Clin psych newsletter spring 2013a

SUMMER 2013

CLINICAL & SCHOOL psychology y The Curry Alumni Magazine CONTRIBUTE. PARTICIPATE. ENGAGE. Read your story here:

curry.virginia.edu/magazine

Current Faculty Julia Blodgett Michael Kofler Edith “Winx” Lawrence Lisa Locke-Downer Ann Loper Ron Reeve Peter Sheras Antoinette Thomas Patrick Tolan

Young Women Lead

Research, growth & innovation mark program for middle school girls

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Editor: Ron Reeve, Director Clinical and School Psychology Program Clinical & School Psychology is published by the Curry School of Education and is sponsored by the Curry School of Education Foundation, P.O. Box 400276, Charlottesville, VA 22904 http://curry.virginia.edu/clinpsychnewsletter

s the Young Women Leaders Program recently celebrated its 16th anniversary, co-founder Edith “Winx” Lawrence said she has just tried to stay out of the way of the amazing synergies of women working to support other women. “It has had a life of its own,” she said.

This well-known mentoring program, which pairs the Curry School with the U.Va. Women’s Center, connects college women and middle school girls through an evidence-based, positive development curriculum.

Likely less well known is the considerable amount of data affirming the program’s effectiveness or its ever-expanding geographic reach or the innovative nature of its local opportunities for girls.

YWLP, which has served over 1,200 girls in central Virginia, has been the subject of several evaluation studies examining outcomes for both the college women (big sisters) and the seventh-grade girls (little sisters)—many of whom come from low-income neighborhoods.

Little sisters report having improved interpersonal and problem-solving skills, as well as a better self-image.

Declines in grade-point average (typical for most girls in the study) were attenuated for the little sisters, while school bonding remained stable over the year (instead of declining as it did for peers).

“Being a part of this community of women has been wonderful!”

—continued on page 2

CLINICAL & SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY • SUMMER 2013

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YWLP continued from page 1

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 2013: John D. Ball Karen K. Brockenbrough Sue M. Burkholder Constance B, Caldwell John F. Callahan Joanna Castaldi Margaret M. Dawson Thomas J. DeMaio Christos P. Eleftherios Megan Eliot Eugenie B. Hamilton Andrew J. Kind-Rubin Eddie L. Kolb Lauren Kopans Edith C. Lawrence Maria C. Morog Daniel C. Murrie Parthenia R. Randolph Cathleen A. Rea John T. Schroll Jeffrey Seltzer Theodore Siedlecki Jr. Donna R. Steinberg

After a year of mentoring, big sisters report stronger outcomes in areas like ethnocultural empathy and ability to interact with others across boundaries of difference, as well as feelings of competence and autonomy.

Consistent with its effectiveness, the YWLP idea has caught on and has spread to new sites, often when graduate students who have worked with the program while at Curry take its successful formula and adapt it to their own new circumstances. In addition to more than a dozen sister sites across the U.S., programs are active in Cameroon, Mozambique, and Panama. As a result of this expansion, YWLP faculty has worked to narrow the curriculum to its core elements, while staying true to its foundation in self-determination theory.

Here at U.Va. the program continues to explore new ways to engage all the women involved. Two new opportunities are being piloted this year alone.

The YWLP Tech initiative will develop and pilot an advanced manufacturing and entrepreneurship curriculum. Sixteen eighth-grade girls and their big sisters will meet weekly for hands-on opportunities to plan, design, and market products developed by the girls using

advanced manufacturing techniques like 3D printing. Building on their relationship with the sister site in Panama, girls will explore ways they might reproduce jewelry or other arts and crafts designs typical of Panamanian culture.

Proceeds from the sale of their products will be used to sponsor school scholarships for their global sisters in YWLP. A group of undergraduate students led by doctoral candidate Molly Davis, has developed an eight-week structured health and wellness curriculum called YWLP Moves, which addresses nutrition and physical activity. It is designed to meet the needs and interests of the girls while also aligning with weekly programwide themes and outcome goals.

“I had no idea when I started how rewarding it would be to work with such a talented group of graduate students, Curry colleagues, Women’s Center colleagues, undergraduate women, and middle school girls,” Lawrence said. “Being a part of this community of women has been wonderful!”

Read more about YWLP at curry.virginia. edu/ywlp

These gifts directly benefit Curry students and the quality of their educational experiences.

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Join the Curry School of Education Alumni group on LinkedIn Over 1,500 members strong

/// The Clinical and School Psychology program welcomes the Class of 2018—another outstanding group of doctoral students! Pictured are Krishtine Phillips, Andrea Xisto, Paula Aduen, Pooja Datta, Malachi Richardson, and Lora Henderson.

2013 Award Recipients The following students in Curry’s Clinical & School Psychology programs received financial assistance from funds established by donors.

Richard Abidin Award for Clinical Excellence: Emily B. Nichols Richard Abidin Award for Excellence in Research: Karyn Hartz Richard Abidin Scholarship: Tiffany Torigoe

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SUMMER 2013 • CLINICAL & SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY

Read more about each of these alumni at curry.virginia.edu/clinpsychnewsletter

Caitlin Thompson

M.Ed. ‘02, Ph.D. ‘ 06

T

he psychological costs of military service are often hidden and have been vastly underestimated. Too often, the toll has been suicide. According to estimates last year by the US Department of Veterans’ Affairs, a US military veteran dies by suicide every 65 minutes – totaling 22 veterans a day.

An alumna of the Curry School’s Clinical Psychology program is not only acutely aware of this tragic statistic but is in a position to reduce it. Caitlin Thompson was promoted last March to VA Deputy Director of Suicide Prevention after serving for four years with the Veterans Administration as lead psychologist and clinical care coordinator for the national Veterans Crisis Line (www.veteranscrisisline.net).

Thompson began working with Veterans during her final year at Curry, when she interned with the Denver VA Medical Center.

“I had neither come from a military background nor had I known many Veterans at that point, but after working at the VA for mere months, I knew that I found my niche,” Thompson says.

During that year three young male Veterans that she had worked with died by suicide, and those losses marked a turning point in her life.

She stayed on in Denver as a post-doctoral fellow with the VISN 19 Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center, which focused on suicide prevention with Veterans.

Thompson then accepted a second post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Rochester’s Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide in New York. This was 2006, around the same time the Veterans Crisis Line, Canandaigua VA’s Center of Excellence—which also focused on suicide prevention—and the VA’s Suicide Prevention Program were established.

“I spent six months working as a responder on the Veterans Crisis Line to help inform my post-doctoral research, and there I found another incredible fit for me,” Thompson says.

“I loved the work, and I especially loved the staff who chose this work.”

When a position for a psychologist to oversee the clinical work on the Veterans Crisis Line opened, she was hired. Thompson helped to establish the Veterans Chat Service in 2009, provided ongoing clinical supervision and training to Crisis Line staff, became a national speaker on Veteran suicide prevention efforts,

/// Caitlin Thompson and son Kipp.

and worked on establishing policy for some of the most innovative programs in suicide prevention. During her time at the Crisis Line, the staff increased from 40 to more than 300.

“Veterans and Service Members are reaching out more than ever,” she says. Since 2007, the Veterans Crisis Line has had over 890,000 calls, currently about 26,000 a month, and averages about 5,000 chats a month.

Since the Crisis Line began, over 30,000 emergency interventions have been made with Veterans who were in the midst of a suicide attempt when they called or who reported that they were unable to stay safe.

Last year, Thompson was detailed for five months as the VA Liaison to the newly established Defense Suicide Prevention Office at the Pentagon. She helped the Department of Defense create policy that was comparable to VA suicide prevention efforts. She believes that the growing relationship between the DoD and the VA in suicide prevention efforts with service members and veterans is invaluable.

Now, as VA Deputy Director of Suicide Prevention, she helps oversee suicide prevention efforts across the country and consults both clinically and administratively. She still works from the Canandaigua VA Medical Center in upstate New York, just downstairs from the Crisis Line quarters, but she has an office in Washington DC that she visits every month or so.

“I think that my trajectory since graduating from U.Va. speaks to how amazing my education was, as I have been able to jump around in so many types of positions within the clinical psychology field in only eight years,” Thompson says.

She and her husband Sean—a political consultant—live in a cottage in the woods of upstate New York with their eight-monthold son, Kipp Guthrie. “Kipp makes our lives immeasurably better and helps me keep continued perspective on what is most important.”

A Pair of Alumni Couples

Rebecca Charneco (M.Ed. ‘96, Ph.d ‘99) and Dane Charneco (M.Ed. ‘95, Ph.D. ‘01) Dane and Rebecca met while working in a group home in Arlington, Va. By the time they had begun dating, they had been accepted at separate graduate schools—Dane at U.Va. and Rebecca at the University of Oregon. Rebecca transferred to the Curry program the following fall.

“Our time at Curry was more than just a period in our personal lives, but it shaped our professional development and aspirations as psychologists,” Rebecca says.

Dane works as a psychologist at James Madison High School in Vienna, Va. Rebecca works at a mental health facility affiliated with the INOVA Health System.

Julie Zakreski (M.A. ‘80, Ph.D. ‘83) and Rick Zakreski (M.A. ‘79, Ph.D. 82) Rick and Julie met at the Curry School. “It was wonderful to go through the program together, as we were able to share so many experiences and truly support and understand each other as we were going through the demands of graduate school,” Julie says.

“The classroom experience was very strong and the clinical experiences were topnotch,” adds Rick Rick maintains a private practice in two office locations in Shrewsbury, N.J., and works primarily with children and adolescents and families.

Julie is the psychologist for a group of four pediatricians in Red Bank.

CLINICAL & SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY • SUMMER 2013

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UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA

Programs in Clinical & School Psychology P.O. Box 400268 417 Emmet Street South Charlottesville, VA 22904-4268

CLASS NOTES Eva Ash (Ph.D. ’93; Ph.D. ’98) is in private

practice in Huntington, N.Y., specializing in couples, parenting, and adoption. Find her online at www.calmparenting.com Lauren Ashbaugh (M.Ed. ’05, Ph.D. ’09)

recently stepped down from her position as Site Director of Internship Training/Staff Psychologist at Boston Medical Center. She will be joining the EDCO Collaborative Program in September 2013 as a clinical and school psychologist for their middle/high school therapeutic day school and interim assessment program. She looks forward to spending more time with her two year-old son, Mateo, and her husband Marc. She sincerely wishes for more moderate weather in Massachusetts this year and misses Virginia springs and falls.

Charles Curtis (M.Ed. ’04, Ph.D. ’08) was recently named the director of the internship training program at John L. Gildner – Regional Institute for Children and Adolescents in Rockville, Md. Mary Alice Fisher (Ph.D. ’82) “After publishing three articles in APA journals, I finally decided to bite the bullet and write that book I had been threatening to write for so many years. Oxford University Press published it in January 2013: The Ethics of Conditional Confidentiality: A Practice Model for Mental Health Professionals. I have a part-time private psychotherapy practice in Charlottesville.

Through the Center For Ethical Practice, which I established 10 years ago, I provide workshops and consultation for mental health professionals. I conducted about 40 workshops 4

SUMMER 2013 • CLINICAL & SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY

Submit your class note at curry.virginia.edu/classnotes/submit in the past year, primarily in Virginia, but some in other states. I have enjoyed doing a visiting professor visit to Peter Sheras’ Ethics Class, as well as the U.Va. Law School’s class in Mental Health and the Law. I still plan on avoiding retirement forever, even though I am expecting a third great-grandchild in 2014.” Find her online at www.CenterForEthicalPractice.org Kate Goldhaber (M.Ed. ’03, Ph.D. ’07) married Brian Wilhite on June 22, 2013, in Kate’s hometown of Pittsburgh, Penn. They were thrilled to celebrate with Curry alums Kate Driscoll (’07), Elena Tuerk (’07) and Caitlin Thompson (’07), who all participated in the wedding ceremony. Kate and Brian live in Chicago, Ill. Kate is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences at Loyola Medical Center.

Brian is an assistant professor of physics at Elmhust College.

Sebastian Kaplan (M.Ed. ’01, Ph.D. ’05)

was promoted to associate professor in child and adolescent psychiatry at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. David Scherer (Ph.D. 89) after completing his internship in Portland, Oregon, spent six years on the faculty at the University of South Carolina, then moved with his wife to New Mexico, where he spent 11 years on the faculty with appointments in the College of Education and the Department of Psychiatry.

In 2005 he moved to Amherst, Mass., with his wife and now 16-year-old daughter and has been a professor in the psychology department at UMass Amherst for 8 years.

Anne Stewart (Ph.D. ’90) and Joe Pellegrino (M.Ed. ’87, Ph.D ’92) reside in Harrisonburg,

Va. Anne is a faculty member at James Madison University, and Joe is a clinical psychologist for a day treatment school in Charlottesville. “We both maintain a private practice. Our children Hannah, 18, and Zander, 20, are in the launching phase (thanks Dave, Winx and Sherry for the terminology). Anne recently received recognition for excellence in teaching, research, and service from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.”

Earl Sutherland (Ph.D. ’83) is still happy in Montana. He is a prescribing psychologist with the Indian Health Service.

Eugenia

(Genie)

Ware

(Ph.D.

’86)

“Professionally, I continue to practice part time as a child and family psychologist, specializing in issues around parenting, child development, divorce, and bereavement. After 30-plus years in this field, I have nothing new and dramatic to report. However, recently, a surprise second career in a completely different field has fallen in my lap. As Board Chair of a professional orchestra in Boston (Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, www.proarte.org), I had to step up when our funding sources declined and we lost our executive director. So, I am now also working in the field of orchestra management...”

Read more. Some submissions were abbreviated due to space limitations. You can read complete class notes and view submitted photos online at curry.virginia. edu/clinpsychnewsletter