Larissa McGarrity, PhD, Named 2022 Judy E. Hall Early Career Psychologist Award Winner

The National Register of Health Service Psychologists is proud to present the 2022 Judy E. Hall Early Career Psychologist Award to Larissa McGarrity, PhD, of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, UT. This award comes with a $10,000 stipend to fund a project that aims to enhance the contributions of psychology to health care. 

This award, named in honor of the National Register’s Executive Officer from 1990 through 2013, is presented annually to a National Register credentialed psychologist with fewer than 10 years of postdoctoral experience. 

The National Register’s Awards Committee was impressed with Dr. McGarrity’s plan to use the $10,000 award stipend to support a project that will incorporate genetic testing results into behavioral interventions for patients with obesity. 

Upon receiving the award, Dr. McGarrity said, “Thank you sincerely to the National Register and the selection committee for this honor to receive the Judy E. Hall Early Career Psychologist Award and associated funding for my mixed-methods research project on the psychological and behavioral effects of receiving genetic test feedback for contributors to severe obesity in the weight management clinic setting. My co-investigators Drs. Lisa Aspinwall and Juliana Simonetti and I represent a new interdisciplinary team collaborating to better understand impact on patients of this genetic testing as part of their weight management program in light of competing theories about potential benefits and harms to patients. My interest in particular is in whether acknowledging genetic contributors to long-standing struggles with weight may reduce self-blame and internalized stigma in a way that empowers patients for healthy behavior changes. I am very excited about the opportunity to pursue this important new research direction and am very humbled by the recognition of the work I’ve been doing at this early career stage.” 

Dr. Larissa McGarrity is an Assistant Professor (Clinical) in the School of Medicine, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Utah. She earned her PhD in Clinical Psychology with a specialization in Behavioral Medicine, completed an APA-accredited internship at Alpert Medical School of Brown University in 2015-2016, and a specialized postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Utah School of Medicine in 2016-2017. Her clinical, research, education, and service efforts currently focus on psychological health (including both risk and resilience) for patients with severe obesity seeking weight management or bariatric surgery treatment. Dr. McGarrity is the Associate Chief of the Section of PM&R Psychology, Training Director for the Bariatric Psychology Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, and Ambulatory Operations Lead for PM&R Bariatric Psychology at the University of Utah. In terms of research, she is currently part of the competitive Vice President’s Clinical and Translational Research Scholars Program at her institution which invests in early career scholars with the potential to become independent investigators. Dr. McGarrity has 18 peer-reviewed publications, 18 presentations at national and international conferences, and has received multiple pilot grants to support her work. She serves on the board for the Mountain West Obesity Society and the Women’s Special Interest Group for the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, on the Integrated Health Clinical Issues Committee for the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, and on multiple university and departmental committees. 

Dr. McGarrity has been credentialed by the National Register since 2018. 

This announcement will also be featured in the National Register’s Journal of Health Service Psychology. 

About the National Register of Health Service Psychologists 

The National Register of Health Service Psychologists was established in 1974 and is the largest credentialing organization for psychologists and psychology doctoral students. We are an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to improving healthcare by identifying psychologists who meet specific education and training standards, and by verifying these professionals to consumers, healthcare organizations, and regulatory bodies. The National Register currently credentials 10,000 Health Service Psychologists and has approximately 4,000 psychology doctoral student and postdoctoral trainee members of its Associate Program. For more information, visit www.nationalregister.org. 

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For more information about this announcement, contact the National Register at 202.783.7663.