Faculty Bios
Dr. Jane Graves Smith
Phone: 503.493.6537
Email: jsmith@cu-portland.edu
Office: George R. White Library & Learning Center 315C
Teaching Emphases: Marriage and Family, Parenting, Introductory Psychology, and Internship Supervision.
Dr. Jane Graves Smith presently serves as Professor of Psychology. Beginning in 1992, Jane served as a counselor in the CU Counseling Center then in 1996, with input from community professionals and academics, moved the current psychology major from vision to reality. She has been blessed to watch the program continue to grow in both academic rigor and a focus on service from its very conception.
In 2005, Jane completed her Ed.D. in Educational Leadership: Curriculum and Instruction at Portland State University. With a year spent at a Title I school in Vancouver, Washington collecting data, her dissertation was completed and titled Parental Involvement in a Low-Income School: A Case Study. Past research projects have included a survey of Work/Family Balance, a study of Teaching Techniques to Promote Student Advocacy for Children and Families, and a mixed methods exploration of the Experience of Midlife for Women. Jane's current research is titled: The Practices of Mindfulness and Yoga as Techniques for the Management of Stress in College Students.
Jane has been happily married to husband and Concordia University Vice Provost, Dr. Glenn Smith, for the past 31 years and together they have raised two children. Carlee, a married high school English teacher in Utah, and Dylan, who works for the Jessie F. Richardson Foundation facilitating college student service to elders in Nicaragua.
Dr. Erin Mueller
Phone: 503.493.6206
Email: emueller@cu-portland.edu
Office: George R. White Library & Learning Center 315A
Teaching Emphases: Lifespan Development, Research Methods, Global Psychology, History and Systems of Psychology, Senior Thesis Supervision, and Psi Chi Advisor.
Dr. Erin Mueller, Professor of Psychology, joined the faculty at Concordia University in 2007. She received her Ph.D. from Brigham Young University in 1997, and then she completed a clinical residency and research fellowship at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). Prior to coming to Concordia, she served as an Assistant Professor in the Child Development Rehabilitation Center at OHSU. She is a licensed psychologist in the State of Oregon, and she has worked in hospital and school settings, as well as in applied research.
Erin is a native Iowan, but has lived in the Portland area since 1996. Her husband, also a psychologist, pastors a local church, and they have two children. In addition to teaching, Erin's service passions are global justice issues, including poverty, hunger, and HIV/AIDS. As part of this ministry, she has traveled to Mhlosheni, Swaziland several times and leads related advocacy efforts at her church.
Dr. Kevin Simpson
Phone: 503.493.6535
Email: ksimpson@cu-portland.edu
Office: George R. White Library & Learning Center 315B
Teaching Emphases: Sport and Exercise Psychology, Human Sexuality, Introductory Psychology, Neuropsychology, courses in Social, Personality, and Abnormal Psychology, and Senior Thesis Supervision.
Dr. Kevin Simpson has served as Professor of Psychology in the Psychology Department since 2000. Prior to arriving in Portland, he taught in the wilds of rural Utah immediately after completing graduate school in counseling psychology at the University of Denver. His background and training in psychotherapy also required a full year clinical internship at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. He holds memberships in the American Psychological Association and Division 2 of the APA, the Teaching of Psychology.
In addition to his teaching duties in social and personality psychology, Dr. Simpson has served as a sport psychology consultant to the Concordia University men's soccer team.
His most recent publications have been in the areas of genius and creativity, the use of classic and modern propaganda in the teaching of social psychology, and the application of visualization and imagery principles in sport psychology to outdoor pursuits. His other professional interest areas include college student development, eating disordered behavior in sport, HIV/AIDS outreach, and international education. Dr. Simpson has also presented at international conferences for teachers of psychology, national conferences of the American Psychological Association, and various regional and local conferences in college student psychotherapy.
Recently, Dr. Simpson served as a guest faculty in a summer college preparatory program at Yale University where he taught a seminar entitled "Beautiful Minds": Psychology revealed through exceptional lives. This seminar has also been regularly presented at Concordia and offered as part of a faculty-in-residence experience in a study abroad program in London, England. But his true passions in life include his wife, Stefanie, and two children, Grace and Eli, and the ongoing successes of Manchester United football club.