Alpert Medical School of Brown University
Clinical Psychology Training Consortium
Postdoctoral Fellowship Description: RESEARCH FOCUS
Title:
Postdoctoral Fellowship in Autism Research and Treatment
Site:
Supervisor(s):
Bradley Hospital (Primary, Research Site)
Eric Morrow, MD, PhD
Stephen Sheinkopf, PhD
Beth Jerskey, PhD
Site:
Supervisor(s):
Woman & Infants Hospital (Secondary, Clinical Site)
Stephen Sheinkopf, PhD
Description of Site
Bradley Hospital
Bradley Hospital is one of the country's foremost child psychiatry centers with a national reputation for excellence in
patient care, research, and training. Founded in 1931, it was the nation's first teaching hospital devoted exclusively to
child and adolescent psychiatry. Bradley Hospital is the only comprehensive facility for the care of emotionally-disturbed
preschoolers, children, adolescents, and their families in the state of Rhode Island and adjacent Massachusetts and
Connecticut. It plays a central role in the region’s child mental health system, with over 60% of admissions being publicly
supported. Thus, Bradley Hospital is an excellent site for applied child clinical research. Bradley offers a full continuum
of care for children and adolescents with significant emotional, developmental, and behavioral problems and provides
highly specialized inpatient, school, outpatient, residential, and home-based services for youngsters with emotional and
behavioral problems in combination with autism and/or intellectual disabilities.
Rhode Island Consortium for Autism Research and Treatment (RI-CART)
The Rhode Island Consortium for Autism Research and Treatment (RI-CART) was formed in 2009 to improve diagnosis
and treatment services for individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) through a broad range of translational
research programs ranging from genetic and cellular to clinical, imaging, and treatment outcome studies. Such studies
require cross-disciplinary collaboration using large, population-based samples. RI-CART is a rare resource—a publicprivate partnership with members representing clinicians from four major RI hospitals and leading behavioral healthcare
and diagnostic centers, investigators from Brown University and the Alpert Medical School, educators from Rhode Island
College, parents specialists from The Autism Project, and representatives from the Rhode Island Departments of Health
and Education. Two primary initiatives of RI-CART include (1) expanding Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule
(ADOS) testing in Rhode Island and (2) creating a statewide autism research registry. These initiatives have significantly
increased the potential for collaborative research and serve as a national model and resource for autism research.
Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island (WIH)
Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, a Care New England hospital, is one of the nation’s leading specialty
hospitals for women and newborns. The major teaching affiliate of The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown
University for activities unique to women and newborns, Women & Infants is the ninth largest stand-alone obstetrical
service in the country with nearly 8,400 deliveries per year. In 2009, Women & Infants opened what was at the time the
country’s largest, single-family room neonatal intensive care unit.
The Brown Center for the Study of Children at Risk
Established in 2005, the mission of the Center is to stimulate outstanding interdisciplinary research, education and clinical
services on the biological and social factors that determine the developmental outcome of at-risk children. The Brown
Center for the Study of Children at Risk is dedicated to 1) advance theories of the developmental pathways from fetal and
infancy periods in at-risk children, (2) enhance synergy between research and clinical practice that advances child
development research, intervention programs and social policy, and (3) train scientists and practitioners in
interdisciplinary methods from the field of child development. In addition, the center offers services to children of a broad
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Alpert Medical School of Brown University
Clinical Psychology Training Consortium
Postdoctoral Fellowship Description: RESEARCH FOCUS
age range with ASD or a parental concern for an ASD. Services for families include diagnostic and behavioral
assessments, psychiatric consultation for behavioral and/or emotional concerns related to an ASD diagnosis, and child and
family therapy to optimize the strengths and capacities for families and their children. The Center’s multidisciplinary team
includes child psychiatry, psychology and clinical social work.
Fellowship Aims
1. To provide the fellow with broad post-doctoral training in the area of autism, autism spectrum disorders and
neurodevelopmental disorders.
2. To provide the fellow with a strong working knowledge of assessment, treatment and research conducted with
individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders.
3. To actively participate in research, including grant writing, data collection, management and analysis, and
development and implementation of a research proposal, with the goal of presenting research results at a
national meeting and writing peer-reviewed manuscripts.
Fellowship Timeline
The fellowship is designed to span two years, contingent upon satisfactory progress. The anticipated start date is July 1,
2014, although an alternative start date no later than September 1, 2014 may be negotiated on an individual basis. In
December 2014, the supervisors will determine if the fellow will be offered the second year of training and the fellow will
then decide to accept or decline the offer.
Research/Academic Activity Plan
The fellowship is primarily a clinical research position. The fellow will be exposed to various aspects of clinical research
of ASD. This will be achieved by participation in the following activities:

Diagnostic Interviews and Assessments of ASD. The fellow will receive training and become proficient in the
administration of semi-structured interviews using the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule – 2 (ADOS-2).
Focus will be on developing the following assessment skills: 1) the diagnostic assessment of ASD in children,
adolescents, and adults, 2) coding the ADOS-2 and writing narrative summaries of assessments; and 3) oral case
presentations for consensus ratings. Fellows will be expected to administer and score at most 5 ADOS
assessments a week. Current ADOS assessments take 2 hours to administer and score and assessments will
primarily be based at Bradley Hospital to minimize the need for travel. In the event that the participant needs to be
seen offsite, travel time will be included in the total effort per week and the number of ADOS given will be
reduced. (25% time)

Independent Research: The fellow will develop research projects of interest to him or her that can be conducted
in collaboration with other RI-CART partners. The RI-CART registry will be entering its second year at the
beginning of this fellowship, so fellows initially will be able to do secondary analysis on several hundred registry
participants. The fellow will be encouraged to develop his/her ideas and potentially prospectively study another
thousand participants in 2015-2016. Additionally the fellow will be offered support, including participation in
grant writing seminar, should he or she wish to develop a grant idea during the fellowship years. The fellow will
be encouraged to collaborate on manuscript preparation and/or national conference presentations. The fellow will
also be given opportunities to analyze retrospective datasets if this is of interest. (55% time)
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Alpert Medical School of Brown University
Clinical Psychology Training Consortium
Postdoctoral Fellowship Description: RESEARCH FOCUS
Clinical Activity Plan
The fellow will perform evaluations and/or participate in neurodevelopmental team evaluations conducted with children
and adolescents. The fellow will conduct 1 evaluation per week at WIH and will be individually supervised on each case
by Dr. Sheinkopf. The fellow will participate in all aspects of assigned cases, including clinical interviews, face-to-face
assessment, scoring/interpretation of results, report writing, and family diagnostic feedback sessions. Dr. Sheinkopf will
be on site during the evaluation and is available for consultation as the evaluation is being performed. The fellow will
meet individually with the Dr. Sheinkopf after the completion of the case to review the evaluation process, test results and
recommendations. (10% time)
Didactics
The fellow will be required to participate in mandatory post-doctoral seminars through the Brown Post Doctoral Training
Program, including Core Seminars (monthly), DPHB Academic Grand Rounds (monthly), and Clinical Ethics (monthly).
Optional didactics available to the fellow include Track specific Seminar/Rounds, Academic Friday–Grantsmanship
Seminars, and Special Topics in Statistics. (10% time)
Supervision and Evaluation
Dr. Sheinkopf, a licensed psychologist, will provide weekly, individual supervision of clinical activities (i.e., child and
adolescent clinical assessments). Either Drs. Morrow or Sheinkopf will be the primary research mentor based upon the
interests of the fellow (e.g., genetic interests will be supervised by Dr. Morrow). Fellows will be provided with one hour
of individual supervision specific to research aims and Dr. Jerskey will provide one hour of individual supervision on the
ADOS administrations. The fellow will also receive weekly, group supervision with Drs. Morrow, Sheinkopf, Jerskey and
the RI-CART research group. Total supervision time will be at least 3 hours of individual and 1 hour of group
supervision.
The fellow and supervisors will develop fellowship goals and learning objectives early on in the first year. At the
conclusion and midpoint of the fellowship, the fellow and the supervisors will provide formal performance evaluations,
and evaluations of the program relative to the goals and learning objectives of the fellowship.
Path toward licensure: YES___X__ NO_____
ADOS assessments and the time devoted to the clinical activities with Dr. Sheinkopf will count towards licensure and the
fellow will have enough hours at the end of the fellowship to sit for the EPPP.
Resource Requirements
The fellow will be provided with the following resources:
 Semi-private office space
 A personal desktop computer and project specific software
 Internet and telephone access
 Library services through Brown University and Bradley Hospital
 Access to copying equipment and fax
For more information about this post-doctoral training opportunity, contact Beth Jerskey at 401-432-1200.
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