C+V Community Talk: Coming Back Together: A Celebration of our DU Community
If we learned one thing over the past year and a half, we learned that the DU community is an amazing group of resilient, compassionate people. After what everyone has gone through, and is still experiencing right now, we want to take a moment to be together in community as we kick off our first C+V Community Talk of the new academic year. We want to celebrate together, recognize those who we have lost, talk about lessons learned, and think through as a community about how we navigate the highs and lows of it all together, as DU.
Featuring DU community panelists:
Mason Estes
USG Vice President; Daniels College of Business student
Mason Estes is a La Jolla Band- Luiseno (Indigenous tribe from Southern California) from Broomfield, Colorado. Mason is a 4th year marketing student in the Daniels College of Business and is serving as the 2021-2022 Undergraduate Student Body Vice President. Mason is the son of two teachers and looking to pursue a future in community organizing and continuing the struggle for Indigenous civil rights in the 21st century.
Shelly Smith
Dean, GSPP; Director of Strategic Health Initiatives
Shelly Smith-Acuña, Ph.D., is the Dean of the Graduate School of Professional Psychology (GSPP) DU, where she has served in this position since 2012 and filled several roles over the last 29 years. At DU she holds leadership positions on the University’s Women’s Leadership Council, the Chancellor’s Diversity Advisory Council, the Community and Values Initiative, and the Health Initiative.
Dean Smith-Acuña’s leadership focuses on addressing pressing psychological issues by expanding the accessibility and relevance of GSPP’s education and training programs, as well as affordable community-based services. Her areas of research and teaching include couple and family therapy, with a particular emphasis on gender, culture, and multigenerational issues. Her scholarship focuses on the application of psychological systems theory to improve the human condition, as seen in her book, Systems Theory in Action.
Sarah Watamura
Professor, CAHSS; COVID Response Coord; Chair, Psychology
Sarah Watamura is Professor of Psychology Department within the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. She is part of the Developmental and Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Areas within the Psychology department. She joined the department in 2005 after receiving her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Cornell University. In 2014, she was instrumental in creating the Stress, Early Experiences and Development (SEED) Research Center and has served as co-Director since its creation. She is currently Chair of the Department of Psychology.