Program Director, Clinical PsyD

A colleague who directs a counseling program asked me recently how you hire someone to build a program that doesn't exist on paper yet. Do you write a vacancy notice, or do you write a founding charter? William James College has answered by doing both. The College is searching for its founding Program Director for a new Clinical Psychology PsyD in Rhode Island, and the posting reads like a build plan: a fall 2027 launch cohort, curriculum to design, faculty to recruit, field placements to secure, and an accreditation file to prepare while the paint is still wet.

The Job Reads Like a Founding Charter

The role sits in Providence, at the Roger Williams University Extension School, under an authorization the Rhode Island Council on Postsecondary Education issued to William James College. The College itself is a Newton, Massachusetts institution founded in 1974 as the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology and renamed in 2015 for the American psychologist and philosopher. Its home PsyD in Clinical Psychology is one of the largest in the country: 134 credits over five years, twelve concentrations stretching from forensic psychology and neuropsychology to geropsychology, children and families of adversity and resilience, and military and veterans psychology.

The Rhode Island edition is a 123-credit program, also five years, with the first four spent in residence. That smaller credit count is not a stripped-down version; it reflects a curriculum mapped to the same American Psychological Association competencies, trimmed where the Newton program carries its own institutional history.

The person hired carries a double portfolio. On the academic side: curriculum development, faculty hiring and evaluation, oversight of student progress and professional standards, APA accreditation readiness, and a continuing teaching load. On the operational side: budget planning and enrollment targets, coordination with Newton offices running the registrar and field education, and what the posting calls business development: grants, contracts, sponsorships and relationships with Rhode Island funders. The title says Program Director. The weight is closer to founding dean of a small campus.

Why Rhode Island, and Why Now

Rhode Island's shortage is well documented and getting worse. The General Assembly has written into statute a projection of 67,500 open health and related social assistance positions between 2020 and 2030, and Washington County carries a full mental health Health Professional Shortage Area designation, with wait times for children's evaluations measured in months. Nationally, KFF and the Health Resources and Services Administration counted more than 122 million Americans living in mental health professional shortage areas as of late 2024, a figure that climbed to about 137 million a year later, with roughly 6,800 additional practitioners needed just to clear the designations. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 12 percent job growth for clinical and counseling psychologists between 2025 and 2035, roughly 4,100 openings every year.

William James College is not first into the state market. Bryant University opened Rhode Island's only PsyD in clinical psychology with $1.5 million in federal support secured through U.S. Senator Jack Reed, and its inaugural cohort began last fall. That William James College is entering anyway, through its official announcement of the Rhode Island program, signals that regional demand remains far from met. The College's tie to the state also runs through the Rhode Island Executive Office of Health and Human Services Ladders to Licensure initiative, where WJC partners with Communities for People, Tides Family Services and Family Service of Rhode Island to move working professionals toward licensure. That partnership hands the new program director an employer base and a credential pathway from day one.

The Accreditation Clock Starts Before the First Student Enrolls

Accreditation is where the deadline lives. Full APA accreditation requires outcome data from at least one graduated cohort, which a brand-new program cannot yet have. What a new program can seek is accredited, on contingency status, granted when a program meets every standard except complete outcome data, with a defined window to submit that data after two cohorts complete. The distinction matters for students: anyone who graduates after a program earns that status, and before full status, has still completed an APA-accredited program. For the founding director, the practical consequence is that data collection must be designed before the first student arrives: internship match rates, licensure outcomes, retention and time to degree, because five years of alumni tracking cannot be retrofitted.

What the Work Looks Like Week to Week

Search committee language says the director serves as the senior on-site leader. In practice, that means the new hire becomes the person the registrar, financial aid, field education and IT offices in Newton call about the Providence campus. Field placement is the clearest example of how that coordination plays out. The Newton PsyD draws on more than 175 training sites across New England. The Rhode Island program starts from zero and must build relationships with hospitals, community mental health centers, schools and forensic settings willing to supervise trainees. The College is also hiring a Director of Field Education and Clinical Training for Rhode Island, who will own contracts, memoranda of understanding and supervisor credentialing. That second hire is the administrative backbone that lets the program director remain academic rather than buried in paperwork.

Faculty recruitment is the quieter test the posting doesn't spell out. The director must recruit and support a high-quality faculty team in a state where licensed psychologists are in short supply, and the strongest clinicians already carry patient loads. The successful candidate will spend much of the first year selling a doctoral program to people who could earn more per clinical hour in private practice but want to train the next generation.

Pay Range and the Enrollment Math

One job aggregator has listed the Program Director position with an estimated range of about $140,000 to $160,000, which sits above the Bureau of Labor Statistics' May 2025 median of $100,580 for clinical and counseling psychologists and aligns with senior academic administration at small, tuition-dependent private colleges. Candidates should also read the economics behind the chair. The existing Newton PsyD charges $1,920 per credit and offers merit scholarships up to $20,000. The Rhode Island Ladders to Licensure partnership, in turn, funnels employer-supported master's students into the behavioral health workforce. A founding director will be judged on enrollment targets as much as on clinical training quality, because a doctoral program with empty seats loses its accreditation story fast.

Start With Licensure, Not the Cover Letter

If you are considering this role, the single most useful step you can take this month is to open the licensure question first. The posting prefers a licensed or license-eligible clinical psychologist, and Rhode Island Board of Psychology endorsement for out-of-state candidates takes time. Begin that application now. A candidate whose file says license in progress reads differently to a committee than one who has not started. Read the full posting and requirements at Academic Jobs, then submit your materials through the College's ADP application portal before the committee settles into fall review.

For the hiring team, one small move this month would improve the way every candidate experiences the search: send each semifinalist the draft year-one curriculum map before the first interview. Candidates read it the way students read a syllabus, as a preview of institutional standards. It costs an afternoon and tells a founding candidate more about William James College than any recruitment brochure can.