Nurturing leaders
Christa Washington, Ph.D., looks to expand opportunities for undergraduate students and increase diversity work.
Christa Washington, Ph.D., a faculty member at the Online Campus, is using her commitment to higher education leadership and diversity to advance curriculum and opportunities at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology.
“I recently established the B.A. Leadership Academy, which launched this fall,” Dr. Washington says. “This vision and purpose of the program is to help students develop valuable skills future employers are looking for: communication, motivation, goal setting, and presentation skills. The Academy will provide a dynamic, leadership training and motivational experience for students.”
Since joining The Chicago School as a core faculty member in 2017, Dr. Washington has worked to incorporate more diversity into the curriculum and classroom. She creates assignments that specifically focus on diversity and inclusion and serves on the Diversity Advisory Committee, where she discusses campus-wide diversity topics in the classroom from a student’s perspective. Dr. Washington also looks to expand student engagement opportunities as the co-advisor for the newly created B.A. Psychology Club.
Originally from Camden, Arkansas, Dr. Washington was first introduced to The Chicago School when she participated in a post-doctorate certificate program in academic leadership. She began teaching in as an adjunct faculty in the Business Psychology Ph.D. program, eventually becoming core faculty in the B.A. Psychology program online.
In addition to her work at The Chicago School, Dr. Washington—who has published articles in the Oxford University Public Policy Journal and the International Journal of Business and Social Science—serves as a consultant with the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) helping to create leadership development programs for women of color in STEM.
Creating community in Dallas
Applied Behavior Analysis Department Chair Michael May, Ph.D., uses his background in special education to foster community.
The Dallas Campus of The Chicago School of Professional Psychology is still new to the community—but thanks to the effort of Michael May, Ph.D., The Chicago School is already having a large 
impact.
“When the new campus opened in Dallas, I saw an opportunity to use my clinical and administrative experiences to shape a strong behavior analysis program to serve the nation’s fastest-growing region,” Dr. May says. “The Dallas Campus is a vibrant, fast-growing community of diverse students, staff, and faculty. We are quickly becoming known in the Dallas Forth Worth (DFW) metroplex area, but also developing relationships across the entire state of Texas.”
Dr. May, who serves as the department chair for the Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) program and received the Employee Appreciation Award in May 2019, is using his clinical background working with children and adults that have intellectual and developmental disabilities and his higher education experience to introduce The Chicago School in the DFW area.
To develop those relationships, Dr. May has been engaging in grassroots activities. He has worked with faculty from several state universities to identify grants for training school personnel and explored ways to address faculty shortages that are making it difficult to meet the credentialing standards for behavior analysis. Dr. May has also begun a partnership with an ABA agency to build out a possible clinic on the Dallas Campus—increasing employment opportunities for students and the university alike.
Additionally, Dr. May has helped introduce a behavior analysis speaker series to the Dallas Campus, offering continuing education and networking opportunities for community behavior analysts, students, and researchers at sister institutions. These presentations allow students to learn about behavior analysis practice as well as network with employers.
His own community involvement extends beyond The Chicago School: Dr. May serves on the board of directors for the Texas Autism Society, works with the Texas Association for Behavior Analysis to promote legislation and regulation of behavior-analytic services in the state of Texas, and is an honorary member of the University of North Texas Social Justice Lab.
Living the mission
Margaret Smith, Psy.D., has been able to use her own training from The Chicago School to fuel her passion for helping marginalized communities.
Margaret Smith, Psy.D.—who serves as the director of clinical training at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology at Xavier University of Louisiana—was invited to present in the Saami homelands in Norway after co-authoring a paper “Suprahuman Indigeneity in Academia: Invisibility, Tokenism and Response” with three Native American graduate students. The presentation was at the World Indigenous Research and Education Conference in Norway in late 2018.
Her interest in the Native American population came while earning her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from The Chicago School. She completed her practicum and post-doctorate training at the Indian Health Service of Chicago, later serving as their director of behavioral and family services. She later learned of her own family’s Cherokee heritage.
In her career, Dr. Smith has served as a reviewer for the Journal of Indigenous Education as a Society of Indian Psychologists (SIP) member and acted as their representative for the Leadership Development Institute to train early career ethnic and racial minority psychologists. Notably, she served as an ad hoc consultant between SIP and the people at the Standing Rock camps—where people were protesting the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation—to address the mental health needs on the ground.
Having recently relocated to New Orleans to serve in her new role at The Chicago School, Dr. Smith looks forward to continuing to give back.
“It is my hope to bring the very best of the education I received through The Chicago School to my role as director of clinical training for our students,” Dr. Smith says. “The inspiration for my work came from my practicum experiences during graduate school at The Chicago School. I hope to continue that work in New Orleans, with a goal of beginning a campus-wide Native American support group here.”
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