Dr. Betty Yung Award established for psychology students

Larry James, Ph.D., dean of the School of Professional Psychology (left); and Jerry Yung, husband of the late Betty Yung, an associate professor at SOPP, display a plaque marking The Dr. Betty Yung Awards.

Students at the School of Professional Psychology who work in the prevention of family violence stand to benefit from an award established in the name of the late Betty Yung, a longtime associate professor who died in June.

The HealthPath Foundation of Ohio (HP-Ohio) provided a $10,000 grant to create the Dr. Betty Yung Fund.

Yung, 67, was coordinator of program research and evaluator of the SOPP’s Positive Adolescent Choices Training Program. She was a prolific grant-writer and was instrumental in assisting students with their dissertation work.

The award will support dissertation work and students working in family violence prevention as well as supporting student travel and research.

Longtime friend and colleague Cheryl Meyer, Ph.D., a psychology professor at SOPP, said Yung was brilliant, an amazing writer and highly productive.

“Yet she was always down to earth and easy to interact with,” said Meyer. “I already miss Betty’s personal and professional support.”

Yung arrived at Wright State in 1983, joining the College of Education and Human Services. She served as officer of grants, research, evaluation and accreditation for five years and in 1988 joined SOPP as a grants and proposals writer.

A member of Phi Beta Kappa, Betty Yung's areas of specialty included violence prevention and health disparities for minority populations.

Yung’s areas of specialty included violence prevention and health disparities for minority populations. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, she was a grant reviewer for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on family violence initiatives and was active with the Ohio Commission on Minority Health in program and grant evaluation.

Yung co-authored nationally sold texts and videos on violence prevention for juveniles and conducted high school teacher training classes on their use. She had been working on a book about suicide notes from an evaluation project she co-directed with the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office.

Yung served on the boards of trustees of The HealthPath Foundation of Ohio and Choices in Community Living, Inc., an organization that provides residential services to adults with mental retardation.

Yung lived in Kentucky for many years and had bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees from the University of Kentucky.

Yung’s husband, Jerry, said his wife was a terrific cook, a formidable Scrabble player and could read at lightning speed. He said he tried repeatedly in recent years to talk his wife into retiring so the couple could travel and visit family.

“She would always say, ‘I love what I’m doing. It’s doing a lot of good things for a lot of people,’” he said. “She just liked being in an academic environment.”