President-elect Peter Salovey announced fellow psychology professor Margaret “Peggy” Clark as the new master of Trumbull College Sunday afternoon.

Like Salovey, Clark specializes in social psychology and has taught courses such as Attraction and Relationships (Psychology 126) and Social and Emotional Relationships (Psychology 557) in the past. Clark said she and her husband, new associate master Frederick Polner, look forward to stepping outside the Psychology Department and getting to know a more diverse cross-section of the Yale population. Outgoing master Janet Henrich and her husband, associate master and physics professor Victor Henrich, will leave for sabbatical at the end of this term.

“I am thrilled and honored,” Clark said. “And I am particularly pleased it’s Trumbull College.”

Clark graduated from Franklin and Marshall College in 1973 and received her doctorate at the University of Maryland. Starting in 1977, she taught at Carnegie Mellon for over 25 years before coming to Yale in 2005.

Since joining the Yale faculty, Clark has been involved in numerous University committees, including the Executive Committee, the Faculty of Arts & Sciences Review Committee and the FAS Tribunal. Clark is also the current graduate vice president of Phi Beta Kappa.

“Whereas I have always enjoyed being a part my own discipline’s intellectual community, being part of a broader, more diverse community … was appealing to me and to my spouse,” Clark said.

A Connecticut native, Clark said she has many lifelong ties to the University. Her family was close friends with Wesley Needham, an architect of Trumbull College, she said, making her particularly familiar with the Gothic quadrangle. Clark specially invited Jane Kellogg, Needham’s sister, to the announcement ceremony on Sunday.

Clark’s extended family in Connecticut will be expected visit Trumbull often, said University President Richard Levin said in an email to the Trumbull community on Sunday.

Although her academic specialization is in the dynamics of forming romantic and platonic attachments, Clark said she will refrain from offering students relationship advice.

“I do study relationship dynamics, but do I give relationship advice? No. I stay out of that business,” she said.

During the ceremony, Dean of Yale College Mary Miller also spoke on the legacy of the Henriches, who have called 241 Elm St. their home for the past 16 years.

“The Henriches have belonged to Trumbull in every way,” Miller said. “Every detail of the renovation here was thought through so carefully by them, yielding what is perhaps the most perfect of all college renovations here in Trumbull.”

Students interviewed said they have fond memories of the warmth and support provided by the Henriches over the years. Trumbull students compiled a scrapbook for Janet Henrich with contributions from graduates throughout the last decade, said Kat Eshel ’13.

The Clarks will take up residence in Trumbull along with two pets, a golden retriever named Harold as well as a cat named Annabelle.