The San Francisco VA Health Care System is recruiting for a two-year postdoctoral advanced fellowship program in mental health research and treatment with a focus on the neurobiology of schizophrenia. The fellowship is associated with the Sierra Pacific Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC; VISN 21) and affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco.
The primary goal of the fellowship program is to train psychologists, other allied health professionals, and MDs to become leading clinical researchers in high priority areas of mental health. Over the course of the 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, including didactics on career development (e.g., grant and manuscript preparation, the role of mentorship), recent advances in conducting clinical research in mental health (from genetics to designing the best interventions), and state-of-the-art methodological approaches to mental health research and practice.
Fellows will work on projects studying the neurobiological mechanisms of the symptoms of schizophrenia and its neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative course. The core faculty is composed of clinical neuroscientists, psychologists and psychiatrists, working in brain imaging, electrophysiology, and neuroplasticity. Fellows will be dual-mentored with research and career mentors to guide them through learning neurobiological methods, producing a body of data, presenting results at national meetings, writing and publishing papers, preparing grant proposals, in the interest of launching and maintaining a successful academic career.
Core faculty members
- Judith Ford, PhD, fellowship director
- Daniel Mathalon, PhD, MD
- Susanna Fryer, PhD
- Joshua Woolley, MD, PhD
Application information
Applicants from doctoral programs in psychology and other allied health professions must be U.S. citizens. Psychology applicants 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 or counseling psychology also is required. The stipend for 2017 is $50,228 for the first year of the program with a stipend increase in the second year. These stipends are established by OAA and are adjusted according to rates paid by comparable non-VA postdoctoral fellowship programs.
MD applicants must have completed ACGME accredited residency 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 have current ECFMG sponsorship as well. The VA funds MD fellows’ stipends in amounts based on previously completed ACGME accredited residency training.
For questions, please contact the fellowship director, Judith Ford, PhD ([email protected]) and/or see the San Francisco VA Health Care System website.
To apply for this fellowship, applicants should submit:
- a letter of interest detailing your research experience, interests, career goals, and proposed faculty mentor(s) from list above;
- a CV
- Three letters of recommendation.
Applicants should submit their materials via email to [email protected].
VA is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply, including minorities and women. VA seeks candidates whose experience, teaching, research, or community service has prepared them to contribute to our commitment to diversity and excellence.
