SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

The Department of Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences is pleased to announce the re-establishment of a psychological and behavioral health services (PBHS) division within the LAC+USC Psychiatry Services. By re-establishing this service, we will provide appropriate administrative authority tomanage this specialty area, adequately address the growing needs of our patient population in thebehavioral health services, and formally acknowledge this specialty as a distinct structure.

Please join us in congratulating Randye Semple, PhD, who will be leading the charge as the new Director of Psychological and Behavioral Health Services at LAC+USC. Dr. Semple is an AssociateProfessor and Clinical Psychologist who has been a faculty member in our department since 2007. She is also the Director of Programs at the USC Adolescent Trauma Training Center and Co-PrincipalInvestigator of the USC Center for Mindfulness Science. She also serves on the steering committee ofMindful USC and the research committee of the American Mindfulness Research Association. Dr. Semple is the lead developer of Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy for Children (MBCT-C; Semple& Lee, 2011), which is an evidence-based therapy being implemented around the world. She hasreceived numerous honors and awards, published and taught extensively, and has a wealth ofknowledge and expertise in Mindfulness-based Interventions (MBIs) and other evidence-basedtherapies such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT).

In her new role, Dr. Semple will provide oversight and supervision of services provided by facultypsychologists who work across LAC+USC Psychiatry Services, review credentialing applications, peerreview/proctor all psychologists, expand therapy resources, psychological assessment, and otherservices for our patients, and coordinate didactics and clinical supervision of psychiatry residents inCBT and other psychotherapeutic treatment modalities.