Counseling Psychology Program Assistant Professor Open Position
Thank you for your interest in our open faculty position. We hope the information on this page and links to other resources will answer many of the questions you might have. You will find the position announcement at this web link. Please feel free to contact the search committee chair, Dr. Brent Mallinckrodt (bmallinc@utk.edu; 865-974-8796), or any other member of the faculty. We would be happy to tell you more about the position and our program.
Counseling Psychology Program
Our program has been continuously accredited by APA since 1980, which means we are the 20th program to be founded. Of more than 65 active APA accredited counseling psychology programs we are one of only fifteen programs housed in a department of psychology. This offers unique opportunities; for example, we can concentrate on doctoral graduate training because the program does not offer a terminal masters degree. All of our students have numerous opportunities to teach undergraduate classes, first as assistants, and then as primary instructors for 200 and 300 level courses.
In the summer of 2007, when the current core group of faculty came together for the first time, we decided to commit ourselves to a new Scientist-Practitioner-Advocate training model. To accomplish this change we completely set aside the previous curriculum and developed a new one which was premised on the question “What would an ideal training sequence for each of the three components and their integration look like?” The heart of the new training model is the Social Justice Practicum series. We are seeking a new colleague who can contribute to teaching in this area, as well as to help expand the range of multicultural psychology courses we offer. The full curriculum is described in detail, along with a suggested course sequence in Chapter 5 and 6 of the Graduate Student Handbook. The first cohort of students was admitted under the new model in August, 2008. A summary of some of the noteworthy accomplishments of our faculty and students in 2008-09 is posted HERE.
Faculty
The program consists of six core faculty: Jake Levy, John Lounsbury, Brent Mallinckrodt, Dawn Szymanski, Gina Owens, and Mark Hector. Brief bios, a statement of research interests, and links to their vitae are available at this link. Professor Teresa Hutchens is also a member of the core faculty. She will retire in December, 2009. Her position that is the one open in the current search. Four tenure-track faculty (Owens, Levy, Mallinckrodt, and Szymanski) have published an average of 4.3 publications per year for each year they have been teaching. Their work has been cited over 1300 times, including almost 200 citations in 2008 alone. We are also fortunate to have major contributions from six Ph.D. adjunct faculty members. Karen Swander serves as coordinator of Field Placement. Marci Burroughs, Phil Johnson, and Suzanne Molnar are staff psychologists at the UT Counseling Center who are closely involved in student training. Victor Barr is Director of the Counseling Center. He and Melissa Bartsch, another UTCC staff psychologist, teach several courses for the program, including practicum.
Students
Since adoption of the new training model in 2007, doctoral applications have nearly doubled to 95 per year. Students are recruited into the program, in part, because they have a strong interest in social justice. The new model has attracted a diverse group of students. Of the 31 currently enrolled, 13% are U.S. ethnic minority students and 27% are international students. Mean combined GRE scores for students admitted under the new model is 1220. Our international students hail from Africa, the Caribbean, East Asia, Europe, India, and the Middle East. Other program data show that 100% of our students have received full assistantships for the past seven years, and 94% are matched to an APA or APPIC internship on their first attempt. One of our current students is a recipient of the APA Minority Fellowship (Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services). Another student was the recipient of the 2008-09, UT Diversity Enhancement Fellowship. Only one such fellowship is awarded each year by the university.
You can gain a better idea of what attracts students to the program by reading the “Top Ten Reasons to Apply” compiled by the students themselves at a Town Hall meeting.
Research and Teaching Opportunities, Department Setting
Counseling Psychology program faculty and students conduct a broad range of research. Department support includes financial support though start-up funding for new faculty, access to the undergraduate research pool (where students earn extra course credit), laboratory space for most faculty members, and video/DVD recording equipment installed in rooms suitable for counseling sessions. The UT library offers faculty and students free access to the full text electronic databases most often used by counseling psychologists. We enjoy an excellent collaborative relationship with the UT Counseling Center. The UTCC serves not only as the principal setting for practicum training, but also welcomes student and faculty research. Ongoing studies include a repeated measures study of client attachment and the working alliance, a qualitative investigation of interactions between African American clients and White counselors, and a quantitative analogue study of UT undergraduates’ reactions to international and ethnic minority counselors.
At the campus level, funding, teaching, and research opportunities are available through the Ready for the World Initiative – which was designed to increase international and intercultural knowledge. A wide range of other opportunities for multicultural teaching and research can be found HERE which also highlights the many campus-wide programs that contribute to our diverse and welcoming community. Many of these efforts are coordinated by the Office of Minority Student Affairs. In 2009, the UT entering class of 3700 undergraduates contained a record high 17% ethnic minority students, with the largest group (95) identifying as African American.
Another valuable resource is the expertise of colleagues throughout the department who offer graduate courses in their specialty areas and who collaborate in research. Counseling Psychology is one of three programs in the Department of Psychology, which includes an APA-accredited Clinical Psychology program, and an Experimental Psychology program with three emphasis areas: Biological, Developmental, and Social Psychology. We enjoy excellent cooperative relationships with our sister programs. Faculty in the Experimental area teach many of the quantitative methods courses taken by Counseling and Clinical students. Counseling Psychology faculty offer a Multicultural Psychology course taken by both Clinical and Counseling students. The Clinical Psychology faculty offer an Ethical and Legal Issues course that is taken by both Clinical and Counseling students. The Clinical program’s Psychology Clinic offers training opportunities for our students and the possibility of research collaboration.
In addition to advising, and supervising student research, Department of Psychology faculty members are generally expected to offer two courses in each semester of the academic year. For many faculty, these responsibilities involve one undergraduate course and three graduate offerings annually.
Community
We feel fortunate to have the Beck Cultural Exchange Center in our community and the Highlander Center just a few miles away. Each has a rich heritage and longstanding commitment to social justice and multiculturalism. To find out more about the wide range of cultural and recreational opportunities available in our community, CLICK HERE. Two favorites of many faculty and students in our program are Great Smoky Mountain National Park, located just an hour away, and the Tennessee Theater. A favorite for our parents with young children is the Knoxville Zoo.