Postdoctoral Award Winners

This award supported me in my entrance into my new early career position as a burn psychologist at the Arizona Burn Center by providing me latitude to excel on my licensure exam. It is also an honor to receive this award from a society that I have been involved with since graduate school and that I am now a member of as an early career health service provider.

After completing my postdoctoral fellowship in Adult Consultation and Liaison at Jackson Health System in affiliation with the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, I became a licensed psychologist in Florida and transitioned into integrated primary care. This award helped to highlight my competence in health psychology and boosted my confidence during the large transition from trainee to early-career psychologist. It also demonstrated my commitment to excellence in clinical health psychology practice, helping my job applications stand out in the competitive job market. Additionally, the financial support the award provided to help defray some of the costs associated with the EPPP allowed me to focus more on preparing for the next phase of my career while also completing my fellowship training.

I am deeply grateful for the Society for Health Psychology’s support of psychologists at all career stages. As a bilingual Spanish-English clinician serving patients at Hasbro Medicine-Pediatrics Primary Care Clinic, this award has helped offset the cost of my EPPP examination, allowing me to continue my commitment to clinical service and applied research in primary care behavioral health. With the growing demand for bilingual psychologists in Rhode Island, the Society’s support is helping me attain full licensure, enabling me to better serve my community.

The opportunity to apply for the Society for Health Psychology’s (SfHP) Postdoctoral Health Psychology Award for Clinical Excellence provided the motivation I needed to register for the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP) and commit to my study plan. With the Society’s support, I passed the EPPP and am now licensed in Virginia and New York State. I want to thank the SfHP for supporting me as a postdoctoral fellow! I look forward to a long career in clinical health psychology!

Receiving the Clinical Excellence Award was an incredible support during a critical transition in my career. The path to licensure can quickly become very expensive, with the costs of exam fees, study materials, and application expenses adding up. Given that licensure is a critical step in becoming a clinical health psychologist, having this support helped alleviate some of that financial burden and allowed me to focus on advancing my clinical skills and professional development during my time as a postdoctoral fellow at the Georgia Cancer Center.

Now, I am a fully licensed health psychologist in Pennsylvania and all PSYPACT states. In my role as a clinical health psychologist at GI Psych, I provide evidence-based treatment to individuals managing a variety of gastrointestinal diseases and disorders of the gut-brain interaction. Interdisciplinary collaboration remains a core component of my work, and I enjoy working with providers from many different disciplines to deliver the most comprehensive and patient-centered care possible. I look forward to the continued evolution of my career and opportunities to foster integrated care models, engage in program development efforts, and mentor the next generation of health psychologists.

My clinical work primarily consists of providing behavioral sleep medicine (BSM) for patients with a broad range of sleep complaints. Receiving the Clinical Excellence Award facilitated my ability to obtain the Diplomate in Behavioral Sleep Medicine (DBSM) credential granted by the Board of Behavioral Sleep Medicine, denoting the highest level of expertise in BSM. There is a significant shortage of providers with the level of BSM expertise denoted by the DBSM credential, and the visibility of the credential has improved access to care.