USC Rossier School of Education announced that Rudy Roman has joined as an assistant professor of education. Roman will continue teaching in the Master of Science in Marriage and Family Therapy program, where he was previously an adjunct assistant professor and selected as the 2022 Marriage and Family Therapy Outstanding Faculty of the Year.
“I am extremely honored to be a part of the Rossier family,” Roman said. “To play a small role in developing the clinical minds of tomorrow while also focusing on the mental health needs of our underserved communities is something I am very passionate about. I look forward to our continued growth as a program and school as we continue to set the foundation for the next generation of leaders in mental health.”
Previous to his new role, Roman was a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and the behavioral sciences with Keck School of Medicine of USC and worked in the behavioral health field for over 15 years in various positions.
His areas of research include countertransference; cultural and educational expectations of first-generation Latinx students; diversity, multiculturalism and social justice; psychotic disorders; and substance abuse disorders. He earned his BA in psychology from California State University, Long Beach; his MA in counseling psychology from Argosy University; and his PhD in clinical psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. His book, Towards a Transtheoretical Definition of Countertransference: Re-visioning the Intersubjective Experience, was published in 2022 by Routledge.
Roman is active in his support of underserved communities, and currently volunteers with USC’s Pipelines Program, providing mental health workshops to monolingual Spanish-speaking families and is faculty advisor for USC Rossier’s Latinx Affinity Group. In addition, he is currently working with USC’s Pipelines Program in hopes of developing a relationship with the Latinx Affinity Group to expand the delivery of workshops to a larger number of Latinx families. In his prior role with the school’s Counseling and Mental Health Department, he was a member of USC’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee. He was also an embedded counselor at USC’s La CASA (Latinx Chicanx Center for Advocacy and Student Affairs), which provides mental health services specific to the needs of Latinx and Chicanx students. Roman remains involved with La CASA and will continue to provide workshops within that setting.
“We are delighted to have Rudy Roman join us as an assistant professor. As one of our Outstanding Faculty of the Year recipients, it’s clear that his approach to teaching is not only effective but has deeply enriched the USC Rossier student experience,” said USC Rossier Dean Pedro Noguera. “His research on the relationship between clinicians and their patients is reshaping the way mental health practitioners approach their work. We’re honored to have Rudy continue teaching at USC Rossier in this new role.”
