A Message from our Program Director

Thank you for your interest in our Clinical Health Psychology Postdoctoral Fellowship. On behalf of myself, and our attending faculty,  Scott Nyman, Ph.D., ABPP and Rebecca Sewell, Ph.D.  I would like to thank you for considering our program for your fellowship capstone training experience. The Genesys program is a 1-year model consistent with APA postdoctoral training standards.

I would like to introduce myself, as I am the Program Director for Clinical Health Psychology Fellowship program.  I grew up in a small town in Missouri and attended the University of Missouri at Columbia for my bachelor's in psychology, but now consider Michigan my home.  I appreciate the beautiful summers and gorgeous autumn time.  I earned my Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology at University of Illinois in 1998 and completed my internship at the Missouri Health Sciences Center Consortium in Columbia, MO.  Before coming to Michigan, I did a rehabilitation research fellowship at the University of Missouri. Following this fellowship, I relocated to Michigan to complete a two-year specialty fellowship in Clinical Health Psychology with Genesys/MSU. I was hired to become the Director of Behavioral Science for Internal Medicine since 2001. I obviously love learning as in 2010, I completed a post-doctoral masters degree in Clinical Psychopharmacology at Farleigh Dickinson University.  I am 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).  I am board certified in Clinical Health Psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology.

I live locally with her husband, Kevin, and our cat (Tucker).  I have two sons--one an aerospace engineering major at U of M in Ann Arbor, and another majoring in music education (trombone) at Central Michigan University.  I enjoy reading fiction, baking, instrumental and vocal music, and traveling. I and my family are avid board gamers and have more board games than we could possibly play in a weekend.

We sincerely hope to meet you in person and show you our amazing Clinical Health Psychology Fellowship!
Should you have any questions regarding our fellowship program please do not hesitate to contact any of our program faculty:

• Dr. Heather Kirkpatrick: Heather.Kirkpatrick@ascension.org
• Dr. Scott Nyman: Scott.Nyman@ascension.org
• Dr. Rebecca Sewell: rebecca.sewell1@ascension.org 

Thank you,
Heather Kirkpatrick, Ph.D., ABPP