A Florida State University doctoral student is the only recipient in the state of Florida to have been awarded the prestigious PEO Scholar Award.

Meghan Keough, a doctoral student in Clinical Psychology, will receive this $15,000 award from PEO International for the upcoming academic year.

The philanthropic educational organization PEO International was founded in Des Moines, Iowa in 1869. They established the Scholar Award in 1991 to support advanced doctoral and postgraduate students who demonstrate scholarly excellence and extraordinary potential in their fields. From over 700 nominees from the United States and Canada, 85 students received the Scholar Award.

This is also the third year in a row that a Florida State University student has received the Scholar Award, since local PEO members first sponsored FSU students. PEO Chapter FP started nominating FSU students in 2008.

Keough was recommended by Dean Nancy Marcus and Dr. Norman Schmidt. “The PEO scholarship is a very competitive national award and it is wonderful that our students continue to stand out in the pool of nominations. We are very proud of Meghan and our previous PEO recipients,” said Dean Marcus.

Keough has served as the Associate Director of the Anxiety Behavioral Health Clinic (ABHC) at FSU and has also worked there as an Anxiety Specialist.

She has also received the highly esteemed National Research Service Award from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) for her dissertation research in anxiety sensitivity.

“In an effort to work toward the prevention of anxiety disorders, my current research examines a brief intervention aimed at the amelioration of anxiety sensitivity, which is a well-established risk factor in the development of panic,” Keough said.

She explained, “While the past several decades have seen great research strides in the phenomenology and treatment of anxiety disorders, substantial work is left to be done in bolstering treatment effectiveness, preventing the occurrence of anxiety disorders, and ensuring adequate access to effective treatment.”

With the PEO Scholar Award, Keough plans to present her research at national conferences, purchase statistical software, and complete a yearlong internship in Boston at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard University.

After graduation, Keough looks forward to continuing her research on the prevention and treatment of anxiety disorders.