Timothy Wilkerson grew up immersed in football. His father, who’d played for Georgia Southern University, coached him and his brother as kids. Uncles and cousins also played collegiate football, and one even made it to the Miami Dolphins.
“Football has always been one of my biggest passions and a huge part of my being,” Wilkerson said. When he became a defensive end for GSU, “continuing that legacy was a pretty big deal in the family.”
But a calling to understand the human brain and help people heal superseded his football passion. Before his senior year, Wilkerson made the difficult decision to give up his spot on the team to better position himself for a top-notch doctoral psychology program.
“It felt like this is what my life’s work should be,” said the former defensive end.
This month, Wilkerson will earn his doctorate in clinical psychology from Rutgers’ Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (GSAPP). With his completion of the five-year program, the 29-year-old plans to work with children and adolescents, providing intensive early treatment to improve long-term outcomes.
Shifting Focus
Wilkerson traces his professional path back to middle school, when a science project involving dissecting a sheep brain sparked a fascination with how the brain works. “I knew this is absolutely what I want to do for the rest of my life,” he said.
He initially aspired to become a neurosurgeon, but a class on careers in psychology “completely opened my mind,” he said. Clinical psychology, he realized, would allow him to help people on a deeply interpersonal level.
Wilkerson graduated a semester early from GSU and interned with a pediatrician who specialized in autism and cerebral palsy. He then trained as a registered behavior technician, helping children with autism improve their communication, social, and daily living skills.
While earning a master’s degree in clinical psychology at Columbia University, he served as a research assistant in a neuropsychology lab, using brain imaging to identify biomarkers for schizophrenia and conducting psychological assessments.
Best Fit
When it came time to choose a doctoral program, Wilkerson eagerly applied to Rutgers. “I was looking for the best fit, and Rutgers just stood out because of the school’s program model,” he said. At a pre-interview dinner with current doctoral students, “they were happy, passionate about their work, and had a strong sense of camaraderie. It felt like such a welcoming place.”
The Rutgers-GSAPP Clinical, Psy.D. program offered numerous opportunities for community engagement. For example, Wilkerson and his classmates in 2020 led bicultural events and anti-bullying presentations aimed at reducing xenophobia toward Asian Americans following the COVID-19 outbreak.
He served as a student clinician at the Center for Psychological Services, (CPS), GSAPP’s training clinic, treating both Rutgers students and local residents. He worked in an inpatient psychiatric unit in New York and provided long-term individual and group psychotherapy at another facility. Since July, he has been completing his full-time APA-accredited pre-doctoral internship at Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens, providing behavioral health care in both inpatient and outpatient settings. He evaluates patients, conducts psychological testing, and provides bedside therapy on medical floors.
Gaining Clinical Expertise
“I’ve gained so much clinical experience being here,” he said. “I’ve felt prepared for everything I’ve stepped into.” Students must complete 1,080 clinical hours even before serving in a full-time internship in their final year. That internship requires a minimum of 2,000 hours of clinical practice.
From community outreach to specialized clinical care, Wilkerson said the training was immersive, grounded in real-world needs. “The faculty and staff are incredibly supportive,” he said. “Every professor I’ve worked with has gone out of their way to mentor students.”
Associate Professor Kristen Riley called Wilkerson “highly intelligent and very dedicated, with compassion that shines through everything he does.” Riley recalled how impressed she was reading Wilkerson’s application. “Here is this student athlete who has achieved a high level of academic success in addition to athletic success, who showed such maturity and perspective,” she said. “He is driven to integrate psychology into medical settings to increase access to care.”
After graduation, Wilkerson aspires to eventually work with adolescents who experience psychosis, intervening early to make lasting improvements to their mental health. Many adults with serious mental illness never received early treatment, leading to cycles of debilitating recurrences throughout their lives.
When he’s not working, Wilkerson enjoys fishing, watching anime, and — no surprise — following football from July to February. He and his wife, Chizoba, are avid Baltimore Ravens fans and try to attend several games each season.
