Program Description
The clinical/community psychology program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a Clinical Science program designed to train scholarly and scientifically oriented researchers and professionals with a variety of interests. A program of study leading to the Ph.D. degree is offered, accredited by the American Psychological Association. Terminal Masters degrees are not normally offered. Our program is also a member of the Council of University Directors of Clinical Psychology (CUDCP). Our full disclosure information about Program Student Data can be found here.
The clinical/community psychology program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a member of the Academy of Psychological Clinical Science, which is a coalition of Ph.D. and internship training programs that share a common goal of producing and applying scientific knowledge to the assessment, understanding, and amelioration of human problems. Membership in the Academy is granted only after a thorough peer review process. Its membership in the Academy indicates that our program is committed to excellence in scientific clinical training and to using clinical science as the foundation for designing, implementing, and evaluating assessment and intervention procedures.
Our educational philosophy emphasizes a creative, scholarly, and socially responsible approach to clinical and community psychology. Our mission is to produce graduates who assume leadership roles and contribute to the discipline and to society. For example, our graduates have gone on to careers as university professors, college teachers, public policy analysts, faculty in medical centers and research institutes, and directors of community mental health centers. We do not aim to train students for careers in private practice, although our students do receive high-quality training in clinical and community practice. Sensitivity to ethical issues as well as gender, ethnic, cultural, and other kinds of human diversity is strongly emphasized. Our program was awarded the Suinn Minority Achievement Award from the American Psychological Association in 2003 for our record of recruiting, and training ethnic minority scholars.
Curriculum
In the first year of study, all students take a series of team-taught courses intended to provide a foundation for understanding functional and dysfunctional behavior and strategies of intervention. Individual, group, and community perspectives are discussed in the context of theory and research. Courses in quantitative methods and research design also are taken in the first year. Students are strongly encouraged to participate actively in research during their first year. In the second year of study, one course in psychological assessment is required. This course emphasizes issues in personality and clinical assessment, including observation, test development, and measurement theory. The remainder of a student's schedule is arranged with his or her academic advisor, although it will normally involve a year-long practicum and continuing research. In subsequent years, each student's plan of study becomes even more individualized. The academic advisor will help the student plan the remainder of his or her curriculum, including minor and practicum courses as well as other experiences necessary to meet the student's individual career goals. The student will complete certain general requirements, but there is considerable flexibility in the specific means by which the requirements can be met. Throughout their program of study, students are encouraged to participate in two weekly program-wide meetings, one that addresses issues of diversity in a wide variety of formats and one that involves research presentations by faculty and students within and outside of the program, with extensive opportunities for the exchange of ideas about issues of interest in clinical and community psychology.
Ordinarily, the student will complete a program of study that includes at least two year-long supervised practica, a minor area of study, at least one semester of teaching experience, an internship, and M.A. and Ph.D. theses. At the end of each semester the entire clinical faculty meet and review the progress of every student in the program. The student's academic advisor is responsible for communicating the discussion and conclusions back to the individual student. In addition, individual advising and feedback are done on a continuous basis as needed.
Clinical/Community Program Student Data
Facilities and Resources
Diverse research facilities are available for faculty and student research, including laboratories in the Psychology Department, the local public schools, the Campus Biomedical Magnetic Resonance Lab, the Beckman Institute, and Carle and Provena Covenant Medical Centers. Resources at these sites include a variety of psychophysiology labs including EEG and fMRI. Extensive computer facilities and consulting services are available in the Psychology Department and other departments around campus.
The major setting operated by the Department of Psychology for applied training and clinical research is the Psychological Services Center (PSC), where the majority of clinical training takes place. The PSC offers assessment, treatment, and consultation services to individuals, couples, families, and organizations in the community. The clientele include children, adolescents, and adults from a variety of socio-economic and cultural/ethnic backgrounds. Specialized practica are offered in topics such as clinical neuropsychology, psychological testing, child/adolescent assessment and treatment, multicultural counseling, mood and anxiety disorders, adult group therapy, forensic consultation and evaluation, community and organizational consultation and neighborhood organization. Our faculty and students have also developed working relationships with local institutions and service agencies (e.g., schools, inpatient psychiatric unit, outpatient mental health clinic, police departments, probations office, refugee assistance center, women's shelters, residential treatment facility for children and adolescents) to facilitate research and training in applied work. The PSC is staffed by graduate students and faculty from the Psychology Department and allied departments and is administered by a full-time professional director. A full-time community outreach coordinator facilitates ongoing and newly developing relationships with a variety of treatment and non-treatment settings.
Our faculty and students also work closely with other campus units as sites for applied training, namely the Counseling Center, McKinley Health Center's mental health unit, and the Disability Resources and Educational Services (DRES).
Affiliated Departments, Programs, and Institutes
Some members of the Clinical-Community Division have appointments in the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. Other members have affiliations or appointments with the Women's Studies Program and Asian American Studies Program. In addition, faculty and students collaborate with faculty members in other divisions within the Department (e.g., Social-Personality, Developmental, Visual Cognition & Human Performance) and other departments at UIUC (e.g., Educational Psychology, Anthropology, and Human & Community Development). Our faculty and students also participate in a number of cross-campus initiatives such as the Center on Democracy in a Multiracial Society and Promoting Family Resiliency.
Clinical/Community Division Faculty
| Mark Aber (Associate Professor) |
 | Collaborative community-based intervention, participatory action research, community organization and development, contextual influences on individuals' understanding of race, racial equity in public schooling, school racial climate. |
| Office: Room 725 | (217) 333-6999 | maber@uiuc.edu |
| Nicole E Allen (Assistant Professor) |
 | Processes and outcomes associated with community collaboration and the antecedents of safety for survivors of domestic assault. |
| Office: Room 721 | (217) 333-6739 | allenne@uiuc.edu |
| Howard Berenbaum (Professor) |
 | Experimental psychopathology, focusing on the experience, expression, and awareness of emotions in adults, and how different forms of psychopathology are associated with different types of emotional disturbances. |
| Office: Room 727 | (217) 333-9624 | hberenba@uiuc.edu |
| Wendy Heller (Professor) |
 | My research investigates the role of the brain in emotion, personality, and psychopathology, particularly anxiety and depression. |
| Office: Room MC 715 | (217) 244-8249 | w-heller@uiuc.edu |
| Carla D Hunter (Assistant Professor) |
 | Mental health, well-being, and race-related stressors in persons of African descent with attention to the role of identity, interdependence, and worldviews. |
| Office: Room 733 | (217) 244-0671 | chunter1@illinois.edu |
| Michael Kral (Assistant Professor) |
 | Cultural-community psychology and psychiatry; medical and psychological anthropology; idioms of distress and well-being; suicide; history & theory; community-based participatory action research; collective agency; indigenism; Arctic/Nunavut; Native North America |
| Office: Room 709 | (217) 244-0951 | mkral@illinois.edu |
| Gregory A Miller (Professor of Psychology and Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry) |
 | I am interested in understanding mechanisms relating cognitive, emotional, and physiological aspects of normal and abnormal human behavior, using the methods of clinical, cognitive, and affective psychophysiology / neuroscience. |
| Office: Room 711 | (217) 333-4507 | gamiller@uiuc.edu |
| Sumie Okazaki (Associate Professor) |
 | Ethnic minority psychology; Asian American mental health; Immigration & families |
| Office: Room | | okazaki AT illinois.edu |
| Jorge I. Ramirez Garcia (Assistant Professor) |
 | Ethnocultural factors and community mental health services; Ethnocultural factors and family psychology |
| Office: Room MC 716 | (217) 265-8514 | JRamirez@Illinois.Edu |
| Edelyn Verona (Assistant Professor) |
 | Biosocial and emotional processes involved in externalizing psychopathology, including aggression, antisocial behavior, psychopathic personality, and impulsive suicide. |
| Office: Room 719 | (217) 265-6708 | everona@uiuc.edu |
Associated Faculty from Other Divisions
| Hua-Hua Chang (Associate Professor) |
 | Psychometric Theory; Computerized Adaptive Testing; Cognitive Diagnosis; Large Scale Assessment; Test Equity |
| Office: Room 430 | (217) 244-5194 | hhchang@uiuc.edu |
| Carol Diener (Professor Emeritus) |
 | Interface of psychology and law: issues affecting children and families, especially child abuse, custody issues and juvenile justice. |
| Office: Room 713 | (217) 333-8545 | cdiener@uiuc.edu |
| Louise Fitzgerald (Professor (retiring Spring 2008)) |
 | Psychology of women; women and the workplace, especially sexual harassment; and sexual victimization. |
| Office: Room 219 | (217) 244-8320 | lfitzger@uiuc.edu |
| Mikhail Lyubansky (Lecturer) |
 | Factors and conditions associated with changes in social identity and beliefs about race, ethnicity, and nationalism, especially in immigrant and minority populations. |
| Office: Room 734 | (217) 333-7740 | lyubansk@uiuc.edu |
| Julian Rappaport (Professor Emeritus) |
 | Interests span the broad domain of community psychology and include prevention, empowerment, self and mutual help especially for the seriously mentally ill, narrative theory and identity, collaborative and qualitative research. |
| Office: Room 733 | (217) 333-8547 | rappapor@uiuc.edu |
