ӰԺ Department of Neurology Neuropsychology Fellowship
Message from the Program Directors | Julie Janecek, PhD ABPP-CN and Michelle Loman, PhD, ABPP-CN
Hello and welcome fellowship applicants!
We appreciate your interest in our clinical neuropsychology fellowship. Our program offers a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in either pediatric or adult clinical neuropsychology, with emphasis on providing lifespan didactic training in addition to clinical training, research, supervision, and mentorship. Established in 1978, our fellowship program has graduated more than 100 postdoctoral fellows. Our graduates have gone on to be leaders and innovators in the field of clinical neuropsychology. We are proud to note that our graduates hold jobs in their chosen careers and preferred geographic locations in academic medical centers, hospitals, universities, and private practices across the country.
Our training program is housed within the Division of Neuropsychology, in the Department of Neurology at the ӰԺ. Our faculty maintain active clinical and research collaborations within Neurology and across multiple other departments including Neurosurgery, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Orthopaedic Surgery/Sports Medicine, and Radiology. We actively involve fellows in these collaborative relationships.
Our campus is in Milwaukee, which offers a wide range of excellent music venues, restaurants, festivals, sports, arts, and outdoor activities. Situated on Lake Michigan, Milwaukee offers historic charm, diverse cultures, and something for everyone - singles, couples, and families of all types. We value work-life balance, and our fellows tend to develop a strong social network, spending time together at the many nearby parks, beer gardens, and restaurants.
We invite you to explore our website and learn more about the opportunities available at the ӰԺ and through our clinical partners, Children’s Wisconsin and Froedtert Hospital. Please reach out to us with questions, and we are also happy to put you in contact with our current fellow cohort.
Best wishes and we look forward to hearing from you soon!
Program Overview
The Division of Neuropsychology was founded in 1979 and is located at the ӰԺ in the Hub for Collaborative Medicine (HCM) building. The Division of Neuropsychology is housed in the Department of Neurology, and Sara Swanson, PhD, ABPP is the Neuropsychology Division Chief. The Program Director for the Clinical Neuropsychology Postdoctoral Fellowship is Julie Janecek, PhD, ABPP and the Assistant Program Director is Michelle Loman, PhD. The Education Coordinator is Haylee Hopp.
The Division includes pediatric and adult clinical neuropsychology faculty with expertise in clinical care, supervision and mentoring, education, and research, many of whom are, or have been, leaders in professional organizations. The Division also includes psychometrists who provide training and supervision in test administration, scoring, and testing logistics, graduate-level practicum students who participate in evaluation and testing, and dedicated support staff responsible for scheduling and insurance/billing procedures.
The Division of Neuropsychology offers two-year postdoctoral fellowships in pediatric and adult clinical neuropsychology. The purpose of the training program is to provide doctoral-level psychologists with sufficient clinical and research training to competently practice independently in the specialty of clinical neuropsychology.
The postdoctoral fellowship program typically begins and ends around the first of July or August, and we offer flexibility based on internship end dates. Clinical training is divided into adult and pediatric tracks, and fellows are recruited to one track. All fellows attend the same didactic series, which contains a wide range of topics across the lifespan. Educational programming and evaluations are competency-based. The fellowship structure facilitates mastery of advanced knowledge and skills considered necessary for independent practice in clinical neuropsychology with adult or pediatric populations.
Accreditation
Our postdoctoral training program is accredited by the American Psychological Association. The program is a member of the Association of Postdoctoral Programs in Clinical Neuropsychology (APPCN; The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 1993, 7, 197-204) and adheres to the Houston Conference (HC) standards (Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 1998, 13, 160-166) for specialty training in clinical neuropsychology.
The HC education plan “is predicated on the view that the training of the specialist in clinical neuropsychology must be scientist-practitioner based, and may lead to a combined, primarily clinical practice, or primarily academic career (p. 1).” As applied to clinical neuropsychology, the scientist-practitioner model envisions an integration of science and practice at all levels of training, including both programmatic and competency-based components. The model recommends a sequence of education and training that begins at doctoral and internship levels, and concludes in postdoctoral fellowship, that is designed to enable independent practice in the specialty of clinical neuropsychology. Our postdoctoral fellowship provides a full-time training experience that is designed to complete the sequence of education and training necessary for competent, independent practice in the specialty of clinical neuropsychology. The program builds on the knowledge and skills acquired in graduate and internship levels by providing advanced instruction and supervised clinical, research, and teaching experiences designed to achieve the HC exit criteria, i.e., advanced understanding of brain-behavior relationships and advanced competencies in the neuropsychological evaluation, treatment and consultation to patients and professionals in the specialty of clinical neuropsychology.
It is a goal for graduates of our program to be eligible for licensure and board certification in clinical neuropsychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology.
Program Training Activities
Core training activities include providing clinical services, teaching, and accomplishing scholarly projects. Our training also integrates the fundamentals of cognitive neuroscience, neural development, neuropathology, and neuropsychology through didactics to facilitate advanced knowledge about neurobehavioral systems and syndromes. Development of multicultural competence in neuropsychological evaluation is facilitated during didactics as well as individual supervision. The program stresses a flexible battery approach to neuropsychological assessment that is tailored to addressing referral questions and clinical issues uncovered during the intake interview, generating meaningful recommendations, and working closely with referring professionals in development of a treatment plan. Typically, multiple cognitive domains are assessed in varying levels of depth, depending on the nature of the clinical issues, the severity of deficit, and the adequacy of patient compliance and tolerance. In some populations, a targeted battery or a fixed battery approach is used to efficiently answer referral questions or as part of multidisciplinary clinical care and/or a clinical research protocol. Brief but thorough and informative clinical reports that address the referral question, case conceptualization, and intervention needs are written. Consultation to inpatient services and outpatient medical clinics is emphasized. Intervention is primarily focused on educational/therapeutic feedback provided to patients and caregivers about neuropsychological findings and diagnostic conclusions, and translation of assessment conclusions into meaningful recommendations and referrals.
Fellows will interview and evaluate patients with neurobehavioral disorders and participate in all activities that are necessary to make an inpatient and outpatient clinical service operational (e.g., informal consultation, participation in case conferences, etc.). Fellows will make presentations in the Neuropsychology Seminar, Journal Club, Neuropsychology Research Group, and Neurology Grand Rounds, and assist in the instruction and supervision of psychology practicum students. Fellows are also expected to engage in research activity and/or complete a scholarly project during their training. In some cases, a fellow’s salary may be partially supported by funded research grants, thus requiring their assistance with grant-related activities. Lastly, fellows are asked to help develop and maintain the Neuropsychology Seminar Series curriculum and participate in program evaluation through periodic evaluation of supervisors and the fellowship curriculum.
On average, fellows participate in clinical activities three to four days of the week. Fellows are encouraged to reserve at least a half of a day per week for research activities. The remainder of time is spent in various didactic and informal educational activities. The weekly time requirement is about 40-60 hours.