Education as a calling and a cause
Keeshawna Brooks, Ph.D., NCSP, LP, brings a passion for social justice and school psychology to The Chicago School.
Keeshawna Brooks, Ph.D., NCSP, LP, professor and associate chair in the School Psychology Department at the Chicago Campus, developed an interest in education at an early age. “My mom was a special education teacher,” Dr. Brooks says. “I come from a family of helpers. My dad was a fire commissioner. They’re both retired, but schools have always been very familiar and like home to me.”
After growing up on Chicago’s South Side, Dr. Brooks earned a B.A. in Psychology and an M.A. in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago. She went on to work in survey research in the private sector for several years before she felt the calling to return to academics to support special needs education, receiving a master’s in education and a Ph.D. in School Psychology from Loyola University in 2018. Dr. Brooks went on to a post-doc in Maryland as a psychology associate and nationally certified school psychologist and subsequently obtained her licensure as a clinical psychologist.
Since coming to The Chicago School in 2019, Dr. Brooks was named a School Psychology Research Collaboration Conference Early Career Scholar by the Society for the Study of School Psychology. One objective of her work in this area is to connect the Multi-tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) training that school psychologists receive in order to best evaluate programs, evaluate children, and help families in determining eligibility for special education.
A central part of her work as associate department chair at The Chicago School is her commitment to social justice. In 2020, she co- a book chapter on children’s rights, social justice, and professional ethics.
“Social justice is an area that I’ve really held near and dear to me,” Dr. Brooks says. “I’ve tried to think flexibly about social justice in the wake of all that’s happened in our country and applying that now to our field as we grow and we figure out how to respond to the ongoing pandemic.”
Social justice is another area that I’ve really held near and dear to me. I’ve tried to think flexibly about social justice in the wake of all that’s happened in our country and applying that now to our field as we grow and we figure out how to respond to the ongoing pandemic. ”
–Keeshawna Brooks, Ph.d., NCSP, LP
Giving back through education
Community lies at the heart of the work Gerardo Canul, Ph.D., does as a psychologist.
Gerardo Canul, Ph.D., faculty in the Applied Clinical Psychology Department at the Anaheim Campus, has partly devoted his research to questions about people of color and their preferences in choosing a clinician. As a Ph.D. candidate, he studied how attitudes toward one’s own race or ethnic identity affect their responses on a personality test. “That was an eye-opening moment in graduate school when I recognized that research is a way of asking a question, answering a question, and having data to support the answer,” Dr. Canul says. “A big part of our profession is not to let my opinions dictate but to rely on research to test my hypothesis.
”This notion of psychology serving a practical role in understanding and serving communities came early to Dr. Canul. “I became interested in psychology as I began to recognize, back in the late ’80s, the importance of understanding diverse populations and simultaneously understanding that there was a specific area of practice in child clinical psychology,” he says.
When he joined the full-time faculty of The Chicago School in August of 2009, Dr. Canul was attracted to its values of sharing and community. “The Chicago School came to Southern California at a time when students needed a program that met their needs. That means we’re going to train you, you’ll be prepared to become licensed, and you’ll be able to help others in your community,” he says.
Born in Los Angeles, Dr. Canul actually lived most of his childhood within walking distance of where The Chicago School’s Los Angeles Campus stands today. Although he now teaches in Anaheim, he believes receiving an education is an important part of giving back. “There’s many ways of being involved in your community—by marching, by advocating for others who are less fortunate, but another avenue is going to school, receiving an education, earning a degree, and then returning to your community to help,” he says.
Dr. Canul believes that the work psychologists do is relevant to the moment and that we all have a responsibility to make an impact. “When we look back at the 2020s, 10 or 25 years from now, we’ll ask ourselves, ‘What did I do? What did I say?’ I wouldn’t have imagined that as psychologists we would be in a place where we can make history,” he says. “It’s humbling that we have the opportunity.”
I wouldn’t have imagined that as psychologists we would be in a place we can make history.
–Gerardo Canul, Ph.D.
Understanding social constructs
Benjamin Toubia, Psy.D., assistant professor in the Marriage and Family Therapy Department at the Los Angeles Campus, takes a nontraditional approach in treating marginalized populations.
Benjamin Toubia, Psy.D., takes a nontraditional approach to inclusivity. populations. As a post-modern systemic clinician, Dr. Toubia employs narrative therapy, which holds that social constructs and other factors can have a powerful influence on an individual’s self-perception and that through storytelling, the individual can come to understand these influences and transform.
Narrative therapy has been applied to Aboriginal peoples in Australia in order to help them access feelings stemming from the loss of their land to white colonizers. Dr. Toubia incorporates this approach toward a more inclusive understanding of how to service the LGBTQIA+ community whose members may feel similarly displaced, due to issues around monogamy, communication, and identity formation in a society where one’s preferences may be viewed as taboo. Much of Dr. Toubia’s interest in this area stemmed from his research for his dissertation on couples formation in the gay community in Berlin.
Dr. Toubia came to The Chicago School as an assistant professor in 2020. He has found the institution to be supportive of his approach and professional interests. “This has been a great place to do this work,” he says, “because this community is culturally diverse and open minded.”
In addition to teaching courses in Diversity, Addiction Treatment, and Couple’s Therapy at The Chicago School, Dr. Toubia is a member of the Diversity and Multicultural Advisory Committee and the Social Justice Leadership Academy. In this work, as well as his role as custodian of the research sequence for doctoral students, Dr. Toubia encourages candidates to become comfortable using contemporary resources and methodologies. He highlights how institutionalized systems of power within academia have prevented the expansion of literature on marginalized communities.
Dr. Toubia holds a similar view of the value of cultural and social relevance when it comes to student scholarship. “I mentor students to share their research with underserved populations,” he explains, “so it will have an impact on the public at large and not merely on one individual at a time.”
I mentor students to share their research with underserved populations, so it will have an impact on the public at large and not merely on one individual at a time.
–Benjamin Toubia, Psy.D
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