Fellow Spotlight: Katrina Roundfield

I completed my B.A. in Psychology at San Diego State University and attended DePaul University’s Clinical-Community Psychology Ph.D. program in Chicago, IL. My research experiences at DePaul University focused on the intersection of mental health and educational outcomes among underserved youth. At DePaul University, I worked on research projects examining environmental risk and protective factors associated with educational outcomes, mental illness, and delinquency among low-income, ethnic minority children and adolescents. Ultimately, I would like to design, implement, and evaluate interventions that effectively promote mental health and academic achievement among vulnerable youth.

During my internship year at The Consultation Center at Yale, I selected projects that would further my program of research. At TCC, I worked primarily with Dr. Nadia Ward on the Yale-Bridgeport GEAR UP Partnership Project, an urban school reform initiative designed to promote educational attainment among low-income and minority youth. Our research team designed the first phase of a family-focused intervention aimed at reducing stress and promoting well-being among single-mothers of GEAR UP students in the district. As a secondary placement through TCC, I selected to work at the Child Health and Development Institute (CHDI) in Hartford under the supervision of Dr. Jason Lang. At CHDI I had the opportunity to gain more in-depth exposure to the science of implementation and dissemination. I trained police officers across the state of Connecticut on best practices when interfacing with youth whom have mental illnesses and co-authored an empirical paper on the cost of sustaining Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) in community mental health agencies in Connecticut.

I chose Yale because of the unique integration of both clinical and community psychology research and practice. It is extremely rare to find an internship program that allows Fellows to hone their clinical practice skills and engage in community-based research.

I lived in Hamden, CT in an area called Whitneyville. My apartment building was 1.5 miles from TCC.

There are a lot of amazing places to eat in New Haven, my favorite dinner spot was Caseus. I like that Caseus’ menu rotates and there is always something new and delicious to try. For hanging out with friends in New Haven, many of the Fellows from my cohort and I would go to the Graduate and Professional Student Center at Yale (GPSCY) bar. The drinks are cheap and they have karaoke on Fridays!

As a native Californian, I am very pleased that I landed a two-year National Institute of Mental Health T32 postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco in their Clinical Services Research Training Program. At UCSF, I will be conducting research in partnership with the San Francisco Unified School District to examine the mental health and academic performance of students in the district. Specifically, I will be helping them to evaluate interventions that promote social and emotional functioning among students and their effects on school outcomes.