Dr. Steve Katsikas, Chair of Spalding’s School of Professional Psychology, was named the Kentucky Psychological Association’s Psychologist of the Year earlier this month.
“It’s really humbling because there are so many amazing psychologists that are part of this state association,” Katsikas said. “For them to say that I did a good job and that they appreciate what I do is super meaningful.”
Katsikas was also elected to become the next president of the KPA, starting in 2020.
Katsikas, who has been at Spalding for 12 years, received the KPA award on Friday, Nov. 2, at the KPA Annual Convention in Lexington. He was recognized for his contributions to teaching and training.
Katsikas has overseen a doctor of clinical psychology (PsyD) program that has received millions in federal grants allocated to student scholarships and stipends. Two current grants through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) are used to provide scholarships for doctoral students from disadvantaged backgrounds who have financial need and to award stipends to PsyD students who provide behavioral health services at primary care sites that serve medically underserved populations.
Under Katsikas, the PsyD program has achieved student internship match rates of 100 and 97 percent in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
Katsikas is also the founder of Spalding’s Center for Behavioral Health – an on-campus clinic started in 2015 that offers a range of assessment and therapy services for all ages while also serving as a training ground for PsyD students.
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Katsikas credited the entire faculty and staff of the School of Professional Psychology for making Spalding’s programs what they are, and he said the grant-writing staff of Spalding’s Office of Advancement played a key role in helping secure the highly competitive HRSA funding. He said former CBH director Virginia Frazier and current director Norah Chapman and associate director Steven Kniffley deserve credit for the growth of that clinic.
“Everything I’ve been able to accomplish has been because of the team and the teams that I work with,” Katsikas said. “I’ve really done nothing on my own. I have an amazing faculty who are dedicated to teaching and training. … There’s an old saying that if you want to go fast, go by yourself. If you want to go far, go with a team. And we’ve gone far because we have a really good team.”
Katsikas said Spalding’s faculty is made up of “stellar psychologists” who could be working anywhere in the country in any kind of professional setting.
“And they choose to work at Spalding to train the next generation of psychologists,” he said. “That’s pretty cool.”
Before coming to Spalding, Katsikas was the Director of Child and Adolescent Psychology at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital, and he also served as Director of Training for that institution’s post-doctoral fellowship program in clinical psychology. Katsikas earned his doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Arkansas.
He was not the only Spalding faculty member honored at the KPA convention. Kniffley, a Spalding SOPP alumnus and current assistant professor, received an award for multicultural professional development.
Find out more about the undergraduate and post-graduate programs of Spalding’s School of Professional Psychology at spalding.edu/psychology