Clinical Health Psychology Fellowship

Core Faculty & Training Supervisors

Heather Kirkpatrick, Ph.D., ABPP

Heather Kirkpatrick, Ph.D., MSCP ABPP

Dr. Kirkpatrick is a faculty member within the departments of Psychology and Internal Medicine at Genesys. Her time is spent between working with psychology fellows in our Clinical Health Psychology postdoctoral fellowship program and working with our Internal Medicine residents in their ambulatory office experience at the Downtown Flint Health Center. The health center houses internal medicine, obstetrics-gynecology, gastroenterology, surgery, and podiatry. Dr. Kirkpatrick and the psychology fellow have a thriving integrated psychology primary care practice (providing evaluation, assessment, and treatment) with these services in addition to their teaching responsibilities. Dr. Kirkpatrick also teaches and coordinates the psychopharmacology for both the Ascension Genesys fellowship, as well as the Michigan Consortium for Advanced Psychology Training fellowship. Dr. Kirkpatrick's professional and research interests involve integrated primary care, psychopharmacology, medical education techniques, bioethics, and physician wellness. She regularly speaks on these topics at conferences and enjoys collaborating with fellows in presentations and publications. She is active with the Ascension Genesys Ethics committee, having served as it’s chair for many years.

Dr. Kirkpatrick is a fully licensed psychologist in the State of Michigan, having earned her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology at University of Illinois in 1998.  She completed her internship at the Missouri Health Sciences Center Consortium in Columbia, MO and then went on to a rehabilitation research fellowship at the University of Missouri. Following this fellowship, she relocated to Michigan to complete a two-year specialty fellowship in Clinical Health Psychology with Genesys/MSU. She has served as the Director of Behavioral Science for Internal Medicine since 2001. In 2010, she completed a post-doctoral masters degree in Clinical Psychopharmacology at Farleigh Dickinson University. Dr. Kirkpatrick is currently an Assistant Professor in the departments of Family Medicine (Michigan State University College of Human Medicine) and Internal Medicine (Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine).  She is board certified in Clinical Health Psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology.

Dr. Kirkpatrick lives locally with her husband, Kevin, and their two sons. She enjoys reading YA fiction, baking, instrumental and vocal music, her cat (Yeager), and traveling. She and her family are avid board gamers and have more board games than we could possibly play in a weekend.

Scott Nyman, Ph.D., ABPP

Dr. Nyman is the Director of Behavioral Science for the Family Medicine Residency program at Ascension-Genesys (A-G), and holds a shared faculty position with both the A-G Clinical Health Psychology (CHP) Fellowship and A-G Family Medicine (FM) Residency programs. Dr. Nyman is also the faculty coordinator for the Clinical Health Psychology advanced practicum program. Within Family Medicine, Dr. Nyman and the CHP Fellow both work closely with the FM residents providing education related to psychology / behavior change principles for primary care medical patients. The FM residents participate with us in our collaborative AD/HD screening clinic, Lifestyle Change Clinic (weight loss and smoking cessation), and also have the opportunity to observe some of our warm handoff (IPC) cases in medical exam rooms as well as short-term psychotherapy cases in our offices. Dr. Nyman's professional and research interests involve teaching CHP Fellows, Practicum students and FM Resident Physicians concepts and processes of integrating psychology / behavior change principles into outpatient medical settings. Dr. Nyman has had recent opportunities to speak and publish on these topics, and also enjoys the opportunity to collaborate with psychology and medical colleagues on research and clinical quality improvement projects.

Dr. Nyman is board certified in Clinical Health Psychology through the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP), and is a fully licensed psychologist in the State of Michigan, having earned his Ph.D. in counseling psychology at Purdue University in 2004 with predoctoral internship at Utah State University, prior to returning to his home state of Michigan to complete a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in Clinical Health Psychology here at Genesys from 2004-2006. Prior to his current position, Dr. Nyman spent four years at the Genesys Hurley Cancer Institute, Flint, MI, as their staff psychologist. Dr. Nyman is presently an Assistant Professor in the departments of Family Medicine and Psychiatry, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine.

Dr. Nyman lives locally with his wife and their daughter, and enjoys spending free time with family and friends. He is often found on the sidelines of his daughter's youth soccer games and enjoys traveling to Northern Michigan with family for summer getaways.
Rebecca Sewell, Ph.D.

Rebecca Sewell, Psy.D.

Dr. Sewell is a faculty member within the Psychology and Medical Education departments at Ascension Genesys. She splits her time between managing our hospital-based psychology Consultation-Liaison service and working within the obstetrics-gynecology residency program.  She also spends time teaching and supervising psychology fellows among our Clinical Health Psychology postdoctoral fellowship program.

Dr. Sewell is a fully licensed Clinical Psychologist in the state of Michigan. She earned her Psy.D. from Midwestern University in 2019. She completed her internship at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Tyler, TX. She then relocated to Michigan and completed her fellowship in Clinical Health Psychology at Ascension Genesys Hospital. Prior to her current position, she worked at Bon Secours Mercy Health in Toledo, OH as a behavioral health consultant. During that time, she worked in integrated primary care and weight management, which focused on bariatric pre-surgical evaluations. Her professional interests include chronic disease management, the integration of behavioral health into primary care, working with bariatric surgery patients pre- and post-surgery, and medical education.

Dr. Sewell lives locally with her husband, Matthew, and their lovable black lab, Addy.  
She enjoys traveling, outdoor activities such as hiking and camping, and cooking. She completed her undergraduate studies at Virginia Tech and is a big fan of the Hokies football team.