Lindenwood Psychology Professor Dr. Stephanie Afful has been elected 2025 President of the Society for the Teaching of Psychology. A division of the American Psychological Association, the Society for the Teaching of Psychology has over 2,000 members and an additional 2,000 associate members across the country. Afful seeks to bring her near two decades of teaching experience to help better the careers of these members and generations to come.

Afful has been teaching at Lindenwood for 11 years and specializes in social psychology. Afful teaches Social Psychology, Human Sexuality, and Psychology of Prejudice at Lindenwood. This past fall Afful worked with Assistant Professor Dr. Brittany Goodman to bring the annual Show Me Teaching of Psychology conference to Lindenwood. The one-day event brought high school and college educators from across the state to Lindenwood’s campus. The 2024 event, at Lindenwood, had doubled in attendance from previous years that were held in Kansas City. Afful believes this was a great event for recruitment and the opportunity to work with new faculty at the University.

Prior to being elected President, Afful served as Secretary for the Society’s executive committee for six years. In a 2021 interview on the Psych Sessions podcast, Afful attributes her interest in the society to Dr. James Korn, a former president of the Society that was one of Afful’s professors in college.

As President, Afful is tasked with setting initiatives for the Society to focus on throughout the year. For 2025, Afful singles out preventing burnout, supporting research at colleges with smaller budgets, and the role of AI as key issues.

Afful will use this time in office to support teachers who may suffer from burn out. When asked about her ideal legacy, Afful replied, "that we can use some of this work to train the next generation of students and faculty to have the energy and stamina to be present for our students in the best way possible.”

Afful believes her work within the Society will apply directly to Lindenwood students and faculty. Highlighting Lindenwood as a “teaching university,” Afful believes these initiates will help to prepare the next generation of faculty. By equipping current faculty with the tools to succeed, in the classroom, students will receive an experience that best prepares them for their careers.

As a longtime member of the Society, Afful hopes to have a positive impact on the organization, its members, and teachers. Afful said, “this organization has already given so much to me. It has given me identity and community. I just hope to be able to pay that back.