Department of Veterans Affairs Special Fellowship Program in Advanced Psychiatry and Psychology

Fellowship Overview

The VA Office of Academic Affiliations is offering the VA Advanced Fellowship Program in Psychiatry and Psychology at ten VA MIRECC sites — West Haven, Baltimore, Denver, Durham, Philadelphia, Bronx, Houston, Seattle, Palo Alto, and San Diego — participate in the program. Each year, one psychiatry fellow and one psychology fellow are accepted at each site. The VISN 21 MIRECC serves as the national coordinating center for the program, directed Ruth O’Hara, Ph.D.

The primary goal of the fellowship program is to train psychiatrists and psychologists to become leading clinical researchers in high priority areas of mental health. Over the course of the two-year program, fellows are trained in academic and health systems research, advanced clinical care service delivery, and program administration in an interdisciplinary setting. The fellowship combines individual mentored research and clinical training with state-of-the-art educational experiences. A special emphasis of the fellowship program is to train fellows to conduct translational research that brings basic science to clinical practice. For example, fellows learn how genetic factors are linked to clinical outcomes and how innovative research methodologies yield more clinically relevant information.

One highly successful aspect of training has been the video conference seminar series. Each month a different expert presents the latest advances in conducting a particular aspect of clinical research. Seminar topics last year included VA career development, funding and resources, behavioral genetics, health informatics, and designing clinical trials of behavioral therapies. Past seminars have featured presentations on funding mechanisms and career development awards by Barry Lebowitz, M.D., from the NIMH, and Molly Wagster, M.D., from the NIA.

Fellowship Program Announcement

Requirements

Psychiatrists

Psychiatry applicants must have completed ACGME-accredited training, be board eligible or board certified, and have an active, unrestricted U.S. license to practice.  International medical graduates must also have a current visa and an ECFMG certificate that is valid indefinitely.  Applicants on a J-1 visa must also have current ECFMG sponsorship. 

Stipends will be based on years of previously completed residency training accredited by the Accrediting Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and index rates approved at the respective VA facility and affiliated university.

Psychologists

Eligible psychologists must be U.S. citizens. They must have graduated from an American Psychological Association (APA) accredited doctoral program in clinical or counseling psychology. Completion of an APA accredited internship in clinical counseling psychology also is required.

Stipend rates are currently $40,000 and $43,000 per annum for the first and second year of the program respectively. These stipends are reviewed biannually and are adjusted according to rates paid by comparable non-VA postdoctoral fellowship programs.

Applications & Fellowship Site Contact Information