MIRECC / CoE

SC MIRECC Welcomes New Leaders

We are pleased to announce that six faculty members have been selected for leadership roles at the Center.

Associate Director for Research Training: Natalie Hundt, PhD

Dr. Hundt is a licensed clinical psychologist and VA funded investigator at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, and an educator across multiple levels within an interdisciplinary research center. She is also an associate professor with tenure in the Baylor College of Medicine Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.

Dr. Hundt’s research focuses on improving Veterans’ access to, and engagement in, evidence-based psychotherapies for PTSD, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and anxiety disorders. She also serves in significant educational roles, including as the Director of a VA Office of Academic Affiliations Mental Illness Research and Treatment (MIRT) Fellowship and as Education Director at the Houston VA Center of Innovation.

As the SC MIRECC Associate Director for Research Training, Dr. Hundt will oversee advanced fellowship programs in mental illness research and treatment in Houston, Texas and Little Rock, Arkansas. She will also manage the Grant Writing Scholars Program, a didactic training and individualized mentoring program that helps junior investigators develop applications for funding to VA Merit Review, VA Health Systems Research, the National Institutes of Health, and other agencies.

SC MIRECC Assistant Director for Improving Clinical Care – Quality Improvement Training and Mentoring Programs: Kelley Arredondo, PhD

Dr. Arredondo is an industrial/organizational psychologist with expertise in leadership development, quality improvement, team science, and program evaluation. She is an assistant professor in the department of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, an investigator at the VA Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness, and Safety, and the assistant director of the Center for Professionalism at Baylor College of Medicine.

Dr. Arredondo is passionate about applying her expertise to foster improvement within healthcare by evaluating course and program performance, coaching clinicians to become leaders in quality improvement, and applying team science to primary care team research. Through the Veterans Rural Health Resource Center at White River Junction, she leverages her expertise in workforce development as a principal investigator to understand and address the barriers and facilitators rural clinicians face.

In her role within the SC MIRECC, she helps develop clinicians’ skills in quality improvement through the Mentored Clinician Quality Improvement Program (MC-QIP).

SC MIRECC Assistant Director for Improving Clinical Care – Consumer Advocacy Board: Dr. Joseph (Jay) Boffa

Dr. Boffa is a core investigator at the VA SC MIRECC, suicide prevention coordinator at the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System, and clinical assistant professor at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine. In these roles, he is actively involved in training and mentoring health professions trainees.

His clinical research focuses on the intersection of trauma and suicide risk, with an emphasis on developing innovative treatments for rural and other traditionally underserved populations. His work has been funded by the VA’s SC MIRECC, Office of Connected Care, and Clinical Sciences Research & Development.

As Assistant Director for Improving Clinical Care – Consumer Advocacy Board (CAB), Dr. Boffa provides operational support and serves as a liaison between the CAB and Veteran health partners to enhance clinical, educational, and research services for Veterans.

Assistant Director, Houston SC MIRECC Fellowship: Derrecka Boykin, PhD

Dr. Boykin is an assistant professor in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), clinical psychologist, and research health scientist with the Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness, and Safety (IQuESt) and SC MIRECC at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center.

Her work is dedicated to improving equal opportunity to access mental health care. She is principal investigator and co-investigator on several VA-funded studies that utilize novel mechanisms (e.g., brief interventions, one-day workshop, telehealth) to enhance mental health care delivery to underserved populations with mental health care needs, such as rural residents, female Veterans, persons of color, and “individuals who have experienced sexual trauma. She has also been involved in the training and mentoring of many students and early career professionals at BCM and VA.

As the Houston SC MIRECC Fellowship Assistant Director, Dr. Boykin will help oversee advanced fellowship programs in mental illness research and treatment. These programs have three components: research, education, and clinical care and aim to build skills in scientific thinking and research, intervention, consultation and assessment, education, teaching and supervision and much more.

SC MIRECC Assistant Director for Improving Clinical Care – Clinician Input Committee: Mary Shapiro, PhD

Dr. Shapiro is a clinical investigator at the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System and an assistant professor at the Louisiana State University School of Medicine. Her research is focused on the intersection of female reproductive health and traumatic stress and developing novel interventions for anxiety- and trauma-related conditions. She is currently the principal investigator of several VA-funded studies examining ways to enhance mental health treatment for pregnant and postpartum Veterans.

As the Assistant Director for Improving Clinical Care, Dr. Shapiro oversees the Clinical Input Committee, a committee of frontline VHA clinicians dedicated to providing feedback on SC MIRECC clinical projects and programs.

Director of the Advanced Fellowship in Little Rock: Rajinder (Sonia) Singh, PhD

Dr. Singh is a psychologist clinician investigator at the VA Center for Mental Healthcare and Outcomes Research at the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System and an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in the Center for Health Services Research. Dr. Singh previously completed the SC MIRECC Advanced Fellowship in Little Rock from 2019-2021 before becoming an investigator. Her research interests are in implementation science with a specific interest in policy implementation to improve health and health care for populations with documented gaps in care.

As the Director of the Advanced Fellowship in Little Rock, Dr. Singh will oversee postdoctoral fellowships that aim to train health care professionals for future leadership roles in research, education, and clinical services, particularly in academic and medical care settings such as VA.

Last updated: April 24, 2025