NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS
Five Year Achievement Award
Heather L. Littleton
Department of Psychology
Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences
Dr. Heather Littleton, an associate professor of psychology, received a 2014 Five-Year Achievement Award for Excellence in Research and Creative Activity from the ECU Division of Research and Graduate Studies. Her research focuses on several areas of women’s health with a concentration on sexual assault.
Littleton has written 19 peer-reviewed articles in the past five years alone — nearly 40 throughout her career. One of her
Heather Littleton
most recent publications, “Health risk behavior and sexual assault among ethnically diverse women,” was selected to receive the Georgia Babbladelis award for the best paper published in Psychology of Women Quarterly in 2013. She has also presented her research at conferences across North America.
Littleton called sexual violence a “major public health issue” that is often kept secret. That’s why she developed her latest project, “From Survivor to Thriver,” an online, self-paced, therapist-facilitated program for college women who have been sexually assaulted and have post-traumatic stress disorder.
“A lot of women who have been sexually assaulted don’t feel comfortable seeking in-person therapy for a variety of reasons,” Littleton said. “It’s unfortunately way too common, but it’s still something people don’t want to talk about and deny. Over half of them don’t consider what happened to them to be rape or even a crime.”
She said From Survivor to Thriver is a tool that helps counselors “reach women who might not get help otherwise and help women sooner.” Women who complete the program show significant improvement, with more than three-quarters no longer having PTSD after completing the program, she said.
“It’s wonderful to see that,” Littleton said.
Since arriving at ECU, Littleton has been the principal or co-principal investigator on research grants totaling more than $736,000 from agencies such as the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Science Foundation.
Littleton has mentored nine master’s students’ theses and two doctoral students’ dissertations. Her students hone their counseling skills working with fellow students.
“She is an excellent colleague, and her training, experience and professional skills are uniformly high,” Dr. Amie Grills-Taquechel, an assistant professor at Boston University, research collaborator and former doctoral classmate of Littleton’s at Virginia Tech, wrote in a recommendation letter.
Littleton is on the editorial board of Sex Roles and the Journal of Traumatic Stress and an ad hoc reviewer of publications such as the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology; Anxiety, Stress, and Coping; the Archives of General Psychology; and others.
Littleton is also an adjunct professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Brody School of Medicine at ECU. Before coming to ECU, Littleton was a women’s health research fellow at the University of Texas Medical Branch and an assistant professor of psychology at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas.
She said young faculty members and researchers shouldn’t be shy about pursuing their goals.
“Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there,” she said. “Go to conferences. Figure out ways to collaborate. Set aside time for research. Choose something you’re passionate about. Talk with individuals whose work you admire about collaborating and working together.”
Littleton has doctoral and master’s degrees from Virginia Tech and a bachelor’s degree from Clemson University. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association.
— Doug Boyd