Derrecka Boykin

Dr. Derrecka Boykin is an Assistant Professor in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine, and serves as a Research Health Scientist at the Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness, and Safety within the South Central Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Houston, Texas.

• PhD in Clinical Psychology from Northern Illinois University (2018)
• BS in Psychology from University of Pittsburgh (2010)

Dr. Boykin specializes in improving mental health care delivery for trauma-exposed veterans, with particular emphasis on rural veterans and military sexual trauma survivors. Her work focuses on:

• Increasing access to evidence-based treatments
• Developing virtual adaptations of psychotherapies
• Implementing trauma-informed care systems
• Community partnership models for healthcare delivery
• Technology-based behavioral interventions
• One-day intensive treatment approaches

Her research has been supported by the VHA Health Systems Research with a $672,529 grant (#CDA 20-261) to study community-based mental healthcare for rural military sexual trauma survivors. Key scientific contributions include:

• Standardized reporting frameworks for virtual therapy adaptations
• Feasibility models for rural veteran mental health workshops
• Implementation strategies for primary care mental health integration
• Community-partnered research methodologies
• Access barriers analysis for rural female veterans
• Multimodal wellness interventions for distressed veterans