Meet The Faculty
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Mayo Clinic's Department of Psychiatry and Psychology provides diagnosis and treatment evaluations for patients with neurological disorders, cognitive impairment related to medical or psychiatric illness, and behavioral or psychological problems associated with a variety of medical conditions.
Research interests among faculty members include normal aging, cross-cultural neuropsychology, neurodegenerative conditions, cerebrovascular disease, organ transplantation, epilepsy, brain tumors, and perioperative neurocognitive disorders, functional neurological disorder and professional development and mentorship.
All neuropsychology faculty are board-certified or board-eligible and American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology members. The department's psychiatrists have particular expertise in neuropsychiatry, psychopharmacology, sleep disorders, and organ transplantation.
From the program directors
Welcome to the Clinical Neuropsychology Postdoctoral Fellowship at Mayo Clinic in Florida. We are thrilled that you are interested in our program! By way of introduction, we are a two-year fellowship specializing in adult clinical neuropsychology and a long-time member of the Association for Postdoctoral Programs in Clinical Neuropsychology (APPCN). Mayo Clinic itself is a destination medical center, meaning that fellows see a broad array of both common and uncommon clinical presentations from within and outside the United States. It is a unique and historically significant training institution that is rooted strongly in a number of values, the most important of which is “the needs of the patient come first.”
In terms of goals, our program is designed in accordance with the most up-to-date and field-approved training standards via the Minnesota Conference Guidelines. Our primary aim is for you to gain the foundational knowledge and functional skills necessary to prepare you for a career in neuropsychology and board certification. To achieve that, we collaborate with fellows to create individually tailored training experiences in clinical practice, research, and teaching within our division as well as across the department and wider medical center. We want you to take full advantage of the rich learning opportunities and resources here at Mayo Clinic Florida, and our program is uniquely committed to training according to your leaning objectives rather than service line demands.
In terms of program structure, we have nine neuropsychology faculty members including many who are ABPP board certified. The fellowship rotations are centered around their various subspecialties, which include neurodegenerative diseases, neurosurgical populations, and complex medical conditions. Each rotation entails outpatient evaluations as well as interventional opportunities, with the neurosurgical rotation also offering training in operative procedures such as Wada exams and functional cognitive/motor mapping. You can read more about our rotations on the Curriculum page. We recruit one new postdoctoral fellow each year, for a total of two postdoctoral fellows at any given time. Since our program’s inception in 1995, the majority of our fellows go on to successfully achieve ABPP board certification and secure positions across academic medical centers, private practices, and industry. You can see where our fellows have landed in the Fellowship Alumni page.
As you peruse our program's website, you will see that we very much value providing high-quality professional education and mentorship to our trainees. That said, we also want you to enjoy your time here at Mayo Clinic in Florida! Our institution has a fellows’ association that sponsors numerous social events and links trainees to resources to support well-being and work/life balance. Jacksonville is a great community, combining a small-town feel with the benefits of a large metropolitan city. The climate is perfect for outdoor activities that can be enjoyed throughout the year, including our sunny beaches and beautiful parks. There are also recreational and cultural activities aplenty, including museums, festivals, farmer’s markets, concert venues, and diverse cuisines.
We hope this information provides a glimpse of the opportunities available at Mayo Clinic and our dedication to the education, success, and well-being of our neuropsychology residents.
Cady Block, Ph.D., ABPP-CN
Program Director
Catherine Dion, Ph.D.
Associate Program Director
Program faculty
In addition to caring for patients in their clinical practices, Mayo Clinic Psychiatry and Psychology faculty members are committed to teaching and facilitating the growth of medical knowledge. Many of our faculty are recognized leaders in their fields and have published and lectured extensively.
You have direct access to these individuals throughout the Clinical Neuropsychology Fellowship.
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Cady Block, Ph.D., ABPP-CNProgram Director
Dr. Block is a board-certified clinical neuropsychologist and Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at Mayo Clinic Florida. She has a passion for neuropsychology education, training, mentorship, and professional development, having published numerous peer-reviewed papers in these areas in addition to producing books such as The Neuropsychologist’s Roadmap: A Training and Career Guide and its companion workbook The Neuropsychologist’s Workbook: A Hands-On Roadmap to Becoming a Neuropsychologist. She has been a contributor to the development of neuropsychology specialty training and education guidelines including the APA CRSPPP Taxonomy (2018) and Minnesota Conference (2022). She is co-founder and former Executive Board member of Know Neuropsychology and serves as Associate Director of New 2 Neuropsychology, both of which are international education and advocacy initiatives in neuropsychology. These are in addition to other board positions in organizations such as the International Neuropsychological Society and Society for Clinical Neuropsychology.
Dr. Block’s clinical and research interests are in epilepsy and medical neuropsychology. Professionally, she is co-editor of the text Medical Neuropsychology and Behavioral Health. She co-founded the Epilepsy Special Interest Group of the International Neuropsychological Society and serves as Chair of the Psychosocial Comorbidities Special Interest Group of the American Epilepsy Society. At Mayo Clinic Florida, she is the lead neuropsychologist within the epilepsy care team in the Department of Neurology, supervising fellows on clinical evaluations, Wada exams, and the HOBSCOTCH program. Her research mainly entails pre/postsurgical neuropsychological evaluations and cognitive/psychosocial interventions for persons with epilepsy.
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Catherine Dion, Ph.D.Associate Program Director
Dr. Dion is a licensed clinical neuropsychologist in the Department of Psychiatry and Psychology at Mayo Clinic Florida. Dr. Dion is actively involved in national and international neuropsychological organizations (INS Oncology SIG) and is committed to advancing the field through clinical care, research, education, and interdisciplinary collaboration. She specializes in the neuropsychological assessment of adults with neurological disorders, with particular expertise in perioperative cognitive monitoring, systemic cancers, and transplant. Dr. Dion’s clinical and research interests focus on perioperative cognitive functioning, including the evaluation of patients undergoing surgical procedures who are at risk for delirium and post-operative cognitive changes. In addition, she provides longitudinal cognitive follow-up throughout adjuvant therapies in oncology and neuro-oncology populations. Her research investigates predictors of perioperative cognitive change and the use of real-time intraoperative cognitive testing to optimize surgical outcomes and minimize postoperative complications.
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Beth Rush, Ph.D., ABPP-CN, RPDr. Rush is board-certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology in both clinical neuropsychology and rehabilitation psychology. She is an Associate professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at Mayo Clinic Florida, and also a Senior Fellow at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science Academy of Educational Excellence. She previously served as Program Director (2010-2026) and Associate Director (2008-2010). She is currently Core Faculty for the Mayo Clinic Florida Clinical Neuropsychology Postdoctoral Fellowship. She has made a career commitment to standards for training and practice in clinical neuropsychology, having served on the Board of Directors for the Association for Postdoctoral Programs in Clinical Neuropsychology (2010-2018), the American Board of Clinical Neuropsychology (2017-2023), and as a delegate to the Minnesota Conference (2022).
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Paula Aduen, Ph.D.Dr. Aduen is a clinical neuropsychologist and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville. She serves as Core Faculty for the Mayo Clinic Florida Clinical Neuropsychology Postdoctoral Fellowship.
Her clinical interests include neuropsychological evaluation of neurodegenerative diseases, including cognitive characterization of preclinical Alzheimer’s disease, and cross-cultural neuropsychology. She has expertise in the utilization and interpretation of culturally and linguistically appropriate cognitive assessment within a biopsychosocial framework. She is dedicated to the provision of culturally competent neuropsychological services for patients and training the next generation of neuropsychologists in multicultural neuropsychology.
Her research interests include characterization of lifetime chronic stress and coping as it relates to cognition and risk for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRC) among historically underrepresented communities. She is currently the primary investigator of a study examining these factors in Spanish-speaking Latinos living in the United States. She is a co-investigator within the Mayo Clinic Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) Outreach, Recruitment, and Engagement Core. She is devoted to forging relationships with historically understudied, underrepresented, and underserved communities to broaden representation of older adults in clinical research.
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Melanie Chandler, Ph.D., ABPP-CNDr. Chandler is a board-certified clinical neuropsychologist, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at Mayo Clinic in Florida, Vice Chair in the Department of Psychiatry and Psychology at Mayo Clinic in Florida, and Chair of our Division of Psychology. Her professional responsibilities include a mixture of administration, research, patient care, and teaching.
Dr. Chandler’s clinical and research interests include mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia, as well as neuropsychological assessment and intervention for these individuals. She has been consistently funded for the last 20+ years to conduct research into behavioral interventions in MCI, including funding from the Alzheimer’s Association, Florida Department of Health, National Institutes of Health-National Institute of Nursing Research (NIH-NINR), and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). She co-founded the Healthy Actions to Benefit Independence and Thinking program (HABIT) that provides behavioral interventions and rehabilitation techniques in patients with MCI offered now at multiple major medical centers, and she leads the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation Endowment for the HABIT Program at Mayo Clinic.
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David Sabsevitz, Ph.D., ABPP-CNDr. Sabsevitz is a board-certified clinical neuropsychologist and Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at Mayo Clinic Florida, with a dual appointment in the Department of Neurosurgery. He serves as Core Faculty for the Mayo Clinic in Florida Clinical Neuropsychology Postdoctoral Fellowship, and is the Rotation Chair for the Neurosurgical Rotation. He is also very involved in teaching and education and lectures regularly at both the regional and national levels.
Dr. Sabsevitz’s clinical interests focus on the pre-surgical evaluation of brain tumor and epilepsy patients, functional brain mapping, and extra- and intraoperative brain mapping to assist surgical planning in these patient populations. He is widely recognized for developing innovative brain mapping techniques for awake brain tumor and epilepsy surgery, and his NeuroMapper™ program is widely used around the world. He is the lead neuropsychologist for the Brain Tumor care team in the Department of Neurosurgery and supports the Epilepsy care team in the Department of Neurology. He has numerous publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals.
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Tanis Ferman, Ph.D., ABPP-CNDr. Ferman is a Professor of Psychology and board certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology in Clinical Neuropsychology. She serves as a co-investigator for the Mayo Alzheimer Disease Research Center and for several other funded longitudinal studies of Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and REM Sleep Behavior Disorder (RBD). She has served on the Scientific Advisory Board for the Lewy Body Dementia Association since 2004.
Her clinical and research interests include neurodegenerative disease, movement disorders, sleep disorders, neuropsychiatry, and presurgical evaluations for organ transplantation. Focused research studies involve the early detection, assessment, and characterization of the clinical and cognitive features of DLB, and understanding how neuroimaging and neuropathology relate to the clinical presentation and disease trajectory of DLB.
In addition, she is dedicated to providing caregivers and patients with guidance and strategies to navigate the challenges and changes associated with their neurologic and medical conditions.
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John Lucas, Ph.D., ABPP-CNDr. Lucas is a board-certified clinical neuropsychologist and Professor of Psychology at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science. He has over 30 years of clinical experience and is the past president of the American Board of Clinical Neuropsychology (ABCN; 2013-2015). He currently serves as ABCN Examinations Chair.
His research interests currently focus on topics related to aging and dementia, including the development and evaluation of innovative, community-based solutions to dementia-related health disparities in minoritized populations.
He is the PI and Director of the Outreach, Recruitment, & Engagement Core of Mayo Clinic's Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and serves on the Priority Area Workgroup for Dementia for the Florida State Health Improvement Plan, and the City of Jacksonville Dementia Care and Cure Initiative.
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Visiting professors
Prominent scientists visit Mayo Clinic each year to present their work during invited lectures and seminars. You are welcome to attend all of the conferences, lectures, and seminars prepared for residents, fellows, interns, and consulting staff of Mayo Clinic.