ECU doctoral program completes 100 percent national internship match

 East Carolina University’s doctoral program in health psychology, housed in the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences Department of Psychology, announced this week that all eight of its doctoral candidates who applied for this year’s match process were selected for internships accredited by the American Psychological Association. The national selection process is highly competitive and is one of the final steps to becoming a professional psychologist.

The full-time, one-year internship is a requirement for earning the doctoral degree in clinical psychology or school psychology. For students, obtaining an APA-accredited internship is one of the nationally-accepted credentials that help graduates become licensed psychologists and find jobs. Nationally, this year approximately 69 percent of candidates were matched through the internship service.

“The 100 percent placement of our students provides further evidence of the increasing national prominence of East Carolina in the field of health psychology,” said Dr. Sam Sears, director of the health psychology doctoral program. “The top training sites in health psychology now recognize that students at East Carolina are engaged in state-of-the-art clinical practice and research.”

Clinical health psychology students selected for the internship, and their internship locations, include Katherine Buck, University of Colorado School of Medicine; Marissa Carraway, Cherokee Health Systems; Emily Dinatale, Medical College of Georgia & Charlie Norwood VAMC; Jessica Ford, Brown University Alpert Medical School; Jonathan Highsmith, Memphis VA Medical Center; Katie Lehockey, VA Western New York Healthcare System; and Amaris Tippey, University of Florida Health Science Center. Pediatric school psychology student Julie Harris, also selected for the match program, will conduct her internship at Illinois State University.

ECU’s heath psychology program was introduced in 2007 and has three distinct tracks: clinical health psychology, pediatric school psychology and occupational health psychology. This past year, the clinical health psychology program received a seven-year accreditation from the American Psychological Association. The pediatric school psychology program will seek similar accreditation in the upcoming year.

For additional information, contact Sears at 252-328-6118 or via email at searss@ecu.edu.