How USC Rossier’s EdD in Mental Health Leadership is helping one therapist expand her circle of care

“Given the state of the world, I felt the calling to do more,” says Selina Galvan MFT ’20, an alumna of USC Rossier’s Master of Science in Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) program. “When I learned that USC Rossier was launching a Doctor of Education in Mental Health Leadership degree, I knew this was what I’ve been looking for.” Last fall, Galvan was accepted into the program’s inaugural cohort.

The Doctor of Education in Mental Health Leadership online program (MHL online) offers students the skills to take the lead in educational and mental health fields and address systemic inequities within their disciplines. Like Galvan, many students in the program had reached impasses in their careers. “Most, if not all, of us are licensed, but we didn’t have the doctorates needed to be directors, educators or organizational leaders,” she says. 

The first degree of its kind, the MHL online program offered a solution. “Capable clinicians often have difficulties when promoted to leadership positions,” notes Professor of Clinical Education Ruth Chung, who helped create the new program. “This degree is for working professionals in mental health, human services or related fields who aspire to be leaders.” 

Galvan, a licensed therapist, is one of those professionals. The three-year EdD program accommodates students, like Galvan, who don’t want to be relicensed at the doctoral level, which can take seven or eight years. With its evening classes, the MHL online program fits her clinical schedule. 

In 2023, she founded Prime Child and Family Therapy, a private practice that focuses on adolescents, teens and families. The word “Prime” honors her father’s business of the same name. It also reflects her values. “The ‘prime self’ is the best version of yourself, the self you love, accept and believe in,” she says. “‘Prime therapy’ recognizes that no one person is the same as another. I am committed to providing the best individualized therapy to each client.”

Before her studies at USC, Galvan received her bachelor of arts in special and elementary education from Arizona State University and worked for three years as a clinical counselor in a middle school. Now, she is committed to training other therapists. “I’m passionate about helping new therapists grow,” she says. “The program will help me achieve goals like hiring and supervising associates, creating a training pathway within my practice and teaching in a university.” 

The MHL online curriculum made an immediate impact. In the first semester, Galvan took the course “Organizational Leadership: Theory and Practice,” taught by Michelle Dexter, a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. “She changed my perspective on leadership by emphasizing a healthy balance of courage and vulnerability,” Galvan says of Dexter, whom she calls an “amazing leader.”

Galvan had always planned to expand her practice and hire additional staff. Inspired by one of her courses, “Theory and Practice in Clinical-Administrative Supervision,” taught by Vice Provost for Campus Wellbeing and Education Ilene Rosenstein, she hired her first associate earlier this year. 

After receiving her master’s degree, Galvan worked for the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, where she encountered therapists with overwhelming caseloads. Her doctoral dissertation will introduce strategies to prevent burnout, focusing on trainees and newer professionals. “They come into the profession so happy,” she says, “but they burn out so quickly. I want to help maintain the optimism that brought them into this field.”

As a graduate, Galvan has remained involved with the MFT program, assisting with admissions interviews and alumni panels. Today, she is an ambassador for the MHL online program and a cohort representative liaising with students, faculty and staff. 

“I’ve been so blessed with mentors,” Galvan recalls. “Sandra Smith in the MFT program was an inspiration. Her belief in me made all the difference. Our world’s hurting. We need healing. I want to create good, competent therapists to help our population. I want to share my skills with others.”