For prospective 2009 graduate students: Thanks for expressing an interest in our work. I typically admit one graduate student each year; although last year was an exceptional year and I recruited two students.

For the next year, although funding is not entirely certain yet, I do anticipate recruiting one student for the fall of 2009. I will be particularly attracted to applicants demonstrating (1) research and clinical experiences related to intervention and prevention programs for substance use/abuse among college populations AND (2) strong interests and research experiences related to one or more of the following areas: alcohol administration experimentation, sexual risk-taking, sexual assault, sexual victimization history, and African American cultural factors pertinent to HIV/AIDS risks.

In the meantime, please consider the rest of this website as an up to date source of information on my current research interests and activities and those of my graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and colleagues. For the near future, my work will be focusing mostly on alcohol consumption and sexuality topics especially sexual risk-taking and sexual assault. I am also very interested in new lines of investigation, which incorporate culturally relevant models into my current areas of interest.

Some general advice: Our program is highly ranked and therefore tends to be very competitive. As a consequence, we have come to rely heavily on paper credentials such as GRE scores and GPA for our initial screening purposes. You can learn more about the typical criteria at the department's website. Beyond that, we look for research experience and the degree of match between prospective students and current faculty. In your applicant essay, you will be able to articulate the degree to which your aspirations and interests match my current pursuits and those of other faculty. Also, of course, it is best to apply widely to different graduate schools.

Finally, the following general point is worth emphasizing. Situated in a world-class psychology department, our clinical program’s chief training objective is to produce research scientists who will advance knowledge concerning the etiology, prevention, and treatment of human psychological distress. All of our students are expected, after graduation, to pursue faculty posts or research psychologist positions at universities, university-affiliated hospitals, and research institutes. Therefore, applicants who plan at the outset to seek primarily clinical non-research positions long-term tend to fit less well with faculty training interests.