The Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.) Program was accredited by the American Psychological Association's Commission on Accreditation at its October meeting.  The accreditation is retroactive to when the APA sent a site visit team to Radford in June.  This means that the first three graduates of the program -- Josh Bradley, Zetta Nicely, and Kevin Simonson -- who finished their internships at the end of summer, are able to say they graduated from an accredited program.  The RU program joins 66 other active, accredited Counseling Psychology Programs, only 3 of which offer the Psy.D. degree.  The others are Ph.D. programs.  The Psy.D. is a practice-focused degree, which is fitting because the primary goal of the RU program is for graduates to become licensed psychologists in rural areas.

According to the American Psychological Association, "Accreditation is a process that assures the educational community and the general public that an institution or a program has clearly defined and appropriate objectives and maintains conditions under which their achievement can reasonably be expected.  It encourages improvement through continuous self-study and review.  It fosters excellence in postsecondary education through the development of principles and guidelines for assessing educational effectiveness."

The Dean's Office and all of us in CHBS would like to congratulate Dr. Jim Werth and all of the faculty, staff and students associated with the Psy.D. program who worked so hard for so long to realize this tremendous accomplishment!