Biographies of the Mental Health Professionals:
Dr. Jeff Prater, '76: Dr. Prater graduated with Honors in Psychology from Stanford and earned his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Fuller in 1981. He developed and directed several community mental health programs for Fuller’s Psychological Center early in his career, and taught graduate classes in clinical child psychology. Since then, he has been an entrepreneur and founded three private practices that continue to thrive: Integrated Learning Solutions, which provides psychoeducational evaluations and educational therapy for students; College Counseling Services, which provides college admissions guidance to high school students; and Psychology Resource Consultants, a group of seven psychologists who provide clinical and assessment services to children, adolescents, and their families.
Dr. Claudia Grauf-Grounds, '76: Dr. Grauf-Grounds is a Professor Emeritus of Marriage & Family Therapy at Seattle Pacific University and has worked for over three decades as a therapist, professor and supervisor. Her recent academic publications of A Practice Beyond Cultural Humility: How clinicians can work more effectively in a diverse world and her self-help book, We’ve Had This Fight Before: Why couples fight and what you can do about it, focus on overcoming conflict and building healthy relationships. She has her BA from Stanford, a master's degree in theology with a counseling emphasis from Fuller Seminary, and a PhD in Sociology and Family Therapy from USC.
Dr. Josephine McNary, '01, AM '01: Dr. McNary is a board-certified general psychiatrist who works with patients across five CalPsychiatry locations and at the UCLA Department of Psychiatry. She specializes in medication management and is particularly interested in the use of complementary medicine for mood and anxiety disorders. Dr. McNary has her BA and MA degrees from Stanford University and her MD from Tulane University.
Shannon Thomas: Ms. Thomas is a PsyD Doctoral Candidate at Fuller Graduate School of Psychology in Pasadena, CA. Her clinical focus is providing evidence-based psychological interventions via individual and group psychotherapy, particularly to people experiencing mood disorders and issues related to identity development. She has provided long-term therapy at two university counseling centers, neuropsychological assessment at the VA, and is currently completing her pre-doctoral internship at Huntington Hospital’s inpatient and outpatient psychiatric center. Shannon’s psychological research centers on cultivating effective, achievable solutions to crises facing minorities in America, particularly the LGBTQ+, clerical, and active duty/veteran populations.