Chaminade University of Honolulu

Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology

Finding Balance: A Future Psychologist’s Journey

Ryan Panzarella, PsyD ’26 credits his formative years for giving him an empathetic ear.

He grew up abroad, attending American schools in Europe and the United Arab Emirates, and believes his global experience and perspective have served him well as he prepares for a future in psychology. “I have always believed that our differences are our strengths,” he says.

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Panzarella is pursuing a Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology at Chaminade. The APA-accredited program is designed to prepare students for psychology practice, and stresses immersive learning and clinical experience. Panzarella has thrived under that model, tackling a number of hands-on internships at facilities in Hawaiʻi and Colorado.

Panzarella’s academic journey has been a circuitous one.

It started when he entered boot camp at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y.

After two years, Panzarella realized military life wasn’t his life’s path. So after a gap year, he enrolled at Berklee College in Boston, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in music therapy and started pursuing a future in counseling and psychology. “The environment at Berklee better suited me since I was surrounded by students from different cultures,” Panzarella said.

As a music therapy major, Panzarella learned to connect, inspire and heal others through music.

Ryan Panzarella believes in open spaces to allow for dialogue.
Ryan Panzarella, PsyD ’26 says he found his passion in counseling psychology.

“Music strikes an emotional chord among people,” Panzarella said.

Panzarella’s first job after graduation wasn’t in music therapy, however. Instead, he moved back to the UAE, where he took a position as a project and general manager. He then returned to Seattle to land for a job with Comcast Business. He thought he was ready to settle down. He wasn’t.

Feeling unfulfilled, he quit his well-paying job, and decided to become a professional caretaker at an adult foster care home.

“I found the work rewarding.”

With the support of his parents, Roy and Jody Panzarella, he was able to enroll in the Clinical Psychology doctoral degree program at Chaminade. The PsyD program aims to educate and train students, employing a practitioner-scholar model so graduates succeed in the profession.

Panzarella’s dissertation is titled, “Narratives of Solitude and Belonging in the Age of Information,” and explores how the more connected we are online, the more isolated we become. “It’s a paradox,” he explained. “How do we as psychologists address that gap?”

Panzarella said Associate Professor Joy Tanji, Ph.D. has been a key mentor for his dissertation research. Tanji, meanwhile, praised Panzarella for making key connections through his research.

As he continues work on his degree, Panzarella has made what he hopes is a temporary move to Denver for a one-year internship at the Colorado Mental Health Institute. His goal is to return to the islands and open his own practice.

“I want to give back to the community, which has been instilled in me since I was young, even more so now that I have been at Chaminade,” he said.

PsyD Program

A counselor’s impact inspires Ji Su Park to pursue a doctorate

Since entering Chaminade’s Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology (PsyD) program in 2021, Ji Su Park’s hair has grayed, her blood pressure has ticked up and her daily breakfast now consists of a serving of natto, the traditional Japanese food that is believed to have cardiovascular and cholesterol benefits because of its composition of whole soybeans fermented with Bacillus subtilis, a potent blood-clot dissolving protein.

“My husband is very supportive, but he is concerned about my health and level of stress,” says Park, who hopes to earn her PsyD degree by 2026. “Yet, he has never told me that I can’t do this.”

For the 31-year-old Australian-raised Korean native, there’s nothing that she can’t do. However, Park’s education journey has been a bumpy one. When her parents decided to move back to Korea when she was a teenager, Park lost all her friends—never easy as a high schooler—and was unaccustomed to the Korean education system. She could converse OK in Korean but the curriculum was foreign and difficult.

“I did really poorly,” Park says. “I knew after high school, I needed to move, and I decided on Hawaii because of its multicultural population.”

Dr. Sean Scanlan, director of Chaminade’s Psy.D. program, explains a concept to one of his students.
Dr. Sean Scanlan, director of Chaminade’s Psy.D. program, explains a concept to one of his students.

She first enrolled in an Associate’s program at Kapiolani Community College (KCC) then later transferred to the University of Hawaii–Manoa, where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Marketing. She would return to KCC, landing an administrative job in the Counseling Office with LaVache Scanlan. The experience marked an inflection point for Park who witnessed the transformative difference a counselor can make in a college student’s life.

“The counselors were so impactful,” Park says. “I wanted to be able to do that, and to have that much positive influence over a student’s academic experience.”

Ultimately, she was faced with a decision: apply to Hawaii Pacific University’s or Chaminade’s Master of Science in Counseling Psychology? Park chose the latter, citing the University’s close-knit campus feel that she sensed while visiting Kalaepohaku. She especially appreciated the school’s service orientation toward the community, the core values foundation that are inherent in a Marianist education and the sensitivity toward Native Hawaiian and Pacific Island cultures.

Transitioning, though, from an undergraduate education to a graduate level has its challenges, namely the required discipline and time. Park possesses the discipline, but time is more difficult since she was juggling, at that time, three part-time jobs. She also sought more hands-on experience to put her knowledge in practice. After completing her master’s, Park decided to slow down. Well, kind of.

“Now I just have two part-time jobs,” says Park with a wry smile. “I never feel like I don’t have down time. I’ve never felt that my life wasn’t balanced. I still feel I have a lot of a social life.”

Formerly hosted by Argosy University, which abruptly closed its doors and permanently suspended classes and programs in March 2019, Chaminade and the Hawaii School of Professional Psychology decided to collaborate in an effort to salvage Argosy’s PsyD program. One of only two programs of its kind in Hawaii, the PsyD is a five-year track that culminates in a professional doctorate in psychology degree preparing graduates for practice in psychotherapy and psychological testing.

“We’ve graduate 80 students in the PsyD program since we started,” says, Sean Scanlan, Ph.D., Director of the Hawaiʻi School of Professional Psychology at Chaminade University of Honolulu and Associate Professor. “A little over half are working in Hawaii, working in a variety of settings from community health centers, health and education agencies and institutions to forensic settings and private practice.”

Now in its fifth year, Chaminade’s program is the only American Psychological Association-accredited PsyD Program in Hawaii. Designed to prepare students for both contemporary and emerging roles in the practice of professional psychology, the program offers a five-year generalist program that supports the development of core competencies in psychological assessment, intervention, science, practice, foundations, and professional issues and roles. Training is provided so that students have the opportunity to be practitioner-scholars who are skilled in local and contextual investigation and problem solving.

“Ji Su is special because she is already licensed and working in the mental health field,” Scanlan says. “All her practicum reports have been excellent, indicating that she’s performing excellent clinical skills (i.e. clinical psychological assessments and clinical psychotherapy) in the field.”

Park is grateful for the unwavering support she receives both within and beyond the classroom.

“I do interact with faculty in the PsyD program in terms of receiving academic support, assistance in professional development and growth, and gaining knowledge and insight through their experiences and supervisions,” Park says. “Outside of our program, I receive a lot of support from offices like Financial Aid and the Counseling Center, where they are responsive to my needs to ensure my academic journey is supported by meeting other needs outside of the classroom. It’s a truly supportive community.”

PsyD Candidate Realizes Her Dream

Getting through a Transportation Security Agency (TSA) check point is no laughing matter. Nor should it be a crying one, unless you just learned that you’ve just been accepted to your dream university. After flying to Hawaii to visit Chaminade University, Jodie Gerson ’23 was en route home to Las Vegas when she was notified that she was accepted into the Doctor of Psychology Program in Clinical Psychology at Chaminade’s Hawai‘i School of Professional Psychology.

“I got up to the TSA agent and he asked if I was OK,” Gerson laughed. “I told him I was crying out of joy because I just received a call about my acceptance into Chaminade.”

Gerson, who had already held a master’s in Clinical Psychology and another master’s of science in Marriage, Family and Child Therapy, was already an accomplished professional, holding such management roles as Clinical Program Manager with the Nevada Youth Parole Bureau, Director at WestCare, Nevada, and Director of Performance Improvement and Risk Management with Spring Mountain Treatment Center and Spring Mountain Sahara Hospital.

“My wife, Chris, told me that I had met all my goals, except one, which was to apply to doctoral programs,” said Gerson, who is completing her internship with the Superior Court of the District of Columbia this July. “I had several offers across the board, but Chaminade really appealed to me so I flew out to visit.”

Chaminade President Dr. Lynn Babington and Dr. Sean Scanlan present Jodie Gerson with her PsyD degree.

Once on campus, Gerson said the setting was perfect, and she knew immediately that Chaminade was the right fit. Not only did it offer a doctoral program that she liked, but the university checked off another one of her boxes: cultural diversity.

“Oh my gosh, I thought to myself,” Gerson recalled. “This is THE one. After I did my interview, I took a tour of the campus, and it just felt right. I had to get in.”

Her interview was on a Tuesday and by Friday she received the call from the admissions team. Informed of her next steps in order to reserve her spot, Gerson immediately called Chris, and asked if she could send a deposit since she would be in the air.

“I didn’t even have a chance to tell Chris that I was accepted, and now I was asking her to send money to Chaminade,” Gerson smiled. “Even though they gave me a few extra days to complete the necessary steps, I didn’t want to take a chance of losing my spot. There was no way I was letting this opportunity slip by.”

A Certified Expert Trauma Professional who has worked in the field for more than 25 years, Gerson said she was still challenged by the doctoral program, which helped her gain a deeper analysis and understanding of clinical psychology. She also formed strong bonds with her fellow doctoral candidates.

“She has an incredible resume, and has been on multiple boards, including HPA (Hawai‘i Psychological Association) and APA (American Psychological Association),” said Dr. Sean Scanlan, Clinical Psychology Director with the School of Education and Behavioral Sciences. “Her work experience, with adults, adolescents and children, includes assistance and intervention with the homeless, individuals with mental illness, minors in foster care, forensics, youth parole and persons with HIV/AIDS.”

When Gerson returns from Washington, D.C. in July, she will begin a new job with the Department of Health Family Court Liaison Branch at the Hawai‘i Youth Correctional Facility and Detention Home, where she will advocate for teens, and assess risk, needs and protective factors in our youth populations.

She will also continue her studies, seeking to attain her Board certification by taking the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards’ Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP), a rigorous process that could take as long as her PsyD program.

“Service to the community is one of the values that Chaminade upholds, and it’s one that I strongly believe in as well,” Gerson said “It has been a great experience, and I have no regrets.”

Chaminade University Receives Maximum 10-Year Accreditation from APA for its Doctor of Psychology Program

Following a rigorous, months-long review, the Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) in Clinical Psychology degree program at the Hawaii School of Professional Psychology at Chaminade University of Honolulu has received full accreditation from the American Psychological Association (APA) for ten years.

APA accreditation signifies Chaminade’s PsyD program meets the highest standards in psychology education, preparing students to successfully and ethically deliver psychological services to the community.

“APA’s 10-year accreditation is an affirmation of the quality, rigor, and academic support that we provide our students through Chaminade’s PsyD program, giving them the tools and resources that they will need to serve the mental and behavioral health needs of our communities,” said Chaminade President Lynn Babington.

“Chaminade University is proud to offer the only APA-accredited PsyD program in the state, and is committed to partnering with our graduates as they expand access to evidence-based, culturally attuned psychological care. Like our community partners, we know that mental health is critical to overall health.”

Babington added that the COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the critical need for quality psychological services in Hawaii, especially in rural and under-resourced populations. “The PsyD program is built on Chaminade’s Marianist tradition of public service, and is part of a suite of academic offerings in mental health at Chaminade geared toward helping communities thrive,” Babington said.

As part of APA accreditation, Chaminade’s PsyD program faculty members and administrators underwent an extensive self-study process, highlighting areas of excellence and opportunities for further growth and innovation. An accreditation team of professionals from across the US also conducted a thorough program review to ensure the University’s PsyD program meets rigorous standards.

There are currently less than 70 PsyD programs in the US with full APA accreditation.

Chaminade’s PsyD stresses experiential learning and cutting-edge, community-focused practical application. Students complete a five-year course of study in preparation for licensed clinical practice, with a curriculum that integrates hands-on application with theory and research. Students are also mentored to serve as practitioner-scholars and leaders who seek to drive positive change.

Before graduation, students also complete at least 1500 hours of clinical practicum and  2,000 hours of  clinical internship held  in a variety of settings, including community mental health centers, nonprofits, hospitals, and psychiatric facilities.

In addition to APA accreditation, the PsyD program is accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission. Additional information on the program is available at chaminade.edu/psyd.

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Chaminade University of Honolulu provides a collaborative and innovative learning environment that prepares graduate and undergraduate students for life, service and successful careers. Established in 1955, the university is guided by its Catholic, Marianist and liberal arts educational traditions, which include a commitment to serving the Native Hawaiian population. Chaminade offers an inclusive setting where students, faculty and staff collectively pursue a more just and peaceful society.

Putting Down “Roots”: PsyD Program is Here to Stay

The next time you walk by Brogan Hall, look for the young kukui nut tree on the building’s mauka end. 

The tree — traditionally a symbol of enlightenment and spiritual guidance — was planted to celebrate the new permanent home of the Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.) in Clinical Psychology degree program at the Hawaii School of Professional Psychology at Chaminade University.

The program’s faculty, staff and students attended the tree planting on November 6.

Dr. Sean Scanlan, director of Chaminade’s Psy.D. program, said the kukui nut is the perfect representation of the Clinical Psychology program at Chaminade. He added that the tree was planted following a suggestion from a student in a place where it will have lots of room to grow.

“The kukui tree was used by Native Hawaiians for candlelight and has become an emblem of the importance of seeking out opportunities for personal and academic growth,” Scanlan said. “As a symbol of enlightenment, the kukui tree we’ve planted at Brogan Hall will continue to grow and thrive in the years and decades ahead just as the Clinical Psychology program will flourish at Chaminade into the future.”

During the small ceremony, the students added soil to cover the kukui tree’s roots as a symbol of being the basis for the program to grow. The Psy.D. faculty and staff then poured water from an ipu as a symbol of their role in instructing, mentoring and supporting the students.

In March, Chaminade University announced it would host the Hawaii School of Professional Clinical Psychology Psy.D. program following the abrupt closure of Argosy University. Chaminade immediately welcomed approximately 100 students and faculty members into the program as it worked to ensure a seamless transition for those working toward their doctoral degree – and those helping them get there.

Today, the Psy.D. at Chaminade is a five-year, intensive program designed to build students’ skills and knowledge as they train to become clinical psychologists. Early courses in the program provide the foundation for the field, while later classes focus on therapy, research training and an internship.

Dr. Lynn Babington, Chaminade president, said serving as a hub for high-quality mental health instruction – and a source for excellent mental health providers who will serve their communities – is in line with the University’s mission to work every day to change the world for the better.

“The planting of the kukui nut tree at Brogan Hall is a powerful symbol that underscores our commitment to ensuring the Psy.D. program at Chaminade continues to grow and meet the mental health needs of our state,” she said. “We are excited about the next steps in building out this program and can’t wait to see how psychologists trained at Chaminade impact people’s lives in positive ways.”

For more information on the Psy.D. program at Chaminade or to apply, click on the Psy.D. program page.

Chaminade University Professors and Student Honored by Hawaii Psychological Association

HONOLULU (October 28, 2019) – Two Chaminade University professors and one student were recently honored by the Hawaii Psychological Association at its Behavioral Health Convention. They were among six individuals to be recognized for their contributions to the field. They included:

Lunden D. Head, Dr. Steven Choy and Dr. Lianne T. S. Philhower
Lunden D. Head, Dr. Steven Choy and Dr. Lianne Philhower

Steven J. Choy, Ph.D. – The Pat DeLeon Lifetime Achievement Award
Dr. Choy is an associate professor of clinical psychology at Chaminade University. A licensed clinical psychologist, he specializes in the identification, assessment, treatment, and prevention of child maltreatment. He was the founder and director of the Child Protection Center at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children for over 30 years before his retirement and appointment to the Hawaii School of Professional Psychology. During his tenure as director of the Child Protection Center, he was instrumental in the development of the Child Protective Act in Hawaii as well as in the development of protocols for child maltreatment risk assessments, psychological evaluations, multidisciplinary team assessments, and psychological treatment for the State of Hawaii. He serves on numerous boards and committees focused on the protection of children and strengthening of families. He is also a trainer for the State of Hawaii Child Welfare Workers and continues to provide presentations and workshops on issues of child protection at local, national and international conferences.

Lianne T. S. Philhower, PsyD – Professor of the Year Award
Dr. Philhower is an associate professor of clinical psychology at Chaminade University and a licensed clinical psychologist. She has a diverse professional background that includes working in public health environments, outpatient community mental health programs, private practice, school consultation, and education. Her knowledge, experience, and ability to integrate creativity with structure comes through in the way she teaches her courses and supports students individually. The courses she teaches regularly and the electives she offers are all directly informed by her education, training, and professional experience. She is able to bring in realistic case examples and professional situations into her teaching, and utilize instructional scaffolding techniques that allow her students to grow clinically, ethically, and professionally. As a scholar, Dr. Philhower has provided community trainings, consultation, and presentations, and has supported the research projects of countless students.

Lunden D. Head, MA – Outstanding Student of Psychology Award
Lunden Head is a doctoral candidate in the Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program (Psy.D.) at The Hawaii School of Professional Psychology at Chaminade. Her doctoral research examines the intersection between epigenetic transmission of trauma, race-related stress, and intergenerational trauma in the African-American community. Having served as a graduate teacher assistant for multiple doctoral-level courses, Head exhibits a steadfast commitment to her campus community. She also displays an unwavering dedication to Hawaii’s local psychology community, shown in her experience providing individual and group psychotherapy services at counseling and behavioral health centers, while serving as a student representative and a volunteer at psychology conferences. In addition to carrying a full-time course load and completing practicum assignments at The Family Strengthening Center, The University of Hawaii-West Oahu, and Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center, Head works at a counseling center in Honolulu to underwrite her tuition while maintaining a 3.9 grade point average.

The Hawaii School of Professional Psychology at Chaminade is designed to prepare students for both contemporary and emerging roles in the practice of professional psychology. The school offers a five-year generalist program that supports the development of core competencies in psychological assessment, intervention, consultation/education, and management/supervision. The program emphasizes the acquisition of attitudes, knowledge bases, and skills essential for professional psychologists who are committed to the provision of ethical quality services.

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Chaminade University of Honolulu provides a collaborative and innovative learning environment that prepares graduate and undergraduate students for life, service and successful careers. Established in 1955, the university is guided by its Catholic, Marianist and liberal arts educational traditions, which include a commitment to serving the Native Hawaiian population. Chaminade offers an inclusive setting where students, faculty and staff collectively pursue a more just and peaceful society. For more information, visit chaminade.edu.