Alumni Profiles

Tanya L. Eckert

  • M.Ed., Counseling and Human Services
    90
  • Ph.D., School Psychology
    13

Currently, Tanya is the Associate Chair of the Department of Psychology at Syracuse University and the Area Director of the School Psychology Program.  She is a Co-Investigator of a research grant sponsored by the Institute for Education Science, U.S. Department of Education grant to develop improved reading progress monitoring materials for children and youth.  In conjunction with faculty in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Syracuse University, she is the Co-Director of a Personnel Preparation Grant sponsored by the Office of Special Education, U.S. Department of Education to improve the training of speech language pathologists in working with preschool children who come from high-needs, low-income backgrounds.  Her research, teaching, and graduate research mentoring focuses on improving the academic skills of elementary-aged children.

Samuel Knapp

  • Ed.D., Counseling Psychology
    82

Sam has been the Director of Professional Affairs for the Pennsylvania Psychological Association since 1987 where, among other responsibilities, he assists psychologists in thinking through and addressing legal and ethical issues that may arise in their practices. Sam writes books and professional articles on ethics and he also teaches ethics in the doctoral program in clinical psychology at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and has recently taught ethics in the counseling psychology program at Lehigh. Sam is part of a cadre of scholars who espouse "positive ethics" which attempts to maximize the role of overarching ethical values into the practice of psychology.  

Kristin Mehr

  • Ph.D., Counseling Psychology
    11

Currently, Kristin is a licensed psychologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Counseling & Psychological Services at West Chester University of Pennsylvania.  In this tenure-track position, she is able to engage in direct clinical practice with college students, as well as continue with her research/scholarly interests and engage in service and outreach activities for the university and larger community.  She also serves as the training coordinator for the department.  Her current research interests primarily involve supervision and training in the field of professional psychology.  For instance, she is a co-author on a recent publication on effective and ineffective supervision in The Counseling Psychologist.  She is appreciative to the Counseling Psychology program at Lehigh University for providing education and training that uniquely prepared her for the various responsibilities of her position as a faculty psychologist.   

David Nguyen

  • Ph.D., Counseling Psychology
    17

David is from Boston, Massachusetts and graduated from Boston College in 2013 with a B.A. in Human Development. During his undergraduate studies, he was involved with a number of student activities, especially those related to student diversity. He also volunteered as vocational career counselor at a homeless shelter for a while.

Currently, David is a counseling psychology doctoral student working on a number of different projects. Along with his colleagues, he will be presenting a roundtable discussion on the different factors that increase the risk of homelessness and will propose a number of potential prevention strategies that will keep families in their homes. He will also be presenting a poster at the APA convention this year on Asian Americans and how they perceive racism.

David's future goal is to both be actively involved in changing political and social policies for the betterment of equality across all diverse groups and to serve as a clinician in a private practice.

Tiffany O’Shaughnessy

  • Ph.D., Counseling Psychology
    09

Tiffany is currently an Assistant Professor of Clinical Counseling and a Rockway Fellow at the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University in San Francisco, CA. She joined the faculty at CSPP after completing her pre- and post-doctoral training at the University of California, Berkeley’s Counseling and Psychological Services and serving as core faculty at Argosy University. She is an active researcher and in 2012, she was fortunate to be selected as an I-MERIT Faculty Scholar and completed a 10-day fellowship in Mexico City where she conducted qualitative research on the mental health needs of the LGBT community (and worked on improving her Spanish). She also maintains a small private therapy practice in Berkeley, CA and serves as a volunteer supervisor for The Pacific Center for Human Growth, a queer community mental health center that provides sliding-scale therapy to foster the well-being of the LGBTQ community.

She believes service to our profession is essential and is the co-coordinator for the Association for Women in Psychology 2015 National Conference in San Francisco and was recently appointed to the Early Career Professionals Committee of the Society for Counseling Psychology.

Stefani Pila

  • Ph.D., Counseling Psychology
    17

Stefani is a doctoral student in the counseling psychology program. She is from Tampa, Florida where she received a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology and Bachelor of Arts degree in history from the University of Florida in May 2013 (go Gators!). She has always been enamored with Lehigh and when the time came to apply to graduate school, Lehigh was first on her list.

When Stefani interviewed, she could see how diligent and knowledgeable the professors in the counseling psych program and College of Education were and how everyone seemed to be a family. After this experience, she saw herself attending Lehigh more and more and was beyond ecstatic to be accepted to the program, especially under the direction of her advisor, Dr. Susan Woodhouse. Under her direction, Stefani has narrowed her research interest with respect to romantic relationships (or lack thereof) in adolescence and emerging adulthood and the influence of attachment style on these relationships.

When she is not completing school work and reading for research, she likes to spend time with friends and watch ridiculous amounts of television, including shows on Bravo. She is a staff member for her old youth group, United Synagogue Youth, and enjoys talking with the high schoolers, helping solve problems, and practicing her counseling skills.

Jill Sollazzo

  • M.Ed., School Counseling
    14

In 2008, Jill left her home town of Bethlehem, PA to attend The College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass where she earned her B.A. in Psychology.  She spent her final semester of undergrad interning at Burncoat High School in Worcester, where she was a statistics tutor and helped co-facilitate a group on resiliency for at-risk youth in the school. Also while at Holy Cross, Jill was a coxswain for the Varsity Women’s Rowing team where she developed her passion for hard work and competition. 

Following graduation from Holy Cross, Jill went straight to graduate school here at Lehigh. While pursing her M.Ed. in School Counseling, she completed her internship at Freedom High School in Bethlehem—her own high school alma mater --- happy to get involved in the community that supported her early development.

She is the student representative for the school counseling program and also joined the coaching staff of Lehigh’s rowing team. 

Ge Song

  • Ph.D., Counseling Psychology
    18
  • M.Ed., Counseling and Human Services
    13

Song is a doctoral student in the counseling psychology program. She grew up in Chengdu, China. Song came to the States for graduate school and started her journey at Lehigh in the Counseling and Human Services master's program. Song is very passionate about promoting multiculturalism and social justice. She takes a leadership role as the Graduate Recruitment and Retention Chair for APA's Division 51. She also serves as a student member of Lehigh University's Council for Equity and Community. Her current research interests include: (1) conducting culturally sensitive research to explore masculinity ideology in Asian culture; (2) examining people of color's experience with racism; (3) studying the intersection of masculinity and racism; and (4) sex trafficking related issues. Her poster on Vietnamese Americans' cluster profiles received the Division 45 Presidential Citation for Outstanding Poster Presentation during the 2014 APA Convention. In her free time, Song likes to cook, ice skate, and practice mindfulness. She uses her Chinese Twitter account to share her counseling psychology training experience with colleagues in China and to advocate for gender equality and LGBT rights.