I have been with Southwestern’s counseling center since 2009 and the director since 2015. Prior to Southwestern, I began my career in Child welfare, working in group homes and treatment centers in Chicago for about 10 years, before, during and after receiving my MA in Counseling. While in grad school, I had the opportunity to do my training in a university counseling center and was fortunate enough to keep a small part time position there upon graduation. Eventually, I transitioned to college counseling full time in 2004, working at a few small colleges around the Chicagoland area. My family and I moved to the area for the job at Southwestern in 2009, looking for better weather and a change of scenery.

I would say I specialize in young adults, across a spectrum of identities and issues. I see such strength in the ability to examine how we got to this point; identify how harmful, or at least unproductive, patterns emerged and got reinforced and then explore ways to dismantle and rewrite how we see the world. I think college students, generally speaking, are in the best place and shape to do this. On the surface, they are here to examine their professional and academic selves, often needing to broaden their definition of self to fit with new information and experiences. I try to encourage them to do that same thing with other definitions of themselves as well, such as their relationship self, their interpersonal self, their political and spiritual selves, etc.

LPC-S, Licensed Professional Counselor - Supervisor, Texas

M.A., Counseling Psychology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL

B.S., Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign, Urbana, IL