In a letter to the community, Medical Director Cecilia Stuopis has announced the appointment of Karen Singleton as chief of MIT Medical’s Mental Health and Counseling Service. Stuopis and Chancellor Cynthia Barnhart also communicated the news directly to students through a campus-wide email. Singleton succeeds Alan Siegel who will be retiring from MIT at the end of 2016.
Stuopis notes that members of the search committee were particularly impressed with “Dr. Singleton’s warmth, the thoughtfulness with which she answered questions and laid out her vision, and her unwavering commitment to providing students with easily accessible and excellent mental health services.”
A graduate of Barnard College, Columbia University, and the City University of New York, Singleton currently serves as interim executive director of the Student Health Service at Columbia University Medical Center and director of Student Mental Health Services. She is a past director of that school’s Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Program and a practicing clinical psychologist with expertise in sexual trauma, grief, eating disorders, and issues related to race/ethnicity and sexual orientation.
“In addition to her leadership experience, Dr. Singleton has demonstrated outstanding clinical proficiency,” writes Stuopis. “We believe that Dr. Singleton will find ways to build on Mental Health and Counseling’s foundation of excellent service to find additional ways to provide our students with the access they need and the first-rate care they deserve.”
