ACCEPT Lab FAQs for Prospective Grad Students

Will you be accepting a new graduate student this cycle?

I do plan on accepting a Clinical Psychology PhD student this year for the 2025 academic year. If you feel like you might be a good fit, please consider applying! To help with transparency, I am using a wholistic guide to reviewing applications, which I have linked here (note this rubric may change slightly, but the general ideas will hold) - please also read below to determine if you may be a good fit for the lab!

What is your mentorship style?

While my mentorship style will continue to evolve over time, my overall goal is to help train mentees to be independent scientist-practitioners. Since everyone works differently, I aim to be flexible and consider each mentee's unique career goals, values, and skillsets when working together. Overall, my mentorship philosophy is based on a scaffolded and personalized approach. With that in mind, I tend to give lots of feedback (both positive and corrective) on writing-related projects, take time to walk through running statistics with students, etc. - especially early on. Over time, my goal is to remove some of that scaffolding to help foster independence and confidence in writing, statistical skills, and study development.

That being said - don't take my word for it! Please feel free to reach out to my current and former mentees below, who have given me permission to be contacted: Marley Billman Miller; Kristin Denmark; Eli Gebhardt; Dominic Denning; Jordan Alvarez

What are the goals of the ACCEPT lab?

The goal and mission of the ACCEPT Lab is to help increase the reach of eating disorder prevention and treatment interventions to address the needs of individuals who have been traditionally overlooked within eating disorder research. Many of our projects live out this mission by focusing on LGBTQ+ populations and/or at-risk groups of men and using randomized controlled designs and virtual delivery.

What projects are going on in the lab?

We currently have several ongoing studies that we are working on in the lab. Of note, this list is not exhaustive and will change as time progresses, so please check back for more updates, or email me with any specific questions. We are currently conducting several studies including:

An NIMH-funded study developing and evaluating a brief, virtually-delivered treatment integrating LGBTQ-affirmative CBT with CBT for eating disorders for LGBTQ+ adults with eating disorders across the US (conducted in collaboration with Aaron Blashill and the BISH lab at SDSU)
A study evaluating a single-session intervention to promote body acceptance for LGBTQ+ young adults in rural Alabama (funded in part by an internal grant from CLA)
A pilot test of a single-session body image program for LGBTQ+ middle schoolers (conducted in collaboration with Anna Ciao, Savannah Roberts, and LGBTQ+ serving community partners)
We have recently completed two prevention trials for subgroups of at-risk men and these datasets are available for students for secondary analyses
- A RCT of a virtually-delivered version of the Body Project: More than Muscles for men with body dissatisfaction compared to media advocacy control
- A large-scale RCT of the PRIDE Body Project, an eating disorder prevention program for sexual minority men, compared to control through 2-year follow-up (collaboration with Aaron Blashill and the BISH lab at SDSU)
We also have several recent or completed survey-based studies either through AU SONA or Prolific on the following topics:
- Interoception and eating behavior
- Exercise and muscularity-oriented eating behavior
- Validating measures of body trust and GI anxiety/hypersensitivity
- Exploring how body image and eating are impacted by endometriosis and menstrual disorders
- How minority stressors impact eating pathology and health behavior in diverse groups of LGBTQ+ individuals
- Exploring measurement of loss of control over eating in men

Please feel free to check out our research pages for more information.

What makes a candidate a good fit in the ACCEPT lab?

I am very invested in helping train the next generation of clinical researchers. Candidates should be interested and passionate about conducting body image and eating disorder intervention research, particularly in underserved populations. While I prefer candidates who have had post-bacc experience as a research coordinator, or a master's degree, I am also open to strong students who are applying directly from undergrad and have had research experience. I prioritize research fit within the lab and so individuals with interests in the prevention and treatment of body image and eating disorders, among LGBTQ+ individuals, men, and the brain-body connection are encouraged to apply. To help with transparency, I am using a wholistic guide to reviewing applications, which I have linked here (note this rubric may change slightly, but the general ideas will hold).

Lab culture, environment, and the safety of my lab members are incredibly important to me, and so it is important that applicants' values align with those within the lab (see our lab values page for more info). In short, those values include collegiality and collaboration (team science for the win! see our collaborators), working hard on valued activities, and commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Who might not be a good fit? As an intervention researcher, clinical psychologist, and Co-Director of the Auburn Eating Disorders Clinic, I value clinical work and the incredible relationship between research and clinical practice and expect all students to be committed to learning and delivering high-quality evidence-based treatment. That being said, if someone is primarily looking for a career as a clinician, my lab will probably not be the best fit.

What are your expectations for graduate students in the lab?

As everyone differs in their personal career goals, I try to take an individualized approach to developing goals and setting expectations once you join the lab! This typically starts with developing a mentorship contract to identify your goals and what we each expect from one another to make sure we are on the same page from the beginning. In general, I expect students to develop a first-year project, typically based on secondary data analyses from existing data we have available within the ACCEPT lab. This often starts as a conference abstract submission (e.g., EDRS, ABCT, ICED) and then develops into a manuscript from there. I also expect graduate students to identify a master's project idea within the first year, so we are on track for you to propose and defend your thesis in years 2-3. In year 4, you will complete your general doctoral exam (GDE), which consists of developing a portfolio that contains: 1) one first-authored, manuscript submitted for publication, 2) the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) research experiences and interests, theoretical orientation, and diversity essays, and 3) a written demonstration of the student’s case conceptualization skills. In years 4-5, students will work on their dissertation. While these are the basic expectations in the lab, students certainly can (and most often do!) take on more projects and publications than this, based on their individual goals, bandwidth, and interests.

What clinical opportunities are available in the ACCEPT lab?

Students in the clinical program at AU have access to a variety of diverse clinical practicum opportunities. In addition to these opportunities, students in my lab typically receive training in clinical diagnostic interviewing (and often serve as assessors for our research studies) and sometimes serve as interventionists in our clinical trials. Further, consistent with our lab mission, I currently serve as the Co-Director (along with Dr. April Smith) of the Auburn Eating Disorders Clinic (AEDC), where our goal is to provide low-cost, evidence-based care to members of the community with eating disorders and to provide education and advocacy that eating disorders CC. Students in years 2-3+ in the program can serve as clinicians in the AEDC, where students receive training in CBT-E, CBT-AR (CBT for ARFID), and FBT.

What does the ACCEPT Lab value?

Please see here for a list of (some of) our lab values! Of note, these values are ever growing as we grow and expand as a lab!

What is there to do in Auburn, AL?

I personally have loved living in Auburn - it is a really vibrant college town and has a sister city, Opelika, with a fun downtown area for young professionals and a charming historic district. The weather is warm, with really mild winters, while still feeling seasonal. That being said, I know that my own experience is just that, so please feel free to reach out to my students and students in our program as well to get their thoughts!

The Auburn-Opelika Tourism website has some great details on lots of things to do around town. Below I have included a few links to some highlights within town or nearby:

Auburn has a wonderful park system, including Chewacla State Park - which has great hikes, waterfalls, a lake, and picnic/camping areas
Food! - Auburn has a growing and amazing culinary arts scene including the new Rane Culinary Science Center and a few local favorites of mine (the Irritable Bao, Lucy's, Dough Pizzeria, Pho Lee, the Hound, Bow and Arrow). And of course, you have to get a lemonade at the famous Toomer's Drugstore. There is also a great bar scene in Opelika as well, with multiple breweries and a speakeasy. There are also lots of great local coffee shops too including Coffee Mafia, Well Red, Ross House, Coffee Cat, and Ristretto Lounge.
Lake Martin - located about 20-30 minutes from Auburn, Lake Martins has over 700 miles of shoreline and is one of my favorite places for a weekend hike, swim, or just beautiful views!
We are also within easy driving distance of several bigger cities including Atlanta (1.5 hours), Montgomery (40 minutes), Columbus (40 minutes) Birmingham (2 hours). We are also close to the gulf coast beaches (3+ hours), which are IMHO some of the nicest and warmest beaches in the country (and this is coming from a native San Diegan :))