The Department of Psychology and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences are saddened by the news of associate professor Alison Morris’ unexpected death on Nov. 21 in Ames.
“Alison was a wonderful colleague,” said Carolyn Cutrona, professor and chair of psychology. “She had an amazing sense of humor and an exceptionally sharp intellect. She worked hard and laughed hard and was a treat to be around.”
Services for Morris are Saturday, Dec. 13, at Adams and Soderstrum funeral home in downtown Ames. Visitation is from 10 a.m. to noon followed by the memorial service.
Morris joined the Iowa State faculty in 2002. Among the courses she taught was Psych 310, Brain and Behavior. “She taught this in sections of 90-100 almost every semester and got very high ratings from both psychology majors and majors in other disciplines,” Veronica Dark, professor of psychology, said. Morris conducted research on how attention, perception, memory and consciousness worked together in language processing.
She received her B.S.Ed. in communication disorders and her M.S. in speech pathology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and worked for 13 years as a speech pathologist. Morris received her Ph.D. in psychology from Boston University in 2000. The same year, she received the American Psychological Association Division of Experimental Psychology New Investigator Award in Human Perception and Performance.
Morris’ obituary