Meet Our Ph.D. Students
Learn about the students in Point Park University's Ph.D. in critical psychology program below.
Nicholle O'Leary
Prior Education: M.A. in Community Counseling, Indiana University of Pennsylvania; Licensed Professional Counselor, IUP
Clinical and Research Interests: Critical psychology/issues with Black women’s maternal health and treatment, social injustice.
Career Goals: Upon obtaining my Ph.D., I hope to work in academia as a professor, continue with some private practice work, pursue advocacy on issues of social injustice and conduct further research.
Dillon Shash
Prior Education: B.S. in Psychology with a minor in biology, PennWest California
Clinical and Research Interests: Psychology of men and boys, authoritarianism and fascism, reconceptualizing psychology and mental health treatment and community participatory action research.
Career Goals: Director/administrative role at a radical mental health nonprofit organization, academia/community researcher.
Josie Valeri
Prior Education: B.A. in Psychology, Point Park University
Clinical and Research Interests: Critical theory, humanistic and phenomenological counter-narratives, enhancing sports performance, critiquing somatic psychology, the phenomenon of intuitive eating and feminism.
Career Goals: Professor, continuing to coach with the Riverhounds.
Hannah L. Felix
Prior Education: B.A. in Psychology with a minor in Behavioral Sciences, Point Park University
Clinical and Research Interests: Religious/spiritual abuse and the personal/social impact of religion, cults, extreme belief systems and coercive control; feminist and queer theory, equality and advocacy; anti-oppressive and radical mental health approaches; disordered eating and body dysmorphia; social pressures, social media and the effects of impossible/unsustainable standards on culture, mental health and society on a global scale; victims of stalking and the dangerous lack of laws and support in place to protect them.
Career Goals: My ultimate goal is to work in a capacity that allows me to advocate for others in a way that is meaningful. I hope to help shed light on how othering, dehumanizing, scapegoating and violence only work to tear down individuals, families, communities and ultimately society as a whole.
Kevin Gallagher
Prior Education: M.A. in Clinical-Community Psychology, Point Park University; MBA in Health Systems Administration, Point Park University
Clinical and Research Interests: Deconstruction of traditional addiction/psychodiagnostics theory via critical theories and intersectional discourses on gender, sexuality, race, colonization and class; critical analyses of addiction treatment and drug policy; radical and neo-Marxist political movements; continental philosophy and heterodox economic theory.
Career Goals: Academia (teaching, research), writing and creating non-academic psychological/philosophical content
Samuel Merhaut
Prior Education: B.A. in Psychology, Point Park University
Clinical and Research Interests: Post-structuralism, psychoanalytic theory, societies of control, disciplinary power and qualitative research methods.
Career Goals: Community researcher and educator
Learn more
For additional information about our program, contact Thomas Higgins, assistant director of graduate admission at thiggins@pointpark.edu or 412-392-3812.