Loyola associate dean of social sciences recognized for excellence in undergraduate teaching and mentoring
Theresa E. DiDonato, Ph.D., associate dean for the social sciences and graduate programs and professor of psychology at Loyola University Maryland, received the Society for Personality and Social Psychology’s (SPSP) national Undergraduate Teaching and Mentoring Award. She was recognized at the annual convention in Denver last month.
The award recognizes excellence in teaching and mentoring among faculty, and nominees are evaluated on their innovation and recognition in new teaching methods, quality and diversity of mentoring, and excellence in collaboration.
“When I first came to Loyola as a junior faculty member, I remember timidly asking about pedagogy and ways to engage my students. Every single person I spoke to said the same thing, ‘Talk to Theresa,’” said Marianna E. Carlucci, Ph.D., chair and professor of psychology. “It seemed to me that Dr. DiDonato’s teaching was heralded as a notch above everyone else’s. In a department with incredibly talented faculty, this is quite a feat.”
A social psychologist and relationship scientist, DiDonato primarily studies romantic attraction and relationship-facilitated self-authenticity. Her Psychology Today blog, with over 35 million views, focuses on all aspects of how people build, maintain, and dissolve their romantic relationships. She co-authored The Science of Romantic Relationships with Brett K. Jakubiak, Ph.D., ’10, associate professor of psychology at Syracuse University and a former student of DiDonato’s at Loyola
“Theresa is one of those one-in-a-million people that they make tear-jerker mentor-mentee movies about,” said Jakubiak. “She has an infectious energy that makes even the most cautious and pessimistic person (me, circa 2010) believe that they should take a chance on themselves. Theresa exemplifies the power of teaching and mentoring to change the direction of a student’s life, and I aspire to teach and mentor like her every semester.”
DiDonato joined Loyola’s psychology department faculty in August 2009 after earning her Ph.D. in experimental psychology from Brown University in 2008. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in psychology and English from Wellesley College. She became associate dean for the social sciences and graduate programs in 2024.