Graduate Psychology Department Welcomes Farzin Irani
Farzin Irani, Ph.D., has joined the Graduate Psychology Department at Immaculata University as an assistant professor. This semester, she is teaching a course on professional issues and ethics and a course on diversity counseling. She expects to teach courses on the biological basis of behavior and on psychometrics in the future.
Before coming to Immaculata, Dr. Irani was an adjunct assistant professor and instructor of psychology at Drexel University for three years. She was also involved in training pre-doctoral interns and research assistants at the University of Pennsylvania. She has previously taught diverse groups of high school, post-baccalaureate, undergraduate and graduate students.
After obtaining a Master of Science in counseling and human relations (secondary school counseling) from Villanova University, Dr. Irani earned her doctorate in clinical psychology in the neuropsychology track from Drexel University, where she won the Best Dissertation Award in the Social Sciences in 2008. She completed a pre-doctoral clinical internship at Brown University. She then completed two post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Pennsylvania involving clinical neuropsychology and advanced research training supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH T32 Institutional National Research Service Award).
Dr. Irani´s clinical research interests are in understanding brain-behavior relationships across the lifespan. Her work has integrated traditional and computerized neuropsychological assessment with neuroimaging methods in order to ultimately improve social and functional outcomes for individuals with brain disorders such as schizophrenia. Her research has also focused on understanding the impact of aging on neurocognition, such as memory, and social cognition. She has published numerous articles on neuropsychology, neuroimaging, schizophrenia, and memory in peer-reviewed journals, and she has written several entries for the "Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology." Her research and training has been funded by grants and awards from government (NIH, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Pennsylvania Department of Education) and non-government sources, including the American Psychological Association (APA), Drexel University, Brown University, and the Private Industry Council of Philadelphia. She continues research collaborations with the University of Pennsylvania as a clinical associate. Dr. Irani is a licensed psychologist who is involved with a neuropsychology private practice. She also actively serves on the boards of the Philadelphia Neuropsychology Society, APA´s Clinical Neuropsychology Division 40 and the National Academy of Neuropsychology Diversity Committee.
"I am excited about being here at Immaculata and look forward to working with our faculty and students and sharing my passion for seeking a scientific understanding of pressing questions and practices in the field of psychology," commented Dr. Irani on her new position at Immaculata.
Immaculata University is a residential, Catholic, coeducational institution of higher education, located on the Main Line between Malvern and Exton, 20 miles west of Philadelphia.
