palo alto university alumni highlights · public awareness of the alumni council, to grow its base,...

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Palo Alto University Alumni Highlights

Summer 2017

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2 3PAU Alumni HighlightsPAU Alumni Highlights

From the Office of Alumni Relations

Greetings Alumni and Friends,

Each year, as we welcome new students to PAU, we are reminded of the great legacy left behind by our wonder-ful alumni. As the Director of Alumni Realtions, it is my goal to work along with the PAU community to raise public awareness of the alumni council, to grow its base, to assist with development of mentoring programs, fun-draising opportunities, and to promote exciting activi-ties and events for alumni and students.

Joining the alumni council encourages continued suc-cess for our students and support for the university. We want to reach out and connect with you, no matter where you may be. Please continue to visit us on the website, (https://www.paloaltou.edu/alumni ) for infor-mation on future alumni activities.

The Office of Alumni Relations and the Alumni Council welcomes your involvement and participation!

Best Wishes,

Kemper MitchellDirector of Alumni RelationsPalo Alto University

Alumni HighlightsBarbara Finn, PhD, CGP, FAGPA, ABPP

I have been in full-time private practice for the past 32 years in Menlo Park, CA. I did my pre-doc at California Pacific Medical Center, Dept. of Psychiatry, and my post-doc at Stanford Medical Center, Dept. of Psychiatry. I work with individuals (adolescents and adults), couples, and families, and provide consultation to other health care professionals. I run two high-functioning interpersonal process therapy groups. I am very involved with the American Group Psychotherapy As-sociation (AGPA), and regularly lead 2-day intensive process groups for therapists at our annual meetings. I am on the Ad-junct Clinical Faculty at Stanford Medical Center, where I lead process groups for psychiatry residents. I have also been the Psychological Consultant for the Stanford Women’s Volleyball Team (7-time National Champions!) for 15 years. I couldn’t be more thrilled with the profession I have chosen. I feel I am one of the lucky few who absolutely loves my work. I find the interpersonal authenticity in the nature of my work incredibly meaningful and powerful for me.

Shirlee Lim, B.S.

I graduated from PAU in 2015, and since then I’ve been working directly with children on the autism spectrum as a behavioral para-professional. I was given three to four clients at a time, and had daily sessions with them in



order to teach them communication skills - pragmatically, recep-tively, and expressively, it has been an amazing learning experi-ence, but in hopes of finding better opportunities, I left my job a few weeks ago. By the end of July, I will be moving from the Bay Area to San Diego, where I will be attending The Chicago School of Professional Psychology for the Masters of Science program in ABA Therapy. I will continue to work full time as a behavioral specialist as I study, with the hopes of finishing the program in two years and obtaining the BCBA certification. I hope to learn more as I continue my studies: I know I have the potential to help change lives, and that is exactly what I plan to do.

Mark Staal, PhD, ABPP President-Elect, Society for Military Psychology American Psychological Association

I graduated PGSP in 1997, after completing my internship with the USAF at Wilford Hall Medical Center. Despite some apprehension about “being in the military”, I found my training and early experiences to be very positive. I was soon running my own clinic with a small staff. From that first assignment, I agreed to accept a second and I went on to teach as a Professor of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the USAF Academy in Colorado Springs. After three years of teaching and running their student counseling center, I completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Human Factors Engineering at NASA and from there, I went to work with Special Operations Forces (SOF). I stayed supporting SOF for the remainder of my career and was able to deploy to the Middle East (Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Turkey, and Afghanistan) 11 times across the last 12 years. I retired from the USAF as a Colonel, overseeing all behavioral sci-ence services for Air Force Special Operations. It was a wonderful career choice and provided me many opportunities to serve others and to mentor younger psychologists, as well as military profes-sionals and leaders. Along the way, my wife and I were able to live

in some of the best areas of the country (California, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Florida, North Carolina) and raise six children. Since retiring from the military I have found a number of ways to continue to serve my community, both as an active operational psychologist as well as the incoming President of Division 19, the Society for Military Psychology (APA). Looking back, life required a number of twists and turns I could never have anticipated from my days at PGSP. My advice for any PAU/PGSP psychology students would be to be bold, take calculated risks, and enjoy the ride. If anyone is interested in a career in military psychology or curious about operational psychol-ogy, I would encourage you to reach out. I can be reached at [email protected].

Michael Fresé, PhD.

Consulting has been good to geropsycholo-gist Michael Fresé, PhD. As a consultant who provides psychotherapy to residents of the Los Angeles Jewish Home, Sunrise Senior Living and other facilities, plus training and consultation for staff, Fresé works just 20 hours a week, has almost zero overhead and pulls in six figures. Plus, says Fresé, “I have the freedom to make my own schedule.”

Soon after Fresé launched his consulting business in 2010, he found himself shuttling around nine facilities in Los Angeles County. “Early on, it was just work, work, work,” says Fresé, who built his practice by cold-calling facilities and offering his services. “It was overwhelming and exhausting.” Instead of spreading himself too thin, he now relies on two facilities as core clients. For Jernigan-Noesi, combining consulting and private practice means she has the liberty to be selective about the offers that come her way. “It might be too stressful if consulting were my sole income,” she says, noting the inconsistent income that may come with consulting when you are just starting out or are only consulting part time.



We are very proud to announce that the PhD Clinical Psychology Program at Palo Alto University has been selected as the winner of the 2017 Richard M. Suinn Minority Achievement Award by the APA Commission on Ethnic Minority Recruitment, Retention, and Training II (CEMRRAT2) Task Force!

We are delighted to introduce our new Director of Student Services to the PAU Community and Friends. Thom Shepard comes to Palo Alto University with over 20 years of experience in Student Services and Student Development. Thom comes from one of our partner schools, Foothill College, where he has held many positions in Stu-dent Services. For the past two years, he has served as the Dean of Students. Prior to moving to the Bay Area in 2012, Thom served as the Direc-tor of Residence Life at Queens University of Charlotte for nearly 10 years. He has also held other positions in Student Affairs at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the State University of New York at Cobleskill, and Cazenovia College. Thom completed his Masters in Higher Education at Abilene Christian University and his undergraduate work in Liberal and Professional studies at Cazenovia College. Thom brings a commitment to developing an out-of-the-classroom experience that will support PAU students’ success in their academ-ic and research efforts as well as their personal growth and devel-opment. Community building and relationship development are the cornerstones of his work. He is excited to join the PAU team to continue the efforts to build a world-class student services program that meets the various needs of all Palo Alto students whether they are fully online, at either of the two main campuses, or at one of our partner school locations in the Silicon Valley.

Per the award letter:

“The CEMRRAT2 Task Force was very impressed by the clinical program’s upward trend of enroll-ment of racial or ethnic minority students which proves its commitment to recruiting, training, and graduating students of color. The program’s long-time efforts to prepare and produce culturally competent practitioners of color is impressive and timely. Please note that the program’s nomination was advanced by several of your own students. Such action highlights the important and valuable work the program accomplishes to mentor scholars of color. Clearly, the program’s work and its dedica-tion to the education and training of psychologists has not gone unnoticed by your students and your nomination was unanimously well received by the Task Force.”

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Congratulations Graduates!



Congratulations Undergraduates!



palo alto university alumni highlights · public awareness of the alumni council, to grow its base,...

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