Rachael L. Herrington, Ph.D.

Dr. Rachael Herrington received her B.S. in psychology, graduating summa cum laude, from Oklahoma State University in 2002, and as an undergraduate earned the prestigious Bill Gates Millennium Scholar award and the American Indians into Psychology Research Project scholarship. Rachael completed her M.S. (2004) and Ph.D. (2008) in clinical psychology at Texas A & M University where she specialized in psychometrics.  Dr. Herrington was selected by the American Psychological Association as one of a select group to the Minority Fellowship Program’s Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Fellowship, a program aimed at equipping providers to offer culturally competent substance abuse services to underserved populations.  While at Texas A&M, Dr. Herrington had clinical placements at the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Brazos County Jail, and at multiple probation departments.  She completed her pre-doctoral clinical psychology internship and her Clinical Psychology Postdoctoral Fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine.  There she had clinical placements at Ben Taub General Hospital, the DePelchin Children’s Center, the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, and the Student Counseling Center, which serviced the mental health needs of medical students.

Dr. Herrington has experience teaching at the undergraduate and graduate level, and she also taught seminars to psychiatry residents and medical students who were on their psychiatric rotation at Baylor College of Medicine.  She first joined Drury University in Fall 2011 as Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology, with assignments to teach Abnormal Psychology, Research Methods, and Introduction to Psychology.  Dr. Herrington was then hired to a tenure-track position as Assistant Professor beginning in Fall 2012.  Dr. Herrington is passionate about raising awareness on the atrocities of domestic and international human trafficking.  As such, she was a natural fit to help co-sponsor Drury’s student organization, Drury Against Human Trafficking, which focuses on all forms of modern day slavery and human trafficking.  She and a group of women organized a local conference called Stand Against Trafficking, and Dr. Herrington has been asked to present on the topic to mental health professionals.  Also at Drury, Dr. Herrington has utilized her background in couples therapy and research to co-teach a workshop on P.I.C.K. a Partner: How Not to Date/Marry a Jerk(ette), which utilizes research in the field of psychology to help students make good choices in selecting a partner.  Dr. Herrington is also passionate about cross-cultural issues and international travel, and she has visited over twenty countries.  Over the 2012-2013 winter break, she and a colleague took a group of twelve students abroad to study “Global Health Issues in South Africa.”

Regarding scholarship, Dr. Herrington was lead author on an article published in Psychological Assessment, APA’s premier peer-reviewed journal, and has several other peer-reviewed publications.  From 2009-2011, Dr. Herrington practiced full-time as a licensed psychologist at Burrell Behavioral Health where she completed a two-year commitment to the National Health Service Corps, a program aimed at providing quality health services in underserved communities. Currently, Dr. Herrington is involved in clinical research as part of a multi-site NIMH clinical research study on Recovery After an Initial Schizophrenia Episode (RAISE) and has become the first therapist across the country to be certified as an Individual Resilience Therapist for that study.

In her clinical practice, Dr. Herrington has specialized training in treating anxiety disorders and has been an invited speaker at community workshops on Treating Anxiety Disorders in Children.  She utilizes her real-world experience practicing in clinical settings to help inform her teaching.  

Drury University faculty member since 2011
Associate Professor since 2018