Volunteerism Project

Allen M. Omoto

Allen M. Omoto, Professor of Psychology, received his BA from Kalamazoo College in 1982 and his Ph.D. in 1989 from the University of Minnesota. Previously, he was on the faculty at the University of Kansas (1988-2000) and served as the Director of the Social Psychology program there.

Professor Omoto is a social psychologist whose research interests include the social and psychological aspects of volunteerism, interpersonal relationships, HIV disease, and lesbian, gay, and bisexual issues. He has an ongoing program of research on volunteerism and helping relationships, including multi-year studies that are sponsored by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health and the Fetzer Institute. He also has extensive public policy experience, including helping found and administer a community-based AIDS organization and working in the US Congress as the American Psychological Association's inaugural William A. Bailey AIDS Policy Congressional Fellow.

At CGU, he supervises student research and teaches social psychology courses and methodologically focused offerings, including Overview to Social Psychology, Close Relationships Processes, Sexuality and Gender, Psychology and Social Policy, and Grant Writing.

Rachel Weiss

Rachel Weiss is completing her Ph.D. at the Claremont Graduate University specializing in organizational behavior.  Her dissertation concerns workplace HIV disclosure.  Rachel has worked in a number of research capacities throughout her doctoral training.  For example, she was a program evaluator for the duration of a five-year prevention intervention targeting the unemployed and designed to improve participants' sense of efficacy and inoculate them against future unemployment setbacks, with the goal of quick workforce reentry.  Overseeing the data collection process that occured at three sites in Northern, Central, and Southern California gave her the opportunity to prepare training materials/manuals and help educate service staff on the proper ways to collect, store, and transfer data.  More recently, Rachel worked in Institutional Research within the California community college system.  Through these various work experiences, Rachel has honed her ability to manipulate and manage very large datasets, write both academic and technical reports, and conduct and present statistical results to a wide variety of audiences.  Providing information that is comprehensible and of utility to stakeholders has always been paramount to her work.

Rachel has a great love of animals, as evidenced by the small "zoo" that she and her partner Richard have in their home: five cats, three dogs, and four iguanas (one being fostered for an acquaintance).  There is always an abundance of unconditional love, and fur!

  Home