Prospective Students

Buy the Award-Winning Book Here (over 800 copies sold, as of January 2025)!!!!!!!!

Read the Introduction Chapter: What’s Racism Got To Do With It? Black Women & Girls, Sexual Abuse, & Liberation

I am NOT recruiting PhD students in BUSSW for Fall 2026.

From Dr. Yara Mekawi: Where Do You Find A PhD Mentor? and Finding The Best PhD Mentor…For YOU!

Public Significance Statement

The use of the Graduate Record Examination Quantitative Score (GRE-Q) in psychology Ph.D. program admissions may interfere with the field’s efforts to create a racially and ethnically diverse workforce that can meet the educational, training, and intervention needs of diverse populations. In a study of psychology Ph.D. students in a Carnegie-classified Highest Research Activity (R1) large Midwestern university, we found that strict guidelines that bar admission into the psychology doctoral program for students with low GRE-Q scores would have disproportionately impacted underrepresented minorities (URMs), resulting in 44% being barred admission versus only 17% of their White/Asian/Pacific Islander American counterparts. With the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic sparking reappraisal of the GRE, practical implications include introducing holistic review protocols into the admissions process, while educating faculty on how heavy emphasis on the GRE-Q contributes to inequitable exclusion of capable URMs.

Link to Article

Winner of the the 2022 Outstanding Contribution Award in Training and Education in Professional Psychology (TEPP) presented by the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC)

Gómez, J. M. (2023). Epistemic oppression, construct validity, and scientific rigor: Commentary on Woo et al. (2022). Perspectives on Psychological Science, 18(1), 32-38. https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916211072830 . Preprint (accepted manuscript version). https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/szngk

Abstract

In this commentary, I highlight flaws in the article by Woo and colleagues (this issue) that undermine its credibility and utility as rigorous science that contributes to the field. I do so by discussing (a) the concept of epistemic oppression regarding the glaring exclusion of multiple germane bodies of research and (b) the importance of including construct validity within a psychometric article regarding the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). I conclude with a plea to the authors that the matter of anti-Black violence and murder, which they reference, is one to be taken respectfully, seriously, and somberly.

Recruiting Students

I am NOT recruiting PhD students in BUSSW for Fall 2026.

Ph.D. Student Funding: Boston University (BU) provides funding for PhD students, per the three-year Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between the BU Graduate Student Workers Union (BUGWU, SEIU Local 509) and BU, ratified October 2024. PhD students should not expect any additional funding from the PI (Gómez) or the HOPE Lab. It is prospective students’ responsibility to be knowledgeable on the CBA to inform their decision of if/where to pursue doctoral education.

Advice For How Grad and Undergrad Students Should Interact with BIPOC Professors (Brown & Gómez, 2022): greet us with respect; treat us equally; have realistic–and fair–expectations of us; respect our boundaries; be thoughtful when addressing conflict with us; be intentional when meeting with us; create a mentorship network; do not mistake our kindness for leniency; guard against perpetuating bias in teaching evaluations; use today as preparation for tomorrow

How Grad School Differs from Undergrad, by Dr. Yara Mekawi

I, Dr. Jennifer M. Gómez, am an Associate Professor at Boston University (BU) School of Social Work, Clinical Practice Department and Faculty Affiliate at BU’s Center for Innovation in Social Work & Health.

Curriculum Vitae

The HOPE Lab

I am NOT recruiting PhD students in BUSSW for Fall 2026.

Prospective students can review the Current Students, HOPE Lab, and About sections of my website, along with the Gómez HOPE Lab Professional Development Series and the Gómez Social Justice & Institutional Change Collection to gain more information about my approach and priorities. For fairness to all applicants, Gómez will not be able to appraise prospective student’s application or experience prior to formally applying.

As a CASBS Fellow at Stanford University (2021-22), I wrote my first book- The Cultural Betrayal of Black Women & Girls: A Black Feminist Approach to Healing from Sexual Abuse (Publisher: APA Books; 2023). Filmed January 2022, I discuss the content of the book and my writing process in Cultural Betrayal & ‘Conundrums’: The Making of a Book, at the BUSSW Equity & Inclusion Speaker Series.

PI: Dr. Jennifer M. Gómez

Sample Questions for Campus Visit Interviews

I am NOT recruiting PhD students in BUSSW for Fall 2026.

To help all applicants have the opportunity for equal preparation for the campus visit, below are sample questions for the 30-45 minute interview with me:

Welcome! How has the day been so far?

We have a relatively short amount of time, so we can dive right in. I’m going to ask you a few questions, and then we’ll hold space at the end for you to ask me questions. This is designed for us to get to know each other, not to be an interrogation!

These things will evolve, but at this moment:

What research projects are you most excited about doing—from limitations you’ve noticed in the work on CBTT so far to directions to take?
Why Me as advisor?
Why this university and this program?
What would your ideal relationship with your graduate advisor be?/What are you looking for in your graduate advisor?
What kind of career do you want to have after you earn your Ph.D.?
What questions do you have for me?

Awards My Students Have Won (Wayne State University)

Graduate Student Daeja Marzette (2019)

Wayne State University Dean’s Diversity Fellowship: $93,550
Wayne State University Graduate School & Division of Research $1,000 Grant to supplement her research activities. This award is based on her submitting a grant application to the Ford Foundation Fellowship Program, administered by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, & Medicine (NASEM; Pre-Doctoral Fellowship: $81,000).

Undergraduate Student/Post-Bac Logan Zelenak (2021, 2022)

2021-22- International Society for the Study of Trauma & Dissociation (ISSTD) 2021 David Caul Research Grant; Initial Validation of the Religious Betrayal Multidimensional Inventory: Dissociation & Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church ($1,500)
2022- Center for Institutional Courage; Initial Validation of the Religious Betrayal Multidimensional Inventory: Dissociation & Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church ($1,500)

Student PI: Logan Zelenak; Faculty Advisor/Collaborator/PI: Dr. Jennifer M. Gómez

Graduate Programs with a Trauma Research Focus

Boston University (social work; e.g., Dr. Jennifer M. Gómez; Dr. Ellen DeVoe; Dr. Daniel Jacobson López)
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (community health, Dr. Robyn Gobin)
Georgia State University (psychology; Dr. Isha Metzger)
University of Denver (psychology; Dr. Anne Deprince)
Oregon State University (psychology; Dr. Kathy Becker-Blease; Dr. Sarah Harsey)
University of Tulsa (psychology; Dr. Lisa Cromer)
University of California, Santa Cruz (psychology; Dr. Eileen Zurbriggen)
University of California, San Diego (contact Dr. Carolyn Allard)
Alliant University (contact Dr. Constance Dalenberg)
Nova Southeastern University (contact Dr. Steve Gold)
Western Washington University (Master’s degree only; Dr. Brianna Delker)
Towson University (Master’s degree only; contact Dr. Bethany Brand)
Penn State-Erie (Master’s in Applied Clinical Psychology, Dr. Melanie Hetzel-Riggin)
ISSTD’s list of academic supervisors with trauma focus
APA-Div 56’s list of trauma psychology graduate programs