Thursday, 19 September 2019

Paola Venuti re-elected director of the Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science

She will start her second three-year mandate at the Rovereto-based department on 1 October 2019

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Paola Venuti was re-elected director of the Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science of the University of Trento for a second term, which will start on 1 October.Paola Venuti

The election was held on 18 September in the Aula Magna of Palazzo Piomarta in Rovereto. Professor Venuti was the only member of the teaching staff who submitted her candidature.

In her second mandate, she aims to pursue the education objectives included in the Departments of excellence project, for which the Department received funding in 2018.

She will continue to strengthen the five degree courses of the department with her colleagues and to encourage the participation of its members, which requires collaboration and involvement; she will also further improve research networks to enhance the cross-sector skills for which the department is known.

Paola Venuti, full professor of Dynamic psychology, teaches Clinical psychopathology and Dynamic psychology and is the head of the ODFLab (Observation, Diagnosis and Education Laboratory) and of the Counselling service. She arrived to the University of Trento in 2002 from the Seconda Università di Napoli and the University of Padova. Among her institutional roles, she is a member of the Committee of the Cognitive science doctoral programme, director of the Master in Educational methodologies for individuals with autism spectrum disorder and of the Master in Techniques of neuropsychological assessments in children and adolescents. In the past she was vice director of the Department, and associate professors' representative in the University's Board of Directors. She worked intensely in the field of teachers' education. She was coordinator of the doctoral programme in Psychology and Education Science at the Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science from 2010 to 2016.
She earned her Master's in Psychology at the University of Padova and her PhD from the University of Rome.
Her research interests are the study of affective and cognitive development in individuals with typical and atypical development with a special focus on parental behaviours, which she explores using neuroimaging techniques and for which she devised development evaluation methods and instruments. Part of her research is devoted to clinical studies, to both diagnostic techniques and research projects that aim to implement models of practice for children with neurodevelopmental disorders and to assess their effectiveness.
She was a member of the Associazione Italiana per la Salute Mentale Infantile (AISMI), an organization that she chaired for four years.
She has been involved in many scientific collaborations, including with the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NIH- NICHHD, Bethesda, USA) and with the Istituto per la ricerca scientifica "Stella Maris" in Pisa, whose research activity is focused on the identification of the early markers of autism. She actively works with Istituto Superiore di Sanità for the training of teachers and professionals who are involved in activities with individuals with autism spectrum disorders.
She has been project coordinator for many research projects that received Italian, European and extra-European funding. She is a member of the Italian register of psychologists and psychotherapists, of the Associazione Italiana Psicologi (AIP), of INSAR (International Society for Autism Research) and of the scientific committee of the journal “Infanzia ed Adolescenza”.
She was invited to speak at many conferences on autism, is a referee for many scientific journals, and has authored over 150 papers and books on national and international magazines.