Navigating Academia: Insights from a Clinical Psychologist and Assistant Professor (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: Hi, my name is Erlanger Turner. I'm an assistant professor and licensed clinical psychologist in an academic medical setting. As a graduate student, I served on APAC's CEMA and APAC's committee as a member at large practice. Recently, I served on the Diversity in Practice Task Force for APA Division 42 and on the APA membership board. I knew I wanted to go into academia as an undergraduate psychology major. I was inspired to go this route after being exposed to research by professors who I worked with that did research on child psychology. After being awarded a summer fellowship through the National Science Foundation to participate in learning more about cross-cultural psychology, my interest in ethnic minority issues was sparked. Now, I am working to better understand disparities in ethnic minority mental health. As a graduate student, my department rarely talked about going into academic positions. As an assistant professor going into my second year, I would go back and teach myself a few lessons about going into academia. The lesson I would teach myself is trust your abilities and your worth to contribute to a department. I would tell myself to think of it as a business and negotiate towards balancing my own individual goals to balance quality of life as well as helping the institution meet their goals. Although my current position is not tenure-track, I believe the tenure process probably sounds a little bit more daunting than it actually is. From what I've heard from talking with my colleagues is that it really depends on the institution that you're working in, and so it's possible that you may be evaluated more

Speaker 2: on your teaching, service, or research.

Speaker 1: For those interviewing for faculty positions, I would give this advice. Don't get focused on finding the perfect position. I really believe you should think about how you can use that faculty position to work towards advancing your academic career.