College - Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology

President’s Message | Nicholas Covino
A School of Professional Psychology has a social responsibility to train the
best practitioners to meet the mental health needs of our country. With your
help and that of our students, alumni, administration, faculty and trustees,
MSPP launches new programs this year that will make a difference in School
Psychology and Latino Mental Health.
The Surgeon General reports that we have sufficient knowledge about effective psycho-
logical treatments for children. What is missing, he concludes, is a sufficient number
of providers. Even in the “Athens of America,” mental health services for children are
difficult to access. As time and economic factors challenge family resources, appropriate
child mental health care dramatically declines. Research indicates that school-based
mental health programs significantly improve educational performance and access to
therapy. A School Psychology Specialist Program with roots in mental health, rather
than education, offers the assessment and consultation proficiencies required by school
systems, but it also provides the skills needed to increase school performance and
improve child mental health. This new MSPP degree will be accompanied by legislative
and public policy activity to facilitate the evolving role of school psychologist as school-
based mental health provider.
With less than two percent of psychologists able to competently provide mental health
care to Spanish speakers who will soon comprise 20 percent of our population, the
Lucero Latino Mental Health Training Program is sorely needed. Latino patients
commonly attend only one visit with traditionally trained psychologists, allowing this
ground breaking program an immediate contribution to mental health care in the
United States. MSPP has made a proposal to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and
several funding sources to make this a pilot program for training culturally competent
mental health providers.
I am very pleased that as we grow, you will see our academic and financial performance
at MSPP continuing to make significant progress. With renewed trustee stewardship,
several hundred new donors, the addition of legacy funds, faculty mentorship, alumni
investment and administrative and student leadership, our College of Psychology is
making a difference in education and mental health care.
On behalf of our community, I am very proud to share this Annual Report with
you, and thank you for your interest and investment in our excellent school.
Nicholas A. Covino, PsyD
President
Academics | A Message from the Deans
With the New Beginnings initiative defined at the inauguration of President Covino in 2003 came a strengthening
of the MSPP core principles of integrative programming in the service of professional training. Through this initiative,
opportunities for students in the Doctoral Clinical Program have expanded through institutional growth, through a
contemporary and ever-broadening curriculum, through increased service and training possibilities, through associated
programming, and through expanded student services.
Doctoral training in psychology—partic-
ularly in applied psychology—remains,
perhaps, the most rigorous and thorough
training available for creating a depth of
understanding of human experience and
a breadth of awareness of our potential
for effecting personal or systemic change,
where change will make a difference.
The Doctoral Program thrives within
this expanded institutional vision.
As Programs of Advanced Graduate
Study have emerged throughout MSPP,
new curricular opportunities for doctoral
students have expanded, along with
career opportunities for graduate
students in other specialized areas. The
School Psychology Specialist Program
offering the Master of Arts in Professional
Psychology and the Certificate of Advanced
Graduate Study in School Psychology will
enroll its first class in September 2006.
The Master of Science in Clinical
Psychopharmacology is innovative in its
multidisciplinary inclusion of colleagues
in nursing, science, justice, and other
allied professions. The Professional
Executive Coaching Certificate
Program, the Center for Mental
Health and Aging and the Center for
the Study of Psychology and Divorce
expand our vistas as do our unique
Community Service and Training
Programs. The Lucero Latino Mental
Health Training Program significantly
redefines professional training as students
meet a demonstrable community need.
Continuing Education has built new
strategic partnerships with the Massa-
chusetts Mental Health Center, Harvard
Medical School Department of Psychiatry
at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center,
and the Boston Psychoanalytic Society
and Institute. An annual child mental
health program with The May Institute,
our continued training collaboration
with Fenway Community Health Center,
an innovative Summer in the City program
are among many growing CE initiatives.
With expanded programming, an ever
growing, talented, and multi-focused
student body, an outstanding faculty,
and an institutional commitment to
bring psychological knowledge as well as
service to areas of need, Student Services
and attention to student life activities
have expanded as well. The Dean of Stu-
dents Office continues to sustain a focus
on the primacy of MSPP community life
throughout all domains of MSPP.
These collaborative and integrated efforts
at MSPP sustain our excellence as an
increasingly diversified professional
training program and energize our
capacity to “make a difference.”
Alan Dodge Beck, PhD
Dean of the Doctoral Program
Stanley J. Berman, PhD
Dean of Advanced Graduate Programs
Frances V. Mervyn, PhD
Dean of Students
2 | Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology Annual Report 2005 |