Health and Wellness Staff

Mary earned her Ph.D. (2001) in Counseling Psychology from Indiana State University and her M.S. (1995) in Counseling Psychology from the University of Kentucky. She completed her doctoral internship at the Illinois State University Student Counseling Services and her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan Counseling and Psychological Services. Prior to her graduate work, Mary received a B.S. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she majored in Psychology and Anthropology. Her clinical experiences include primarily university and college counseling center work where she has had the opportunity to fulfill a variety roles such as counselor, supervisor/trainer, mentor, advocate, consultant, and administrator. Mary approaches her clinical work with a focus on understanding a client’s social, cultural, and biological factors to allow for a supportive, validating, and empowering space for clients to examine who they are and who they want to become. In her supervisory relationships, Mary places a high value on the supervisory relationship in order to provide an authentic space for growth and development through establishing trust and safety in the journey of becoming a positive change agent in our ever changing world.

Ed earned his Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology (2012) from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology.  He completed his pre-doctoral internship at Butler University and his postdoctoral fellowship at Northeastern Illinois University.  Prior to his graduate studies, Ed received a BA from Illinois Wesleyan University.  Ed has trained and worked in a variety of different clinical settings in his career, including a private practice, a community mental health center, and several college counseling centers.  He also spent several years working on a psychiatric hospital unit for children, adolescents, and young adults.  In these settings, he worked with a diverse range of people with an equally diverse range of reasons for seeking counseling.  Ed approaches counseling primarily from a humanistic, person-centered perspective, but also integrates components of existential and psychodynamic theories into his work with clients.  As a part of this approach, Ed is sensitive to each person’s unique blend of multiple social identities, including race, ethnic background, gender, sexual identity, ability, SES, and religious background, and how these various identities contribute to an individual’s overall sense of self.  Ed’s areas of interest and specialty are depression, loss and mourning, identity development, trauma, crisis, and interpersonal relationships.  In addition to his clinical work, Ed is also highly committed to supervision and training of future members of the helping fields.  His approach to training is developmental and informed by his humanistic perspective.  Accordingly, Ed believes that the training relationship is paramount and must be characterized by trust and collaboration, which allows trainees to feel both supported and challenged to pursue the goals they set for themselves.

Kasey earned her M.S. (2011) and Ph.D. (2013) in Counseling Psychology from Colorado State University. She completed her doctoral internship at the Colorado State University Health Network and her postdoctoral fellowship at Roosevelt University’s Counseling Center. Prior to her graduate work, Kasey received a B.A. from Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, where she majored in Psychology and received minors in Spanish and Mathematics.  Beyond her work in multiple college counseling centers, Kasey also has previous clinical experience in private practice and outpatient mental health clinic settings. She enjoys engaging in the wide variety of responsibilities and relationships that come with working in the college setting, including providing counseling services, supervision/training, outreach, and consultation to the campus community. In addition to enjoying working with individuals, Kasey has a passion for both group and couples counseling. Some of her other clinical interests include life transition and adjustment, relational struggles, identity development, self-esteem, gender concerns, autism spectrum disorders, stress management, and alcohol and other drug use concerns. Her approach to counseling stems from client-centered and interpersonal process theories. She believes that clients can begin to make the changes they want in their lives through building a supportive relationship with a therapist who is genuine, authentic, and empathic. When a therapist creates a space in which clients feel safe enough to sit with uncomfortable emotions, clients are able to begin to be more authentic and congruent themselves. Kasey takes a developmental approach to supervision and training, which is influenced by her client-centered and interpersonal style. She believes that the foundation of the supervisory relationship creates the opportunity for growth and further development as a psychologist in training. Most importantly, she strives to be her authentic self and create a space in which trainees can be their authentic selves, developing their own voices and identifying who they are and want to be as a psychologist.

Christa is a full practice authority family practice nurse practitioner. She received her BSN from University of Alabama in Huntsville, then her MSN for FNP from Loyola University in Chicago. She also obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Medicine in China prior to coming to the U.S. She has been a nurse for almost 20 years and has over 10 years of experience as a nurse practitioner. She has worked in acute care, immediate care and primary care settings. She used to work at Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital as a registered nurse for many years before becoming a nurse practitioner. Christa enjoys patient care, health promotion, disease prevention and patient education. She is experienced in diagnosing and managing a wide range of acute and chronic illnesses and minor injuries. She is devoted to inspiring students in making wise health and lifestyle choices.

Christa lives in the suburbs with family. In her free time, she enjoys gardening, crafting and authentic Chinese food cooking.

Services offered in the Health Center include physical examinations, illness evaluation and management, minor injury evaluation and management, sexual health (birth control, STI education/testing/treatment), prescription management, wellness and nutrition counseling, some on-site testing as well as other blood draws and laboratory services. Services that are not performed on-site will be referred and billed to a student’s individual health insurance plan (such as x-rays, laboratory testing, and physician specialist appointments). 

Josie Stams received her Bachelor’s degree in Biology and Spanish from St. Olaf College. She went on to receive her Master’s Degree in Nursing from Elmhurst College. She had worked as a nursing assistant on the brain injury unit of a rehabiliation hospital and on the oncology unit of an acute care hospital. Prior to working at Lake Forest College, she worked both as a pediatric intensive care nurse at the Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago and an adult intensive care unit nurse at Advocate Condell Medical Center.