GWU Clinical Psychology PhD program

05/15/2026

Congratulations to our newest Clinical PhDs: Dr. Maya Cook Alford, Dr. SJ Job, Dr. Seon (Eric) Lee, Dr. Blakely Murphy, Dr. Ash Reed, & Dr. Alana Rule!! It was so wonderful to celebrate your accomplishments at the doctoral hooding!

04/29/2026

The annual Meltzer Center picnic was a nice way to celebrate the end of another successful year! And, the start of a fun new tradition of silly awards for our first and second year student clinicians!

04/21/2026

Breakfast celebration for our three graduate students who will be departing in a few months for their clinical internships. Congratulations to Anese, David, and Vicky on this milestone!

04/07/2026

Last week, Madison Newell presented her 2nd year project, "Environmental and Heritable Pathways to Socioemotional Outcomes: The Roles of Child Positive Affectivity & Household Chaos.” Thanks to Madi for sharing these unexpected and intriguing results with us!

03/26/2026

Congratulations to Alana Rule on successfully defending her dissertation entitled: Black Girlhood is Sacred yet Stolen: Construction and Validation of a New Measure of Gendered Racial Microaggressions for Black Adolescent Girls

03/04/2026

This afternoon, Clinical Psychology doctoral students, Alana Rule and Vicky Ho, were inducted into the GWU chapter of prestigious Bouchet Graduate Honor Society, which recognizes outstanding scholarly achievement and promotes diversity and excellence in doctoral education and the professoriate. Vicky and Alana both spoke eloquently about their research, which exemplifies the the five Bouchet qualities of scholarship, leadership, character, service, and advocacy. Congratulations to you both on this remarkable achievement!

02/28/2026

The Clinical program congratulates Anese Barnett, Vicky Ho, and David Kalwicz on their successful internship matches for next academic year.

Anese - West Virginia University's Behavioral Medicine & Psychiatry, Martinsburg, WV
Vicky - Mount Sinai Hospital/Adolescent Health Center, NY, NY
David - Nemours Children's Health, Wilmington DE

This is a huge milestone in their journey to completing the Clinical Psychology PhD! Congratulations to all!

02/28/2026

Congratulations to Clinical psychology graduate student, Blakely Murphy, on a splendid dissertation defense of her dissertation — The Power of Appraisals: Perceived Stress and Perceived Threat as Parallel Mediators Between COVID-19 Stressful Events and College Students’ Mental Health.

Blakely is currently completing her Clinical Psychology Internship at the Center for Counseling and Student Development, The University of Delaware.

Blakely's defense committee included: Cindy Rohrbeck (Dissertation Director), Phil Wirtz and Nick Talisman (Committee), Risa Broudy and Lex Pulice-Farrow (Muhlenberg College) (Readers). Phil Moore chaired the defense meeting.

02/17/2026

Congratulations to clinical psychology doctoral students Vicky Ho, David Kalwicz, and Alana Rule on their new article!

Ho, V.C., Kalwicz, D.A., Rule, A.C., and Gee, C. (2026). COVID-19 stress, social support, and loneliness during the transition to in-person learning. Curr Psychol 45, 508. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-025-09002-4.

David and Vicky were co-first authors on this paper. The authors would like extend a special thanks to Dr. Ellen Yeung for statistical consultation!
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12144-025-09002-4

In light of college campus COVID-19 policies limiting social contact, this study examined the role of COVID-19 perceived stress (CPS), social support from various sources, and negative social exchange (NSE) on loneliness in college students (N = 111) during the transition to in-person learning. ...

02/14/2026

Congratulations to Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program students, Vicky Ho and Alana Rule, who both have been inducted to The George Washington University chapter of the Edward Alexander Bouchet Graduate Honor Society.

The GW's Bouchet Society Recognition Ceremony will be held on Tuesday, March 3, 2026, from 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 pm in the Science & Engineering Hall, room B1220.

This is an incredibly prestigious award for both Vicky and Alana, recognizing their outstanding academic achievements!