelor’s degree in psychology. After receiving his BA, Mr. Garraghty took a teaching job at Piedmont Technical institute while completing an MEd in Educational Research and Evaluation through the School of Education. He then left his teaching job and returned to UNCG as a full-time graduate student in the Department of Psychology. He received both an MA and a PhD under the guidance of Professor Walter Salinger before embarking on his own academic research career at such prestigious institutions as Yale University School of Medicine and Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. Professor Salinger had a profound and lasting impact on Mr. Garraghty. The influences were both broad and deep, as Mr. Garraghty profited immensely from both the classroom teaching and laboratory mentoring provided by Professor Salinger. As for the classroom teaching, Professor Garraghty labored long and hard in an effort to produce even a single eloquent lecture, a daily event that seemed to emanate from Professor Salinger so effortlessly. With respect to the laboratory, Professor Garraghty sought to create a research environment of his own that fostered creativity, intellectual rigor, and attention to detail, while not losing sight of the big picture.
About Walter L. Salinger
Walter L. Salinger is an Emeritus Professor who spent his entire academic career in the Department of Psychology at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. Professor Salinger was a masterful teacher, capable of weaving the intricate details of the subject matter at hand into fabric that an attentive student could hold. No matter the specific topic, on any particular day in class, the material presented was done so with such a level of enthusiasm that it was clear that the ideas were important and worth knowing. The brilliance of Professor Salinger was so apparent that it was obvious that he would not deign to talk to a class about trivial matters. Professor Salinger also maintained an active research laboratory where a number of both graduate and undergraduate students labored enthusiastically in pursuit of the laboratory’s shared research objectives. The training provided in the laboratory laid the groundwork for the eventual productive research careers of a number of Professor Salinger’s mentees. In recognition of the research spirit that Professor Salinger infused into his trainees, this award is established to provide some small measure of research support to Department of Psychology graduate students as they follow in our collective footsteps.
Recipients of the award must meet the following guidelines:
- Recipient(s) will be graduate students in the Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences.
- Awards shall be used to conduct research during the summer term of a calendar year.
- Award recipients will be selected by the Office of the Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, in coordination with the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships.
- Any publications or presentations resulting from the research supported by the award should carry an acknowledgement of the award.
Past Winners:
2025
Angelia Venezia
2024
Julie Peebles
2023
Shae Nester
