August 4, 2026

EagleEye

A Newsletter for UMW Faculty and Staff

UMW Psychologists Discuss Balance on Public Radio Show

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University of Mary Washington psychologists Miriam Liss and Holly Schiffrin say that finding happiness in life doesn’t come from having more material possessions.

Miriam Liss and Holly Schiffrin

“There’s really no way to be all in at work, all in as a parent, all in as a partner or spouse and all in in other social roles like volunteering,” said Liss who coauthors the recently released book Balancing the Big Stuff: Finding Happiness in Work, Family and Lifewith her colleague. “You have to find out what works for you to give balance in life.”

Liss and Schiffrin explore how to achieve this balance in an upcoming interview on Virginia’s Public Radio Program With Good Reason, which airs Jan. 24 through Jan. 30.

In the radio show, they discuss how to avoid working or parenting in excess, how to focus on what is intrinsically motivating, and how to work toward gender equality in the home and workplace in order to give concrete steps toward reaching harmony among our roles in life.

With Good Reason is a program of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. The show airs weekly in Fredericksburg on Sundays from 1-2 p.m. on Radio IQ 88.3 Digital. The show also airs broadcast on public radio stations in Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Washington D.C. To listen from outside of the Fredericksburg area, a complete list of air times and links to corresponding radio stations can be found at http://withgoodreasonradio.org/when-to-listen.  Audio files of the full program and its companion news feature are available online at http://withgoodreasonradio.org/2015/01/where-did-you-come-from.

Liss and Schiffrin are international experts on the subjects of happiness, gender issues and intensive and helicopter parenting. Liss is the recipient of the prestigious 2015 Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education of Virginia (SCHEV). Schiffrin is president of the Virginia Academic and Applied Psychologist Academy of the Virginia Psychological Association.

Balancing work and family also is personal for Liss and Schiffrin. While maintaining full teaching and research loads, they also are raising young children.

UMW Professor Receives Outstanding Faculty Award

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Liss-Video-8University of Mary Washington Professor of Psychology Miriam Liss is the recipient of a prestigious 2015 Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education of Virginia (SCHEV).

The awards are the commonwealth’s highest honor for faculty at Virginia’s public and private colleges and universities, recognizing superior accomplishments in teaching, research and public service. This year, 13 faculty members were selected from a highly competitive pool of candidates. In February, the recipients will attend a ceremony and luncheon in Richmond and also will be introduced on the floor of the General Assembly.

Liss, who joined the UMW faculty in 2001, is a clinical psychologist and has conducted research on parenting, division of labor and work-family balance.

The co-author of “Balancing the Big Stuff: Finding Happiness in Work, Family and Life,” Liss also has published articles about autism and developmental disorders, as well as sensory processing sensitivity, self-injurious behaviors, feminist identity and body image. She has developed a collaborative program between UMW and the New England Center for Children (NECC) where students can spend a semester at NECC outside of Boston, performing applied behavioral analysis in a school setting and taking classes for UMW elective credit.

Her articles have been published in numerous journals including the Sex Roles, Psychology of Women Quarterly, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Journal of Personality and Individual Differences, and Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines. She also regularly presents at national conferences. Liss has been interviewed for her work on intensive and attachment parenting for the Washington Post, MSNBC.com and Live Science.

Liss’s honors include election into Phi Beta Kappa and Psi Chi, where she was selected as the regional faculty advisor winner and supervised the chapter winning the National Chapter Award in 2006. She received the UMW Outstanding Young Faculty Member Award in 2005 and was a finalist in the SCHEV state award in 2006 and 2009. She also was named one of Princeton Review’s Best 300 Professors.

Liss received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Wesleyan University, in addition to a doctorate and master’s degree in clinical psychology from the University of Connecticut.

The General Assembly and Governor created the Outstanding Faculty Award program in 1986. Since the first awards in 1987, more than 300 Virginia faculty members have received this high honor. Professor of History Jeffrey McClurken was the 2014 recipient of the award.

Liss to be Featured on With Good Reason

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An encore presentation of Professor of Psychology Miriam Liss’ interview on With Good Reason can be heard beginning Nov. 15 through Nov. 21.

Broadcast times are listed at: www.withgoodreasonradio.org/when-to-listen

The full program will be posted a week after the show at: withgoodreasonradio.org/2014/11/plague-after-war

Liss and Schiffrin Featured on CBS

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Balancing the Big StuffHolly Schiffrin and Miriam N. Liss, professors of psychology, recently published their book, “Balancing the Big Stuff: Finding Happiness in Work, Family, and Life” and discussed it on CBS’s Virginia This Morning program. They talked about the ways in which we all define “having it all” and how we can obtain it for ourselves through a better evaluation of what we want from ourselves, our families, our jobs and each other.

Check out the video: Two Mary Washington professors explain what it means to “have it all”

Miriam Liss, Holly Schiffrin Co-Author Book

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Miriam Liss, professor of psychology, and Holly Schiffrin, associate professor of psychology, are co-authors of a book “Balancing the Big Stuff: Finding Happiness in Work, Family, and Life.” published this month by Rowman & Littlefield.

Sonja Lyubomirsky, author of “The Myths of Happiness” and “The How of Happiness” writes about the work:

“It’s rare that I read a book and wish that I had written it. Liss and Schiffrin have penned the definitive book on work-life balance—an elegant blend of engaging stories, illuminating examples, and cutting-edge empirical evidence. If you read Lean In and want to dig deeper into the complex terrain of the pitfalls and joys of achieving work-life (or any kind of) balance, this book is for you.