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Click on award titles below to view past winners.  Note: Awards may not be presented in each category every year.

Award of Excellence: Given for distinguished service to professional psychology or the greater community. This award is reserved to honor members of the Ohio Psychological Association, including graduate students and early career psychologists, who have represented psychology with distinction. Such service may or may not be primarily psychological in nature.

Achievement Award for a Psychologist in the Public Interest: Given to Ohio psychologists who advance psychology as a science and/or profession by a single exceptional achievement or a lifetime of outstanding contributions in the public interest.

Achievement in Public Information: Awarded to individuals working in the media or media organizations that make significant contributions by reporting to the public about psychology or related fields.

Distinguished Contribution to the Profession of Psychology: Ohio psychologists who make outstanding contributions to the profession by providing or giving extraordinary service, time, financial support, leadership, innovation and/or energy over a period of more than ten years to organizations such as the Ohio Psychological Association, American Psychological Association, Ohio State Board of Psychology, Akron Area Professional Psychologists, Cincinnati Academy of Professional Psychologists, Central Ohio Psychological Association, Cincinnati Psychological Association, Cleveland Psychological Association, Dayton Area Psychological Association, or Toledo Area Academy of Professional Psychologists.

Lifetime Achievement by a Psychologist: Honors Ohio psychologists who advance psychology as a science and/or profession by a lifetime of outstanding contributions to the field.

OPA Committee/Task Force/Special Interest Group/Affiliate of the Year: Recognizes significant accomplishments of an OPA Committee, Task Force, Special Interest Group or Affiliate for the previous membership year.

OPA Distinguished Service: This award honors members of the Association, or Association staff, who have provided distinguished service to the Ohio Psychological Association over an extended period of time. While ordinarily recipients of this award have provided more than a decade of dedicated service to OPA, at a minimum an aggregate of five years of such service on/to the Board of Directors is required for receipt of this award.

Outstanding Administrative Service: Recipients shall be administrators of an Ohio institution, agency, or government department that is psychological in nature. They shall be individuals who, through enlightened administrative policies and practices, have effectively provided or utilized professional psychology and allied services in the advancement of human dignity and well-being or who have otherwise contributed substantively to the field of psychology.

Outstanding Citizen: Awarded to Ohio citizens who make significant contributions by fostering or supporting the establishment or maintenance of programs in the fields of psychology, mental health, or education through participation in civic organizations or through individual effort.

Outstanding Graduate Student: This award recognizes a graduate student for either outstanding academic achievement, and/or service to the profession, including OPAGS, APAGS, APA, OPA, and/or service to the community.

Outstanding Professional Service: Recipients shall be from allied professions such as medicine, social work, law, teaching, ministry, nursing or similar fields. They shall be individuals whose teaching, research, or service is outstanding in Ohio and who have fostered greater understanding of psychological approaches to mental health.

Outstanding Psychologist: Awarded to Ohio psychologists who make outstanding individual contributions through teaching, research, innovation, promotion of high professional standards, communication or other documented achievements in the field of psychology.

Outstanding Public Service: Recognizes elected or appointed officials who have made significant contributions in Ohio through leadership that improves the understanding or treatment of human problems through enlightened government action.

Past President’s Plaque: Recognizes the service to the Association of the immediate Past-President as a token of appreciation, and is presented at the Awards Ceremony by the President.

President’s Award: Recognizes extraordinary contributions of one or more individuals whose commitment to OPA has been especially meritorious over the course of the previous year. Recipients are selected by the immediate Past President of the Association.

Public Sector Psychologist of the Year: Recognizes Ohio psychologists, preferably OPA members, who serve in the public sector and who have either (1) sustained dedication to meeting the psychological needs of consumers in the public sector or (2) made an outstanding contribution in furthering the role of psychology in the public sector.

Small College Roundtable Award for Academic Innovation: This award recognizes and promotes innovation in the classroom and/or curricular or co-curricular programming at small colleges. This recognition may be at the individual, departmental, or college level.

Special Projects Award: Recognizes the completion of a special project of a committee, task force, graduate student, early career psychologist, or of an officer or staff member of the association during the previous year.

Certificate of Appreciation: This certificate is given in recognition of successful completion of responsibilities for the previous year, either as a member of the Board of OPA or in successfully fulfilling any other charge at the request of the President.

If no clear nominee is presented for a specific category, awards may not be presented for that category.