Brittany Abdelsalam

• None of the above

• Student/Trainee Assistant
• Student/Trainee Scholarship

• Thursday, June 12, 2025 (Morning)
• Thursday, June 12, 2025 (Afternoon)
• Friday, June 13, 2025 (Morning)
• Friday, June 13, 2025 (Afternoon)

I have embraced professional service and leadership opportunities in several settings. As a peer mentor to undergraduate students in my classes, research assistants, and psychometrists, I have provided guidance on navigating the graduate school application process, reviewed materials, and offered advice on preparing for a career in neuropsychology. In addition, I actively contribute to research meetings by assisting my peers with their statistical analyses or reviewing their proposed methodology. I have also accepted leadership positions in several organizations throughout both graduate school--including ANST (President and VP) and the Clinical Student Association (President, VP, and cohort representative)--and my undergraduate program (e.g., Psi Chi officer and newsletter editor, neurology club secretary, and on the editorial board for the honor college's literary journal). I have been involved in program development for an autism acceptance and awareness curriculum across three elementary schools, in implementing assessment services to the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, and the creation of a new clinical database for research. Lastly, I have participated in a review of submitted manuscripts with my graduate mentor and have been invited to give talks to an advanced statistics undergraduate course, about a career in neuropsychology, and to a Parkinson's disease support group.

One such example includes persevering in graduate school despite unexpected funding cuts to the university. I was accepted into graduate school with the promise of four fully funded years of training, but the COVID pandemic resulted in a severe drop in incoming students and a large loss of financial support from the university. As such, the students in my program were required to maintain all class, clinical, and research duties, while also taking on teaching positions for undergraduate students (which was not previously expected of students) for half of the pay the previous students received. As a result, we were doing more work for less pay, all while dealing with the stress of a global pandemic. During this time, we also lost support from Food Stamps because we were documented as part-time employees (to justify our part-time pay, despite this not being reflected in the number of hours we worked) and no longer qualified for Food Stamps. To financially support myself, I picked up two side jobs as a psychometrist. Despite these barriers of limited funding, increased stress, reduced time, and greater responsibility, I was able to persevere in graduate school (passing my EPPP and defending my dissertation) before matching to my current internship site.

I am confident that attending AACN will provide invaluable benefits to my future as a board-certified clinical neuropsychologist. Attendance at this conference offers opportunities to stay current with the latest advancements in neuropsychological research and clinical practices--all of which are necessary to provide the best possible care to patients. I will also benefit from networking with board-certified clinicians at the conference (e.g., discussing my current and future research at the poster session or collaborating during various trainee-specific events). My attendance at AACN will also benefit the professional community at large because, by fostering my personal growth as a clinician and researcher, I will be better equipped to advocate for the field of neuropsychology in interdisciplinary teams and mentor future clinicians. In short, my attendance at the AACN conference will support my goal of becoming an evidence-based and impactful clinical neuropsychologist.