{"id":114507,"date":"2022-02-02T12:10:15","date_gmt":"2022-02-02T18:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/?p=114507"},"modified":"2025-04-16T17:27:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T22:27:11","slug":"beyond-the-classroom-faculty-updates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/from-the-magazine\/beyond-the-classroom-faculty-updates\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond the Classroom: Faculty Updates"},"content":{"rendered":"

Education as a calling and a cause<\/h3>\n

Keeshawna Brooks, Ph.D., NCSP, LP, brings a passion for social justice and school psychology to The Chicago School.<\/h4>\n

\"KeeshawnaKeeshawna 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. \u201cMy mom was a special education teacher,\u201d Dr. Brooks says. \u201cI come from a family of helpers. My dad was a fire commissioner. They\u2019re both retired, but schools have always been very familiar and like home to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

After growing up on Chicago\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s rights, social justice, and professional ethics.<\/p>\n

\u201cSocial justice is an area that I\u2019ve really held near and dear to me,\u201d Dr. Brooks says. \u201cI\u2019ve tried to think flexibly about social justice in the wake of all that\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Social justice is another area that I’ve really\u00a0 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. \u201d<\/p>\n

–Keeshawna Brooks, Ph.d., NCSP, LP<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Giving back through education<\/h3>\n

Community lies at the heart of the work Gerardo Canul, Ph.D., does as a psychologist.<\/h4>\n

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\u2019s own race or ethnic identity affect their responses on a personality test. \u201cThat 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,\u201d Dr. Canul says. \u201cA big part of our profession is not to let my opinions dictate but to rely on research to test my hypothesis.<\/p>\n

\"Gerardo\u201dThis notion of psychology serving a practical role in understanding and serving communities came early to Dr. Canul. \u201cI became interested in psychology as I began to recognize, back in the late \u201980s, the importance of understanding diverse populations and simultaneously understanding that there was a specific area of practice in child clinical psychology,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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. \u201cThe Chicago School came to Southern California at a time when students needed a program that met their needs. That means we\u2019re going to train you, you\u2019ll be prepared to become licensed, and you\u2019ll be able to help others in your community,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Born in Los Angeles, Dr. Canul actually lived most of his childhood within walking distance of where The Chicago School\u2019s Los Angeles Campus stands today. Although he now teaches in Anaheim, he believes receiving an education is an important part of giving back. \u201cThere\u2019s many ways of being involved in your community\u2014by 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,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Dr. Canul believes that the work psychologists do is relevant to the moment and that we all have a responsibility to make an impact. \u201cWhen we look back at the 2020s, 10 or 25 years from now, we\u2019ll ask ourselves, \u2018What did I do? What did I say?\u2019 I wouldn\u2019t have imagined that as psychologists we would be in a place where we can make history,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s humbling that we have the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

I wouldn’t have imagined that as psychologists we would be in a place we can make history.<\/p>\n

–Gerardo Canul, Ph.D.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Understanding social constructs<\/h3>\n

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.<\/h4>\n

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\u2019s self-perception and that through storytelling, the individual can come to understand these influences and transform.<\/p>\n

\"\"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\u2019s preferences may be viewed as taboo. Much of Dr. Toubia\u2019s interest in this area stemmed from his research for his dissertation on couples formation in the gay community in Berlin.<\/p>\n

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. \u201cThis has been a great place to do this work,\u201d he says, \u201cbecause this community is culturally diverse and open minded.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to teaching courses in Diversity, Addiction Treatment, and Couple\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Dr. Toubia holds a similar view of the value of cultural and social relevance when it comes to student scholarship. \u201cI mentor students to share their research with underserved populations,\u201d he explains, \u201cso it will have an impact on the public at large and not merely on one individual at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

–Benjamin Toubia, Psy.D<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

Learn more about The Chicago School<\/h3>\n

To learn more about academic programs at The Chicago School, fill out the information below to request more information. You can also apply today through our application portal here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We share updates from three faculty members and the positive changes they are bringing to The Chicago School of Professional Psychology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":114734,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[1252],"coauthors":[1062],"class_list":["post-114507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-from-the-magazine","tag-winter-2022"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBeyond the Classroom: Faculty Updates - Insight Digital Magazine Spring 2022<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discover how The Chicago School\u2019s faculty are making an impact beyond the classroom.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/from-the-magazine\/beyond-the-classroom-faculty-updates\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Beyond the Classroom: Faculty Updates - 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