Catherine Koverola
Professional Title: Dean, Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences, Lesley University
Areas of Academic Focus and Expertise:
Children’s mental health, interpersonal victimization, cross cultural mental health service delivery, behavioral health workforce development
Representative List of Recent Courses Taught:
Professional Ethics, Cross Cultural Psychopathology, Family Therapy, Clinical Child Psychology, Child Abuse, Family Violence, Research Methods, Clinical Supervision
Education: B.S., Biology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada; M.A. Psychology, University of Western Ontario, Canada; M.A. Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary School of Theology; Ph.D. Clinical Psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary School of Psychology
Dr. Catherine Koverola came to Lesley in July 2011 as Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences. Dr. Koverola previously worked at Antioch University Seattle where she served as Dean of the School of Applied Psychology, Counseling and Family Therapy as well as Interim Vice President of Academic Affairs. She has also served in a number of administrative posts such as Department Chair of Psychology and Director of the Alaska Rural Behavioral Health Training Academy at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. In Alaska, Dr. Koverola was the founding director of a doctoral program in psychology. Dr. Koverola began her academic career at the University of Manitoba in the Department of Psychology.
Dr. Koverola has extensive experience in the development of interdisciplinary mental-health delivery programs that serve victims of violence. The locations have been as varied as urban medical centers at the University of Southern California and the University of Maryland Baltimore to rural remote indigenous communities in Canada and throughout Alaska. For over two decades Dr. Koverola was active as a clinician and clinical supervisor. She is sought after as a consultant and speaker on issues ranging from tele-behavioral health, community based participatory research, program development, and interpersonal victimization.
Dr. Koverola’s work has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and numerous private foundations and she has been the recipient of many awards. She is an internationally recognized scholar in the area of interpersonal victimization in cross cultural contexts.
Fun Facts:
Along with her family, Dr. Koverola has enjoyed the various experiences that come with traveling the globe, including swimming in the waters of the Caribbean (her husband’s first home), driving a snow machine on the Arctic Tundra at top speeds, rocking babies at orphanages in Malawi, searching for treasures in the souks of Morocco, and speaking Finnish in her native tongue. She is the proud mother of a daughter currently majoring in International Relations. While at home in Cambridge, MA her favorite pastimes are entertaining family and friends, and taking her pint-sized pal Sisu for walks.