{"id":119656,"date":"2024-12-26T10:02:40","date_gmt":"2024-12-26T16:02:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/?p=119656"},"modified":"2024-12-26T10:02:40","modified_gmt":"2024-12-26T16:02:40","slug":"distinguished-alumni-paula-anderson-phd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/psychology\/distinguished-alumni-paula-anderson-phd\/","title":{"rendered":"Distinguished Alumni: Paula Anderson, Ph.D.\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"clearfix\"><p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Like many people from working-class backgrounds, Paula Anderson, Ph.D., saw college as her ticket to a better life. When she headed off to the University of Virginia, she was focused on building a career that would give her the stability and opportunities her family never had.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201cMy parents were immigrants from Jamaica, so I\u2019m a first-generation American,\u201d says Dr. Anderson, a licensed clinical professional counselor in the state of Maryland, a nationally certified counselor, and one of five honorees receiving The Chicago School\u2019s 2024 Distinguished Alumni award. \u201cI was born and raised in the Bronx, New York. I didn\u2019t want to be low-income anymore, so I wanted to be a doctor or lawyer because I thought doctors and lawyers made a lot of money.\u201d<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">When she realized <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">that becoming a doctor involved dealing with blood <\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">and <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">encountered many challenges in her attempts to go to law school, she decided to pursue psychology.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201cI love analyzing human behavior,\u201d Dr. Anderson says. \u201cI took a psychology class and realized, \u2018Wait a second. I really like this.\u2019 I did well, so I stuck with it.\u201d<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Dr. Anderson subsequently went to graduate school at The George Washington University, where she got her master\u2019s degree in community counseling. \u201cEven though I studied psychology, I honestly had never thought about becoming a therapist <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">because I thought at the time that therapists typically don&#8217;t make a high salary<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I changed my mind. I thought, \u2018If I don\u2019t make a lot, that\u2019s OK, because I really want to help people.\u2019\u201d<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Dr. Anderson recognized that a counseling career could fill her cup even if it didn\u2019t fill her coffers. \u201cWhen I was younger, I loved talking to people and giving advice,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen I was searching for a career path, people kept telling me, \u2018You\u2019re a really good listener, and you\u2019re good at helping people solve problems.\u2019 With counseling, something just awoke inside me.\u201d<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">After graduate school, Dr. Anderson became a counselor at a special education school in Washington, D.C., where she worked with children who had emotional and behavioral challenges.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201cMany of them came from poor neighborhoods and disadvantaged backgrounds. <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">The students I worked with have been through a good deal of trauma. As a result, they often struggled with managing their emotions,&#8221; Dr. Anderson says. &#8220;Many times, they lashed out by hitting others or fighting because they were dealing with so much pain inside<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, but I still loved them. They were my babies, and I just wanted so badly to help them.\u201d<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Working in special education schools was extremely rewarding but also extremely taxing. After eight years in special education, Dr. Anderson was burned out. She decided to open a new chapter: In 2007, she started her own business, PACE Consulting, which provides clinical behavioral health counseling to individuals, children, and families in College Park, Maryland, as well as organizational consulting to schools, universities, corporations, nonprofits, and government agencies.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">While the clinical side of her business was born from her career in schools, the consulting side\u2014it includes organizational consulting services in workplace wellness; stress management; organizational culture; leadership and team development; and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)\u2014was buoyed by her decision to continue her education at The Chicago School, where she earned her Ph.D. in Business Psychology in 2021.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201cGetting my Ph.D. in Business Psychology helped me add a whole new line of business to my company,\u201d says Dr. Anderson, who now has a staff of nearly 30 people.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Although it\u2019s not the medical or legal career she once coveted, being a counselor and an entrepreneur has unlocked a different, more meaningful kind of wealth.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201cI\u2019m having more impact than I ever thought I could have,\u201d Dr. Anderson says. \u201cPeople have told me that without our services, a child would have hurt themself, or a parent would have hurt a child, or an employee might not have shown up for a job they needed to provide for their family. We\u2019re providing services that literally save lives.\u201d<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Like many people from working-class backgrounds, Paula Anderson, Ph.D., saw college as her ticket to a better life. When she headed off to the University of Virginia, she was focused on building a career that would give her the stability and opportunities her family never had.\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cMy parents were immigrants from Jamaica, so I\u2019m a first-generation American,\u201d says Dr. Anderson, a licensed clinical professional counselor in the state of Maryland, a nationally certified counselor, and one of five honorees receiving [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":119668,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[113],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1033],"class_list":["post-119656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psychology"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Distinguished Alumni: Paula Anderson, Ph.D.\u00a0 - 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