John R. Graham Award for Distinguished Mentorship in Personality Assessment

The John R. Graham Award for Distinguished Mentorship in Personality Assessment is given to individuals who have fostered excellence in the field of personality assessment by their mentorship of students and junior colleagues. Excellence in mentorship is reflected in the quantity of their mentees, its direct impact on their careers, including the quality of their accomplishments in personality assessment. The mentor’s influence on the next generation may be evident through training programs, research supervision, and/or clinical training. 

Eligibility Criteria:

A nominee must be (or if retired, must have been) a member of the Society for Personality Assessment. Individuals who provided mentorship in research and/or clinical activities are eligible for the award.

Required Materials for Nomination Packet:

1. A single letter of nomination signed by three supporters. The letter must be written by a mentee of the nominee and:   
   1. Summarize the nominee’s influence on students and colleagues;
   2. Reflect the range of the nominee’s influence; and
   3. Focus on the nominee’s mentoring rather than on other professional accomplishments.
2. A current curriculum vitae
3. A list of the nominee’s mentees, occupations, and selected relevant accomplishments  

Meet the Jack R. Graham Award Winner, Dr. Paul Arbisi!

Dr. Paul A. Arbisi , Ph.D., ABAP, ABPP, L.P. retired in 2023 after 33 years as a staff clinical psychologist at the Minneapolis VA Health Care Center and is currently a Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of Minnesota.  Dr. Arbisi has published extensively on the use of the MMPI-2/MMPI-2 RF/MMPI-3 in psychiatric and medical settings as well as in the assessment of trauma related conditions including PTSD. He has co-authored and developed several scales contained on the MMPI instruments including several scales designed to identify non-credible reporting of symptoms.  His program of research is broadly focused on exploring the utility of psychological assessment in applied clinical settings including whether integration of trait level personality information into treatment planning can promote treatment engagement and lead to improved clinical outcomes.    Further, as an investigator in a series of longitudinal studies of risk and resilience factors in deployed national guard soldiers, his research was focused toward better understanding the contribution of dimensional models of personality and psychopathology in identifying soldiers most likely to weather the challenges of deployment without developing stressor-related psychiatric conditions.  

Dr. Arbisi currently maintains an active medico-legal practice specializing in evaluating consequential psychological injuries and trauma related conditions. .