Member Spotlight: Dr. Deborah J. Jones
Name: Deborah J. Jones, PhD
License #: 3199
Bio: Dr. Jones completed her Ph.D. at the University of Georgia, her clinical internship at the Brown University Clinical Psychology Training Consortium, and her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She started her career in the Department of Psychology at West Virginia University where she was for two years, before joining the faculty in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research and clinical work focus on the family and caregiving as a context for understanding and shaping parent-child interactions and the behavior of young children in particular. She is especially interested in increasing the likelihood that families historically underrepresented in clinical science and underserved in clinical practice have access to and can meaningfully engage in and benefit from our evidence-based interventions.
What attracted you to the field of psychology? “Thinking about this is a bit of a connecting the dots looking backward opportunity. That said, I think the thread along the way was that I have always been interested in trying to make sense of people’s behavior. An academic career in clinical psychology provided a path where I could continue to learn about why people do what they do, as well as write, teach, and work with families reflecting on and interesting in changing their own behavior in service of the mental health of their children.”
What do you enjoy most about your work? “One of the things I really like about being an academic is the variety of things I do. For example, I just finished teaching a Maymester course on Digital Mental Health. Maymester is basically one half of May and classes are a little over 3 hours a day. The students were just lovely, fully engaged, and so impressive and appreciative. I truly enjoyed getting to know them and their interests, and witnessing them really connect, integrate, and extend various topics in our discussions and activities.”
What advice would you give someone who is considering a degree in psychology? “With undergraduates, I highlight how broadly relevant their degree is regardless of what they do next. I run into our majors and they are business owners, working in nonprofits, and pursuing a range of advanced degrees, all of which require understanding human behavior. With graduate students, one piece of advice I would have is simply to be yourself. Clinical program admissions have become so competitive, which I think has pulled for this sense that to ‘succeed’ you have to fit a very particular mold. When I read an application to our program, I enjoy it much more if I get a sense of the human behind the materials.”
When you are not working, what do you enjoy doing? “I enjoy taking walks, listening to podcasts, audiobooks, and bingeable streamers, moseying with my 13-year-old cocker spaniel, Lucy, coffee-ing with friends (or really any excuse to coffee!), ushering at church, and going to the playground and pool with my fellow and his 7-year-old daughter, who has become a great cannonball buddy!”
What is something about you (a fun fact) that not many people know? “One thing may be that I name my cars. For example, my first car was Bessie, which I was fairly certain had a lawn mower engine, so I would say ‘c’mon Bessie’, when we were slowly but surely trying to make it up a hill. There was also Scarlett with Aira, a sort of burgundy car, that was my first car with air conditioning. Now, I have Amelia Airheart, yes, spelled incorrectly because I really do heart her air conditioned seats here in the South!”
If you were not a psychologist, what would you do? “This one is easy! I actually have a list of ‘next life’ jobs that include everything from nail polish namer (can you believe people get paid to do that!) to car carrier driver (imagine the endless tales about the cars and their people!) to FBI agent (although I think I just want to drive around in the big black SUV with tinted windows). But at the very top of the list would be veterinarian and I am incredibly grateful to those who picked this path. My lingering hope is that I can find a way to incorporate dogs into my research with parents and children, but for now I just bring Lucy to work with me!”
What is the next place on your travel bucket list? “I have to admit that I am not a big traveler, so I think about places like visiting my parents and sister in Pittsburgh, my brother and his family in Boston, and friends in places like Atlanta and D.C. We also like to zip to Wrightsville Beach to visit extended family and friends. I admittedly look forward to the people more than the place.”
What are you currently reading or listening to? “I listen to podcasts and audiobooks all of the time, but the most recent paper copy of a book I read was the Personal Librarian, which someone at church loaned to me. It is about Bella Da Costa Greene, an American librarian who curated the personal library of J.P. Morgan. I really enjoy historical fiction as a chance to learn things that I either did not learn (or did not encode) in school.”
What is your favorite word and why? “I have lots of go-to words – perseverate, shenanigans, and bamboozled are some of them for sure, but maybe a favorite is ‘percolate’. I use it to say ‘let me think about it’ or ‘let me percolate’ or ‘let’s percolate’. I have found, not surprisingly, that my best thinking tends not to occur during the sprint that is the semester when we are zipping between classes, meetings, and proposals and defenses. So, often I need a minute to sit with something, let it ‘percolate’, then the idea or answer will come to me while drinking my afternoon iced coffee pick-me-up or walking the dog.”
- What is your least favorite word and why? “I am not sure what my least favorite word would be, although I have been thinking about the words that we use that are likely fancier than necessary. A common one I have been noticing since it was pointed out to me is ‘utilize’ instead of just saying ‘use’.”