Psychologist; Program Manager

Summary

This position is eligible for the Education Debt Reduction Program (EDRP) – a student loan payment reimbursement program. Applicants must meet individual eligibility requirements in accordance with VHA policy and submit their EDRP application within four months of appointment. Award amount may be up to $200,000 and eligibility period ranges from one to five years, as determined by the VHA Education Loan Repayment Services program office after a complete review of the application.

Applicants pending the completion of educational or certification/licensure requirements may be referred and tentatively selected but may not be hired until all requirements are met.

• United States Citizenship:
  Non‑citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy.
• Education:
  
  Have a doctoral degree in psychology from a program accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA) – the Psychological Clinical Science Accreditation System (PCSAS) – or the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) at the time the program was completed.
• The specialty area of the degree must be consistent with the assignment for which the applicant is to be employed.
• OR – Have a doctoral degree in any area of psychology and, in addition, successfully complete a re‑specialization program (including documentation of an approved internship completed as part of the re‑specialization program) that meets the following conditions: the re‑specialization program must be completed in an APA or CPA accredited doctoral program and the specialty in which the applicant is retrained must be consistent with the assignment.
• OR – Have a doctoral degree awarded between 1951 and 1978 from a regionally‑accredited institution – with a dissertation primarily psychological in nature.
• AND – Internship:
  Have successfully completed a professional psychology internship training program accredited by APA or CPA at the time the program was completed and that is consistent with the assignment for which the applicant is to be employed.
• OR – New VHA psychology internship programs that are in the process of applying for APA accreditation are acceptable, provided that such programs were sanctioned by the VHA Central Office Program Director for Psychology and the VHA Office of Academic Affiliations at the time that the individual was an intern.
• OR – VHA facilities that offered full‑time, one‑year pre‑doctoral internships prior to PL 96‑151 (pre‑1979) are considered acceptable for the internship requirement.
• OR – Applicants who completed an internship that was not accredited by APA or CPA at the time the program was completed may be considered eligible for hire only if they are currently board certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology in a specialty area that is consistent with the assignment for which the applicant is to be employed. (
  
  NOTE:
  
  Once board certified – the employee is required to maintain board certification.)
• OR – Applicants who have a doctoral degree awarded between 1951 and 1978 from a regionally‑accredited institution with a dissertation primarily psychological in nature may fulfill this internship requirement by having the equivalent of a one‑year supervised internship experience in a site specifically acceptable to the candidate’s doctoral program; if the internship experience is not noted on the applicant’s official transcript, the applicant must provide a statement from the doctoral program verifying that the equivalent of a one‑year supervised internship experience was completed.
• NOTE:
  
  Psychologists who meet the requirements of this revision and who were employed by the Department of Veterans Affairs prior to the implementation of this standard are considered to have fully met the requirements of this qualification standard.
• Licensure:
  Holds a full, current, and unrestricted license to practice psychology at the doctoral level in a State, Territory, or Commonwealth of the United States, or the District of Columbia.
• English Language Proficiency:
  Psychologists must be proficient in spoken and written English in accordance with VA Handbook 5005 –…