Faculty and Staff Spotlight

Rachel Baumsteiger grew up in a beach- and sports-loving family in Tampa Bay, Florida. She discovered psychology in high school and has never stopped wanting to learn about it. She earned a BA from the University of South Florida and an MA and PhD from Claremont Graduate University (about 15 minutes east of CPP) with a concentration in positive developmental psychology. She then worked as a Postdoctoral Associate and then Associate Research Scientist at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. After working at Cal Poly Pomona for several years as a lecturer, she is thrilled to now be joining the department full-time. Her research expertise is in prosocial development and well-being, especially among adolescents and young adults. In her free time, she enjoys group fitness, cooking, reading, hiking, watching TV/movies, kayaking, watching and playing sports, going to concerts, and traveling.

Dr. Tierra T. Ellis is an exceedingly proud first generation college student and servant leader. She received her doctorate degree in school psychology from Howard University, with an emphasis in forensic psychology. She completed her APA-Accredited internship at the Illinois School Psychology Internship Consortium (ISPIC) where she specialized in trauma at Egyptian Public and Mental Health Department (EHD), which was a dual clinical and school psychology focused site. She completed an APA-Accredited Child Clinical Psychology Postdoctoral Fellowship at Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) where she specialized in Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine in 2018-2020. She is currently the CEO of Ellis Psychological Services and co-owner of Authentically Black Services LLC. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Psyches of Color, Inc., a progressive non profit organization that uses strengths-based and culturally relevant approaches to provide mental health support to decrease the stigma of mental health and promote radical healing to at-promise Black and Latinx adolescents and young adults. Dr. Tierra is a recent graduate of the Youth Justice Leadership Institute (YJLI) Fellowship within the National Juvenile Justice Network (NJJN). She is a Licensed Psychologist, Nationally Certified School Psychologist (NCSP), and a member of Psychologists for Social Responsibility (Psy-SR) where she serves on the Abolition Working Group team. Her scholarship includes innovative strengths-based and culturally relevant approaches for Black and Latinx adolescents and young adults, dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline, destigmatizing mental health in Black and Latinx communities, and the representation of Black students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). Dr. Tierra conducts Hip Hop and Healing workshops as she is super passionate about creating and integrating culturally relevant approaches such as Hip-Hop culture and psychotherapeutic treatments for which she is committed to expanding in the mental health field. 

M. Brigitt Lamothe-François, Ph.D. (she/her) was born and raised in Port-au-Prince, Haiti until she immigrated to the US at the age of 11. She obtained her B.S. in Psychology at Cal State University, Northridge and later obtained her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology at Texas A&M University in 2008. She performed her predoctoral internship at the APA accredited site, Texas Woman’s University Counseling Center. Post Internship, she transitioned to a full-time position as the Cultural Diversity Liaison at TWU Counseling Center. In addition to her work at University Counseling Centers, she has worked at Community Medical Clinics, where she worked developing mental health programs for underrepresented BIPOC members of the community. Fundamental to her career is her continued efforts as a psychotherapist, clinical trainer, and consultant. In terms of research, she is interested in intergroup relations; diversity issues; Relational Trauma and Clinical Supervision. She currently balances her time between teaching, supervision and private practice. In her free time, she enjoys cooking traditional Haitian food and exploring fusion dishes, being a soccer mom and watching international films and dramas.

Soeun Park, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) was born and raised in South Korea but traveled far and wide. She obtained her B.A. degree in Education and her M.A. degree in Counseling from Seoul National University. She worked at counseling agencies and corporates, including Korea Youth Counseling & Welfare Institute and Samsung Electronics. Coming to the US, she received clinical training in a variety of settings, including the University of Iowa Counseling Service and Grinnell College Student Health and Wellness, as a Ph.D. student in the University of Iowa Counseling Psychology program. During this time, she obtained her M.A. degree in Educational Measurement and Statistics. She completed her doctoral internship and post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania Counseling and Psychological Services. Before coming to Cal Poly Pomona, she was an assistant professor at California State University, Bakersfield, and taught various courses, including multicultural psychology, couples and sexuality, children and adolescent counseling, and career counseling. She is a licensed psychologist in California. Dr. Park’s lab’s title is Socio-Ecological Intersectional Framework (SEIF) in Psychology. She attends to identities and systems that influence individuals’ mental health and well-being over time and across settings. Lived experiences and professional training in South Korea and the U.S. helped her understand that “identities intersect” and “contexts matter”. Her current research projects include cross-racial solidarity, socio-political, vocational, identity development of immigrant youth and adults, the intersection of gender, race, and class, and multilingual therapy practice and training. Clinical interests, such as childhood trauma, eating concerns, BIPOC mental health, and the well-being of therapists-in-training, also guide her research. Besides being a teacher, researcher, and therapist, she enjoys feeling the breeze of California, glazing at the stars in the sky, smelling the woods, listening to her favorite playlists (with a little body moves!), and tasting ever-missed Korean dishes.