Psychology news
The Division of Psychology is pleased to introduce two new faculty members: Courtney Walker, Ph.D., and Hannah Ford, Ph.D. Dr. Ford fills the faculty line being vacated by Dr. Crystal Lim’s departure, and Dr. Walker joins us through a “FTE transfer” engineered by Scott Rodgers, M.D., and Mary Taylor, M.D., Chair of the Department of Pediatrics.
Courtney Walker, Ph.D.
Dr. Walker earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Mississippi State University and completed her predoctoral internship at Louisiana State University Health Sciences’ Child/Adult track in 2018. She came to UMMC from there, completing a Fellowship in Child Health and Development Promotion at the Center for Advancement of Youth (CAY) in 2019. From there she joined the Department of Pediatrics as an Assistant Professor. Courtney has enjoyed substantial early career grant funding success and has published well over a dozen peer-reviewed papers, including four first author papers. We are fortunate to have her as a member of our Predoctoral Psychology Internship faculty and the Division of Psychology.
Hannah Ford, Ph.D.
Dr. Ford earned her Ph.D. at the University of Maine and completed her predoctoral internship at Indiana University School of Medicine in their Child Clinical track. She went on to finish a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and was then hired as a Psychologist by the Child Neurology and Sleep Medicine Divisions there. She joined UMMC’s Department of Pediatrics in 2019 and worked at the Center for the Advancement of Youth (CAY) until recently coming to Psychiatry. Hannah has been Principal Investigator on one grant, Co-Investigator on three others, and has published four peer-reviewed papers. She joins us as an Associate Professor and will assume the role of Training Director for our Predoctoral Psychology Internship Program in mid-July.
Crystal Lim, Ph.D.
As pleased as we are about Drs. Walker and Ford joining our Division, we are well aware of how much we lose with Dr. Crystal Lim’s departure. Dr. Lim has skillfully guided our training program during her tenure. Her impact was nowhere more evident than in the program’s attainment of full 10-year accreditation not long after the challenging dissolution of its consortium with the VA. The standard of excellence Dr. Lim worked so hard to maintain is nowhere more evident than in the accomplishments of recent trainees. Faculty members Dr. Nick McAfee and Dr. Alli Delozier were both graduates of the internship under Dr. Lim, as was our current Fellow, Dr. Kerry Kinney. In her own update in this newsletter, you well read about the impressive accomplishments of yet another stellar group of interns. On behalf of all who have trained under her and those of us who have worked with her, I want to express the deepest appreciation to Dr. Lim for all she has done here at UMMC.
Psychology Residency Program Update (as of June 17, 2022)
Crystal Lim, PhD, ABPP (Outgoing Training Director) and Hannah Ford, PhD (Incoming Training Director)
The Psychology Residency Program has had another productive 2021-2022 training year in both clinical and research areas. Over the course of the training year, our psychology residents have provided over 3,000 hours of clinical service to hundreds of Mississippians. In addition, faculty in our program have provided over 1,200 hours of supervision to psychology residents throughout the training year. In terms of research involvement during the year, our psychology residents have worked on over 32 research manuscripts with program faculty members, 14 of which the psychology resident is serving as the first-author. This is an impressive amount of research productivity for psychology trainees during a largely clinical training year. Way to go!
Thank you to our entire program faculty for their tireless efforts providing clinical and research mentoring to our trainees. Congratulations to Dr. Crystal Lim for winning the program’s Faculty Research Mentor Award and to Dr. Tanja Seifen for winning the Faculty Clinical Mentor Award.
Faculty and staff in the program would like to congratulate our recent graduating psychology residents. We wish them the best of luck in their post-doctoral fellowship positions and in their future careers and welcome them into our illustrious group of program alumni (AKA the Mississippi Mafia).
Highlighted Psychology Resident Accomplishments
Publications
Our graduating class of psychology residents collaboratively worked on a research manuscript, what the program calls Paper Chase. They examined data from a study done in the Department of Pediatrics with infants exposed prenatally to drugs and their mothers receiving care in the NICU. The manuscript has been submitted for publication and is currently under review. The citation is below:
- Gissandaner, T. D.*, Wen, A.*, Gette, J. A.*, Perry, K. J.*, Mutignani, L. M.*, Regan, T.*, Malloch, L., Tucker, L. C., White, C. B., Fry, T. B., Lim, C. S., & Annett, R. D. (under review). Considerations and determinants of child protective services placement decisions among prenatal substance exposed infants. (* indicates co-first authorship)
- Also important to note that at least two follow-up manuscripts are already in the works that build on the research the psychology residents have done in this area
Awards
- Graduating psychology resident Alainna Wen recently received an advanced quantitative social science minor and was awarded the University of Notre Dame’s 2022 Scott E Maxwell Research Award for her minor research project. Congratulations Dr. Wen!
Graduating Class of Psychology Residents (2021-2022)
Adult Track
- Jordan Gette, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, Rutgers Center of Alcohol and Substance Use Studies – Piscataway, NJ
- Timothy Regan, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD
- Alainna Wen, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, Los Angeles, CA
Child Track
- Tre Gissandaner, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Scientist, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York City, NY
- Lauren Mutignani, PhD, Child Clinical Psychology Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY
- Kristin Perry, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, Penn State University, State College, PA
Other Announcements
Thank you to Dr. Jordan Gette for serving as our Chief Resident during the past training year, as well as for her valuable service and contribution to the training program. Congratulations to Dr. Tre Gissandaner for winning the program’s Excellence in Research Award and Dr. Lauren Mutignani for receiving the program’s Excellence in Clinical Award. Dr. Jordan Gette was also selected by program faculty and residents to receive the Resident Outstanding Contribution to the Training Program Award. Also thank you to Kristy Herbison, program administrator, for all of her wonderful support and assistance throughout the training year.
Welcome to our New Psychology Residents
Faculty and staff in the program are excited to welcome our new class of Psychology Residents who joined UMMC on July 1st. We look forward to a wonderful year of training ahead.
Incoming Class of Psychology Residents (2022-2023)
Adult Track
- Rachel Carpenter – East Tennessee State University
- Felicitas Huber – University of Tulsa
- Jiwon “Jennie” Min – Oklahoma State University
Child Track
- Megan Hare – Florida International University
- Feven Ogbaselase – Miami University
- Kathryn “Katie” Parisi – University of Arkansas
- Delanie Roberts – Oklahoma State University
The program will be providing CE credits for our Research Rounds and Evidence Based Psychotherapy workshop series. More details will be announced in the coming weeks about these events hosted by the program. We are also excited to provide CME/CE credits during the Psychiatry and Psychology Joint Case Conference series as part of the departments Curriculum 2025. The schedule for the case conference will also be distributed in the coming weeks.
Graduating Psychology Resident Class of 2021-2022 - Psychology Residents Jordan Gette, Kristin Perry, Tim Regan, Lauren Mutignani, Alainna Wen, Tre Gissandaner celebrating at the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior graduation.