GGSE In the News

Amelia Robinson, School Psychology 2024, is now a School Psychologist for San Francisco Unified School District.

Emily Jee Sun Kang, ED 2009, is currenlty at Adelphi University, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor. 

Haley Meskunas, PhD in Clinical Psychology 2021, is now in a Private practice and supervising. 

Matthew Shackley, Education 2025 is now a Firefighter at Palo Alto Fire Department

Natalie Larez, CCSP 2024, is now an Assistant Clinical Professor, Pediatric & Child/Adolescent Psychologist at Banner University Medical Center - Tucson, AZ and a Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Cancer Center for the Dept. of Psychiatry, Behavioral Health Pavilion (General outpatient). 

Rene Staskal, CCSP 2011, is currently at Monona Grove School District working as a  School Psychologist.

Sometimes resistance is attending a protest, and sometimes it’s wearing our braids to work in defiance of white, eurocentric beauty standards that are enforced in our workplaces.

Lucy Arellano Jr., The OpEd Project. Opinion: The rollback of DEI initiatives in higher education puts student success at risk. 

Two programs at UC Santa Barbara’s Koegel Autism Center at the Gevirtz School of Education are giving local teens something many families struggle to find: a place to build social skills, make friends and spend time together in a supportive environment. (UCSB The Current)

Jesse M. Bernal, Ph.D. Education 2014, currently serves as the 10th president of Western Connecticut State University. 

An interdisciplinary team of researchers at UC Santa Barbara has been awarded a major research grant from non-profit Wellcome Leap to join an ambitious global effort investigating if, when and how the early-life gut microbiome may influence neurodevelopmental challenges, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD). 

Courtney Wright, a Ph.D. candidate in UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, will address her fellow graduates as a 2025 Commencement speaker — a moment she calls “a dream realized” after five and a half years of graduate study.

The Koegel Autism Center’s Creative Club will be holding its sixth neurodivergent art show, by and for those who think differently. Titled “Unmasking Through Art,” the show will open with a reception on Thursday, May 8, 2025, from 5:30 pm to 8 pm at the Koegel Autism Center on the UC Santa Barbara campus. This event is free and open to the public.

UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz Graduate School of Education and the Harding University Partnership School (HUPS) are celebrating their successful 15-year collaboration. Launched in January 2010, the partnership brings Gevirtz School faculty researchers and graduate students to the Harding campus, within Santa Barbara Unified School District, to provide research-based best practices and services to benefit student learning and well-being. 

Anna Krasno, clinical director of UC Santa Barbara’s Koegel Autism Center, challenges misconceptions rooted in deficit-based perspectives, advocating for a fundamental shift in how autism is understood and addressed. 

Newly launched training at UC Santa Barbara aims to help fill a widening gap between two opposing forces — an ongoing shortage of school psychologists and the growing need for services for increasingly diverse student bodies nationwide.

Tania Israel is no stranger to divisive conversations. Back in the 1990s, she started a group to bring together pro-choice and pro-life people through dialogue. And for the past 25 years, as an expert on LGBTQ issues, she’s interacted with plenty of people with whom she does not see eye to eye.  

There’s less attention defending those of us who truly are single cat ladies. Nearly 20 years ago, social scientists Bella DePaulo and Wendy Morris aptly described singlism: the prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination toward singles. Since their article, the number of single households has only been growing. Instead of ignoring or making fun of us single people, listen to us.

Teacher Education Program alumnus Greg Wolf (M.Ed., SST, '13), who teaches history, political science and psychology at Santa Ynez Valley Union High School, was named a 2024 California Teacher of the Year, earning the highest state recognition a teacher can receive.