C.W. Post Student Lauded by Two Metro Area Institutions for
Service to the Community

Psychology doctoral student Emily Engel of Plainview, N.Y. cited for Community Trauma
Response Team, which counsels victims and responders, by Long Island Business News and
Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum

Brookville, N.Y. – When a community was battered by poverty and violent crime, graduate psychology students at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University served food at a local soup kitchen while lending an ear and making referrals for counseling and assistance. When families of 9/11 victims gathered on an FDNY fire boat on the eve of the anniversary of the attacks, the students were there, helping them deal with their losses. Now, the same students are preparing to offer support to people left unemployed by the recession.

The students are members of the C.W. Post Community Trauma Response Team. Now one of the team’s most active members, Emily Engel of Plainview, N.Y., has been named a Health Care Hero by the Long Island Business News and a Hometown Hero by the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum for her efforts.

“I'm honored to receive these two awards because I am passionate about working with individuals who have experienced trauma,” said Engel, a student in C.W. Post’s psychology doctoral program. “I enjoyed playing such an active role in establishing the Trauma Team, joining with the American Red Cross of Greater New York, and serving as a therapist of various traumatized clients.”

The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum bestowed the Hometown Hero Award in the Community Service category. Long Island Business News named Engel a Health Care Hero in the Community Outreach category.

The trauma team was founded by Thomas Demaria, Ph.D., director of the Psychological Services Center, the public mental health clinic staffed by C.W. Post psychology doctoral students.

“Emily has shown a strong commitment to helping her fellow students become involved in trauma counseling,” Demaria said in nominating Engel for the Hometown Hero Award. “She has responded to community tragedies involving the deaths of children and families. She was instrumental in the process by which her fellow graduate students were provided the opportunity to become volunteer American Red Cross Disaster Mental Health responders, which involved a commitment by the students to a two-day intensive Red Cross training. Other evidence of Emily’s dedication includes her volunteer clinical work with families of 9/11 first responders at the C.W. Post Psychological Services Center and with veterans and their families and crime victims through North Shore University Hospital.”

The work of the trauma team is both personally fulfilling and good professional development, Engel said.

“Dr. Demaria's mentorship helped me affirm that I will continue to pursue this important clinical work throughout my career as a psychologist,” she said.

Demaria formed the Community Trauma Response Team during the fall 2008 semester with the support of Dr. Eva Feindler, director of the clinical psychology doctoral program at C.W. Post.

The clinical psychology doctoral program leads to the Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.) degree. The program is committed to training students who will provide services in public-sector settings to traditionally underserved groups. While its mission is to broadly train clinical psychologists, the program also seeks to provide each student with special competencies in one of three areas: family violence, developmental disabilities, or serious and persistent mental illness. The program also provides its graduates with clinical and theoretical training in two major orientations – psychoanalytic and cognitive-behavioral.

For more information on the clinical psychology doctoral program at C.W. Post, call (516) 299-2090 or visit www.liu.edu/cwpost/psyd.

Posted: November 2, 2009