Primary Care Behavioral Health Fellowship

The Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Minnesota Medical School is actively recruiting two postdoctoral fellows in primary care behavioral health. We offer two fellowship opportunities. One is located at the family medicine clinics M Health Fairview Clinic - Bethesda and M Health Fairview Clinic - Smiley's. The second one is at M Physicians Broadway Family Medicine Clinic and North Memorial Medical Center.

When applicants apply, they will be considered for both of our tracks, but applicants can also state a preference for one site over the other in their cover letter or subsequent interviews.

Application deadline is 9/01/2022 or open until filled.

For external candidates:

Apply here

Are you an internal candidate (current UMN employee)? Please use this link:

Apply here

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants must have a PhD or PsyD degree in clinical or counseling psychology from an APA/CPA accredited program and completed an internship that meets APA, APPIC, or CAPPIC requirements.
• Preference is given to applicants that have experience in primary care, health psychology, or behavioral medicine, as well as an interest in psychotherapy.
• Must be eligible for Minnesota licensure. 
• Fellows need to complete all doctoral program requirements prior to the start of the fellowship.
• Candidates must be authorized to work in the US. The Department of Family Medicine and Community Health is unable to support visas for primary care psychology fellows at this time.

Offers will be made in accordance with the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) match guidelines. 

The Bethesda/Smiley's partnership originated in 2007, has expanded since its inception, and currently includes two fellows, a junior and senior fellow, at any given time. At Bethesda/Smiley's, the fellow's time is split equally between two clinics, one in St. Paul (Bethesda/Woodwinds Hospital Family Medicine Residency) and one in Minneapolis (Smiley's/UMN Medical Center Family Medicine Residency). The opportunity to provide care within two clinic settings offers unique opportunities to fellows interested in how the integrated care model may be adapted to best fit the unique needs of various populations and communities based on the resources available in those settings.

Our Clinics:
M Health Fairview Clinic - Bethesda is a certified health care home located in the St. Paul neighborhood of Frogtown, just blocks from the state Capitol. The Bethesda team includes family physicians, social workers, psychiatry, care coordinators, nurses, and pharmacists. The clinic has a medical-legal partnership with a local free/low-cost legal service team, which provides patients with help for health-harming legal needs. Bethesda serves a diverse patient community with many populations including Karen, Burmese, and Hmong refugees and populations that are historically marginalized. In recent months, we have begun welcoming a new wave of Afghan refugees. A hallmark of the culture of care at Bethesda is caring for the whole patient within their unique socio-cultural context. For more information on Bethesda and the Woodwinds Hospital Family Medicine Residency Program, see the following links:

Woodwinds Hospital Family Medicine Residency Program

M Health Fairview Clinic - Bethesda

M Health Fairview - Smiley's Clinic is a certified healthcare home and certified behavioral health home located in South Minneapolis. The Smiley's team includes family physicians, psychiatry (both adult and child), social work, pharmacists, nurses, and care coordinators. The Smiley's team cares for a racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse patient population including Somali, Ethiopian, and Oromo immigrants. Smiley’s clinic has been a pioneer in developing primary care services and training family medicine physicians to provide appropriate care to gender diverse individuals. Our clinic is well-known in the community as a safe place offering gender-affirming primary care. For more information on the University of Minnesota Medical Center Residency Program/Smiley’s Clinic, see the following links:

University of Minnesota Medical Center Residency Program

M Health Fairview - Smiley's Clinic

Examples of past quality improvement projects and research by Bethesda/Smiley's fellows include:

• Caring contacts: Culturally relevant suicide prevention for the Karen community
• Patient survey of interest in/format of pain management groups
• Naloxone teaching and electronic medical record tools to assist providers
• Quality improvement regarding follow up after psychiatric discharge
• Implementation of a healthy lifestyle program for child well checks

Supervision:

In the Bethesda/Smiley's Track, fellows will have two primary supervisors and receive one hour of individual supervision from each supervisor.

• Director of Behavioral Health/primary supervisor at Bethesda Clinic: Christine Danner, PhD, LP
• Director of Behavioral Health/primary supervisor at the Smiley's Clinic: Dana Brandenburg, PsyD, LP

The Broadway primary care behavioral health fellowship began in 2017. Unique training opportunities at Broadway include the following:

Hmong Support Group: Fellows co-facilitate (with our Hmong care coordinator) a support group for Hmong women, many of whom live with mood disorders and chronic pain. This group has been on hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and it is our goal to restart this group sometime in the summer of 2022.

Advocacy Opportunities: Broadway hosts a monthly mentorship program for youth from underprivileged areas who are interested in careers in healthcare (The Ladder: https://theladdermn.org/).

Our Clinic:
Broadway Family Medicine Clinic is a certified healthcare home that has been an anchor in the North Minneapolis community for more than 40 years (in a brand-new building as of January 2021). The clinic has 24 family medicine residents and 16 faculty members. The Broadway team cares for a culturally, ethnically, and racially diverse population, including approximately 70% Black and 10% Hmong patients. Broadway truly embraces an inter-professional team approach to full-spectrum patient care and resident education, including physician faculty and residents (MDs and DOs), nurses, psychologists, pharmacists, a dietitian, social worker, community health worker, and care coordinators.

For more information on the North Memorial Family Medicine Residency Program and Broadway clinic, see the following links:

North Memorial Family Medicine Residency Program

University of Minnesota Physicians Broadway Family Medicine Clinic

Examples of past quality improvement projects and research by Broadway fellows include:

• A Longitudinal Pilot Study of Changes in How Residents Hope their Patients Experience Them
• Values-Based Behavioral Activation for Chronic Pain in Primary Care: A Pilot Study. Journal article found online at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10880-019-09655-x)

Supervision: In the Broadway track, fellows will have one primary supervisor and receive two hours of individual supervision from this supervisor, Director of Behavioral Health/Primary Supervisor at Broadway: Elizabeth Martinez, PhD, LP.

Behavioral health fellows are provided with the following benefits:

• Salary: $53,760
• Paid and unpaid leaves
• Vacation leave
• Personal and scheduled floating holiday

Learn more by viewing the following: 

• Benefits fact sheet for postdoctoral associates
• University of Minnesota Office of Human Resources employee benefits website

Continuing Medical Education Credit

Receive $2,000 of continuing medical education credit per year that can be used for educational expenses such as conferences or courses. These funds roll over from year to year, and any unused funds would be forfeited upon the end of the two-year fellowship.

Contact

For more information regarding payroll, vacation, assistance planning leave, or sick leave:

Angela Kamau
612-624-2622
koon0008@umn.edu

For more information regarding other benefits:

UMN Office of Human Resources
612-624-8647 or 800-756-2363
benefits@umn.edu

Senior fellow

Ehren Emter, PsyD

Graduate school: Doctor of Psychology in Counseling Psychology, Chatham University, Pittsburgh, PA
Internship: Clinical Health Psychology, Dayton Veteran's Affairs Medical Center, Dayton, OH
Medical interests: Integration of physical and mental health, sleep disorders/insomnia, chronic pain, chronic disease management, substance use, adherence to physical health treatment, and gender and sexual minority health.
Personal interests: Reading, city bicycling, running, and watching Chinese costume dramas.

First-year fellow

Tera Meerkins, PhD 

Graduate school: Boston College, Newton, MA
Internship: Massachusetts Mental Health Center at Harvard Medical School
Medical interests: Liberation health practices, perinatal mental health, substance use disorders, and the physiological impact of trauma. 
Personal interests: Yoga, hiking, running, and social justice activism.

Sarah Addicks, PhD, LP
Clinical Psychologist
Courage Kenney Rehabilitation Institute

Mary Becker, PhD, LP
Integrated Primary Care Psychologist
Hennepin Healthcare

Marchion Hinton, PhD, LP
Associate Program Director Hennepin Family Medicine Residency
Hennepin Healthcare

Stephanie Hooker, PhD, LP
Research Associate
HealthPartners Institute

Bethany Fiebelkorn Kennedy, PhD, LP
Integrated Primary Care Psychologist
Hennepin Healthcare

Nathaniel Lombardi, PhD, LP
Integrated Behavioral Health Psychologist
Mayo Clinic Health System

Eli Martinez, PhD
Behavioral Health Faculty
M Physicians Broadway Family Medicine Clinic

Aaron Meyer, PsyD, LP
Clinical Psychologist
HealthPartners Park Nicollet Melrose Center

Ryan Miller, PsyD, LP
Primary Care Health Integration Psychologist
St. Cloud VA Medical Center

Deirdre Paulson, PhD, LP
Director of Behavioral Health
Eau Claire Family Medicine Residency Program
Mayo Clinic Health System

Adam Sattler, PhD
Clinical Psychologist
Lorenz Clinic of Family Psychology
Rosemount, Minnesota

Laura Sisson, PsyD, LP
Clinical Psychologist
Conifer Wellness

Kristi White, PhD, LP
Integrated Primary Care Psychologist
Hennepin Healthcare

Mailing Address:
420 Delaware St. SE
MMC 381
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Office Address:
516 Delaware St. SE
5-255 Philips-Wangensteen Bldg
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Director

Due Process and Grievance Procedures

Fellows are informed at the beginning of their fellowship about due process and grievance procedures. They are given printed copies as well as digital access related to all of their training activities.