MIRECC / CoE
Houston, Texas Fellowships | South Central MIRECC

Overview
We have two-year postdoctoral fellowships in psychology and psychiatry in Houston, Texas. By the end of the program, Fellows pursuing academic clinical-research careers should be ready to submit applications for career development awards, such as VA Career Development Awards or NIMH K-Awards.
Advanced Psychology Fellowship
This two-year postdoctoral clinical research training program in advanced psychology has three components: research, education, and clinical care.
Applied clinical research and education activities make up 75% of fellowship training, and formal clinical training rotations make up 25% of the fellowship. Core research areas include:
- Evidence-based psychotherapies
- Primary care mental health
- Behavioral Medicine
- Geropsychology and dementia
- PTSD
- Other anxiety disorders (panic, OCD, generalized anxiety disorder)
- Substance use disorders
- Sleep and CBT for insomnia
- Outcome research, intervention development, clinical trials
- Health disparities
- Health-services and implementation research
- Distance-based or technology-based mental health interventions
- Smoking cessation
Advanced Psychiatry Fellowship
This two-year fellowship program trains future VA leaders for academic and research careers in a rapidly evolving health care arena by providing a firm foundation in mental health research, education, and clinical care. It offers three specialty tracks:
Health Services Research. Trains researchers who are well-versed in the issues of access, utilization, outcomes, and effectiveness of geriatric mental health disorders.
Clinical Psychopharmacology. Helps investigators translate discoveries in brain science into clinically effective treatments for brain-based illnesses like depression and bipolar disorder.
Neuropsychiatry. Explores brain and behavior relationships in mental illness that influence their cause and treatment. Conditions such as anxiety disorders and complications of impulsivity, aggression, language, and mood disturbances are presently under study, but in principle this approach is applicable to a wide range of conditions.
Preceptors & Mentors
Psychology
Preceptors
- Derrecka Boykin, PhD
- Jennifer Bryan, PhD
- Jeffrey Cully, PhD
- Darius B. Dawson, Ph.D.
- Lilian Dindo, PhD
- Anthony Ecker, PhD
- Gina Evans-Hudnall, PhD
- Terri Fletcher, PhD
- Natalie E. Hundt, PhD
- Kathryn Kanzler, PsyD, ABPP
- Mark E. Kunik, MD, MPH
- Jan Lindsay, PhD
- Sara Nowakowski, PhD, CBSM, BDSM
Mentors
- Chadi G. Abdallah, MD
- Amy Amspoker, PhD
- Lynnette A. Averill, PhD
- Patricia Chen, PhD
- Thomas Kent, MD
- Shubhada Sansgiry, PhD
- Rick Street, PhD
Off-Site Mentors
- Michael A. Cucciare, PhD
- Geoffrey Curran, PhD
- Karen Drummond, PhD
- Ellen Fischer, PhD
- Teresa Hudson, PharmD, PhD
- JoAnn Kirchner, MD
- Sara Landes, PhD
- Richard R. Owen, MD
- Jeffrey Pyne, MD
- Amanda M. Raines, PhD
- Mona Ritchie, PhD, MSW
- Jeffrey L. Smith
- Kristen Sorocco, PhD
Psychiatry
Committee Chair
Training Site
Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center (MEDVAMC) is one of the largest clinical care facilities in VA and is host to one of 14 VA Health Services Research and Development Centers of Innovation (COIN).
The Houston COIN houses over 30 research investigators and 150 research staff from disciplines including medicine, psychology, psychiatry, epidemiology, and statistics/methodology.
The academic affiliate for MEDVAMC is Baylor College of Medicine. Selected fellows will be appointed Instructors in the Baylor College of Medicine Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.
These fellowships are part of the national VA Special Fellowships Program. Working with their mentoring team, each fellow will develop a set of practice experiences that best complement their research and career.
Other Helpful Information
Last updated: August 7, 2023