CLINICAL & SCHOOL Psychology SUMMER 2015
Thank You! The Curry School Foundation recognizes the generosity of the following alumni from the Clinical and School Psychology programs who made donations in fiscal year 2015 (which ended June 30): Julia A. Blodgett Constance Booth Caldwell John F. Callahan Margaret Metcalf Dawson Thomas Jeffrey DeMaio Julia H. Green Andrew Jay Kind-Rubin Lauren Kopans Sandra Jean McCoy Kramos Maria Christina Morog Parthenia R. Randolph Cathleen A. Rea Franklin S. Rixey, Jr. John T. Schroll Jeffrey Seltzer Theodore Siedlecki, Jr. Donna Rachel Steinberg These gifts directly benefit Curry students and the quality of their educational experiences.
CLINICAL & SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY is edited by Lynn Bell, Director of Alumni Relations, and published by the Curry School of Education, P.O. Box 400268, Charlottesville, VA 22904. Email: lynnbell@virginia.edu #UVACurry
Dynamic Duo on Bullying
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he Curry School boasts two of the nation’s preeminent scholars on bullying, and in June Dewey Cornell and Catherine Bradshaw shared coveted space in a six-article special issue of the American Psychologist on school bullying and victimization. “Together, their contributions summarize the ways that bullying is effectively being addressed across the country through changes to education policy and school-wide prevention efforts,” says Jason Downer, director of Curry’s clinical and school psychology program. Cornell, a forensic clinical psychologist who has been on the Curry faculty since 1986, is perhaps best known for developing the Virginia Student Threat Assessment Guidelines. He is also director of the U.Va. Virginia Youth Violence Project and a faculty associate of the U .Va. Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy. His paper, “Law and Policy on the Concept of Bullying at School” (which was co-authored with Susan P. Limber of Clemson University), identified the conceptual challenges that bullying poses for legal and policy efforts, reviewed judicial and legislative efforts to reduce bullying, and made recommendations for school policy. “Dr. Cornell is a true leader in the area of school safety and school-based violence prevention,” says Bradshaw, associate dean for research and faculty development at Curry. “There are few people in our field whose work has made such an important impact – on policy and practice.” Bradshaw joined the clinical and school psychology faculty in 2013. She collaborates on federally supported randomized trials of school-based prevention programs and works with the Maryland State Department of Education and several school districts to support the development and implementation of programs and policies to prevent bullying and school violence and to foster safe and supportive learning environments. Her paper, “Translating Research to Practice in Bullying Prevention,” synthesized findings from a series of studies and meta-analyses examining the efficacy of bullying prevention programs. She concluded that although bullying prevention programs can be effective in reducing bullying and victimization among school-aged youth more work is needed to increase the acceptability, fidelity, and sustainability of existing programs in order to improve bullying-related outcomes for youth. —continued on page 2
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—”Bullying,” continued from page 1
“Dr. Bradshaw has a comprehensive and integrative knowledge of the field that allowed her to place bullying in a broader school context and show how systematic approaches to school discipline, such as the positive behavioral interventions and supports model, can facilitate learning and healthy development as well as reduce bullying,” Cornell says. “She has brought sagacious attention to the quality,
fidelity, and sustainability of school programs as essential to their success.” The pair shared the stage last December in Richmond at the Strengthening Connections: Fostering a Positive School Climate Summit. They tag-teamed a discussion of “What the Data Say,” at the invitation of the event’s sponsors, the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services, the Department of
Education, the Department of Health, and the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services.
Bradshaw and Cornell are each currently extending their school safety work through separate research projects funded by the National Institute of Justice in fall 2014. Together, their NIJ grants totaled $6.1 million.
Read more about Bradshaw’s and Cornell’s NIJ research at curry.virginia.edu/clinpsychnewsletter
A
fter 40 years on the Curry School’s clinical and school psychology faculty, Ron Reeve is looking forward to retirement at the end of the upcoming academic year, and it will be hard to see him go. Over the course of his career at the Curry School, Reeve has made major contributions to the fields of psychological and educational assessment of learning disabilities and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children. He has served on boards and committees with a number of national professional associations. For his service to the Commonwealth of Virginia around both of these topics, he was named a charter member of the Virginia Psychological Foundation Hall of Fame in 2012. Reeve has made many contributions through his leadership within the Curry School, as well. “Ron’s administrative and interpersonal skills have played a central role in the success of the Curry programs,” says Dick Abidin, Professor Emeritus. “His guidance and efforts insured that our students could be licensed both as clinical and school psychologists, which is one of the unique features of our program.” Reeve directed the clinical and school psychology program for a total of 14 years, interrupted midway by a term of seven years as chair of the Department of Human Services. “Ron has been a champion for our program,” says Professor Ann Loper. “He leads with a brilliant combination of vision, determination, and skill. He has the great sense of timing that distinguishes effective leaders—when it makes sense to press on and when it is best to wait. And he does all of this with kindness and generosity, always there when a student, fellow faculty member or member of our greater community needs a hand.” 2
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In recent years, Reeve’s research has turned to helping children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. He was instrumental in the development of Curry Autism Spectrum Services, a multidisciplinary clinic within the Sheila C. Johnson Center that specializes in the assessment of Autism Spectrum Disorder and developmental disabilities. He was also the coinvestigator on a U.S. Department of Defense funded study on using virtual reality driving simulators to train and evaluate the driving skills of teens with Asperger’s and high-functioning autism. “Ron is a wonderful mentor, providing support and guidance to his doctoral students,” says doctoral student Tiffany Torigoe-Lai. “He cares deeply about his students and is constantly advocating on their behalf, ensuring their growth as both researchers and clinicians.” Alumnus Anthony Pisani (M.Ed. ’97, Ph.D. ’01) said that Ron has “an understated style of leadership and mentoring that puts people at ease.” Ron himself has said that his proudest achievement is having had a direct role in training over 300 doctoral psychologists. Among his former students is Peg Dawson, a former president of the National Association of School Psychologists and career achievement honoree. Dawson says that having Ron as a doctoral mentor felt as much like a friendship as a mentorship. “And the friendship has lasted a long time!” she says. “I look forward to seeing him and catching up on his life whenever our paths intersect in Charlottesville or at NASP.” His former students also include more than 30 university faculty and a host of practicing child psychologists, including many working in leadership positions in schools and mental health/medical centers.
P H OTO B Y DA N A D D I S O N
Ron Reeve Ready to Retire
“To the extent that they remember something important that I taught them, I will feel that I have a worthwhile legacy out there,” Reeve adds. He says that after next May, he and his wife Louise look forward to travel, more time with their grandchildren, reading for fun, and more. “I also look forward to reconnecting with former students and other friends,” he says. He expects to continue being involved in part-time clinical work and student supervision through the Sheila C. Johnson Center, especially continuing the work of our autism specialty clinic there. “I have three students remaining for whom I am the research mentor, and I’ll certainly see them through finishing their Ph.Ds, and the launching of their professional careers,” he says.
Alumni Spotlight Nancy Kassam-Adams (M.Ed. ‘92, Ph.D ‘95)
Howard Crumpton (M.Ed. ‘08, Ph.D ‘12)
Associate director for behavioral research at the Center for Injury Research and Prevention and director of the Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia; research associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
Primary care psychologist at Adams Morgan and in the Child Health Center and Adolescent Health Center at the Sheikh Zayed Campus for Advanced Children’s Medicine, Children’s National Health System; consultant for the MECCA Group LLC, providing psychological assessment and school consultative services for children in Washington, DC, public schools whose dominant language is Spanish.
As a full-time researcher based in an academic medical setting, I find it very rewarding to do work that not only contributes to our scientific understanding of how potentially traumatic events affect children and parents, but also has direct practical utility to help make children’s lives better. The other very rewarding aspect of my professional life has been getting to work with great colleagues around the world and across disciplines. The injury research center that is my home base is truly interdisciplinary – medicine, engineering, behavioral science, epidemiology, nursing, and more. And I really enjoy my role as research faculty in the Division of Emergency Medicine, where I collaborate with wonderful physician colleagues and provide research mentorship for pediatric emergency medicine fellows. ... I guess I am most proud of creating tools for parents, children, and health care providers that have the potential to change how pediatric health care is delivered and to help parents and children recover well and avoid traumatic stress after pediatric illness and injury. ... U.Va. and the Curry clinical and school psychology program prepared me well for my work as a clinical researcher. The balance of clinical and research training was just right for me. I entered the program as an experienced master’s-trained clinician with the goal of enhancing my clinical training and developing solid research and analytical skills. I am very grateful for the strong training I received in clinical assessment and in research. I left with a very solid grounding in research design, quantitative methods and how to think clearly about both clinical and research questions. My style of mentorship of trainees and junior faculty has been very much shaped by my Curry training.
The most rewarding – and cognitively engaging – part of my job is working with children and families who come from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds who challenge me to understand the world as they see it and to work with a sensitivity to their level of acculturation to US norms and in line with their cultural values. The deeper, more spiritual rewards come from reflecting on my part in families being brought several steps closer to leading more mentally, emotionally and behaviorally healthy lives because of the integration of mental health service providers in primary care clinics. ... I’m most proud to say that I work in an environment that truly represents my values and interests. I work in a community health clinic in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, DC – an area that is rich in diversity, but mostly populated by Spanish-language dominant families. Since I was a child, my parents instilled in me a value for global connectedness by learning about the world through travel and relationships. ...My colleagues and clientele all come from diverse backgrounds, and by building relationships with those who come from around the globe, it feels like I’m living my family values every day. My most valuable experience at Curry came from working with some of the most intelligent, creative and well-rounded, yet humble, warm and supportive professors and peers I could ask for. Even when faculty were at their busiest, I received support within and outside of my program.... My time in graduate school couldn’t have been richer, and I have the Curry School to thank for that. Read more about Nancy and Howard at curry. virginia.edu/clinpsychnewsletter
Student Honors Lora Henderson received the Predoctoral Fellowship in Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, which support the training of practitioners in behavioral health services and prevention. This fellowship program is designed for students in clinical, counseling and school psychology, and other psychology doctoral students whose training prepares them for careers in behavioral health services. Nora Arkin received one of the first $1,000 doctoral student grants from the Dean’s Research & Development Fund provided through philanthropic gifts to the Curry School Foundation. The grant will help fund her dissertation work on “The Body Project: A Narrative and Social Network Analysis.”
Curry Foundation Monetary Awards to Clin & School Psych Students: Robert Haxter Richard Abidin Scholarship Jordan Wade Richard Abidin Award for Clinical Excellence Joanna Will Richard Abidin Award for Excellence in Research Pooja Datta Philip Morris Minority Scholarship Krishtine Phillips A. L. Bennett Endowed Scholarship Catherine Sanger Wolcott Jessie C. Carpenter Award Tiffany Torigoe-Lai Marjorie Hare Andrews Fellowship CLINICAL & SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY • SUMMER 2015
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Clinical & School Psychology Alumni Newsletter P.O. Box 400268 417 Emmet Street South Charlottesville, VA 22904-4268
CLASS NOTES
Submit your class note at curry.virginia.edu/classnotes/submit
Megan Eliot (M.Ed. ’05, Ph.D. ’09) and her
husband are thrilled to welcome a new addition to their family: a daughter due to arrive on July 5th. “I began a new professional role this January as the Director of Mental Health Services at the Institute for Advanced Medicine at Mt. Sinai Roosevelt Hospital.” Beth Heller (Ph.D. ’05) left private practice in 2011 to become associate director for the Center for Psychological Services and Development, the training clinic for VCU’s clinical and counseling psychology Ph.D. programs. “I was appointed Director in July 2014, and continue to enjoy supervision, occasional guest lectures, and a small faculty practice.” Karen Ingersoll (Ph.D. ’92) took a vertical team of students this summer from undergraduate to medical school level to conduct research in the rural province of Limpopo, South Africa. “We were asked last year to develop a project that would help the Ministry of Health implement Motivational Interviewing for community health workers who serve patients with chronic illnesses that require behavioral self-management. This year, we provided four days of training for the CHWs in their own clinic sites and are shadowing them and providing coding and coaching to improve their skills over a six-week period. This is a collaboration between U.Va.’s Center for Global Health, the Limpopo Ministry of Health, and faculty and students at the University of Venda. This work is fulfilling and challenging. On a personal note, I am the proud mama of two teen boys! ingersolltraining.com Elisabeth Jerome (M.Ed. ’05, Ph.D. ’09) and her husband Son are happy to announce the birth of their second son, Sam, who was born in March 4
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Anthony R. Pisani, Ph.D., presented his research at Curry last January and conducted a workshop on clinical practice for our students. Tony is an associate professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide at University of Rochester.
and is already growing too quickly! “It is with mixed emotions that I will be stepping down from my six years with Central Virginia Community Health in September to focus on expanding my private practice, WellSpring Child and Family Psychology, PC.” www. wellspringchildandfamily.com Lacey L. Levitt (M.Ed. ’07, Ph.D. ’11) coedited the book, Animal Maltreatment: Forensic Mental Health Issues and Evaluations, with Gary Patronek, and Thomas Grisso (Oxford), which is now in press. Gabriel Soden (M.Ed. ’04, Ph.D. ’09) has three children and is living outside of Boston, Mass., where she works in a community mental health center and in private practice.
Celebration Coming! 2017 Marks the 50th Anniversary of Curry’s Clinical & School Psychology Program. Watch for news about how we will be celebrating this landmark occasion!