At the Wilmington, North Carolina, neuropsychology practice Antonio Enrique “Tony” Puente recently opened with his son, one distinction had to be settled early. 

After decades of students, colleagues, and staff members calling the elder Puente “Dr. Puente,” no one was likely to start using his first name. But his son, Antonio Nicolas “Nick” Puente, is also a psychologist. 

The solution was simple: Tony remains Dr. Puente. His son is Dr. Nick. 

The arrangement reflects something larger about the Puente Neuropsychology Institute. Father and son share a name, a profession, and an alma mater, but they entered neuropsychology nearly four decades apart. Their careers show how scientific and clinical training at the University of Georgia has prepared generations of psychologists to respond to changes in the field—and to help shape those changes themselves. 

For Nick, returning to Wilmington meant leaving a successful career in academic medicine. After earning his doctorate in clinical psychology from UGA’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences in 2014, he trained at Duke and Johns Hopkins universities and joined George Washington University. His wife, Kerrin Puente, who earned her doctorate in industrial-organizational psychology from UGA, had also built a career in the Washington area. 

But as their son grew older, the couple began considering what their careers left room for. 

“You’ve got a hell of a job,” Tony remembers telling Nick. 

According to Tony, Nick replied, “Yeah, but I don’t have a hell of a life.” 

Returning home offered Nick a different life—and gave father and son their first opportunity to practice together. 

The institute provides neuropsychological evaluations and forensic services, helping patients and families understand how the brain influences behavior and daily functioning. Both Puentes also volunteer at a free clinic serving uninsured patients, many of whom speak Spanish. 

For Tony, the work draws together the forces that shaped his career: immigration, language, science, clinical care, and a commitment to making psychological services more accessible. 

His path to psychology began in Cuba. His family left a comfortable life there and arrived in the United States with $300 and a change of clothes. Tony brought a crucifix and a baseball bat, both of which he still has. 

He spoke no English, and the family relied on a refugee center for food while establishing a new life. Tony watched his father eventually prosper while an uncle by marriage struggled to adjust. The contrast left him wondering how people understand and adapt to profound change. 

His father’s answer to adversity was work. 

“My father didn’t wait for manna to fall from heaven,” Tony said. “He made it happen.” 

Tony carried that urgency into his education. Although his father urged him to remain in Florida, Tony chose UGA because its psychology program allowed him to combine clinical training with biopsychology, now called cognitive neuroscience. That integration of science and practice became the foundation of his career as a clinician, professor, and national advocate for psychology. 

Money was tight, and Tony was determined to finish quickly. When he learned that taking 21 credit hours cost the same as taking 12, he enrolled in 21. From high school through the completion of his doctorate in 1978, his education took six years. 

“Now, if you were to say, ‘Wow, this guy’s a genius,’” he said, “I’d say, no, this guy was desperate.” 

Financial stability did not come immediately. In 1982, Tony’s wife called to tell him that his university salary was not enough to buy groceries. The family held a garage sale and parted with several possessions, including a small sailboat. 

Soon afterward, Tony opened a private practice while teaching at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. The experience exposed him to inadequate insurance reimbursement for neuropsychological services. 

A practical concern for a young professor supporting his family became a decades-long commitment to professional advocacy. Tony worked to improve coding and reimbursement for psychological care, efforts that led him into national health care policy and professional leadership. In 2017, he served as president of the American Psychological Association. 

While Tony was helping neuropsychology establish its place in health care, Nick encountered the field through his family’s experience. 

Nick was 10 when his mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. He accompanied her to appointments and watched doctors struggle to reconcile her symptoms with medical scans. His parents’ frustration drew him toward a career helping families understand how brain conditions affect everyday life. 

By the time Nick entered UGA’s clinical psychology program in 2008, neuropsychology was an established specialty with formal training pathways. Mental health care was also becoming more widely accepted. Although Nick entered a different professional landscape than his father had, both emerged from UGA with the same fundamental orientation: Psychology should unite scientific rigor with meaningful care for patients. 

That growing acceptance has created opportunities as well as complications, Nick said. Faced with multiple types of providers and uneven credentials, patients may struggle to determine who is qualified to provide specific kinds of care. 

Tony believes doctoral education and scientific training remain essential for specialties such as neuropsychology. 

“We are, first of all, scientists, and second of all, we’re practitioners,” he said. 

Technology is driving another period of change. Telehealth has expanded access to some mental health services, but patients seeking neuropsychological evaluations may still face long waits. Nick believes emerging technologies could help reduce those delays, though they cannot replace the relationship at the center of clinical care. 

“People want human engagement,” he said. 

The Puentes’ partnership brings together two generations of experience. Tony entered neuropsychology as it was securing its place within medicine and went on to help shape the profession nationally. Nick joined a mature specialty confronting rising demand, limited access, and rapid technological change. Both drew from their Franklin training an understanding of psychology as a science, a clinical practice, and a form of service. 

Their work also closes a family circle. Tony’s interest in psychology began with questions about how people adapt after leaving one home and making another. Decades later, his son left a prestigious career to return to the place that had always been home. 

There, Dr. Puente and Dr. Nick are building a practice together—two generations of Franklin psychologists sharing a profession, a commitment to service and, finally, an office.