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UF Health University of Florida
Clinical Child and Pediatric Psychology Department of Clinical and Health Psychology - College of public health and health professions
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Research Overview

Will you be happy in my lab?

Thanks for your interest in my lab. I am interviewing potential candidates to join my research lab during the next cycle.

I want you to think about this question – Will you be happy in my lab? Earning a Ph.D. in clinical psychology typically takes at least 5, but often 6 years to complete, which includes one year of internship, your final year of clinical training. That’s a lot of time. For some of you that will be ~20% of your lifetime at the time you graduate with your doctoral degree.

Do you want to be a clinician or a researcher?

Opinions will vary about this, but my opinion happens to be that it is very challenging to be both. I have great respect for my clinician colleagues and believe that all clinicians should be trained in rigorous behavioral science and practice evidence-based assessment and intervention. In fact, I am a licensed clinical psychologist in Florida and Colorado and all of the research that I conduct involve people – primarily children with type 1 diabetes and their caregivers, but I also work with adults.

That said, students in my lab participate in and conduct a lot of research. I have been continuously funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases since 2012, when I was awarded my first grant. All of my grants are, or have been, randomized controlled clinical trials that aim to provide interventions that improve type 1 diabetes self-management and/or its psychological sequelae. Clinical trials are time-consuming, intense, and incredibly rewarding when the interventions work – even if for only one participant.

Thus, my students participate not only in their own research, but they also serve as interventionists for my grant-funded clinical trials. If you do not genuinely enjoy research, I do not think you will enjoy being in my lab, and thus you should probably not apply to work with me. I recognize that most PhDs in clinical psychology seek clinical positions; I view my role as a mentor at UF as one that trains students in rigorous research.

If I haven’t scared you away so far and you can honestly answer “yes” to the following questions, then you will potentially be a great fit for my lab.

  1. Do you understand that a Ph.D. in clinical psychology is an academic degree – it is not a professional degree like a doctor of medicine, doctor of psychology, or master’s of social work?
  2. Is your primary career interest to become a patient-oriented clinical researcher? You may change your mind along the way and that’s ok, but if you apply to my lab and you are near-certain that you really do not want to do research and want to become a clinician, I don’t think you should apply.
  3. Do you have a genuine interest in type 1 diabetes (children or adults)?

I am also looking for students who have these personal characteristics:

  1. Eager to learn;
  2. Consider themselves a very hard worker;
  3. Receive direct and constructive feedback in a non-defensive way; and
  4. Seek out resources to learn new concepts (e.g., Youtube videos on statistics).

I believe it’s important to be transparent about expectations:

  1. If the funding for your tuition and stipend comes from a grant (usually NIH), you will be expected to work 20 hours/week on that grant to earn your tuition and stipend.
  2. If the funding for your tuition and stipend comes from a department assistantship, you will still be expected to work on my grants (in addition to your work for the assistantship).

A few things to know about graduate school:

Earning a Ph.D. in clinical psychology is a very competitive process. If you are admitted to a program, you are among some of the best graduate students in the United States. Graduate school is not an 8 AM-5 PM job. It is an opportunity to earn a degree that opens endless career opportunities, but it is a long and rigorous process to earn the Ph.D. You will be held to high ethical, professional, and academic standards.

And finally…one thing that is very important for you to know before you embark on your graduate studies – most Ph.D. students cannot live off the stipend provided by the program to which they are admitted. A stipend is an amount of money intended to offset living costs during graduate school – it is not intended to cover all of your expenses. Therefore, it may be necessary for you to take out student loans to subsidize your living costs.

If you think you are a good fit, apply to our program here and list me as your 1st mentor choice.