Overview: The Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center (MIRECC) of the New York/New Jersey Veterans Healthcare Network is accepting applications from psychologists for a 2-year Post-Doctoral Advanced Fellowship Program in Mental Illness Research and Treatment. The Fellowship program is APA accredited and aims to train psychologists to become leading recovery-oriented clinical researchers with a focus on serious mental illness and suicide. Our mission is to pursue a discovery-to-recovery approach for serious mental illness and suicide by determining causes, identifying predictors, and developing treatments that overcome barriers and enable recovery.
Program Description: The Fellows’ primary appointment will be at the James J. Peters VA Medical Center (JJPVAMC) in the Bronx, NY, with a secondary appointment at the affiliate Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in Manhattan, NY. Training opportunities will reside in the research, clinical, and educational programs at both institutions. Fellows devote approximately 75% of their time to research activities, research-related clinical activities, and educational activities, and 25% to developing advanced clinical skills in direct patient care. Fellows can spend the majority of research time developing their own line of work. In collaboration with their mentors, Fellows will develop and implement a research project, publish and present findings, participate in grant writing, and utilize the latest technology for educational activities and clinical service delivery. Fellows can apply for small grants of up to $10,000 to collect pilot data through our internal pilot funding program. Individualized, mentored research and clinical training are combined with a state-of-the-art educational curriculum that emphasizes research methods, statistics, epidemiology, mental health systems, quality improvement methods, education, and service delivery. VA Fellowship sites are linked electronically for didactic, academic, and research efforts. Our interdisciplinary program aims to train psychologists to become outstanding clinical researchers in high priority areas of mental health.
Faculty: The VISN 2 MIRECC faculty is internationally recognized for research in suicide, psychosis and psychosis risk, and severe affective disorders. The center pursues a discovery-to-recovery approach to determine the causes and develop treatments for suicide and serious mental illness. Research areas of expertise and interest among the faculty include using neuroimaging and molecular biological techniques to investigate the neurobiology of serious mental illness and suicide; identification of suicide and psychosis risk in veterans transitioning out of the military; development and evaluation of behavioral and pharmacological interventions for suicide and serious mental illness; use of artificial intelligence (e.g., natural language processing, computer vision) to study suicide and psychosis; and implementation science to promote evidence-based practices.
Fellows work closely with a primary research mentor and have opportunities to work with secondary mentors. The following VISN 2 MIRECC faculty are open to serving as primary mentor for fellows applying to start in 2026:
Marianne Goodman, MD: Her research focuses on developing novel treatments for suicide and understanding mechanisms of suicide risk. Her current projects include “Project Life Force” (PLF), a suicide safety planning + skills training virtual group that she developed that is now being disseminated across VA. PLF adaptations currently underway involve lived experience peers and a family/loved ones add-on. Additional funded projects include a study examining gender differences in the impact of TBI on suicide risk and a clinical trial testing the feasibility and preliminary effect of an orexin receptor antagonist to reduce suicide risk in suicidal Veterans. She is also involved in several provider and family based suicide prevention educational projects.
Philip Szeszko, PhD: His main research interests focus on the use of multimodal MRI to identify neurobiological mechanisms that play a role in neuropsychiatric disorders and their functional relevance.
James Murrough, MD, PhD: His research utilizes molecular, neuroimaging, and experimental therapeutics approaches to study the fundamental mechanisms underlying stress-related disorders in humans, including major depressive disorder (MDD), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anxiety disorders. The overall goal of this work is to advance the treatment of stress-related disorders through an enhanced understanding of disease pathogenesis and therapeutic mechanisms of action.
David Burstein, PhD: His research leverages electronic health record and genomic data to develop novel computational phenotyping methods for neuropsychiatric disorders using artificial intelligence and machine learning. His research highlights the overlapping and complex nature of neuropsychiatric traits and demonstrates the value of leveraging large biobank data to understand these traits.
Georgios Voloudakis, MD: His research focuses on integrating genetics, multi-omics, and clinical data to uncover mechanisms of neuropsychiatric disorders and to identify therapeutic targets and repurposable compounds.
Other faculty (and their research interests) who are available to be part of the mentorship team:
Chi Chan, PhD: psychosis; suicide; cognition; functional outcome; neurobiology
Cheryl Corcoran, MD: schizophrenia; psychosis; language; artificial intelligence; risk; social cognition; stigma; non-invasive brain stimulation
Stella Dracheva, PhD: cell-type-specific epigenetic regulation of gene expression in the human brain; DNA methylation; histone modifications; RNA editing; neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders; drug addiction
Emily Edwards, PhD: criminal justice involvement; suicide; personality disorders; treatment development; program evaluation
Joseph Geraci, PhD: sponsorship/mentors; veteran cultural competence; suicide prevention; transition from military to civilian life; Modern Warrior’s journey
Vahram Haroutunian, PhD: schizophrenia; depression; suicide; neurobiology; Alzheimer’s disease; healthy aging; cell-type specific gene expression
Erin Hazlett, PhD: schizophrenia; schizotypal personality disorder; borderline personality disorder; depression; suicidal behavior; fMRI; diffusion tensor imaging; psychophysiology
Alejandro Interian, PhD: suicide prevention; depression in Parkinson’s disease; traumatic brain injury; intervention development; neurocognition; precision medicine
Panagiotis Roussos, MD, PhD: schizophrenia; genetics; molecular biology; bioinformatics Yosef Sokol, PhD: suicide prevention; personal identity; treatment development; personal recovery; future self-continuity; temporal self-appraisal; and long-COVID
More information on our MIRECC, the fellowship, and faculty research areas is available by scanning the QR code at the top of page 1 or visiting the VISN 2 MIRECC website. Fellows’ mentorship can also include other faculty from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Department of Psychiatry.
Start Day: The start day is flexible. The fellowship will begin between July 1st and October 1st, 2026. This fellowship is fully in-person.
Eligibility: Applicants must be U.S. citizens, hold a doctorate from an APA-accredited program in clinical or counseling psychology, and be enrolled in or have completed an APA-accredited internship in clinical or counseling psychology. Doctoral requirements, including dissertation, must be completed prior to the start of the fellowship.
Accreditation: The VISN 2 MIRECC Advanced Psychology Fellowship Program in Mental Illness Research & Treatment is accredited by the American Psychological Association Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation: 750 First St, NE Washington, DC 20002-4242 / apaaccred@apa.org / (202) 336-5979
Please feel free to contact the Fellowship Director, Dr. Chi Chan at chi.chan1@va.gov with any questions.