Christy Hom, Ph.D., ABPdN

Christy Hom, PhD, ABPdN is a board certified pediatric neuropsychologist, Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, and the Lead Psychologist at UC Irvine. She received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Health Psychology at Children’s Hospital of Orange County. She is on the Executive Board of the American Academy of Pediatric Neuropsychology, a delegate of the Cultural Neuropsychology Council, a member of the Inter Organization Practice Committee of Neuropsychology Organizations Test Security Task Force, and a member of the National Association of Neuropsychology Clinical Grants Review Committee. Dr. Hom is also an Associate Editor of the Journal of Pediatric Neuropsychology and on the Editorial Board of Child Neuropsychology. Dr. Hom’s clinical interests are in intellectual/developmental disabilities, traumatic brain injury, and multicultural assessments. She conducts comprehensive neuropsychological evaluations in English and Mandarin. Her research focuses on cognitive development and cognitive decline due to Alzheimer’s disease in people with Down syndrome.   

Clinic Summary: The Pediatric Neuropsychology clinic evaluates children through young adults (ages 3-25) for neurodevelopmental disorders (Autism Spectrum Disorder, ADHD, intellectual disabilities, learning disorders) and the effects of neurological conditions or psychiatric disorders (e.g., early psychosis). Most referrals come from psychiatrists, neurologists, pediatricians, and teachers. The clinic serves a diverse population as it is contracted with all major private health plans as well as Cal Optima, Tricare, Inland Empire Health Plan, and Medicare. The pediatric neuropsychology clinic is located in the city of Orange, near the UCI Medical Campus.

Hayley Kristinsson, Psy.D., ABPP-CN

Hayley B. Kristinsson, PsyD, ABPP-CN is a board-certified neuropsychologist and Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Neurology. She obtained her PsyD at the Wright State University of School of Professional Psychology and completed internship at the Wallace Kettering Neuroscience Institute. She completed her two-year fellowship in neuropsychology at the Sports Concussion Institute in Culver City. She is passionate about working with older adults who have neurodegenerative disorders and providing accurate diagnoses to inform treatment planning. Her focus is on offering thorough assessments of patients’ cognitive functioning to improve the quality of life of older adults with neurodegenerative disorders. Dr. Kristinsson’s research interests include clinical trials in neurodegenerative disorders and examining cognitive markers that can be used to predict conversion to dementia in older adults. Dr. Kristinsson is passionate about community service and is the Chair of Community Outreach for the Neurology Department’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Anti-Racism and Social Justice (IDEAS) committee.

Clinic Summary: Dr. Kristinsson’s adult neuropsychology clinic is located at the Joe C. Wen & Family Center for Advanced Care. Her clinic’s focus is on the neuropsychological assessment of adults with an emphasis on neurodegenerative disorders. Most of Dr. Kristinsson’s referrals come from the Memory Disorders program but she also receives general neurology referrals. Common conditions include Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, Lewy Body dementia, long COVID, psychiatric conditions, and occasionally movement disorders, stroke, and TBI. Students who rotate with Dr. Kristinsson will work with adults with a wide range of neurological and psychiatric conditions.

Michael Lopez, Ph.D.

Michael Lopez, PhD, is a staff neuropsychologist and the Director of Neuropsychology of the Neurology and Traumatic Brain Injury (NTBIC) & Stroke Clinic in the Department of Neurology. He completed his internship at the VA Central Iowa Healthcare System in the Neuropsychology Consult Service. Following this, he completed a two-year ABPP/CN Neuropsychology Fellowship at the University of Utah in the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (PM&R) with a primary focus on neurotrauma, neurological disorders, and aging. Concurrently, he completed a two-year rotation working with children and adolescents with various medical conditions, with a specialization in spina bifida. Dr. Lopez conducts research related to traumatic brain injury and performance validity in his current clinics. He also focuses on multicultural assessment, particularly with Spanish speaking populations, and conducts comprehensive neuropsychological evaluations in Spanish. Along with Dr. Kristinsson, he is an active member of the Community Outreach subcommittee of the Neurology Department’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Anti-Racism and Social Justice (IDEAS) committee.

Clinic Summary: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is clinically diverse and life changing. It occurs when an external force — a bump, blow, jolt, or penetrating object — injures the brain. A TBI can result in a broad spectrum of symptoms and disabilities depending on the severity and complexity of the injury.  In the outpatient clinic setting, the Neurology Traumatic Brain Injury and Concussion (NTBIC) program offers individualized and comprehensive neuropsychological evaluations utilizing the latest research, technology, and literature to develop an ongoing treatment plan and assessment report. In addition, the NTBIC team helps connect patients to a unique collaborative network of UCI Health TBI-dedicated specialists across TBI symptoms, which can include fatigue, headache, cognitive symptoms, vestibular symptoms, ophthalmologic symptoms and mood or sleep issues. This rotation also has a minor focus on surgical evaluations (NPH and DBS evaluations) and memory disorders. This is an advanced rotation. Students will likely see multiple patients per day and will require advanced knowledge of administration, scoring, and integrative report writing. An optional cognitive compensatory training rotation is available for students who have an interest in treatment. Lastly, students will have the opportunity to participate in Spanish language assessments as part of the developing Spanish Language Neuropsychology Clinic. All aspects of neuropsychological evaluation, including interview and feedback, are conducted in Spanish in order to provide evaluations to a growing and underserved population in this field. Fluent Spanish speakers are encouraged to apply for this rotation. Dr. Lopez sees patients in Irvine and at the UCI Medical Center in Orange.

Melanie Lucas, Ph.D.

Melanie Lucas received a PhD in Clinical Psychology with Health Emphasis and Neuropsychology Minor from Yeshiva University (New York, NY), which included an APA-accredited internship in Neuropsychology at Northwell Health, Staten Island University Hospital (Staten Island, NY). Her internship was based in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine and included both inpatient and outpatient rotations. She then went on to complete a two-year Neuropsychology Fellowship at VA Long Beach (CA). During her training, she was particularly interested in the neurocognitive and neuropsychiatric sequalae of chronic medical conditions in adults, as well as disorders of aging. Throughout graduate training, she was involved in research on structural and functional neuroimaging substrates of executive functioning and gait in older adults.  Dr. Lucas’ clinical interests include adults with chronic medical conditions; neuroimaging, and aging.

Clinic Summary:  Dr. Lucas serves as the neuropsychologist for the Comprehensive Epilepsy Program within the Department of Neurology at the UCI Medical Center in Orange.  Students will be involved in neuropsychological evaluation (assessment, scoring, interpretive formulation, report-writing) of adult outpatients. Patients are typically undergoing pre- or post-surgical evaluation for medically refractory epilepsy. Occasionally, there will be opportunity to evaluate patients with other neurological and medical conditions referred from Neurology and Neuro-Oncology. In addition to neuropsychological assessment, training experiences offered on this rotation include feedback of results and observation of biweekly epilepsy surgical case conference with an interdisciplinary team (neurosurgeons, epileptologists, radiologists). Students can expect to be involved in two full assessment batteries per week. Report-writing will vary from 1-2 assessment reports per week determined by student’s level of experience. Students will receive both live supervision during assessment and 1-hour individual supervision per week.

Mark Mapstone, Ph.D.

Mark Mapstone, PhD is a clinical neuropsychologist in the Department of Neurology at UC Irvine. He is Professor and Vice Chair for Research, and Chief of the Neuropsychology Division. Dr. Mapstone is Co-Director of the Center for Aging Research – Down Syndrome (CFAR-DS) and is a Fellow of the Center for Neurobiology of Learning and Memory (CNLM) and a member of the Institute for Memory Impairment and Neurological Disorders (MIND) at UCI. In addition to his clinical and administrative responsibilities, he has an active research program developing fluid-based biomarkers for neurological disease and successful cognitive aging. He was supported by a Career Development Award from the National Institute on Aging and his research has been funded by NIH for over 20 years. Dr. Mapstone earned a PhD in Clinical Psychology at Northwestern University and did Fellowship training in Clinical Neuropsychology and Experimental Therapeutics of Neurological Disease at the University of Rochester. He joined the UCI faculty in 2015.

Clinic Summary: Dr. Mapstone specializes in cognitive assessment of older adults with a focus on memory disorders and cognitive aging. His subspecialty clinic receives referrals from Neurology and Psychiatry specialists at UCI in addition to community physicians. Common conditions include Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, mild cognitive impairment, Parkinson’s disease, and other parkinsonian disorders. He generally employs the Boston Process Approach to neuropsychological assessment emphasizing clinical hypothesis testing and a fundamental understanding of functional neuroanatomy. Students in his clinic will see one patient per week and receive comprehensive supervision and individualized instruction to address knowledge gaps.

Apply to the Lifespan Track

The application process can be found here.

UCI MIND Track

UCI MIND is an Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) conducting clinical research on Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders. This practicum involves conducting comprehensive neuropsychological evaluations on both healthy and cognitively impaired older adults enrolled in the ADRC.

Individuals in our program are assessed annually, and undergo a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation and neurological exam. The same neuropsychological test battery is used to assess both healthy and cognitively-impaired participants and takes approximately 3 hours to complete. The memory and thinking problems seen in the participants can vary from very subtle subjective concerns to mild cognitive impairment and dementia. The underlying etiology for the cognitive and/or personality changes seen in our participants can encompass potentially reversible causes (e.g., depression, medications, sleep disorders, and metabolic problems) to irreversible neurodegenerative disorders (e.g., Alzheimer’s disease, Frontotemporal dementia, Lewy Body and Parkinson’s disease).

Each year the clinic performs evaluations on over 350 individuals, many of whom have participated in our program for numerous years allowing for an in-depth evaluation of cognitive changes over time. The participants seen at the clinic can range in age from the mid-50s to over 100 years old (i.e., average age 75).

Practicum students are expected to be onsite twice per week for a total of 16 hours with Wednesdays being a required day for group supervision and didactics. Students in our clinic will learn to be proficient in administering, scoring, and interpreting the neuropsychological battery. They will also gain knowledge of the major types of neurocognitive disorders as well as a greater appreciation of how an individual’s medical/social history, cognitive, functional, and mental health symptoms can contribute to their cognitive complaints. Lastly, students will gain experience writing reports that summarize the major findings of the neuropsychological assessment. By the end of the training year, practicum students will be well versed in working with older adults and have a greater understanding of the unique challenges that can present when working with this population.

The UCI MIND program is located in the city of Irvine at the UCI campus, specifically in the Gottschalk Medical Plaza. We anticipates accepting four students for the upcoming year and will consider trainees with varying degrees of assessment experience.

Supervisors in the UCI MIND Track

Maria Corona, Ph.D.

Maria Corona, PhD received her degree in Clinical Psychology with a specialization in Neuropsychology from Loma Linda University. Her practicum training included conducting neuropsychological assessments of monolingual (Spanish) and bilingual (Spanish-English) Hispanic adults through her placements at Harbor-UCLA and UCLA Semel Institute (Cultural Neuropsychology Initiative). She also completed her internship at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior, Geropsychology-Neuropsychology track. Upon receiving her doctorate degree, she completed a two-year fellowship through the Clinical Neuropsychology Residency Program (CNRP) at the West Los Angeles VA Healthcare System (WLAVAHS), with primary rotations in geriatric medicine and geropsychology clinics. Her clinical and research work focuses on aging and cognition. She enjoys working with older adults of diverse cultural backgrounds, and she is interested in learning about the effects of bilingualism on aging adults. In addition, she is currently also involved in multiple clinical trials evaluating Alzheimer’s treatments as a cognitive and clinical rater.”

Michelle McDonnell, Ph.D.

Michelle McDonnell, Ph.D. received her degree in Clinical Psychology with a specialization in Neuropsychology from Loma Linda University. She completed her internship at the Long Beach VA Healthcare Center, Neuropsychology Track and her two-year fellowship in Neuropsychology at the VA Loma Linda Healthcare System. Although she primarily works with the geriatric population, her clinical experience includes, but is not limited to, rehabilitation centers (e.g., spinal cord injury, blind rehabilitation), geriatric medicine, interdisciplinary polytrauma teams for traumatic brain injuries, and inpatient units. Many of her research interests include evaluating the lifestyle and health factors that can contribute to healthy aging in older adults. She currently serves as a neuropsychologist at UCI MIND as well as a cognitive and clinical rater for numerous clinical trials evaluating the efficacy of Alzheimer’s treatments.

Apply to the UCI MIND Track

The application process can be found here.