Internship Director

I have a wide interdisciplinary background, which fits in perfectly with my position in interdisciplinary studies. My professional odyssey began at Douglass College of Rutgers University where I received the Mabel Smith Douglass Scholarship which financed my entire college education. After blowing up many experiments in chemistry class, I abandoned my pre-med studies and returned to an interest in art history, which led me to Oriental Art, and to hence to study Japanese language and culture at Princeton Univ. as a National Defense Foreign Language Scholar. Thus by the time I received my BA in History in 1969, I had studied equally at a woman's college and an all-male (2500 men and 30 women) institution, as well as lived in Japan and NYC each for many months, learning to immerse myself in diverse cultures.

From there I was recruited into the Ph.D. program in Social Work at Rutgers Univ., specializing in administration and economics, and completed my dissertation on Social Functioning in Schizophrenics. By that time I was Asst. Director of an innovative residence for schizophrenics and also did consulting on non-profit management. However, I married and moved to Dallas, Texas, where I began a health education consulting firm with a nurse which supplied wellness and management programs to businesses and did extensive free-lance writing.

In 1985 I began teaching in the School of Social Sciences at UTD in 1986 and moved to the School of General Studies as Director of the Internship Program. Here I get to use my diverse talents supervising students doing internships in all fields. I also hope to use my skills as a health and public policy specialist when I move back into teaching in the future. I am particularly interested in research on ways of coping with chronic illness. I also hold licenses as a Licensed Professional Counselor, Certified Social Worker (Advanced Clinical Practice), and Hypnotherapist, although I do not currently maintain a practice.

I currently teach the student internship course and do independent studies with students in the fields of health, policy, and management issues.

Editor, NSEE Quarterly, journal of the National Society for Experiential Education  www.nsee.org

Chair, Publications Committee NSEE

Chair, Faculty SIG, NSEE

Committees:
Medical School Admissions
Library Committee

External service:
Public Affairs officer, Richardson Chapter, AAUW, also write monthly women's issues column for newsletter

Listserv administrator, Hyperacusis Network, a service for people with hyperacusis hearing disorder

Scholarship Judge, North Texas Mensa
Exercise Instructor, Fretz Park Recreation Center