The Department of Psychology at East Tennessee State University is pleased to announce our new program in Clinical Psychology, which admitted its first class of students for fall 2007.  The mission of this program is to provide doctoral training in Clinical Psychology for rural behavioral health and practice in the context of integrated primary health care.  Our curriculum is a scientist-practitioner model with innovative curricular elements utilizing our collaborative relationship with Quillen College of Medicine and building on its national recognition as a leader in the training of rural family medicine researchers and practitioners.  We would like to thank our community and academic partners in assisting with the development and implementation of this program, and particularly the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)  for providing grant funds to facilitate this process. 
        Our program has been developed following American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines, and we will apply for accreditation as soon as allowable under APA rules.  APA does not consider accreditation until there is at least one student matriculating in every year of the program, including the internship year.  This means that a program must be active for 3 to 5 years before submission for APA accreditation is possible.  When accreditation is obtained, it is retro active, meaning that all students who have finished the program during the documentation period or who are matriculating in the program may legitimately claim the APA-approved program status on their vitae.