MONACA, Pa. — Important work happening in an unassuming corner space on the lower floor of the Ross Administration Building is preparing Penn State Beaver students for their future careers and providing a community service. In the campus neuropsychology lab, Amy Camodeca, associate professor of psychology and a clinical neuropsychologist, is providing much-needed and often difficult-to-obtain testing to assess youth ages 6 to 16 who may have neurodivergence or learning disabilities.
Beyond that, the neuropsychology lab serves as a place where Penn State Beaver psychology students learn to administer assessments, participate in research and help prepare clinical reports, readying them for graduate school.
Statistics show a need for practicing psychologists. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment for clinical and counseling psychologists is expected to increase from now until 2034. Health policy organization KFF found that, as of Dec. 21, 2025, the United States had 6,807 mental-health professional shortage-area designations, requiring an additional 6,800 practitioners to eliminate the shortage.
Camodeca is preparing Penn State Beaver students to help fill that need.
“Students do real-world research that helps them later on,” Camodeca said. “It’s a small lab, but it has a more individualized focus.”
Camodeca said students come into the lab at Penn State Beaver sooner than at larger universities, but they gain more experience.
“They are doing the same things I did at the University of Windsor, which was much bigger,” she said. “They get to do work reserved for graduated students because I can supervise them more closely.”
Paving professional paths
Camodeca’s mentorship has shaped the academic and professional paths of students who have worked with her.
For Kylie Todd, a 2016 Penn State Beaver psychology graduate, the experience helped lay the foundation for graduate school and a career as a clinical mental health counselor.
Todd, who has worked at the Psychology and Learning Center for nearly two years, earned her master’s degree from Duquesne University after completing an internship and working in intensive behavioral health services with children and families.
She said her time at Penn State Beaver gave her the research experience she needed to pursue graduate school. Because the campus was small, Todd said, she was able to work closely with Camodeca and take part in nearly every aspect of the lab’s work.
“I loved Penn State, and I love the small campus,” Todd said. “A huge part of that was Dr. Camodeca.”
Todd said she worked in the lab for most of her undergraduate career and continued for a short time afterward. She helped provide assessments, write papers and complete other research tasks, work that went beyond filing or copying documents.
“Dr. Camodeca really took me under her wing and taught me not just to do the research but how to be confident,” Todd said. “It made a very big difference, a lasting difference.”
The experience also showed Todd how closely research and clinical practice are connected. She said it can be easy to focus only on the clinical side of mental health care, but research can help lead to change in interventions and diagnoses that have a lasting impact on everyone who receives care.
Todd said she has referred clients to Camodeca’s research studies because of the quality of the evaluations. In some cases, families seeking to identify or rule out autism may not have access to a comprehensive assessment, she said. The lab’s work, Todd said, is about more than testing; it also helps connect families with resources.
Todd said she got to know her professors and was able to build experience from the beginning.
“That’s what I loved about it; everything that was good was because it was small,” she said. “I definitely value my time at Penn State.”
‘It means everything to me’
Phoenix McCafferty, who is entering their junior year as a biology and psychology major, is one of the students currently benefiting from Camodeca’s teaching and mentorship.
McCafferty originally planned to become a pediatric neurologist. They said they thought research experience, particularly in biology, would help them reach that goal. After speaking with an adviser, they learned Camodeca was conducting autism research and did not have a student researcher.
McCafferty approached Camodeca and asked to join the lab, despite having no prior research experience. Their first project involved a study of social cognition — how people think about and understand other people — and nonsocial cognition — thinking and learning that doesn’t involve other people, such as problem-solving.
McCafferty conducted Zoom sessions with students and administered tasks used in the research.
“I loved it,” they said. “I started administering the tests, and I was hooked.”
As they became more comfortable in the lab, McCafferty got the opportunity to work on the Penn State Beaver Thrives research project which provides free testing for youth in the community.
McCafferty began working with Camodeca in January 2025 and said the lab quickly became central to their college experience.
“It means everything to me,” McCafferty said of the lab work.
McCafferty recently was promoted to undergraduate supervisor and will oversee other student researchers. They said they also work with children, administer and score several assessments, and help write clinical reports. Camodeca interprets the results, while McCafferty continues learning the technical and clinical processes involved.
“I’m not qualified to interpret, but I can understand it,” McCafferty said. “It’s just amazing. It’s genuinely my favorite thing to do. I look forward to every study.”
McCafferty’s work in the lab also inspired an independent research project. While working on the social and nonsocial cognition study, McCafferty noticed unusual patterns in how some students interpreted social behavior. They began examining whether the COVID-19 pandemic affected the development of social-cognitive skills among teenagers who were younger during the pandemic.
McCafferty began designing the study, and Camodeca helped them select measures, understand the institutional review board process and revise the proposal. McCafferty has presented preliminary findings at University Park and at Penn State Beaver’s undergraduate research fair.
“Dr. Camodeca never once doubted any of my ideas,” McCafferty said. “I had that initial curiosity, and she said, ‘We need more students like that.’”
That support helped convince McCafferty to remain at Penn State Beaver for all four years and she plans to pursue graduate school, they said. McCafferty also serves as a research ambassador for the Spark Program, helping show prospective and new students that the Beaver campus offers opportunities to participate in research early in their college careers.
“When you think of that classic mentorship, it’s Dr. Camodeca,” McCafferty said. “I feel like I’m very well prepared for grad school. I would not be where I am without starting at that lab.”