Sheila Modir (Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology, Ph.D., ’17), alumna of UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School—along with Jeff Kashou, LMFT and illustrator Monica Mikai
—has written The Proudest Color (Workman Publishing, 2021). Based on Modir’s second-year project research at CCSP on racial socialization, this children’s book is a timely, sensitive introduction to race, racism, and racial pride. Modir and Kashou are donating their author proceeds to the ACLU and other nonprofit organizations that promote racial justice.
Booklist writes, “This text is a timely and welcome addition to early childhood classrooms that can be used in lessons on skin color, feelings, kindness, and how words can hurt others.”
Dr. Modir is a pediatric psychologist at a children’s hospital. She obtained a combined doctoral degree in Clinical, Counseling, and School Psychology at UCSB and her master’s degree in social welfare at UCLA. Dr. Modir has presented at conferences, spoken on podcasts, and published articles on the impact of racial trauma on mental health and risk and resilience factors.
Jeff Kashou is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and a manager of clinical product and service design for a mental health tech company. He has his master’s in clinical psychology from Pepperdine and was previously on the Board of Directors for the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists.
Together they have advocated at the state and federal level for better mental health care policies, in addition to doing international work at a Red Cross refugee asylum in Belgium. They also consult on film and television productions, including for Disney and Freeform, to ensure that mental health is portrayed responsibly, and have been judges for the annual Sentinel Awards.