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University

Cynthia Fitzgerald takes over as Dean of Enrollment Management and Student Services

12/05/2012

Cyndy Fitzgerald, formerly dean of LIOS Graduate College, took over as Dean of Enrollment Management and Student Services at the beginning of November. Originally from Sacramento, California, she received her PhD in Applied Behavioral Science/Higher Education Leadership from Azusa Pacific University in 2007. We sat down with Cyndy for a few questions about her new role at Saybrook.

You took over as Dean of Enrollment Management & Student Services at the beginning of November. How is this position different than your previous one?

The scope of this role is extremely broad in terms of serving the students, staff, faculty, and alumni of the University beyond what was involved in my role as Dean of LIOS Graduate College of Saybrook University. With this expansion comes a significantly greater workload that includes far more travel, meeting time, and effort to care for and coordinate resource staff in their efforts to support students and to develop systems with clear policies and procedures in compliance with federal regulations. An additional component and challenge involves striving to assess and develop best practices to improve communication, and where appropriate, cross-train staff, in the midst of the restructuring and multiple adjustments and impact of those changes.

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New Existentialists

December 21, 2012—Is the End Near? Or Will a New Era Begin?

12/05/2012
December 21, 2012—Is the End Near? Or Will a New Era Begin?
My husband and I recently had the good fortune to travel to Mayan sites in Guatemala and Copan, Honduras. To prepare for our trip, we attended the Maya 2012 Lords of Time exhibit at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The exhibition explored the current fascination with predictions of a world-transforming apocalypse (that some say will occur on December 21, 2012) with their origins in the ancient Mayan civilization. The exhibition and Penn Museum researchers made it clear that the Maya did not believe the world will end in December; nor did the present-day...

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Mind-Body Medicine

Closing the Circle: MBM Student Michelle LaMasa-Schrader Completes Three-Part Clinical Practicum

12/04/2012
Michelle Lamasa-Schrader (2nd from right), Dr. Moreno (left), his Wife and Staff

 

The PhD Practicum is an exciting part of completing a PhD in Mind-Body Medicine at Saybrook University, and for Michelle LaMasa-Schrader the Practicum is where she stepped into the role of “Doctor of Mind-Body Medicine.” Michelle describes her transformation into a mind-body practitioner as a calling, something deeper than creating a new career path.  Through study and numerous experiential activities she has embodied the work that she champions deep into her soul. Michelle reflects that many of the courses in her PhD program have impacted her on a profoundly personal level.  During courses such as the “Spirituality and Health” course she chose to use the opportunity to deepen her relationship with her husband.  She created a spiritual ritual that has strengthened their personal relationship, an unexpected gift from her graduate education.   

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New Existentialists

Questioning Ethics

12/04/2012
Questioning Ethics
There continues to be controversy regarding the perception of unethical conduct surrounding the DSM for more than 30 years. The DSM-5, approved this past weekend for publication in May 2013, has even been highly criticized by Allan Frances, the chair of the DSM-4 committee. There has also been evidence alleging ongoing financial conflict of interest and confidentiality that has embarrassed the American Psychiatric Association, complaints that diagnosis of mental illness is more political than scientific, and that DSM research shows very poor reliability and validity, including the belief that...

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New Existentialists

What Will You Stand For?

12/03/2012
What Will You Stand For?
It is time to go to war again against the DSM-5 panel and the new volume they have agreed to publish as is. This book will radically reshape the way clinicians have to bill insurance, codes diagnoses, and receive reimbursement. Some of the worst things did not make it into the volume—parental alienation disorder, for example, a product of divorce lawyers—is on the cutting-room floor. But nearly everything psychopharmacology wanted is still there. This spring, when we worked on petitioning the panel to be more reasonable and scientific, many wise people protested the protests. “What,” they...

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Rethinking Complexity

The Missing Dimensions and Context of “Org Charts”

12/03/2012
The Missing Dimensions and Context of “Org Charts”
Have you ever wondered how organizations evolve their structure? When is the optimal time to change the structure of an organization? What should the structure be and why? How should this structure be represented? Organizational structures are typically represented as inverted trees with the root of the organization at the top and its adjacent branches denoting the major divisions or functions. More branches follow all the way to the atomic level of the organization where the smallest units of work take place. Every organization requires this kind of inverted tree manifested in an “org...

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University

Saybrook’s Website Has a Facelift - Check It Out

12/02/2012

Want to learn more about the new Saybrook and our new academic model focused on specific areas of study and professional outcomes?

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Mind-Body Medicine

MBM Academic Mentor Participates in Global Trauma Relief, as well as in Women’s Cancer Resource Center: Introducing Kelsey Menehan, LCSW

12/02/2012
Kelsey Menehan with Choir

 

Kelsey Menehan found her way to Saybrook University through the Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM).  Kelsey completed her education and training to become a Licensed Clinical Social Worker at The Catholic University of America, in Washington, D.C.  She then began working with cancer patients and the families of kids with cancer.  Shortly into her career she began wondering what else she could offer to ease the suffering of families and individuals undergoing cancer treatment.  Kelsey has always been interested in spirituality, and perhaps that is a hint of what attracted her to the CMBM. 

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New Existentialists

Values Are Valuable

11/30/2012
Values Are Valuable
"There is nothing which requires such gentle handling as an illusion." --Søren Kierkegaard I have been raised to believe in honesty, that we don’t cheat—ever—and that our word, when given, is binding. These values are very strong family values that I wish to instill in my own children. However, lately, I have been wondering if those values are a thing of the past—an illusion. As I think about the quote from Kierkegaard, I wonder if the values that are set forth in our society are also an illusion. Could it be that those same values that I had been taught and that I am teaching my children are...

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University

Saybrook President Contributing to Huffington Post

11/29/2012

Saybrook University President Mark Schulman, PhD, has been invited to join the Pulitzer prize-winning Huffington Post, contributing blog posts to the College News section and sharing Saybrook’s unique perspective on education, science and the politics of higher education.

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