Alumni

The Department of Counseling Psychology embraces its network of graduates from both the Masters and Doctoral Programs.  Alumni of the department are always invited to departmental events, parties, awards ceremonies and other gatherings.  We strongly encourage graduates to keep us updated about their unique professional activities and provide us with updated contact information.

Recent Alumni Awards

KIMBERLEY DAWN LAKES
School of Education Outstanding Recent Graduate Award Citation

Although barely five years out of graduate school, Kimberley Lakes seems well on her way to becoming a force in the field of child clinical psychology. Her colleagues describe her as a tremendously bright, productive, and multi-talented powerhouse, with a mature sense of leadership and consensus building that is rare for someone so early in her career.

As a doctoral student in the Department of Counseling Psychology, Kimberley’s interests focused on prevention and intervention for at-risk youth. She co-developed a martial arts training program for elementary school children, and co-wrote a grant to fund a pilot project and program evaluation demonstrating the efficacy of this intervention in promoting self-regulation skills.

At the same time, she showed her intellectual curiosity and skills by mastering a relatively esoteric research technique, and communicating the benefits of this approach to a less methodologically sophisticated audience.

As a post-doctoral fellow at Children’s Hospital of Orange County, she contributed to a clinical research team led by Dr. James Swanson, a respected researcher at the University of California, Irvine, known for developing behavioral interventions for children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

As an extension of her work with Swanson, Kimberley developed and co-directed the Community-University Initiatives for the Development of Attention and Readiness in San Bernardino County —with the aim of offering "services before diagnosis" to avoid the premature labeling of children. This initiative and others clearly showcased her abilities to foster partnerships and to bridge the linguistic and cultural divides among researchers, government and community agencies, the public and families and children in need.

Despite her heavy workload, she also took on a visiting assistant professorship at the University of Redlands, with a full teaching load, and began to lay the groundwork for a Center of Excellence to provide a full range of prevention/intervention services to children age 5 and under in San Bernardino County. The center became a reality in 2006, thanks to a $3 million grant from the county, the collaboration of researchers from three campuses, and support from a long list of community partner agencies.

Her major professor observes that "Kimberley displays a singular combination of abilities—scientific, entrepreneurial, administrative and political—that give her the potential to make a meaningful impact on educational and mental health services for at-risk youth."