Katherine L. Dixon-Gordon, PhD, Named 2018 Judy E. Hall Early Career Psychologist Award Winner

The National Register of Health Service Psychologists is proud to present the 2018 Judy E. Hall, PhD, Early Career Psychologist Award to Katherine L. Dixon-Gordon, PhD.

The award is named after Judy E. Hall, PhD, the Executive Officer of the National Register from 1990 to 2013. The award recognizes excellence in a National Register credentialed psychologist with fewer than ten years of postdoctoral experience, and the associated $2,500 stipend supports a project that advances the mission, vision, and values of the National Register.

Dr. Dixon-Gordon was selected for the Hall award based on both her exceptional achievements as an ECP and her plan to use the $2,500 award stipend to better understand the gap between patients who need care and those who receive it by focusing on care provision of patients with psychological and substance use disorders in emergency departments. Her project will recruit emergency room providers and, using an experimental paradigm, examine the effect of patient co-occurring psychological disorders (present or absent) on the quality of care (e.g., referrals provided) using hypothetical vignettes. Potential barriers to receiving care and referrals will also be examined, including access to institutional resources (such as integrated psychologists), past training in intervention and efficacious treatments for psychological disorders, and negative attitudes.

Upon receiving the award, Dr. Dixon-Gordon said, “It is a great honor to receive the 2018 Judy E. Hall Early Career Psychologist Award. I appreciate the ways in which the National Register secures and promotes the profession of health service psychology. Our field has a great deal of knowledge and technology to enhance the health and well-being of individuals and communities. Yet, there remains a gap between those individuals who need psychological care and those who receive it. Given that emergency department patients often face obstacles to accessing the psychological care that they need, I am especially grateful to have the support of this award to explore how substance use and psychological diagnoses affect care provision in emergency department settings. The disproportionate reliance on emergency medicine among disadvantaged communities makes this work particularly important, and I am appreciative of the National Register for their support.”

Dr. Dixon-Gordon is a licensed clinical psychologist and Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Massachusetts. Dr. Dixon-Gordon’s research primarily focuses on the role of emotional processes in the development and maintenance of psychopathology, with an emphasis on borderline personality disorder. In her research, she employs laboratory-based methods to analyze the influence of emotional processes on other domains, such as interpersonal functioning. Her work has been published in several publications including Behavior Therapy and the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Dr. Dixon-Gordon has been credentialed by the National Register since 2014.

This announcement will also be featured in the National Register’s Fall 2018 issue of the Journal of Health Service Psychology.

About the National Register of Health Service Psychologists

The National Register of Health Service Psychologists is the largest credentialing organization for psychologists. Established in 1974, the independent nonprofit organization is dedicated to improving healthcare by identifying psychologists who meet specific credentialing standards to consumers, healthcare organizations, and regulatory bodies. 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.