I’m a Little Rock native and a graduate of Hall High School. I received a bachelor’s degree with honors in psychology from Washington University, and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Kentucky. I completed a predoctoral internship at the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute at the University of South Florida, and postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Chicago and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).
I started my career as a faculty member in the UAMS Department of Psychiatry, where I had the opportunity to pursue a number of interests, including:
- Providing outpatient psychological assessment and treatment services to children, adolescents, young adults, and their families.
- Supervising predoctoral and postdoctoral psychology trainees in providing assessment and treatment services.
- Acting as assistant training director for the American Psychological Association-approved UAMS predoctoral clinical psychology internship program.
- Acting as program manager for the UAMS outpatient mental health clinic for adolescents and adults.
- Serving as a program evaluation consultant for local school- and community-based programs for at-risk youth, such as the Alternative Classroom Experience (ACE) Program at Joseph Pfeifer Kiwanis Camp.
- Serving as a mentor for high school and college students interested in careers in behavioral health.
- Acting as a team member for federally- and locally-funded research projects focusing on developing methods for improving the quality of mental health care for children and adolescents, improving access to depression care in faith communities, and developing and evaluating a science-based education program on mental health and substance abuse problems for K-12 teachers and students.
I also taught a masters-level course in cultural competence in social work practice for several years as an adjunct faculty member in the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Social Work.
After spending some time in private practice, I took a position at the Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks, where I conducted compensation and pension examinations for veterans with behavioral health disorders; conducted psychological evaluations for veterans seeking bariatric surgery, organ transplants, and gender affirmation interventions; led seminars on psychological assessment and cultural competence in behavioral health practice for predoctoral psychology interns; and served as a training faculty member for the American Psychological Association-approved VHSO predoctoral psychology internship program.
As Integrated Behavioral Health Lead at CHI St. Vincent, I provided behavioral health assessment, treatment, and consultation services for children, adolescents, and adults in the clinics in which they received their primary care. My focus was on brief assessments and time-limited, goal-oriented interventions aimed at helping people find concrete solutions to specific problems that concerned them and their families, particularly those that affected or were affected by their physical health issues.
I provided behavioral health assessment, treatment, and consultation services for adults receiving care in the Bariatric and Metabolic Institute at Arkansas Heart Hospital. The focus of these services was on evaluations for patients seeking clearance for bariatric surgery, individual therapy for pre- and postoperative patients, and cofacilitation of a bariatric surgery peer support group. The purpose of such interventions was to identify and address behavioral health factors that may affect the outcome of weight loss surgery in order to improve patients’ chances of success in achieving their goals.
I recently returned to the Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks, where I’m currently serving as Primary Care Mental Health Integration Program Manager for a multidisciplinary team of providers in medical center and community-based outpatient clinics.