BPSCI Student Awards

She says her favorite part of the MSCP program were the classes she took in anatomy & physiology with Noah Harper, and the pharmacology classes taught by Chris Owens, Mark Austin and Lucy Wilkening. “Those classes were amazingly interesting and I learned so much!” Dr. Autumn Keefer

Dr. Autumn Keefer is a fellowship trained health psychologist with over 17 years of clinical experience. Dr. Keefer received her bachelor’s degree from The Pennsylvania State University in psychology. She received her master’s and doctoral degrees in marriage and family therapy and counseling psychology from Indiana State University, and completed an APA-accredited fellowship in clinical medical psychology from the Memphis VAMC. She completed her post-doctoral master’s degree at ISU in the MSCP program. Dr. Keefer’s clinical practice has been divided between the public and private sectors and academia. She spent five years developing a health psychology program at regional hospital in Pennsylvania before moving into the public sector, developing a health promotion program for the Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans’ Hospital in Columbia, MO which won national recognition for its achievements. The author and co-author of multiple publications, Dr. Keefer has taught as an adjunct instructor for several colleges and universities and conducted numerous employee-sponsored and invited speaking engagements and presentations at local and national organizations and conferences. Upon relocating to Idaho seven years ago, she spent three years serving as the mental health lead in a teleprimary care department within the Boise VAMC. This care model was awarded a national VA contract, and she subsequently traveled throughout the US training other VAMC staff in the care model while serving as part of the extended care team to the then US Secretary of Veterans’ Affairs. During this tenure, she also served as a faculty member in the Center of Excellence in Primary Care Education at the Boise VAMC, one of few VA hospitals nationally to hold such designation, providing interprofessional education to students and residents of various health professions while also providing interprofessional care to Veterans. Most recently she has been responsible for establishing mental health services within an interdisciplinary primary care team setting for Crossover Health at the Micron headquarters in Boise, Idaho, providing clinical services including assessments and individual and couples counseling to this diverse population. She is a member of the Idaho Psychological Association and also holds an appointment on the Idaho Board of Psychologist Examiners as a board member.

Department of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Three students from the department competed in the Three Minute Thesis competition in November: Aryna Rangit and Farjana Afrin, PhD students in Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Allison Loyola, a master’s student in Pharmaceutical Sciences. Students were given just three minutes to present years of research in a rapid-fire format and a single Power Point slide. Congratulations to Allyson, who received the People’s Choice Award and to 3rd Place winner Aryna Rangit! Each received a $500 prize.