What is your background?

I am a clinical psychologist by training and was a professor and Director of Clinical Training in the clinical psychology program in the College of Arts and Sciences for over 20 years. My research and teaching focused on developing accessible, community-based and community-informed interventions to treat and prevent relationship instability and destructive conflict. I also served as president of APA’s Society for Couple and Family Psychology, and currently sit on the board of the Family Process Institute.

What is your role in OCEP?

I oversee a team of talented, dedicated, community-focused staff who help me to develop strategic community-university partnerships and to create professional development opportunities for faculty, staff, and students to learn more about how to conduct community engaged scholarship.

What is your community outreach interest?

My role is to help connect our colleges to our communities both immediately around UTK, across the state, and beyond. Our current strategic focus is on building a strong partnership with Cherokee Health Systems at our Cherokee Mills site and in developing a coherent and sustainable partnership with Knox County Schools. We are also meeting with other community agencies and organizations to assess potential for similar partnerships.

What is your why?

Too often, academia creates research that languishes in journals and is not used by the general public. Students also want more connection to the “real world” in their training. My “why” is a passionate desire to create bridges between UTK and our community to close that research-practice gap – and to make sure that the university is helping to solve the many “wicked” problems that our community partners face via mutually beneficial strategic partnerships.