New Faculty Join Palo Alto University
Palo Alto University has welcomed several new faculty members. These individuals bring intersectional clinical, research, and teaching experience to our community, with histories of professional engagement and compassionate, strengths-based approaches to their work.
Please help us celebrate and welcome our new faculty!
Dr. Rose Wong – Social Work Program Director and Professor
Rose Wong, PhD, MPA, MSW/LCSW, earned her MPA at Princeton University and diplomas in public administration and psychology in France prior to completing the MSW and doctoral programs in the School of Social Welfare at UC Berkeley. She was a postdoctoral fellow in the Clinical Services Research Training Program at UCSF prior serving as a faculty member and department chair in social work at CSU East Bay. Dr. Wong was also the founding director of the MSW program in the School of Health Sciences at University of the Pacific (UOP).
Dr. Wong worked as an international development consultant in Brazil and Portugal for seven years prior to entering the field of social work. Her clinical social work experience in the U.S. includes counseling for children and families who experienced domestic violence and assisting the implementation of integrated care programs. In her research, Dr. Wong specializes in culturally sensitive mental health assessment and education in Asian American immigrants. She has led community-based participatory projects in which teams of health and mental health professionals develop Chinese language educational materials, including videos and brochures with symptom checklists, for training and outreach to medical professionals, patients and community members.
Dr. Wong has made important contributions to social work education. In addition to establishing the MSW program at UOP, she published an article on microaggressions occurring in the social work classroom and a textbook for clinical and research courses, "Which Evidence-Based Practice Should I Use?: A Social Worker’s Handbook for Decision Making."
Dr. Susan Branco - Associate Professor in Counseling
Susan Branco, PhD, LPC (VA), LCPC (MD), NCC, ACS, BC-TMH, is a transracial and transnational adoptee from Colombia, South America. She is an advocate for increased adoption-related research and training within counselor education and is passionate about improving mental health outcomes for transracially-adopted persons. Dr. Branco is a practicing counselor, clinical supervisor, and has been a tenure track Assistant Professor in a counselor education program. Her research includes transracial adoption and mental health, Colombian adoption policy, and clinical training and supervision practices for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color counselors. In addition, she has multiple peer-reviewed publications related to her research interests and frequently presents at regional, national, and international counseling related conferences.
Dr. Daniel Levy - Associate Professor in Psychology
Dr. Daniel A. Levy specializes in cognitive neuroscience and the brain basis of behavior and thought. Originally from New York City, he received his PhD in Cognitive Psychology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and did postdoctoral training at UC San Diego. He previously served as Associate Professor of Psychology and Dean of the School of Psychology at Reichman University in Herzliya, Israel. Dr. Levy’s research is focused on processes and brain substrates of human memory and attention, and has involved neuropsychological, electrophysiological, and behavioral studies. He is also concerned with cognitive neuroscience insights for education and student well-being, brain modulation as adjuvant therapy in clinical psychology interventions, and cognitive amelioration of the challenges of healthy aging. He has authored/co-authored over 50 peer-reviewed articles and has been an invited speaker on memory and cognition in aging. Dr. Levy is also concerned with philosophical implications of neuroscience regarding topics such as free will, personal identity, and societal institutions.
Dr. Regina Moro - Associate Professor in Counseling
Regina Moro, PhD, is a Licensed Professional Counselor (Idaho), Licensed Clinical Addiction Specialist (North Carolina), and a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (Florida). She is also a National Certified Counselor and a Board Certified Tele-Mental Health Provider. Her clinical passion involves work with crisis and trauma, including a focus on addiction with individuals and families. She has served as Practicum and internship coordinator and has 10 years of experience as a counselor educator. Dr. Moro is an active member of the American Counseling Association, the Association of Counselor Education and Supervision, and the International Association of Addictions and Offender Counselors.
Dr. Tameeka Hunter - Assistant Professor in Counseling
Tameeka Hunter, PhD, LPC, NCC, CRC came to PAU from Florida International University, where she was a tenure-track professor of Counselor Education. Dr. Hunter's research focuses on the resilience of marginalized, and multiple marginalized populations, including people of color, sexual and gender-expansive individuals, women, and people living with disabilities and chronic illnesses. Her work examines the impact of resilience and strength-based approaches on the psychosocial, educational, and vocational functioning of marginalized populations.
Dr. Chi Li - Assistant Professor in Counseling
Chi Li, PhD, graduated with her Doctorate in Counseling from Old Dominion University in 2019. Prior to PAU she was a tenure-track Assistant Professor and doctoral co-coordinator of the Counselor Education and Supervision doctoral program at the University of Memphis. Dr. Li has approximately seven years of teaching experience in graduate-level counseling and undergraduate-level Human Services programs at two minority-serving institutions. Dr. Li is a National Certified Counselor, and her clinical experience is primarily within Integrated Behavioral Healthcare (IBH) settings.
Dr. Jorge Lopez - Assistant Professor in Counseling
Jorge Lopez, PhD, graduated from Idaho State University’s Counselor Education. Growing up in a predominately Latinx community he witnessed first-hand the need for accessible and culturally-sensitive helping services offered to marginalized groups. As a fluent Spanish speaker, he has rendered bilingual counseling/supervision services. As an NBCC 2022-23 Minority Doctoral Fellow his professional aspirations seek to continue expanding and advocating for the availability of resources to marginalized populations. He hopes to continue this work as an educator towards the support and development of social justice-oriented counselors and advocates.
Dr. Pei-Chun Tsai - Assistant Professor in Psychology
Pei-Chun Tsai, PhD, received her PhD in Counseling Psychology from Iowa State University and completed her Predoctoral Psychology Internship at Georgia Tech’s Counseling Center. Prior to joining PAU, she was an Associate Professor in the Counseling Psychology (PsyD) program in the Department of Psychology at Radford University. Dr. Tsai’s research interests are in the following three areas: (a) Coping with adversity from strength-based perspectives among the diverse population. She has conducted studies to examine culturally relevant coping resources (e.g., bi-cultural competence, cross-cultural advisory working alliance, collective self-esteem, social connectedness) as moderators for the associations between adversity (e.g., racial discrimination, gendered racial microaggressions, language discrimination, and acculturative stress) and mental health outcomes among Asian International students, Asian Americans, and Black and African Americans. (b) Coping with adversity from strength-based perspectives among the clinical population. She has examined the mechanism of coping resources (e.g., supervisory encouragement, supervisory working alliance, self-compassion) on the relationship between trainees’ experience of adversity (e.g., anxiety in clinical sessions, concerns about counseling clients of color) and training outcomes (e.g., counseling self-efficacy). (c) Interventions for promoting well-being: She has conducted studies to explore the effects of personality traits on the effectiveness of well-being interventions (e.g., Enduring Happiness and Continued Self-Enhancement Program).
Dr. Trevor Basil - Visiting Professor in Psychology
Dr. Trevor Basil received his PhD in Social/Personality Psychology with a focus on statistics, research methods, and psychometrics from the University of California, Riverside. Dr. Basil's research explores the facet structure of Conscientiousness and the prediction of self-select goals employing machine learning techniques. In addition, he pursues the identification of the most important dimensions of Culture. Dr. Basil is also a lecturer at San Jose State University.