PsyD Program

Ryan Sharma

Greetings, everyone!

We are very excited to have a new academic year underway in the PsyD Program.  As many of you know, we are undergoing a lot of changes this year, though we are all confident that they will make us a stronger and more successful program.  

I’m pleased to announce that Dr. Rachel Casas is starting this fall as the Director of the PsyD program. With the retirements of Drs. Puopolo and Eagle, the PsyD program will be commencing a search for two new faculty members to start Fall 2019. While no one will be able to fill the enormous shoes of two fantastic psychologists who built the foundation of our program, we are excited to broaden our faculty with new expertise.

In the meantime, we would like to welcome Dr. Stella Panos (spanos@callutheran.edu) who joins the PsyD faculty this year as a visiting professor. Dr. Panos is a licensed psychologist who has been working as a neuropsychologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center since 2016 managing their inpatient acute medical consultation and liaison neuropsychology service while providing clinical supervision to UCLA School of Medicine psychology externship trainees. She completed her BA at UC Irvine, MA and PhD degrees at Fuller Theological Seminary (two MA degrees, one in Theology the other in Psychology, and her PhD in Clinical Psychology). Her doctoral internship was at the VA in West Los Angeles and her three year postdoctoral fellowship was completed at UCLA in Neuropsychology/HIV. Dr. Panos is author or co-author of 12 peer reviewed articles on various topics related to neuropsychology, such as impact of HIV on cognitive performance. Her first authored presentations are on topics related to neuropsychology, HIV-associated neurocognitive decline, medication adherence, and schizophrenia.  We are very much looking forward to having her as part of our team this year.

Recently, our PsyD program launched a new training track in acceptance and commitment therapy, had three faculty members advance to tenure (Dr. Casas, Dr. Twyford, and I), and had a 100% internship match rate this year to APA-accredited programs.  The faculty is committed to increasing our visibility by continuing our committed work of serving the community around us. Indeed, it is our time for advancing the common good with the skills that psychology offers.

Please join me in welcoming in a new year of vibrant growth for our program.  

Ryan Sharma