Editor’s Note: Since the time chapters were submitted for this volume, two authors have passed away. This volume celebrates the memory and outstanding contributions offered by Dr. Paula Caplan and Amrita Ghaness to the discipline of psychology.
Hector Y. Adames, PsyD received his doctoral degree in clinical psychology at Wright State University in Ohio and predoctoral internship at the Boston University School of Medicine’s (BUSM) Center for Multicultural Training in Psychology (CMTP). He also completed his postdoctoral clinical neuropsychology training at BUSM and the Bedford Veterans Affairs Hospital in Massachusetts. He served on APA’s Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs (CEMA) from 2017 to 2020, where he served as chair. He also co-founded and co-directs the IC-RACE (Immigration Critical Race And Cultural Equity) Lab, where he investigates and develops frameworks and interventions designed to promote and support the psychological wellness of Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color. Currently, he is a Professor and Associate Department Chair at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, where he trains and mentors graduate students in counseling psychology. He has earned several awards including the 2018 Distinguished Emerging Professional Research Award from the Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity, and Race, a Division of APA.
Maysa Akbar, PhD is a groundbreaking psychologist, best-selling author, and healer. Dr. Akbar is a thought leader and expert in racial trauma, allyship, diversity, equity, and inclusion. She is an engaging and dynamic speaker who is sought by corporations, philanthropies, non-profit organizations, urban school districts, and social service agencies in their efforts to promote antiracism and advance racial equity. She brings insight, courage, and passion to her conversations with communities of color and white communities alike. Dr. Akbar is a board-certified clinical psychologist and is an Assistant Clinical Professor at Yale University, School of Medicine. She is the founder of Integrated Wellness Group, a psychotherapy practice specializing in treating race-based trauma. Dr. Akbar is currently the Chief Diversity Officer at the American Psychological Association.
Will M. Aklin, PhD, is director of the Behavioral Therapy Development Program within the Division of Therapeutics and Medical Consequences at National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). He received his PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Maryland. Dr. Aklin’s areas of research include development of treatments targeting neurobehavioral processes (impulsivity, risk propensity); theory-derived treatment targets (mechanisms of behavior change); and studies that integrate behavioral/pharmacological treatment, and treatment optimization through digital therapeutics (mobile, web, and other platforms). Dr. Aklin has extensive clinical and research experience in behavioral and cognitive-behavioral treatment for substance use disorders (SUDs); adaptive brief interventions and adherence trials. Dr. Aklin coordinates several NIDA flagship initiatives, and established collaborative partnerships with National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and National Cancer Institute (NCI) through the Collaborative Research on Addiction at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) (CRAN) on the development and testing of behavioral therapies for drug and alcohol use disorders. Dr. Aklin is a sought-after leader across NIH, and has led several NIH Common Fund initiatives, including Science of Behavior Change: Use-Inspired Research to Optimize Behavior Change Interventions and Outcomes, Helping to End Addiction Long-Term (HEAL) Initiative, as well as partnerships with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on digital therapeutics and device-based treatments for SUDs.
Keyona Allen, MS, MEd is a doctoral candidate in the counseling psychology program at Virginia Commonwealth University. She earned her MEd in community counseling at the University of Georgia and her BS in psychology at Virginia Tech. Keyona is an APA Minority Fellowship Program Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (MHSAS) Predoctoral Fellow. Her research and clinical foci include radical self-care for Black children, critical consciousness development, racial socialization practices within Black families, discrimination-related stress and trauma, and empowerment-focused therapy for Black children and families. She will soon complete her predoctoral internship at the Kennedy Krieger Institute/Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Center for Child and Family Traumatic Stress. In the future, Keyona hopes to establish a community mental health agency for Black children and families within her hometown, Moultrie, GA.
Jeffrey E. Barnett, PsyD, ABPP spent his first 5–10 years in private practice making every possible mistake and learning the hard way the secrets of success in private practice that he now gladly shares with others to help them not make the same mistakes. He is a licensed psychologist and is board-certified in Clinical Psychology and in Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology through the American Board of Professional Psychology. He also is a Distinguished Practitioner of the National Academies of Practice. He has been in private practice for over 35 years and is a professor of psychology at Loyola University Maryland. Much of his career has been dedicated to educating, training, and mentoring graduate students and early career professionals in the business of practice and in professional ethics. He has published 13 books, over 200 other publications, and has given over 350 presentations, workshops, and webinars on ethics, legal, and professional practice issues for mental health professionals and professionals-in-training.
Evelyn Behar, PhD is Associate Professor of Psychology at Hunter College of the City University of New York (CUNY). When she first started graduate school, she was 20 years old and sincerely believed that comparing Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) scores between individuals with versus without Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) made for a novel and brilliant research question. After numerous and consistent displays of patience on the part of her mentor(s), she completed her PhD at Penn State University, her internship at the Boston VA Medical Center (National Center for PTSD), and her postdoc at the Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders. She has served on the faculty of both the University of Illinois at Chicago and CUNY, and has served as Director of Clinical Training. Her research is on anxiety disorders, repetitive negative thinking, and cognitive-behavioral therapy. She still likes to include the BDI in her studies.
Nicholas M. Berens, PhD received his PhD in behavior analysis from the University of Nevada under the supervision of Dr. Steven Hayes. His training at UNR strongly valued and emphasized the Scientist-Practitioner model. As such, he and Dr. Kimberly Berens were afforded the opportunity start Fit Learning while they were completing their graduate work. From its inception, Fit Learning has used the Scientist-Practitioner model at both the individual and organizational levels to refine and evolve the quality of its unique combination of Applied Behavior Analysis, Precision Teaching, Direct Instruction, Relational Frame Theory, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Curriculum Based Measurement and Organizational Behavior Management. Now, 20+ years later, Fit Learning has over 30 locations across the globe, all of which embody the Scientist-Practitioner Model. In addition to his work at Fit Learning, Dr. Berens has served on many professional boards, been invited to review research for field-related journals, presented at professional and paraprofessional conferences, and published research. In partnership with his wife of over 20 years, Dr. Kimberly Nix Berens, he has raised two children, volunteers for local children’s organizations, and plays hockey and golf when time permits.
Ilana S. Berman, PhD earned her degree in clinical psychology from the University of Arkansas in 2020, following a predoctoral internship at Duke University Medical Center with a concentration in child trauma. Dr. Berman is currently an NICHD T32 postdoctoral fellow at the Carolina Consortium for Human Development at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, working with mentors at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute and Department of Psychology and Neuroscience. Dr. Berman was skeptical about moving from Philadelphia, PA to Fayetteville, AR for graduate training, and her journey was complicated by a change of primary mentor in her fourth year of grad school. She ultimately achieved the “PhDream” and is passionate about working with traditionally underserved children and families affected by trauma and/or adversity, including systemic and environmental factors. Additionally, Dr. Berman is committed to increasing access to evidence-based services for trauma recovery, providing mentorship, program evaluation, and consultation on trauma-informed care and parenting.
Donte L. Bernard, PhD is an Assistant Professor within the Psychological Sciences Department at the University of Missouri. He earned his PhD in clinical psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Bernard’s federally funded program of research examines the association between racism-related stress and mental health symptoms (e.g., depression, anxiety, trauma), including the impostor phenomenon (cognitions of intellectual incompetence) among Black adolescents and emerging adults. His research also examines how culturally relevant risk and protective factors influence psychological and behavioral health outcomes across sensitive developmental periods in the face of racism-related adversity. Anchored by cultural ecological models recognizing the importance of risk and resilience at the individual and contextual level, his research leverages both quantitative and qualitative methods to emphasize and validate the lived experiences of Black communities. Although Dr. Bernard has pursued a career in psychological research, he still does not know what he wants to do when he grows up.
Eliza Bliss-Moreau, PhD is an associate professor of psychology and a Core Scientist at the California National Primate Research Center, both at the University of California Davis. She trains graduate students in Psychology, Neuroscience, Animal Behavior and Animal Biology graduate programs at UC Davis. Eliza completed her undergraduate degree in Biology and Psychology at Boston College in 2002, and then stayed at Boston College for her PhD in Psychology (social/affective), which she completed in 2008. She changed her dissertation topic more times than she cares to recount, ultimately working on questions related to individual differences in affective processing – a theme that carried through her postdoc work and which her lab addresses now. After her PhD working only with humans, Dr. Bliss-Moreau made an unusual move and did her postdoc in non-human primate neuroscience at UC Davis. Her group studies the neurobiology and evolution of emotions, adopting a multidisciplinary, multispecies, multimethod, multilevel of analysis approach and studying individuals across the life span from womb to tomb. Her work has been recognized via a number of early career awards, including the American Psychological Association Distinguished Scientific Awards for Early Career Contribution to Psychology (in animal learning and behavior, comparative) in 2018, and she became a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science in 2020. She and her lab have received substantial funding from the National Institutes of Health and are very grateful to the US American taxpayers who keep the lab’s lights on, the people paid, and the monkeys fed and allow her to have one of the best jobs in the world.
Lieutenant Jared W. Bollinger, PhD was born in Geneva, Ohio and raised in Evans, Georgia. He decided early on in high school to pursue a career in psychology, inspired by talk show host Sue Johanson. He graduated cum laude from the University of Georgia in 2012 with a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Psychology and minor in Sociology. He then went on to complete a two-year post-baccalaureate research fellowship at the National Institutes of Health in Lorenzo Leggio’s lab section. He commissioned as an Ensign into the US Navy in 2014 in order to attend graduate school at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. In 2019, he completed his predoctoral internship at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth. He is a licensed clinical psychologist in the Commonwealth of Virginia and is a faculty member within Walter Reed National Military Medical Center’s Navy Clinical Psychology Internship Program.
Casey D. Calhoun, PhD received his PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill, after completing internship at the Charleston Consortium Psychology Internship Program. He was an NIH T32 Postdoctoral Fellow at the MUSC National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center (NCVC), and he served as a faculty member at the NCVC for 3 years before returning to UNC as a faculty member. Dr. Calhoun currently serves as Assistant Professor in the UNC School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry, where he is the Attending Psychologist for the Child and Adolescent Inpatient Program, maintains an active program of research, and remains highly invested in training psychology graduate students and interns. As a graduate student, Dr. Calhoun discovered the importance of making career decisions that considered both his personal and professional values, and he references values-based decision making in his ongoing mentorship of trainees.
Paula J. Caplan, PhD graduated from Radcliffe College of Harvard University in 1969; was kicked out of her Duke University PhD program in clinical psychology, but went on to become a clinical and research psychologist, Full Professor of Applied Psychology at the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, won top teaching awards there and later at Harvard, and became an activist and advocate exposing serious problems in both the traditional mental health system and psychological research, and wrote 11 books – most about feminist issues and various forms of oppression where they overlap with psychology, winning three top national awards for non-fiction. Her first play, CALL ME CRAZY, won a top award in a national playwriting contest, and the documentary films about social justice issues she has produced have won many awards and had hundreds of specially invited screenings and PBS showings. She is currently Associate in the Du Bois Institute, Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard.
Nayeli Y. Chavez-Dueñas, PhD is a professor, psychologist, scholar-activist, and mentor. She received her doctoral degree in clinical psychology with a specialization in children and adolescents from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. In 2018 she received the APA Distinguished Citizen Psychologist Award. She leads a specialization in Latinx Mental Health at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology where she guides students in becoming lifelong learners, critical thinkers, and agents of social change in their communities. She co-founded and co-directs the Immigration, Critical Race, And Cultural Equity Lab (IC-RACE). Dr. Chavez-Dueñas has co-authored several books including: Cultural Foundations and Interventions in Latinx Mental Health: History, Theory, & Within Group Differences, and Ethics in Psychotherapy and Counseling: A Practical Guide (6th edition).
Lindsey L. Cohen, PhD is a Distinguished University Professor and Chair of Psychology. When Dr. Cohen began graduate school, he was eager to develop the skills for a private practice; however, he was quickly bitten by the research bug and found himself pursuing a career in academia. After tenure-track positions at Washington State University and West Virginia University, Dr. Cohen joined the faculty at Georgia State University in 2004. Dr. Cohen leads the Child Health and Medical Pain (CHAMP) lab, where he and his students are champions for child health. Children’s acute and chronic pain is a key area of study in the CHAMP lab. Dr. Cohen and his students conduct most of their research at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, where he has an appointment. In addition to research and teaching, Dr. Cohen consults with pharmaceutical or medical device companies, and maintains a small private practice treating children and adolescents.
Jessica C. Conroy, Data Analyst for the Center for Workforce Studies at the American Psychological Association, earned a BA in neurobiology from Cornell University and is in the process of earning a MPS in Data Science. Originally planning on attending medical school, she fell in love with analytics and programming while working for the National Institute on Drug Abuse, deciding instead to pursue a position where she could grow her self-taught programming skills and continue to apply analytics. She is a firm believer that it is never too late to re-examine and re-orient your career goals. In her role as a data analyst, she contributes to a broad range of research on the psychology workforce and education pipeline. Her contributions have taken the form of data tools, presentations, written reports, and fact sheets highlighting the Center’s research findings.
Katherine S. Corker, PhD is an associate professor of psychology at Grand Valley State University. She earned her PhD in personality and social psychology at Michigan State University in 2012, just as the replication crisis described in the chapter was unfolding. She is a past president and current executive officer for the Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science (SIPS), which she helped to found in order to transform idle discussions about whether psychology needed improving into tangible actions to improve the field. She came to psychology as an undergraduate student who was delighted to learn that you could use science to study humans. It is therefore fitting that as a professor Katherine’s work revolves around the study of scientists and their practices. Outside of working hours, Katherine loves to travel, and she is happiest on the trail, at the beach, or with her friends and family at the local pub quiz.
David R. Cox, PhD, ABPP started as a music major and has often played in a band comprised of psychologists and other doctors; he still spends some of his free time sharpening his songwriting talents as a member of the Nashville Songwriters Association International. He is Executive Officer of the American Board of Professional Psychology and is board-certified in Rehabilitation Psychology. He served on the staff and faculty of U.C. San Diego, Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the University of Florida. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association Divisions 22, 31, 40, and 42; Fellow of the National Academy of Neuropsychology; recipient of the APA Heiser Award; and Lifetime Practice Excellence Award from APA Division 22. He was President of the Florida Psychological Association (FPA) and received numerous awards from FPA. His clinical work focused on rehabilitation of brain injury; he assisted the Department Veterans Affairs, Department of Defense, and Defense Health Board in developing guidance for the care of returning warriors with brain injury and PTSD. He served as the lead consultant to IBM in development of one of the first cognitive rehabilitation computer programs, the IBM THINKable System®. Dr. Cox is widely recognized in the areas of rehabilitation, neuropsychology, and competency in professional psychology.
Angelica M. Diaz-Martinez, PsyD is the DCT for the Clinical Department at Rutgers University GSAPP and an associate teaching professor. Prior to inadvertently being placed on a psychology course in her junior year of high school, she had planned to become an accountant while simultaneously running her family’s small business. Prior to her appointment at GSAPP she was the Senior VP for Operations for a non-profit agency serving developmentally disabled children and adults. Past appointments include being the Chief Psychologist and Director of Training for an APA-accredited psychology predoctoral internship program, at Jersey Shore University Medical Center. She served as an assistant professor of psychiatry at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School where she supervised psychiatry residents, taught medical students, and was an integral part of the research team for various NIH-funded projects. She further served as an assistant professor of psychology at Montclair State University, directing the Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology for Spanish/English Bilinguals Concentration for part of her time. Dr. Diaz-Martinez has multiple peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, has presented at national conferences, and was a guest expert on the Telemundo network concerning mental health topics impacting the Latino community.
Vicki DiLillo, PhD had every intention of applying to medical school as an undergraduate who loved biology. However, a summer-long research experience in psychology prompted a change of postgraduate plans. Vicki decided to leverage her interest in both physical and mental health to pursue a PhD in clinical health psychology. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship, Vicki accepted a faculty position at an academic medical center where her time was devoted to implementing large-scale grant-funded projects. While in this position, Vicki had the opportunity to teach and mentor students in both medicine and public health. No one was more surprised than Vicki when teaching gradually grew to be the most personally fulfilling aspect of her work. Ultimately, she decided to refocus her professional efforts and seek out a position where high-quality teaching was prized. She was thrilled to accept a faculty position at a liberal arts college where she has the opportunity to share her passion for psychology and research with undergraduates.
Ilyse Dobrow DiMarco, PhD spent the majority of her first year in graduate school pining for her bygone days as a college a cappella dork. She has since given up on her dreams of stardom and is now a licensed clinical psychologist and writer specializing in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety and stress, with a subspecialty in working with parents of young children. She is the Founder/Director of the North Jersey Center for Anxiety and Stress Management in Summit, NJ and a Diplomate of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy. She was previously an Assistant Director of the Anxiety Disorders Clinic at the Rutgers Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology. She earned her BA in psychology from Yale University and her PhD in clinical psychology from Rutgers University. Dr. Dobrow DiMarco’s writing on maternal stress and anxiety has been featured in The Washington Post, Motherwell, Motherly, Pop Sugar Moms, Psychology Today, Scary Mommy, The Week, and Today Parenting, as well as on her own blog, DrCBTmom.com. She is the author of the book Mom Brain: Proven Strategies to Fight the Anxiety, Guilt, and Overwhelming Emotions of Motherhood – And Relax Into Your New Self.
Daniel Dodgen, PhD knew nothing about psychology and public policy in grad school, but he now works as Senior Advisor for the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Dr. Dodgen also served as the Executive Director of the White House-directed national advisory group on disaster mental health and has overseen the behavioral health response to multiple natural disasters, public health emergencies, and mass violence incidents. Before joining HHS, Dr. Dodgen was Senior Legislative & Federal Affairs Officer at the American Psychological Association (APA) following an AAAS Fellowship with the US House of Representatives. He received the American Psychological Association 2005 Early Career Award and currently serves on the APA Board for the Advancement of Psychology in the Public Interest. He is also on the Board of Directors of the International Association of Applied Psychology. In 2016, Dr. Dodgen was selected as a Harvard Kennedy School Senior Executive Fellow. He received his Bachelor’s degrees in Spanish and Psychology at the University of Southern California and his MA and PhD in Clinical Psychology at the University of Houston. He is a licensed clinical psychologist in Washington, DC.
Nathan H. Field is a second-year graduate student in the Developmental Psychology PhD Program at the University of North Carolina, working in the Peer Relations Lab with Dr. Mitch Prinstein. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Bachelor of Science in Cognitive Science from the University of Delaware. After graduation, he worked as a research associate in a developmental neuroscience laboratory at Penn State, in his hometown of State College, Pennsylvania. While his research interests span a wide variety of topics within adolescent development, his recent work has focused on how popularity, peer rejection, and peer influence susceptibility impact adolescents’ development. He also has led several discussion sections among UNC undergraduates for a course on how technology and social media may influence the adolescent brain, which cemented his interest in teaching. In the future, Nathan hopes to be a professor of Developmental Psychology, with plans to conduct his own research on adolescent peer relationships.
Ellen E. Fitzsimmons-Craft, PhD is an assistant professor of psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine and a licensed clinical psychologist with an extensive research background in eating disorders. She has established programmatic lines of research centering on the use of Internet and technology for eating disorder prevention and treatment, eating disorder screening, sociocultural, etiological and maintenance factors for eating disorders, and eating disorder recovery. Ultimately her work aims to disseminate evidence-based interventions from research to practice as well as extend treatments in ways that will reach the large number of people in need of care for mental health problems but who are not receiving services. Dr. Fitzsimmons-Craft is a Fellow in the Academy for Eating Disorders and current recipient of a National Institute of Mental Health K08 Career Development Award. She is passionate about increasing access to scalable, evidence-based mental health services, particularly for vulnerable populations, collaborating with numerous non-profit organizations and statewide groups in order to do so. Dr. Fitzsimmons-Craft is also a dedicated mentor and supervisor and particularly enjoys aiding trainees in becoming the next generation of future leaders in psychology.
Kara A. Fox is a graduate student in the Clinical Psychology PhD program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, working with Dr. Mitch Prinstein. She graduated from Duke University with a BA in psychology and visual media studies. Subsequently, as a research assistant under Dr. Anthony Spirito at Brown University, she worked on several studies examining mental health and treatment access among youth in the juvenile justice system. She is interested in the effects of social media use on development and health among adolescents and young adults. Her recent work in this area has investigated depression and suicide risk, emotional responses, sleep, friendship quality, and digital status-seeking behavior. In addition to research, Kara loves teaching, working with children and families, and writing, and is excited to be in a field that allows for it all.
B. Christopher Frueh, PhD is a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Hawai’i at Hilo where his research and teaching are focused on the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He is a member of the Talent War Group and a salvage consultant with Gray Ghost Solutions – a Houston-based group that provides private and government sector solutions to include medical and security concerns. He has 30 years of professional experience working with military veterans and active-duty personnel, and has conducted clinical trials, epidemiology, historical, and neuroscience research. Most of his recent work has been with the military special operations community and contract work related to national security.
Karen Gavin-Evans, PhD is the wife of a geriatric neuropsychologist (can’t have too much psychology in a household) and a mother of two teenagers. After one psychology course in high school, she was determined to pursue a degree in psychology. She completed her bachelor’s degree at Spelman College and her doctoral degree in clinical child psychology from the University of Miami, Coral Gables. Her dissertation research solidified an interest in community-based research, which laid the pathway for a community-based internship at Baylor College of Medicine, a psychology fellowship at the Harris County Department of Education in Houston, Texas, and a postdoctoral fellowship at Juniper Gardens Children’s Project at The University of Kansas. Over the years, she has sampled various industries – academia, private sector, and government. She is currently leading the Extramural Policy Branch at the National Institute of Mental Health. Previously, she served as a Scientific Review Officer, where she organized scientific peer review meetings focused on services, treatment interventions, and prevention interventions. Before joining the government, Dr. Gavin-Evans was an Assistant Professor in the School Psychology Program at Indiana University, Bloomington. Later, she accepted a research position at a private health communications company in Maryland.
Amrita C. Ghaness was a project assistant for the Center for Workforce Studies at the American Psychological Association while working on contributions to a chapter in this edition. She earned her BA from Florida Atlantic University and is in the process of earning her MEd in Mental Health Counseling. At APA, she assisted in research projects examining the psychology workforce and education pipeline. Additionally, she participated in the dissemination of the results of these research projects and enjoyed getting to work with a variety of data sources.
June Gruber, PhD is an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Colorado and Director of the Positive Emotion and Psychopathology Laboratory. She received her PhD in clinical psychology and BA in psychology from the University of California Berkeley and was previously an assistant professor of psychology at Yale University. Dr. Gruber has published over 100 articles and chapters and has edited or co-edited the Oxford Handbook of Positive Emotion and Psychopathology and Positive Emotion: Integrating the Light Sides and Dark Sides. June was always interested in the human mind and loved philosophy as a student but never had any idea what academia looked like and made some stumbles along the way, and realizes that she would have benefited a lot from a resource like this book along the way!
Corey J. Habben, PsyD has been highly involved as a psychologist and advocate for the unique issues of early career psychologists. After getting his early start as a young, idealistic graduate student at the turn of the millennium, he has since written and presented extensively on early career psychologist and student issues and has represented new psychologists in several capacities within the American Psychological Association (APA). He initially led the task force that recommended the establishment of an APA committee for early career psychologists and previously served as one of APA’s then-youngest former division presidents. He also co-edited the book Life After Graduate School in Psychology: Insider’s Advice From New Psychologists with Robert Morgan and Tara Kuther. Dr. Habben is currently Deputy Service Chief of the Adult Outpatient Behavioral Health Clinic at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, MD and has worked at Walter Reed since 2002.
Le Ondra Clark Harvey, PhD spent much of her childhood swearing she would never be a mental health professional. After realizing that this was her calling early in undergraduate school, she majored in psychology and would attain her PhD in Counseling Psychology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Her clinical work led her to discover her passion for working with disenfranchised clients and their families, and out of this work grew her desire to make change on a systems level. She found a place to advocate for those she used to serve when she stepped away from her position at UCLA to engage in an advocacy fellowship at the California State Capitol. This detour would lead her to a career in public policy after a six-year tenure at the Capitol. Today, she is the CEO of an advocacy organization that represents behavioral health agencies across the state of California. She sees this position as the perfect marriage of her clinical training coupled with her policy, political, and advocacy expertise. She encourages all mentees to keep their minds open to how the fundamental skills they learn in training can be used in various arenas to affect change.
Steven C. Hayes is a Nevada Foundation Professor in the Behavior Analysis program at the Department of Psychology at the University of Nevada. An author of 46 books and nearly 650 scientific articles, he is the developer of Relational Frame Theory, an account of human higher cognition, and has guided its extension to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, a popular evidence-based form of psychotherapy. Although according to Google Scholar he is among the 1100 most cited scholars in all areas of study in the world, he took three years to get into graduate school because the Chair of his undergraduate department decided that men with long hair were untrustworthy and said so in his recommendation, and the Chair of his first academic department as a faculty member told him that he was a deletant because of his broad interests, and would never amount to anything. He’s spent the last 45 years advising students, including his now over 50 PhD candidates, how to succeed by staying true to their own vision.
Andrea Hussong, PhD tried out majors in communications, drama, and physics as a first-generation college student before falling in love with psychology. After four years in the desert under mentor extraordinaire, Laurie Chassin, she emerged with a passion for research and training. She is now a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of North Carolina. She counts her time with the predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees at the Carolina Consortium on Human Development (at the Center for Developmental Science) as precious and is grateful to every student she has mentored for all the lessons they have offered her.
Elissa Jelalian, PhD is Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior and Pediatrics at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University and Senior Research Scientist and Associate Director of The Miriam Hospital’s Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center. Her federally funded research program has included a series of clinical trials examining novel interventions to enhance weight control outcomes for adolescents, including those with comorbid mental health concerns. Her recent work focuses on dissemination of evidenced-based weight control treatments to low-resource community settings as well as development of programming to prevent excess summer weight gain in children from low-income backgrounds. She is the recipient of both departmental and national mentoring awards. Elissa is currently the Director of the Clinical Psychology Postdoctoral Fellowship Training Program at Brown. Of note, she secured her own postdoctoral fellowship position when a slot opened up at the last minute, started her fellowship a month later, and has been at the same institution since.
Shawn C.T. Jones, PhD is currently an assistant professor of psychology in the counseling program at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). Prior to relocating to Richmond, Dr. Jones was a National Science Foundation SBE Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education. He received his doctorate in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis on Children and Families from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was a child clinical psychology predoctoral intern at UCLA. He also holds a Master of Health Science in Mental Health from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health (2010) and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Duke University (2008). Dr. Jones endeavors to impact the psychosocial well-being of Black youth and their families by: (a) exploring mechanisms undergirding culturally relevant protective and promotive factors; (b) translating basic research into interventions that harness the unique strengths of the Black experience; and (c) disseminating this research to be consumed, critiqued, and enhanced by the communities the work intends to serve. As a graduate student Shawn was a gentle boat-rocker in his department who never imagined that he would now be having graduate students of his own (life comes at you fast!).
Barbara Kamholz, PhD, ABPP, is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine, and is board-certified in Cognitive and Behavioral Psychology. She serves as Associate Director of Outpatient Mental Health Services at VA Boston, and as Director of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Education for the Boston University Psychiatry Residency. Dr. Kamholz has served in multiple leadership positions in the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) and the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), where she is currently Senior Advisor for Professional Education. In addition to these roles and her private clinical practice, Dr. Kamholz is a grassroots communications specialist, applying behavioral principles to enhance the messaging and mission of various organizations and advocacy groups. Dr. Kamholz’s current academic work focuses on interprofessional CBT training and mentorship. Although the idea of working in so many different domains was previously extremely unappealing, this mix of interests and projects now feels exciting and engaging. It’s also a great way to enhance flexibility and best integrate her multiple personal, professional, and social justice priorities. Dr. Kamholz lives near Boston with her husband, teenage daughter, and three rescue dogs.
Alan E. Kazdin, PhD, ABPP, is Sterling Professor of Psychology and Child Psychiatry (Emeritus) at Yale University. He has been Director of the Yale Parenting Center, Chairman of the Psychology Department, Director and Chairman of the Yale Child Study Center at the School of Medicine, and Director of Child Psychiatric Services at Yale–New Haven Hospital. Dr. Kazdin’s research has focused primarily on the treatment of aggressive and antisocial behavior in children and adolescents. His 800+ publications include 50 books that focus on methodology and research design, interventions for children and adolescents, behavioral and cognitive-behavioral treatment, parenting and child rearing, and interpersonal violence. His work on parenting and childrearing has been featured on NPR, PBS, BBC, and CNN and he has appeared on the Today Show, Good Morning America, ABC News, 20/20, and Dr. Phil. Dr. Kazdin has received a number of awards including the Outstanding Research Contribution by an Individual Award and Lifetime Achievement Award (Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies), Outstanding Lifetime Contributions to Psychology Award and Distinguished Scientific Award for the Applications of Psychology (American Psychological Association), the James McKeen Cattell Award (Association for Psychological Science), and the Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in the Science of Psychology (American Psychological Foundation). In 2008, he was president of the American Psychological Association.
Muniya Khanna, PhD is a clinical psychologist specializing in CBT for anxiety disorders and OCD. She is Founder and Director of the OCD & Anxiety Institute in Pennsylvania and Research Scientist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Prior to this, Dr. Khanna held a faculty position at the University of Pennsylvania Department of Psychiatry. She is a pioneer in web-based mental health research having spent the last decade working towards improving access to evidence-based mental health services in underresourced populations by leveraging technology. Dr. Khanna would have ended up in medical school if she hadn’t met Dr. Martin Seligman as an undergrad who inspired her to pursue a career in psychology. Since then, she was fortunate enough to have been involved in some of the most important research in the field of child anxiety in the last 15 years, including the Pediatric OCD Treatment Study (JAMA; Franklin et al., 2011), Family-based Treatment of Early Childhood OCD (JAMA; Freeman et al., 2014), and Child and Adolescent Anxiety Multimodal Treatment Study (NEJM; Walkup et al., 2008) trials.
Carl W. Lejuez, PhD is a professor in the department of psychological sciences and the provost at the University of Connecticut (UConn). He came to UConn from the University of Kansas (KU) where he previously served as interim provost as well as dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Prior to KU, he was a professor and the director of clinical training in the clinical psychology program at the University of Maryland, where he also was the founding director of the Center for Addictions, Personality, and Emotion Research (CAPER). He began his academic career as a first-generation college student at Emory University and was a graduate student at West Virginia University, where he was way too intense and drank Diet Mountain Dew instead of coffee to stay awake. Dr. Lejuez’s research is transdisciplinary in nature with a focus on common behavioral factors and treatment development spanning addiction, depression, and personality disorders. He has a strong interest in mentorship and professional development for students and has served as a mentor or co-mentor for over 20 National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF) individual training fellowships, and as the director of a NIH predoctoral training program at the intersection of neuroscience and addiction treatment development.
Luona Lin is a senior research officer at the American Psychological Association’s Center for Workforce Studies. She holds a master’s degree in public policy from the George Washington University and a dual bachelor’s degree in urban studies and economics from Peking University. As an undergraduate student, she discovered her deep interests in data and decided to choose a career path working with data upon graduation. Through the use of internal surveys, administrative data, and federal data, she now provides key information about the education and the profession of psychology.
Kristen A. Lindquist, PhD is an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience in the School of Arts and Sciences and the Biomedical Research Imaging Center and the Neurobiology Curriculum in the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After a disastrous experience with drosophila in first-year genetics, she turned to psychology and neuroscience and never looked back. She received her AB in Psychology and English from Boston College in 2004 and received a PhD in Psychology from Boston College in 2010. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard University Mind/Brain/Behavior Institute from 2010 to 2012, where she was affiliated with the Department of Psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of Neurology in the School of Medicine, and the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging/Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Lindquist’s lab combines tools from social cognition, physiology, neuroimaging, and neuropsychology to investigate how the brain and body create emotional experiences and allow people to perceive emotions in others. She is the recipient of multiple early career awards such as being named a Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science. She has also received multiple awards for teaching and mentorship through the University of North Carolina and is increasingly dedicated to making science a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive enterprise.
Elizabeth Lloyd-Richardson, PhD learned about Jane Elliott’s well-known blue-eyes/brown-eyes race discrimination experiment and how it relates to current racial injustice in a high school psychology course. She was hooked. Psychology is just as relevant and timely as ever, and the field continues to help each of us understand more about ourselves, our interactions with others, and the society we live in. Elizabeth received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Louisiana State University, and specialized in clinical health psychology while completing her internship, postdoctoral fellowship, and junior faculty years at a large academic medical center. Elizabeth is currently a professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, where she is able to mentor and work alongside her graduate students, continue with her international research collaborations, engage in meaningful volunteer work, and spend as much time as possible working outside!
Christopher L. Loftis, PhD is a licensed clinical psychologist with 20 years of policy, program management, and practice experience in non-profit, commercial, and government sectors. He has extensive knowledge of health policy and the administration, financing, and regulatory oversight of private and public health services, including the DoD Military Health System and VA Healthcare services. Chris Loftis knew early in his graduate school training that he would pursue a non-traditional career path when he went to work for Senator Kennedy immediately after completing his internship and postdoc at Kennedy Krieger. He has also served as Director of State Policy and Practice Improvement at the National Council; Principal Policy Analyst at the National Health Policy Forum; and Business Manager/Senior Mental Health Consultant on DoD contracts providing program management support for interagency initiatives, development of health care policy and clinical best practices, and DoD, HHS, and VA governance activities. Chris Loftis is currently the National Director for VA/DoD Mental Health Collaboration within the Veterans Health Administration Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention.
Brett Major, PhD is a User Experience Researcher at Facebook. Brett works on the Community Integrity team whose mission is to minimize bad experiences for people on Facebook by conducting research on the definition and application of Facebook’s community standards to build safe, inclusive experiences. Brett earned his MA in Psychology at Wake Forest University and his PhD in Social Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In graduate school, his research focused primarily on topics like: how positive emotions facilitate emotion regulation after negative experiences and how moments of positive social connection promote health and well-being.
Sarah Martin, PhD is an assistant professor in the Department of Anesthesiology & Perioperative Care in the University of California Irvine (UCI) School of Medicine and is on medical staff as a research collaborator in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Children’s Hospital of Orange County. After what Dr. Martin now considers lucky graduate school rejections, she was introduced to the field of Pediatric Psychology and never looked back. Dr. Martin was fortunate to join Dr. Lindsey Cohen’s dynamic and supportive lab, and she received her PhD in clinical psychology from Georgia State University. She completed her clinical internship at Brown University Warren Alpert Medical School and postdoctoral fellowship in the Pediatric Pain and Palliative Care Program at the University of California, Los Angeles. Based in a biopsychosocial framework, Dr. Martin’s research aims to identify behavioral, social–cultural, and psychophysiological factors that improve pediatric pain outcomes and reduce pain management disparities surrounding invasive procedures, chronic pain, and sickle cell disease. Dr. Martin also provides treatment for youth with chronic pain in the UCI Center for Comprehensive Pain Management.
Luis D. Medina, PhD is a first-generation college and advanced degree recipient born in Puerto Rico and raised in Connecticut. As a college student at Yale University, he explored numerous training options. He considered various paths – e.g., psychiatry, cognitive science, developmental psychology – and sought out numerous opportunities to gain exposure to these disciplines. After deciding on clinical psychology, he completed post-baccalaureate training at the University of California, Los Angeles where he discovered both the specialty discipline of clinical neuropsychology and the rewarding experience he gets from working with older adult populations coping with neurodegenerative disease. He completed his PhD training at the San Diego State University/University of California, San Diego Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology with a focus on neuropsychology. Following his predoctoral internship at the West Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Medical Center and postdoctoral training at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, he joined the Department of Psychology faculty at the University of Houston as an assistant professor. His research program examines culture and health disparities in cognitive aging.
Jane Mendle, PhD is an associate professor in the Department of Human Development at Cornell University. She received her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Virginia and completed her predoctoral internship at Weill Cornell Medical College. She is the recipient of the Young Investigator Award from the Society of Research on Adolescence, the Thompson Award from the Behavior Genetics Association, the New Investigator Award from the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, and was named a “Rising Star” by the Association for Psychological Science. Her research has been profiled in numerous media outlets, including the BBC, The Economist, The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, and Newsweek. She is a licensed clinical psychologist in the state of New York. She spent her graduate school years dabbling in novel writing as well as research. Last year, she sent her mentor a belated thank you note; it was only after becoming a faculty member that she realized how exceptional his patience had been.
Adam B. Miller, PhD was convinced that he would be a librarian when he was growing up. He is a first-generation college student. Now, Adam is a licensed clinical psychologist, Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Research Clinical Psychologist at RTI International. His program of research focuses on youth suicide prevention, with an emphasis on psychological and biological mechanisms of suicide risk. He still loves libraries.
Kim I. Mills is senior director of strategic external communications and public affairs for the American Psychological Association, with responsibility for APA’s public messaging and media relations. She is also creator and host of APA’s award-winning flagship podcast, “Speaking of Psychology.” Mills has extensive media experience, including being interviewed by The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and other top-tier print media. She has appeared on CNN, Good Morning America, CSPAN, and the BBC, to name a few of her broadcast engagements. Before joining APA, Mills spent eight years as a top executive and spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign. As assistant vice president of the HRC Foundation, she led projects such as the National Coming Out Project, as well as programs seeking equality in the workplace, organized religion and the family. She was editor of Equality magazine and created the Equality Index, which rates workplaces based on policies regarding equality for LGBTQ employees and customers. Earlier in her career, Mills spent 14 years as a reporter and editor for The Associated Press, based first in New York and later in Washington, DC. She has also written for The Washington Post, Fast Company, the American Journalism Review, The Dallas Morning News, MSNBC.com, and the Harvard Business Review, among other publications. Mills holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Barnard College and a master’s in journalism from New York University.
Antonio A. Morgan-López, PhD is a Fellow in Quantitative Psychology in RTI International’s Community Health Research Division (CoHRD). As an undergraduate at Morgan State University in Baltimore, he dreamed of (a) developing prevention interventions for at-risk ethnic minority youth and (b) getting enough quantitative training in graduate school to not have to hire a biostatistician. As a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at Arizona State University (ASU), he’d get headaches during core clinical courses and found treating patients way too daunting; for some reason, these headaches went away during his quantitative methods coursework. So he readmitted into the ASU quantitative psychology doctoral program in his third year of graduate school (while receiving an MA in clinical along the way). His current work melds elements of his clinical and quant training, centering around the development and application of advanced quantitative methodologies in the context of randomized and non-randomized behavioral health intervention trials. He has also served as Principal Investigator (PI) on five National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants between 2006 and 2021, with interests in differential symptom functioning across populations in estimating psychiatric disorder severity under advanced forms of factor analysis and Item Response Theory (IRT), propensity score weighting for mediation and moderation analysis and generalized non-linear mixed modeling with random treatment effects.
Elizabeth Henshaw Musewicz, MS, LPC had the good fortune to learn from Dr. Barnett’s mistakes and from the writing of the first edition of this chapter and has successfully maintained a small independent practice outside of Philadelphia, PA since 2005. While her primary specialty centers around the prevention and treatment of child sexual abuse, her professional journey to independent practice lead her through multiple settings and client populations. These experiences awarded her the confidence and competence to also help others with grief and loss, complex PTSD, gender and sexual identity, and issues stemming from disrupted attachment. She is raising a lifelong unschooler and loves to learn by his side. She also enjoys cooking, running, and volunteering to support vulnerable children and families.
Matthew K. Nock, PhD was a first-generation college student who worked his way through Boston University (1995) as a cook, after which he moved to New York City to pursue his newfound career plans in psychology. Unfortunately, he could not find work in psychology given his complete lack of research experience, and so he spent several more years as a cook while pursuing various volunteer positions (e.g., runaway shelter, hotline, psychiatric research assistant). He was fortunate to be admitted to the PhD program at Yale University (2003). He went on to complete his internship at NYU-Bellevue and to be hired as an assistant professor of Psychology at Harvard (2003). Nock currently is the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology, a Harvard College Professor (2019–2024), and the Chair of the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. In his research, he uses a multidisciplinary methodological approach (e.g., epidemiologic surveys, laboratory-based experiments, and clinic-based studies) to better understand, predict, and prevent suicide and other forms of self-harm.
Amanda Parks graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. After working for three years as a research assistant at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia on two teams dedicated to community-based violence and aggression prevention research, she decided to apply to graduate school with hopes to conduct strengths-based, culturally empowering research with Black children and their families. After almost deferring her application to the following year’s cycle as a result of low Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores, she ultimately enrolled at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in the clinical psychology doctoral program (concentration: child/adolescent), working with Dr. Heather Jones. Broadly, she researches how Black parenting and other racial-ethnic protective values can be utilized in the prevention and treatment of mental health concerns for Black youth. Further, she engages in research to develop and evaluate culturally sensitive and congruent interventions in pediatric primary care and outpatient settings to assist in equitable mental health access and treatment for Black children and their families. After graduation, she desires a career as a scholar activist wherein she can improve the mental wellness of Black children and families through the dissemination of culturally-congruent and empowering research via policy recommendations, community collaborations, and clinical practice.
Olivia H. Pollak is a clinical psychology graduate student at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill. After graduating from Yale University in 2016 with degrees in psychology and history, Olivia worked in federal healthcare consulting in Washington, DC and almost enrolled in law school before returning to psychology research. Prior to UNC, she worked as a research assistant in Dr. Ian Gotlib’s and Dr. Jutta Joormann’s labs at Stanford and Yale Universities, and then as lab manager for Dr. Christine Cha at Teachers College, Columbia University. Broadly, Olivia is interested in cognitive, affective, and interpersonal processes associated with suicide and self-injury. Outside of the psychology lab, Olivia loves history and maintains that the undergraduate training she received as a history major was invaluable to her current thinking about psychological science.
Kenneth S. Pope, PhD, ABPP is a licensed psychologist. A Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science (APS), he served as chair of the Ethics Committees of both the American Board of Professional Psychology and the American Psychological Association (APA). He received the APA Award for Distinguished Contributions to Public Service, the APA Division 12 Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions to Clinical Psychology, the Canadian Psychological Association’s John C. Service Member of the Year Award, and the Ontario Psychological Association’s Barbara Wand Award for significant contribution to excellence in professional ethics and standards.
Mitchell J. Prinstein, PhD, ABPP wanted to be an actor, a teacher, or the ice cream man when he was growing up. Thanks to amazing mentors, he found psychological science and dedicated himself to the best field in the world. He now serves as the Chief Science Officer of the American Psychological Association and the John Van Seters Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. For over 25 years, and with continuous funding from NIH, Mitch’s research has examined interpersonal models of internalizing symptoms and health risk behaviors among adolescents, with a specific focus on the unique role of on- and offline peer relationships in the developmental psychopathology of depression and self-injury. He has published over 180 peer-reviewed papers and 9 books, including an undergraduate textbook in clinical psychology, graduate volumes on assessment and treatment in clinical child and adolescent psychology, a set of encyclopedias on adolescent development, and the acclaimed trade book, Popular: Finding Happiness and Success in a World That Cares Too Much About the Wrong Kinds of Relationships. He is a past Editor for the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, a past president of the Society for the Science of Clinical Psychology and the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, and has served on the Board of Directors of the American Psychological Association. Mitch and his work have been featured in over 200 pieces internationally, in outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, the Los Angeles Times, CNN, U.S. News & World Report, Time magazine, New York magazine, Newsweek, Reuters, Family Circle, Real Simple, All Things Considered, and in two TEDx talks.
William Rando, PhD began his scholarly life studying English Literature and dabbling in journalism and psychology at Boston College. He then did a master’s degree at Northwestern in which he tried to reconcile the humanistic study of rhetoric with the social science approaches to persuasion, during which time he became fascinated with the study of learning and its counterpart, teaching. After two years of teaching full-time at Northeastern University and picking up additional classes at area colleges (to pay his bills), he decided to return to Northwestern to explore teaching and learning in his PhD program, during which time he found that his true calling was as a translational scholar and action researcher: testing and refining his own understanding of teaching and learning by advancing skilled practices within his community of university teachers. In the past 30+ years, he has taught and led centers for teaching and learning at Northwestern University, Florida International University, Yale University, and the University of Chicago, where he continues his work today.
Elizabeth K. Reynolds, PhD is an associate professor in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. She serves as the Director of Acute Psychological Services within the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and co-director of the Pediatric Medical Psychology Program. Dr. Reynolds received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2011. She completed her predoctoral internship training at Alpert Medical School of Brown University Clinical Psychology Training Consortium. Research and clinical interests focus on (a) patient safety, quality, and behavioral programming within youth psychiatric acute care, and (b) social–contextual and self-regulatory factors associated with adolescent health risk behaviors. She has lead efforts to develop, implement, and disseminate Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) to reduce the use of seclusion, restraint, and pro re nata (PRN) medication use in acute psychiatric care settings (i.e., inpatient and day hospital services). Through the twists and turns of graduate school and career development her north star has been to enhance behavioral health care for children and adolescents.
Monica Rivers, PhD had a desire for career flexibility at the top of her mind, even as an undergraduate. Informed by experiences in an NIH-funded biomedical research fellowship for undergraduates and an eye-opening summer research assistantship at the University of Miami, Monica chose to pursue a PhD in clinical psychology. The opportunity to engage in a combination of research, teaching, and clinical roles supported her varied interests and lifestyle choices. Although she could have never in her wildest dreams imagined how her career would unfold, she consistently sought to maximize the affordances of her degree through a range of professional opportunities, ultimately deciding to leverage her education and training in service of leadership and organization development. She has been living the dream as a consultant and executive coach for the past 10 years, working with leaders across sectors from all over the world. She is particularly proud of her engagement in efforts that have served to promote health equity and women’s leadership. Monica considers it a privilege to partner with and walk alongside clients who are striving to realize their gifts and live into the fullness of their vocational calling.
Abigail Robbertz is a third-year clinical psychology graduate student at Georgia State University. She received a Bachelor of Science in Psychology with a minor in Neuroscience at The Ohio State University. She is co-mentored by Drs. Lindsey Cohen and Lisa Armistead, and Ms. Robbertz conducts research examining the impact of chronic illnesses on pediatric populations within the family context. For example, Ms. Robbertz is examining the impact of the pandemic on adherence and well-being in youth with gastrointestinal disorders, and she is particularly interested in whether the parent–child relationship might buffer these relations. After earning her doctorate, Ms. Robbertz hopes to marry her interests in clinical work and research with a career in a pediatric medical center.
Katie Rosanbalm, PhD knew she wanted to use research to create real-world solutions to improve child outcomes as a graduate student in child clinical psychology–but she had no idea whether or where such jobs might exist! Happily, through her clinical internship at Duke, she found the Center for Child and Family Policy. Dr. Rosanbalm now serves as a Senior Research Scientist at this Duke center, developing and evaluating interventions that target self-regulation and trauma-informed care. Current projects include: (a) the North Carolina Resilience and Learning project, a trauma-informed schools model developed in collaboration with the Public School Forum of North Carolina; (b) the Infant–Toddler Trauma-Informed Care (ITTI Care) project, a multitiered intervention to bring trauma-informed care and workforce wellness to early education; and (c) evaluation of Benchmark’s Partnering for Excellence project, with proactive trauma-informed assessment and services for children and youth involved with child welfare. Dr. Rosanbalm has co-authored a series of papers and briefs on self-regulation and toxic stress, and she regularly provides training for educators from early childhood through college levels on the potential impacts of toxic stress and the many pathways to resilience and healing.
Leonid Rozenblit, JD, PhD’s undergraduate studies at SUNY Buffalo could be politely described as “eclectic” (and more bluntly as “what was he thinking?!”): Psychology and pre-med with concentrations in Computer Science, Economics, and English Literature. His teaching experience began as a tutor for the Princeton Review (a test prep company) and briefly continued as a high school Science teacher in the NYC Public Schools. Having long assumed that he would become some sort of professor, based largely on an inclination for professing things, Leonid went on to study Law at the Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert International Law Center, where he refined his mentoring skills as a Senior Editor of the Louisiana Law Review. Discovering he was less interested in the minutia of legal practice than in the cognitive psychology of legal reasoning, he next pursued his intellectual interests by working on a PhD in psychology at Yale University, where he also served as a co-director of the Graduate Teaching Center. After completing his PhD, Leonid stayed at Yale to teach graduate and undergraduate statistics courses, while running a data management and consulting practice. That practice grew into Prometheus Research, a company that developed specialized data management systems (sometimes called “registries” or “data hubs”) for large-scale biomedical and behavioral research programs. Leonid led Prometheus to become a market leader in their niche and to a successful acquisition by the world’s largest Human Data Science company, IQVIA, Inc. Leonid continues to teach and mentor in a thought-leadership role, as the Head of the Registry Practice Center of Excellence and the Senior Director of Product and Strategy at IQVIA Healthcare, and he continues to be pleasantly surprised at how much teaching and mentoring is involved in his day-to-day work, even though it takes place outside a typical academic setting.
Amy Sato, PhD is an associate professor of Psychological Sciences and Director of the Pediatric Health and Stress Lab within the Department of Psychological Sciences at Kent State University. Dr. Sato’s program of federally funded research focuses on obesity and weight management among adolescents from lower resource environments. This has included biobehavioral factors such as cortisol reactivity and stress-induced eating related to obesity risk among adolescents from lower-income backgrounds and, currently, a clinical trial examining mindfulness to enhance adolescent weight management. Mentoring graduate students is one of the great joys of her academic position; thus, Dr. Sato has been thrilled about her students’ success, winning numerous national awards and landing prestigious postdoctoral positions. She did not know postdoctoral training existed when she entered graduate school, so she makes sure to mention this important part of the training process to her new graduate students.
Angela Scarpa, PhD, daughter of Italian immigrants, is a professor of psychology and Director of Clinical Training (DCT) at Virginia Tech. She is the Founder and Director of the Virginia Tech Autism Clinic & Center for Autism Research. Her general interest is in child and adolescent mental health, dissemination and implementation of evidence-based practices, and the study of developmental psychopathology. Currently, her work is focused on children, adolescents, and young adults with autism spectrum disorders. She completed her graduate education at the University of Southern California. Although she knew she wanted to be a clinical psychologist from a young age, she did not really know what was involved and feels fortunate it turned out to be something she loves!
Valerie A. Simon, PhD is a professor of psychology at Wayne State University with appointments in the Psychology Department and the Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute for Children and Families. Her federally funded research examines interpersonal development during adolescence, with a focus on the impact of childhood adversity and interpersonal violence exposure on romantic and sexual functioning. Dr. Simon is an active mentor for emerging scholars at all phases of professional development and has received awards for her mentoring. Her circuitous path to becoming a psychology professor started when she was a music therapist for special needs and psychiatrically hospitalized youth.
April R. Smith, PhD directs the Research on Eating Disorders and Suicidality (REDS) Laboratory at Auburn University. Dr. Smith decided to switch her major to psychology after getting a B in a poetry class and realizing she probably wasn’t going to make a living off her creative writing. She received her BA in Psychology and Plan II from the University of Texas at Austin. She then taught English in Japan for two years as part of the Japanese Exchange and Teaching Program. Dr. Smith received her PhD from Florida State University’s Clinical Psychology Program in 2012 and completed her clinical residency at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Smith was named a 2016 Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science. Dr. Smith has received funding from the Department of Defense and National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to support her work.
Anthony Spirito, PhD is Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University. After barely getting into graduate school, he completed his internship at Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH). He did an unpaid postdoc at BCH (not recommended, by the way) so he could remain in the Boston area because his wife had a good job there. He took a position at Brown after an intern he was supervising at BCH said she was turning down a job at Rhode Island Hospital to accept another offer with a more established program. In other words, his early professional career was unplanned and totally random. In the early 1990s, he was one of the founders of postdoctoral training in Brown’s Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior. He has a long history of mentoring postdoctoral fellows in the Department. He has also served as the Director of the Clinical Psychology Training Program at Brown and as Principal Investigator on Brown’s National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) postdoctoral T32. He is currently Principal Investigator on Brown’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) postdoctoral T32 in Child Mental Health.
Leigh A. Spivey-Rita, PhD is a clinical associate in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University Medical Center. Dr. Spivey-Rita earned her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2020. She completed her predoctoral internship in clinical psychology at Duke University Medical Center. Dr. Spivey-Rita developed a passion for studying gender diversity in children and adolescents when she was an undergraduate student. However, her path to this goal was long and winding throughout graduate school and she benefited immensely from taking detours and accepting successive approximations. She was fortunate to work with mentors who helped her to feel less adrift when the path forward was unclear. Dr. Spivey-Rita now provides outpatient therapy for gender diverse youth and their families and works in close collaboration with a multidisciplinary gender medicine team. She is passionate about advancing gender-affirmative, evidence-based mental health care for this population.
Karen E. Stamm, PhD is the Director of the Center for Workforce Studies at the American Psychological Association, where she oversees a team that conducts research on the psychology workforce and education pipeline. She is a quantitative psychologist and enjoys using data to tell compelling stories. Karen aims to inform career choices for psychology degree holders by showing the value and versatility of psychology education at work. She earned her PhD and MA in psychology from the University of Rhode Island and her BA in psychology and English from Boston College. As an undergraduate student, she learned an informal framework for making career decisions: What are your talents and gifts? What brings you joy? Who needs you to do it? Karen uses this framework at every career crossroad and has periodically used it to change her career goals. These questions helped her stumble into experiences that developed her expertise in quantitative psychology.
Robert J. Sternberg, PhD is Professor of Human Development in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University and Honorary Professor of Psychology at Heidelberg University, Germany. Previously, he was IBM Professor of Psychology and Education and Professor of Management at Yale and Director of the Yale Center for the Psychology of Abilities, Competencies, and Expertise. Sternberg is a Past President of the American Psychological Association and the Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences, the Eastern Psychological Association, and the International Association for Cognitive Education and Psychology. Sternberg also has been president of four divisions of the American Psychological Association and Treasurer of the Association of American Colleges and Universities. Sternberg’s BA is from Yale University summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, his PhD is from Stanford University, and he holds 13 honorary doctorates. Sternberg has won more than two dozen awards for his work, including the James McKeen Cattell Award and the William James Fellow Award from APS. He has won the E. Paul Torrance Award from the National Association for Gifted Children, 2006, and the Distinguished Scholar Award, also from the National Association for Gifted Children, 1985. He also is a past winner of the Grawemeyer Award in Psychology.
Steven Stone-Sabali, PhD is a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Educational Studies at The Ohio State University who passionately studies the psychological experiences of young adults of color as they navigate through educational and mental health settings, as well as cross-racial relationships and racial ally development. However, his research and professional interests were not always this clear to him. Instead, he actually received his undergraduate degree in the fields of Computer Science and Business, and even worked in the finance field before making a somewhat abrupt career change. Ultimately, he decided that it was better to follow his authentic interests in education and psychology, which led to him pursue a master’s degree in Counseling Psychology so he could become a high school guidance counselor. However, while completing his master’s degree he fell in love with reading about counseling and psychology, so to continue his studies he pursued a doctoral degree in Counseling Psychology. Altogether, he recognizes that career paths are rarely linear and graduate students often have more influence in creating their ideal careers then they realize. Thus, he encourages students to follow their interests!
Carol Williams-Nickelson, PsyD – have a career plan, work hard every step of the way, develop, nurture relationships, and be open to the opportunities that unfold before you even if they are not a part of your well-conceived plan. That’s what Dr. Williams-Nickelson did. Her original plan included seeing clients daily, teaching graduate courses, and leadership in psychology organizations. But that all changed when she became involved in APA, “caught the advocacy bug,” and began organizing graduate students to be involved in legislative advocacy and shape the profession they would inherit. Dr. Williams-Nickelson served as co-chair of the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students (APAGS) Advocacy Team and Chair of (APAGS). After internship at the University of Notre Dame, she had the choice to stay for a fellowship or accept APA’s offer as the first Associate Executive Director of APAGS. She chose APAGS and the rest is history. After APA, she became CEO of the American Medical Student Association and Foundation, then CEO of the National Council for Interior Design Qualification (developing/administering the profession’s competency and certification exam), and then Principle/Senior Consultant for HDev Consulting where she helped C-level Executives and Leadership Teams at Fortune 500 firms in Health, Finance, Pharmaceutical, Medical Device, Information Technology, Software/Platform, Retail, Hospitality and Government/Non-Profit sectors. She now leads a large, multilocation psychology practice in Virginia, where she provides clinical services, collaborates with eminent multidisciplinary health care practitioners, mentors/trains the next generation of health care providers and leaders, and continues to imagine and build innovative mental health programs that transform lives.
Erica H. Wise, PhD initially planned to major in Art History and French, but she is very glad to have found her way to Clinical Psychology because the work is so important and fulfilling. For 20 years she taught doctoral-level courses in the Clinical Psychology doctoral program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that focused on clinical supervision, clinical theory and practice, ethics, and diversity. She is currently a consultant, educator, and frequent workshop presenter on ethical issues in professional psychology. She was the recipient of the 2013 Annual APA Ethics Committee Award for Outstanding Contributions to Ethics Education and received a 2014 APA Presidential Citation for her work in social justice advocacy and self-care for psychologists. She is a Fellow of the Society of Clinical Psychology (Division 12) of APA, former chair of the APA Ethics Committee and the North Carolina Psychology Board, and she recently completed two terms on the APA Board Educational Affairs (BEA). She is a past-president of NCPA and current co-chair of the NCPA Ethics Committee. Her professional interests include professional education and training, multicultural supervision, continuing education for psychologists, and the integration of ethics, diversity, and self-care into academic and professional practice settings.
Philip G. Zimbardo is internationally recognized as the “voice and face of contemporary psychology” through his widely viewed PBS-TV series, Discovering Psychology, his media appearances, best-selling trade books, and his classic research, The Stanford Prison Experiment (1971). Zimbardo is a Stanford University Emeritus professor of psychology. He has been awarded the Vaclav Havel Foundation Prize for his lifetime of research on the human condition. Zimbardo has been President of the American Psychological Association (2002) and Chair of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents (CSSP). Among his more than 600 professional publications, including 60 trade and textbooks, is the oldest current textbook in psychology, Psychology and Life (20 editions). When he was a graduate student teaching introductory psychology to a Yale freshman seminar of 20 students (1957), he imagined what it would be like to be lecturing in a large auditorium to hundreds of students at a time. During his career at Stanford, he taught as many as 1200 students in the Drama School auditorium, and he recently lectured live to an audience of over 10,000 professionals at an Evolutionary Psychology Conference. Excitingly challenging!
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