Two recipients have been selected for this year’s DPHB Diversity Early Career Faculty Development Award (Education and Clinical Focus): Clinical Assistant Professor Virtue Sankoh, Ph.D., and Kayla Sall, Ph.D., a recent graduate of the Postdoctoral Fellowship Training Program who is pursuing her faculty appointment at DPHB.
The award, administered by the Anti-Racism Steering Committee (ARSC) Recruitment & Retention working group, is intended to improve recruitment and retention of DPHB clinical/teaching faculty of underrepresented backgrounds. Each awardee will receive $12,000 for proposed clinical or educational projects or opportunities that promote health equity.
Sankoh, the clinical director of the Day Hospital, a psychiatric partial hospital program for pregnant and postpartum people, will use her award to implement evidence-based postpartum depression prevention programs at Women & Infants Hospital and at Nowell Academy – a nonprofit that helps pregnant, parenting, and underserved youth attain high school diplomas or equivalency. She plans to survey participants and providers to assess the sustainability of the programs, which are made up of several small group sessions.
“For me, this project brings my community service, clinical practice, and faculty roles in even closer relationship,” Sankoh said. “I feel more at home within DPHB with this demonstration of support – not only for my career development but also for my dedication to historically marginalized populations within perinatal mental health. I am so pleased and humbled to be a recipient of the DPHB Diversity Early Career Faculty Development Award this year.”
Sall, a clinical health psychologist at Providence Behavioral Health Associates, will use her award to pursue sex therapy certification from the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT), with a subspecialty in LGBTQ+ affirming care. Sall hopes to become one of the few AASECT-certified providers in the state of Rhode Island to treat concerns in the area of sexual and reproductive health.
“As a clinical health psychologist, I'm passionate about behavioral medicine and have been working towards specializing in sexual and reproductive health for many years – particularly because it is an underrepresented specialty that affects so many individuals' health and well-being,” Sall said. “Now that I'm licensed, I'm able to follow through and fulfill my professional dream of becoming a certified sex therapist, with the ultimate goal of training and mentoring others in clinical sexual medicine. I am so grateful to have received this grant.”