Pfeiffer Faculty Taking the Lead- Susan Wilkie

SUSAN WILKIE

What makes you stay?

New Orleans will always be my home, but I just love the teaching environment at Pfeiffer. What keeps me here is both the student commitment and the faculty collaboration. I have taught at four universities and I have never worked with colleagues who are so professionally supportive and available to students.

What was your passion project when you first started the program?

Through the Pfeiffer Institute, we offer an advanced training clinic that is open to the community. Students provide all the counseling at very affordable prices and if someone cannot pay, through our mission of servant leadership, we offer a sliding scale. All the supervisors are AAMFT approved and they are always on hand to observe and assist student therapists.

It is an outstanding clinic and very, very busy.

Tell me about your students.

Our students have this tremendous spirit and respect for the field. The program has an extremely diverse population – all ages from 23 to 62 and every ethnicity I could dream of. We have built a really, really close community.

Aside from the counseling center, how do students get involved?

They are active in the Delta Kappa honor society and are always volunteering with community projects.

They also participate in retreats, conferences and college fairs – last February we traveled with 27 students to the North Carolina Association for Marriage and Family Therapy conference and a year ago in September, we accompanied 20 students to the national American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy conference in Atlanta. Our students are the most enthusiastic group I have come across – they are amazing.

SUSAN WILKIE Director of Marriage and Family Therapy, Professor, LMFT, LPC, and AAMFT & LPC Approved Supervisor B.S., University of Maryland M.A., University of Alabama at Birmingham M.Ed., University of New Orleans Ph.D., University of New Orleans

I’ve taught at four universities and I’ve never worked with colleagues who are so professionally supportive and available to students.

— Susan

MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THERAPY

What brought you to Pfeiffer?

Hurricane Katrina. After the storm, I was working at UNCC temporarily until I could return to work at the University of New Orleans. Then Pfeiffer called and asked me to write and develop a marriage and family therapy program.