The following is adapted from the nomination letter provided by J. Fugelsang, D. Titone, J.-A. Lefevre, C. MacLeod, and M. Masson.

Valerie has always been an exceptionally strong supporter and advocate of Psychological Science in Canada over her 35-year career as a faculty member at the University of Saskatchewan where she was recently awarded the “Distinguished Professor” title. Throughout her career, she has been a complete academic, and has excelled in all aspects of academia that are celebrated by this award.

Valerie is world renowned for her incredibly insightful, creative, and carefully conducted research in high-level cognition, and is highly sought after as a collaborator. She has published over 70 peer-reviewed papers appearing in top journals in our field, (e.g., Cognition; JEP: LMC), books, and 19 book chapters. Her recent research, focusing on the role of metacognition in the monitoring and control of reasoning performance, has been highly influential in shaping the theoretical landscape in the field. Indeed, her 2011 paper introducing and empirically testing this concept has already been cited 860 times! In addition, her theoretical paper introducing the meta-reasoning framework (published in TICS in 2017) has already been cited over 470 times. She has also had continuous grant support from NSERC since 1991. Valerie’s service to the study of brain, behaviour and cognition also extends to her editorial work with journals. She was the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Thinking and Reasoning (from 2011 to 2024), which is the premier journal for researchers conducting reasoning research. She is also past Associate Editor of CJEP.

Valerie has been an exceptional mentor and role model, both to students within her lab, and abroad. Her former students have been highly successful in obtaining employment post-PhD in both industry and academia. Valerie has always been a strong supporter and active participant of CSBBCS. No doubt, the most notable example of her support for the organization is evidenced by her being President (and Past President and President Elect) of CSBBCS from 2010 to 2012. She has also been a member of the Hebb award committee from 2012 to 2015, and chair of that committee in 2016. Although not directly related to CSBBCS, her active role in the Canadian Psychological Association (Member of the Board of Directors from 2013 to 2018), the Canadian Council of Departments of Psychology (Executive Director from 2013 to 2018), and the Scientific Affairs Committee of the Canadian Psychological Association (Member from 2009 to 2018) clearly attests to her commitment to psychology in Canada. Her commitment to psychology is also evidenced by her being chair of her home department at the University of Saskatchewan between 2006 and 2012, and most recently Graduate Chair from 2015 to 2020.