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fall 2025
With an acceptance rate of less than 2%, it takes an impressive array of credentials and life experiences for a student to earn a spot in Suffolk University’s highly regarded clinical psychology PhD program.
Thirty years ago, it also required a giant leap of faith.
In 1995, when students joined the first cohort of the newly established program, there was no guarantee what their experience would be like—or even if the program would earn accreditation. Still, students came and worked tirelessly, dedicated to advancing the field through research and teaching, pillars core to Suffolk’s program since its inception.
“You can’t throw a rock in Boston without hitting a Dunkin’ Donuts now, and the same was probably true of psychologists or psychiatrists in the late ’90s,” jokes Matthew Jerram, PhD ’03, now a professor and chair of the Psychology Department.
Yet, the “epicenter of US psychology” lacked enough rigorous doctoral programs to train the researchers and clinicians needed to fuel its labs and treatment centers.
So Suffolk expanded on its solid foundation in undergraduate and master's level psychology, building a doctoral program based on the Boulder Method, a scientist-practitioner training model that stresses research-informed treatment. This applied approach to clinical psychology offered something very different from counseling programs at some neighboring schools at the time, says Jerram. The goal was to open doors for students, rather than boxing them into narrow careers in just one aspect of the field.
Opening the door to innovation
When the program conferred its first degrees—and earned accreditation from the American Psychological Association (APA)—in 2000, it was an important milestone for both Suffolk and the region.
In her Commencement address to the College of Arts & Sciences Class of 2025, alumna Frida Polli, PhD ’07—who has gone on to build a pathbreaking career exploring the intersection of behavioral science and artificial intelligence—recalled how her experience in the newly minted PhD program “allowed [her] to be innovative and entrepreneurial and go and study brain science” at the renowned Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging in nearby Charlestown.
This integration with area facilities became a hallmark of the program.
While most universities keep their students in-house for clinicals, Suffolk instead looked to the world-class research and medical facilities outside its doors to offer students access to diverse populations and viewpoints. Faculty members tapped their professional networks throughout Boston and beyond. The department also recruited new clinical faculty who brought important connections with them, including Professor Edith Kaplan, a nationally recognized pioneer in neuropsychology who mentored Jerram, Polli, and many others.
“All of these relationships that have been nurtured with hospitals and clinics have helped us, over the years, to develop these absolutely wonderful clinical opportunities, and we monitor them carefully,” explains Professor Krisanne Bursik, one of the program’s founding faculty members who helped shape CAS over decades of service.
When Professor Gary Fireman took on the role of clinical director in 2005, he focused on systematically scaling up those clinical connections. This meant seeking placements that would be responsive to students’ needs but also integrating the client population’s needs into the curriculum to ensure trainees were well prepared, says Fireman, now Suffolk’s associate provost and chief data officer.
“If you’re working in public schools supporting K through 12 students, or if you’re providing treatment in a VA hospital or a medical center, you have to understand that milieu as the needs and the structure are very different,” he explains.
Suffolk PhDs learn to work closely with allied health professionals to implement treatment plans in real-world settings. That gives them a huge leg up when they go on to compete for their first jobs, says Fireman.
“In the judgment of professionals nationally, our students are highly sought-after, and they get great jobs and have great careers,” he says. “They’re not just intellectually gifted. They have the maturity and emotional stability and the civic engagement to care about their communities.”
While most universities keep their PhD students in-house for clinicals, Suffolk places theirs in the world-class research and medical facilities outside its doors. Doctoral students like Nathaniel Santiago also serve as teachers and mentors for undergraduates. Photograph by Michael J. Clarke
By Andrea Grant
Psychology PhD by the Numbers
229
total alumni
1.7%
acceptance rate (2023, last available data)
since 1995
175+ practicum sites
PhD students have trained at
active research labs on campus
14
In the last 4 years Suffolk psychology PhD dissertations have been downloaded
8,938 times among 576 institutions in 137 countries.
Last year, Suffolk’s PhD students provided
4,347 hours of clinical intervention, including 3,217 hours of individual therapy.
The goal of Suffolk’s applied approach to clinical psychology is to open doors for students, rather than boxing them into narrow careers, says Matthew Jerram, PhD ’03 (above right), associate professor and chair of the Department of Psychology (with Professor Emeritus David Gansler and Jessica Pan Conklin, MS ’15, PhD ’19). Photograph by Michael J. Clarke
Teachers as well as clinicians
As the doctoral students immerse themselves in clinicals around the region, they also integrate within all levels of the Psychology Department.
“When we started this program, we [didn’t want it to be] this elite satellite that was disconnected from the undergraduate program” and teaching mission, says Bursik. Equipping doctoral students with teaching skills has served them well in positions that required mentoring, while giving graduate and undergraduate students hands-on research experiences and “a window into what real psychologists actually do, which is not always what they think.”
Professor Jessica Graham-LoPresti, who took on the role of director of clinical training this fall, agrees it’s crucial for doctoral students to integrate fully into the Suffolk community.
“We have a lot of incredibly bright undergraduate students, many of whom are first generation, or international students, or who are struggling in a number of different ways with the transition,” says Graham-LoPresti. “I love seeing how they thrive in the environment where they have graduate students from our program mentoring them.”
Gaining teaching and mentoring experience offers yet another option for doctoral students as they refine their interests, says Graham-LoPresti, who is carrying on the program’s legacy of encouraging students to forge their own paths. “It’s a real point of pride for us that we support our students in pursuing the careers that they want, whether it’s research, clinical work, consulting or teaching, or starting their own businesses.”
Ready to change the world
Over the years, as Suffolk students have proven themselves in placement after placement, earned top postdoctoral positions, and advanced in their careers, the program’s network has grown exponentially. And thanks to Suffolk’s emphasis on training future educators in the field, so have opportunities for the next generation of PhDs.
Nicole McLaughlin’s eyes still widen when she describes her first clinical placement at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital in Jamaica Plain over 20 years ago. There, she treated patients with deep and complex needs made more challenging by HIV, tuberculosis, homelessness, and incarceration. She’d intended to specialize in pediatric neuropsychology, but developed a strong interest in helping adults during her experience at Shattuck. The freedom afforded by Suffolk’s program allowed her to explore both.
Today, as the neuropsychology clinical director at Butler Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, McLaughlin, PhD ’06, says the shortage of clinical psychologists is more acute than ever. “I just hired a new clinician, and our wait list for neuropsych evaluations is still 300 patients long,” she says, stressing the importance of the training pipeline.
“The practitioners that come to us through Suffolk are not only very well trained, they’re well rounded in terms of clinical work and research work, and then they often have teaching experience as well,” says McLaughlin.
And while shifting federal regulations are making funding for some of the department’s research more challenging—including work to help identify systemic biases and remove barriers to mental healthcare—Graham-LoPresti is heartened by support from both the program’s accrediting body, APA, and Suffolk leadership as faculty continue to train community-oriented, culturally responsive doctoral students.
“I’m also first generation, so it’s really important to me to continue that legacy and ensure that people have the opportunities that they deserve,” says Graham-LoPresti. “I want our students to take on this mantra that they can change the world, because I think we really can.”