Our graduates love the Mayo Clinic mentorship model, one-on-one training, and the great work/life balance. Learn more about our recent graduates as they reflect on what they loved about the Clinical Neuropsychology Fellowship.

Jun Min Koay, Psy.D.

2021-2023 Fellow
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science

My fellowship training at Mayo Clinic was an exceptional experience that played a crucial role in my development as both a clinician and a researcher. The program provided an outstanding training environment, offering world-class clinical and research opportunities that were specifically tailored to my interests and career goals, along with supportive faculty members who are invested in my growth. As a fellow, I was exposed to diverse primary and secondary neurologic conditions, including rare diseases. I also gained valuable experience in extra- and intra-operative neuropsychological mapping using NeuroMapper, as well as in rehabilitation through the HABIT program.

Another aspect of the fellowship that I greatly appreciated was the opportunity to work with incredibly talented and humble supervisors. They fostered an intellectually stimulating yet supportive learning environment, adjusting their teaching approach to align with my progress. The learning experience was collaborative and has had a significant impact on my approach to training and supervision.

My time at the Mayo Clinic has been instrumental in shaping my practice as a clinician, researcher, and educator. As an independent clinician today, I am continually impressed by how well-prepared I am to provide individualized care to patients with complex medical conditions. I have also built strong relationships with the faculty, enabling ongoing clinical and research collaborations. I am deeply grateful for the exceptional training and supportive environment I experienced at Mayo Clinic!

Anne Shandera-Ochsner, Ph.D., ABPP-CN

2011-2013 Fellow
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine, Mayo Clinic Health System

My neuropsychology fellowship training at Mayo Clinic was absolutely outstanding from start to finish. I truly felt like the experience was tailored to provide me with world-class training, from didactics to specialty rotations and of course, day-to-day clinic. I saw a wide range of neurologic conditions and deepened my knowledge with each patient as I was given the support and time to do my own reading as well as have stimulating conversations with program faculty that stretched my thinking.

The faculty are some of the nicest, smartest, and all-around fun people I’ve ever had the privilege to learn from.  I also gained knowledge of important topics such as billing, which was very helpful when I started my first job. I was treated with a great deal of respect from day one, both within and beyond our department. When the time came to apply for jobs, I had an incredible amount of support from the faculty with networking and letters of recommendation, which made that process go very smoothly.

Ultimately, I was impressed with the culture of Mayo Clinic as a whole so much that I could not imagine working anywhere else and was thrilled to land a job in the community health practice in Wisconsin. I truly believe this is the BEST neuropsychology fellowship training program in the country!

Octavio Santos, Ph.D., C.Psych., ABPP-CN

2017-2019 Fellow
Clinical Neuropsychology, The Ottawa Hospital

I proudly completed the Clinical Neuropsychology Fellowship at Mayo Clinic from 2017 to 2019. At that time, I saw medically and neurologically complex cases under board-certified supervisors with different areas of expertise and through elective clinical rotations at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, and Rochester, Minnesota. This experience provided me with significant clinical breadth, which greatly facilitated my transition to my current staff position, mainly conducting neuropsychological assessments of inpatients at The Ottawa Hospital, the largest local academic hospital in Ottawa, Canada. 

During my fellowship, I successfully secured an Alzheimer’s Association Research Fellowship to promote diversity to conduct a pilot study on the Spanish translation and cultural adaptation of the memory support system; a component of the HABIT Healthy Action to Benefit Independence and Thinking program. This experience led me as a TOH staff to secure funding for a similar pilot study in French and establish collaborations with local researchers and organizations. 

What I appreciated the most about my fellowship at Mayo was that my supervisors treated me as a junior colleague, used a collaborative and developmental approach to supervision, and had an open-door policy. I have come to use all three strategies myself as I supervise TOH neuropsychology interns. Additionally, Mayo Clinic provides a generous fellowship salary, professional meetings, and license application reimbursement, psychometrist and EPPP support, teaching opportunities, and weekly brain-cutting conferences and grand rounds. For all these reasons, I highly recommend the clinical neuropsychology fellowship at Mayo Clinic.

Kristen Demertzis, Ph.D., ABPP-CN

2007-2009 Fellow
Chief, Neuropsychology Division, South Shore University Hospital
Assistant Professor, Departments of Psychiatry, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, and Obstetrics & Gynecology, Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell

My clinical neuropsychology fellowship at Mayo was an outstanding experience that allowed for excellent exposure to the breadth and depth of this subspecialty. Education truly comes before service at Mayo, and the faculty were incredibly supportive in tailoring aspects of the fellowship to maximize my professional growth. Everyone was so kind and helpful in facilitating my acclimation both to fellowship and moving to Jacksonville. There was an abundance of high-quality didactics and educational experiences beyond the core fellowship didactics that I was able to attend, as well as customized subspecialty rotations within neurology and neurorehabilitation. The quality of supervision and interdisciplinary discourse about cases promotes rapid growth and excellent preparation for the transition to an attending role post-fellowship. There are ample research opportunities and support to attend conferences.

The faculty are so gifted in their craft from their expansive knowledge bases to the humanistic care they model. They are skillful clinicians and leaders who are generous with their time and constructive feedback and mentorship. They are humble and good people who infuse passion for lifelong learning into the training environment and psychological safety for optimal growth. Much of my clinical, supervision, and leadership styles have been shaped by their collective impact on me. Though fellowship training occurs at a primary site, virtual connectivity with the other Mayo sites through educational forums and cross-site mentorship and rotations broadens exposure to talented faculty and allows for bonding with other fellows.

I cannot underscore how well-prepared fellows are upon completing their training at Mayo. My career has gone in exciting and sometimes unanticipated directions, and I heavily credit my fellowship training for helping me to realize my potential professionally and optimizing my quality of life. I will forever be grateful to the amazing faculty, psychometrists, other staff, and patients and families who were part of my journey at Mayo.  

Bonnie Sachs, Ph.D., ABPP-CN

2009-2011 Fellow
Professor of Neurology
Wake Forest School of Medicine

I completed my neuropsychology fellowship at Mayo Clinic from 2009-2011. It was an all-around amazing experience. I learned so much, both from the patients I saw and from the supervisors I worked with, and that knowledge and experience continue to benefit me today as an associate professor of neurology at Wake Forest School of Medicine. In fact, as a fellowship supervisor myself now, I frequently call upon skills or knowledge I gained from my supervisors at Mayo. Each supervisor had a different style and I learned something unique from each of them throughout my time there.

During my fellowship, I had the opportunity to evaluate a wide range of patients with medical, neurologic, and psychiatric conditions, which was complemented by didactic experiences, including brain cutting and neuropathology lectures.  In addition to the time spent in clinical work and didactics, I was able to successfully engage in meaningful research during fellowship, resulting in two peer-reviewed publications.
 
I developed incredible professional relationships with the faculty there and I now consider them to be both colleagues and friends. They were supportive in all aspects of my training, whether it be clinical teaching, research mentorship, professional development issues, or transitioning from fellow to faculty. I am so grateful for the truly rich and invaluable training I received at Mayo!