Meet Carrie Kennedy, PhD, ABPP, an Aerospace Neuropsychologist at the Naval Aerospace Medical Institute.
Carrie H. Kennedy, PhD, ABPP
CAPT/MSC/USN
Board Certified in Clinical Psychology & Police and Public Safety Psychology
Correspondence: Linked In
- Tell us about your current professional roles:
In my current position, I serve as the Aerospace Neuropsychologist at the Naval Aerospace Medical Institute. I am the Navy’s specialist who reviews any waiver request in which potential cognitive compromise and/or mental health symptoms may be a factor affecting crew coordination, flight safety, or mission completion. As a part of these duties, I serve as an instructor in the Aeromedical Officer course which trains Flight Surgeons, Aerospace Physiologists, Aerospace Experimental Psychologists, Aerospace Optometrists, and Aerospace Physician’s Assistants. Additionally, I Chair the Navy Medicine Operational Training Command’s Scientific and Ethical Review Board. This body evaluates potential research proposals for scientific merit and operational utility, and for those deemed favorable either pushes them to our Institutional Review Board of record, or I approve them as the command’s Exempt Determination Official.
- What are you most proud of or excited about in your service as a military psychologist?
Military psychologists share a type of life satisfaction consistent with any service member and veteran. We’ve given back to our country; we influence individual service members, their families, and the military mission every day; and we don’t have to question whether we made a difference, whether our lives mattered. I get up every day knowing how I fit into the larger picture and knowing that my skills are necessary for our national security.
- What would you like other psychologists to understand about your role and how it has fostered your growth as a professional?
One constant about military service as a psychologist is a routine rotation to new jobs and opportunities. We are all placed in new positions, with new training opportunities, new opportunities for personal and professional growth, and yes, at times, opportunities to determine that we don’t love a specific job or specialty. The system ensures that we are well-rounded, have numerous clinical and leadership skills, and are adaptable to just about any professional situation. In a “regular” job, I would not have the skill set that I have now.
In my current role, I am a neuropsychologist, having completed my postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Virginia in 2006. I am also a winged Aeromedical Officer, trained in the Navy’s 6-month course for medical officers working within aviation commands. This is not a role I envisioned (or even imagined existed) when I joined the Navy; but it is a job that I truly love getting up for every day.
- What advice do you have for other military psychologists who may be interested in seeking board certification through ABPP?
When I came into the military, 25 years ago, being board certified made you an outlier. Things have changed. Now, it is the norm for military psychologists to become board certified. The question is no longer if you should do it, but which specialty you should pursue in order to operate at the level of your peers (and make no mistake, the process of becoming board certified is a developmental opportunity). Because the military treats any certification through ABPP the same, no matter the specialty, what a military psychologist gets certified in should be a personal decision, based not just on current interests and job responsibilities but also post-military plans.