Published: July 27, 2023
A Mentor Is Forever
A culture of care and attention is behind the new Janet R. Matthews Ph.D. Endowed Chair in Psychology
By Holly Neumann | Illustration by Maggie Sage Shaffer
When Lee Matthews ’67 is asked to describe his late wife, Janet, the first words he speaks are, “Oh, wow.”
He catches his breath and pauses for an instant, and then he easily ticks off three adjectives: hardworking, meticulous and fun.
He thinks again and adds, laughing, “not necessarily in that order.”
UT’s new endowed chair in psychology, held by Professor Stephen Blessing, is named for the hardworking, meticulous and fun Janet R. Matthews ’66, who died in 2019, but who lived guided by dedication to and joy in her profession and genuine care and interest in others.
Janet Matthews was an accomplished academic, earning a master’s and Ph.D. in clinical psychology after her UT years; tenure at Creighton University, where she taught for nearly seven years; and professor emerita status at Loyola University New Orleans, where she stayed for nearly 40. But her true legacy — beyond the gift her husband made in her honor to their alma mater — is in the mentoring she provided to students. Dozens now hold doctorates in psychology, and she provided counsel to some of them for decades, Lee Matthews said.
Even after she died, Lee Matthews said, the calls from students seeking advice didn’t stop.
“A mentor is forever,” he said.
Janet Matthews’ affinity for psychology was first recognized by a UT instructor, Mildred Mitchell. Mitchell, who had been a clinical psychologist in the U.S. astronaut program before teaching at UT, steered both Janet and Lee toward the field. Then Mitchell stayed involved in Janet’s career, attending conferences when Janet was speaking, bringing Janet as her plus-one to industry events and introducing Janet as her protégé at American Psychology Association conventions.
Mitchell, considered a groundbreaker for all women in psychology, blazed a particular trail for Janet Matthews that planted in her a “let’s do this” attitude — and the seed that grew into what amounts to a family tree of mentees, Lee Matthews said.
The mentoring piece was key when it came to Lee Matthews’ vision for UT’s psychology-endowed chair.
“I wanted somebody who could really mentor people and help them do the best that they can,” he said. Other than that, he said, he wanted to be “hands off” in the decision.
As it turned out, the nationwide search for the right person ended where it started, at UT with Blessing, who has been a full professor in the psychology department for seven years and has been at UT since 2004.
“The frosting on the cake for me,” Matthews said, “is that he's been here. He knows the University. He understands how things operate and how things move.”
Blessing called his position a “new breed of endowed chair” where undergraduate research — his passion — would be a priority. Blessing gives much credit to his own undergraduate research and his mentor, cognitive psychologist Brian Ross at the University of Illinois, for his career trajectory and success.
Ross gave Blessing his first chance at research and publishing, critical steps toward graduate studies and the networking that can lead to a career in academia. Mentoring was built into a three-semester-long project program at Illinois, but Blessing describes a relationship with Ross that was more fortuitous than forced and that has now lasted decades.
“I’m here because of Brian,” Blessing said.
When, after receiving his appointment to the endowed chair, Blessing thanked Ross for his career-long influence, Ross replied with a letter back, Blessing said, “being the proud academic father.”
At UT, mentoring through research is oftentimes less structured than what Blessing experienced at Illinois. Still, Blessing works to model his own experience with UT students, as value in the practice continues to grow.
“Research-type of experience is almost getting to be necessary,” for those who want to go to graduate school, he said.
Curiosity and eagerness lead Blessing’s list of qualities he’s looking for in a mentee, as well as interest and aptitude. In Jaclyn Maass ’10, he found all these, and for Maass, now an associate professor at the University of Central Oklahoma, Blessing’s mentorship was a “gateway into my career and the rest of my education,” she said.
Maass says she tells the story to her students about how she and Blessing connected: She was taking a class of his called “Thinking,” and she wrote in a “thought paper” assignment a one-sentence, almost throw-away comment about wanting to know more about intelligent tutoring systems. She suspected that Blessing might not even notice. He did.
“He wrote a note back, saying, ‘Please swing by and we’ll talk — that’s my main research interest,’” Maass remembered. “I was, like, ‘Wow, he's actually paying attention!’”
That spark led to Maass working with Blessing on two projects and later presenting findings at a conference in Georgia. Blessing helped Maass, a first-generation college student, with her graduate school preparation and applications, and she got into a doctoral program at the University of Memphis, straight out of her UT undergrad years.
“I always say that I’m so lucky,” Maass said, “and my mom says, ‘Oh, you worked so hard.’
“Yes, I worked hard, but I’m also lucky, and Dr. Blessing is a big part of that. Without his influence, I probably wouldn’t have known what my passion was.”
Today, Maass is the assistant department chair and oversees many of the psychology graduate students at the University of Central Oklahoma. She tries to channel Blessing in her work.
Sounding a bit like the hardworking, meticulous and fun (maybe not in that order) Janet Matthews, she says, “I’m trying to copy his attention to detail and catch that student who shows a little bit of interest, right?
“It’s fun.”
The Drs. Janet and Lee Matthews Psychology Award is given to outstanding psychology students. Dhani Deveaux ’23, second from left, won for 2022-2023, and Stacey Hoffmeister ’25, third from left, received the award for the 2023-2024 school year. Hoffmeister credits her mentor, Associate Professor Kimberly Cummings, with helping her to secure an internship in human resources this summer. Also pictured: Lee Matthews ’67, left, and Professor Stephen Blessing. Photo by Jessica Leigh
What is an Endowed Chair?
An endowed chair is the highest academic accolade that the University can bestow on a faculty member. In American higher education, a chair position is the gold standard for recruiting and retaining preeminent faculty. These appointments, while subject to scheduled reviews, are held in perpetuity.
Thus, a chair position is both an honor to the named chair holder and an enduring tribute to the donor who established it.
The University of Tampa has three endowed chairs, the newest in the Department of Psychology in the College of Social Sciences, Mathematics and Education. The others are in the College of Business.
Chairholders touch hundreds of lives every year through the courses they teach and the students they mentor. Having endowed faculty at the University allows students to have real experiences with experts; in essence, students can collaborate with the most talented scholars in the world.
By funding endowed faculty chairs, benefactors can convene the brightest minds at UT to focus on significant issues and spur advances in areas of donor interest.
We invite you to establish an endowed chair, create your legacy and transform lives. To learn more, contact Schezy Barbas, assistant VP of development and university relations, at (813) 258-7480 or sbarbas@ut.edu.