The Executive Committee is delighted to present Prof. Chryse (Sissy) Hatzichristou with the 2019 International School Psychology Distinguished Services Award. She has given exceptional service to ISPA over several years and is now commencing a term as President-Elect.
Dr. Hatzichristou is Professor of School Psychology and Chair of the Department of Psychology in the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. She is also Director of the Graduate Program in School Psychology and the Laboratory of School Psychology in the Department of Psychology. She is a certified school psychologist and has worked in mental health centres and schools in the U.S. and Greece.
Academic Career
Dr. Hatzichristou’s early academic career was truly stellar. She graduated in Psychology and Education at the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki and then pursued graduate studies at Harvard University, US, where she was awarded a Master’s Degree and the Certificate of Advanced Studies in Human Development. Sissy was awarded her Doctoral degree in School Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. She then worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and later Scientific Associate in the Max-Planck Institute for Human Development and Education in Berlin.
Greece
In 1993 Prof. Hatzichristou returned to Greece to assume the position of Assistant Professor of Psychology within the Department of Education at the University of Thessaly. Her appointment in 1998 as Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the prestigious National and Kapodistrian University of Athens marked a major milestone for school psychology and for gender equality in this Department. In 2002 Dr. Hatzichristou was appointed as the first Professor of School Psychology. She is a prominent member of the Hellenic Psychological Society and was previously Associate Editor of Psychology, the Journal of the Hellenic Psychology Society and Chair of the Division of School Psychology of this Society.
Dr. Hatzichristou was Chair of the Summer Schools of School Psychology in 2010 and 2014 and in 2015 presided over the 1st Panhellenic School Psychology Conference that was held in Athens with more than 1,200 participants. Dr. Shane Jimerson was among the speakers.
Prof. Hatzichristou has made a pioneering and prodigious contribution to the development of school psychology in Greece. She is the founder-Director of the Center for Research and Practice of School Psychology (CRSPS) in the Department of Psychology at the University of Athens that was established in 1999 and which more recently evolved into the Laboratory of School Psychology: Training, Research and Practice. This Center has been the main developer and coordinator of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) intervention programs in the country. The work of this Centre led to the incorporation of SEL in the university curriculum, thus becoming one of the essential training skills for future psychologists, primary and secondary school teachers, and school psychologists. More generally, the establishment of the CRSPS has helped to link theory, research, training of students, and the implementation of evidence-based intervention programs in schools as well as providing a link between university, schools, professional associations, and the international scientific community. Responding to extreme community needs during the last years of economic crisis and severe recession in Greece, Sissy has been instrumental in developing the Connecting4Caring (C4C) multilevel project for the promotion of resilience and positive school climate in the school communities during unsettling times with positive effects at an individual and systems level. Thirteen countries (Greece, U.S., Australia, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, Ethiopia, Germany, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, the Netherlands) participated in this project that involved 439 teachers and over 6900 students from 287 elementary, special education and secondary schools. Sissy has recently with her team developed programs for supporting refugee children and adolescents in the various school communities.
Work and Publications
Dr. Hatzichristou is the author of many scholarly Greek and international publications and presentations and has conducted numerous workshops throughout the world. Her primary research interests include service delivery models, prevention and intervention evidence-based programs in schools, crisis intervention, school-based consultation, and cross-cultural and transnational issues in school psychology training and practice. Sissy has made a major contribution to supporting the well-being and resilience of children in family and school settings and to promoting mental health and resilience in school communities and educational settings. Her scholarship in these areas is frequently presented around the world, including regular participation in featured special sessions and symposiums at the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) Annual Conventions in the U.S. and consistently informative and inspiring presentations at the International School Psychology Association conferences.
Prof. Hatzichristou has published widely in Greek and international scientific journals and books. She has conducted extensive and long-standing efforts to help define and establish the specialty of school psychology in Greece and provide teaching materials. For example, she wrote the Handbook of School Psychology in Greece, a text used in all Greek universities. In addition, she together with her team developed the first program to promote Social and Emotional Learning in Greece—a program that also is used as a basic resource in all Greek universities and has been used by teachers extensively in schools.
Recent publications include the special issue of the IJSEP that she co-edited with the late Tom Oakland in 2014 on International perspectives on the Academic and Professional Preparation of School and Educational Psychologists; and the special issue on Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Training, Intervention and Research Worldwide with Prof. Maurice Elias as co-editor), She is co-editor of the International Handbook of Consultation in Educational Settings (with Prof. Sylvia Rosenfield from the University of Maryland, published in 2017 by Taylor & Francis) and the forthcoming Handbook of School Psychology in a Global Context (with Prof. Bonnie Nastasi, to be published by Springer).
In recognition of her monumental scholarship, Prof. Hatzichristou was the recipient of the inaugural Tom Oakland Outstanding International Scholar Award of ISPA in 2010 and ISPA Presidential Citation Awards in 2016 and 2017.
International Contribution
There has always been a major international dimension to Dr. Hatzichristou’s work, particularly in the U.S. She is a School Psychology Fellow of Division 16 of the American Psychological Association (APA) and has served as Chair of the Globalization of School Psychology Working Group of the APA Division of School Psychology since 2010. She has also served as a member and co-chair of the Committee of International Relations in Psychology (CIRP) of APA, as a member of the Crossing Cultures and Continents Task Force and the Graduate Education Committee of NASP, and as a member of the Executive Committee of the International Institute of School Psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara. Sissy was recently elected as a member of the U.S. Executive Board of Trainers of School Psychologists.
ISPA
Sissy has made an outstanding contribution to ISPA over many years. From 2000 to 2006 she served as Secretary of the ISPA EC, which she has now rejoined as President-Elect. In 2005, she was co-chair of the LOC for the 28th International School Psychology Conference in 2005 in collaboration with the Psychology Department of the University of Athens. Many of us will recall the awe-inspiring opening of that Conference in the Great Hall of the beautiful neoclassical University. The theme of that Conference, Promoting the wellbeing of children and youth: a challenge for the school community, the family system and the school psychologist, truly encapsulates her life’s work. She was project leader of the international project “Olympic Spirit through Children’s Voice” in collaboration with ISPA with the participation of school psychologists and students from 21 countries. Their art work was exhibited during the 2004 Olympic games in Athens and during the Athens ISPA Conference.
With her colleagues Fotini Polychroni, and Georgios Georgouleas, Sissy contributed the Chapter on School Psychology in Greece in The Handbook of International School Psychology that was co-edited by Shane Jimerson, Tom Oakland, and Peter Farrell and published in 2006.
Currently Sissy serves as Chair of the School Psychology Trainers’ Task Force and is also a member of the Research and Consultee-Centered Task Force, a member of the Accreditation Committee and a member of the Social Emotional Learning Interest Group.
At her promotional presentation for the Athens Conference in Exeter, Sissy introduced us to the beautiful poem Ithaka by the Greek poet Cavafy. She is now well advanced on the journey to her own personal Ithaka, the goal of consolidating school psychology as a science and profession in Greece.
ISPA is greatly honoured to present Prof. Chryse Hatzichristou with the 2019 International School Psychology Distinguished Service Award.