What does a typical work day look like for Therese Todd, PhD?
Todd’s days vary. Like many in academic positions, she spends time writing manuscripts and IRB protocols, attending various meetings, and working on ongoing studies at various stages of the research process. She also attends trainings to enhance her skills as she prepares for the academic job market.
How does Todd contribute to public service?
Todd’s research seeks to impact change in the criminal legal system to improve outcomes for people whose lives are affected by system involvement, particularly those with serious mental illness. A primary area of Todd’s research focus is on improving the response to mental health crises, seeking ways to respond to these situations without law enforcement and building an evidence base for non-police alternative first response systems. In an increasing number of jurisdictions, mental health providers, EMTs, and/or peers with lived experience respond to behavioral health crises and can effectively and safely de-escalate these situations. Todd seeks to reducing the need for police to respond to mental health crisis situations—as she notes, “mental health crises should be treated as a public health concern, not a criminal one.”
What is Todd’s favorite part of her job?
Her favorite part always changes because there are so many things to enjoy. Currently, it is using community engaged research methodologies to integrate members of the community into every stage of the research process as experts of their own experience. The populations we study are not just subjects, but to enhance our research rigor and validity it is essential to incorporate persons with lived experience of our study topics in the design, execution, and dissemination of research as well.
What type of training prepared Todd for this position?
Todd earned a PhD in clinical psychology from the CUNY Graduate Center through John Jay College of Criminal Justice. She also holds an M Phil in psychology from the CUNY Graduate Center and an MA in forensic psychology from John Jay College. During her graduate training, she completed multiple clinical externships that involved interactions with the people and systems that are the focus of her research. Todd found these experiences crucial to informing her research. As she described, “It is helpful to work in the systems that we try to understand.” In addition, Todd completed a research internship at the Vera Institute of Justice and gained training in qualitative research methods.
Advice for those interested in a similar career
Todd recommends seeking out experiences, such as trainings, conferences, and internships to gain skills and opportunities that may not be part of one’s formal graduate training. In addition, she recommended seeking out “mentors and colleagues who support not only your work, but your personhood.” This helps build a network of individuals who can provide professional guidance as well as social support. Lastly, Todd noted that as public service psychologists, we have a unique opportunity to shape our careers in ways that can look vastly different from one another. There is no right or wrong path, even though it may often feel like there is always more to be done.