Katharine Shaffer
assistant professor
Division of Applied Behavioral Sciences
Contact Information:
Phone: 410.837.5599
E-mail: kshaffer@ubalt.edu
Ph.D., University at Albany
M.S., University of Baltimore
B.A., Shepherd University
Katharine Shaffer's CV (PDF)
I spent a lot of my late adolescent and young adult life trying to figure out my career path and where I belonged. I ended up making my own major in college, and graduated with a liberal arts degree focused on the social sciences, mostly because I found psychology, sociology, and anthropology the most interesting of all my college classes. After graduating, I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to do for several years, until life forced me to make a choice between working in the business world and taking a leap into a Master’s program in Applied Psychology. I was scared that I'd be terrible at being a therapist, but I took the leap.
Not long into my first semester of graduate school, I knew I belonged. I attended the University of Baltimore for my Master’s degree and continued on for my Certificate in Professional Counseling Studies. I got to work in several different college counseling centers for my practica, worked on a faculty member’s research team, facilitated career groups, and loved every minute of the work (and found out that I was actually a pretty good therapist!). My mentors in the program were incredibly supportive and encouraged me to consider getting a PhD – something I never even dreamed I would do!
I was accepted in the Counseling Psychology PhD program at the University at Albany, SUNY, where I worked on research focused on therapy process-outcome (looking at the variables of how change happens in therapy), clinical supervision, and multicultural education. I had opportunities to travel to and present at national and international conferences, engage in service and leadership in my field, work in various clinical settings, and to teach both undergraduate and graduate courses. After the very first class I taught, I walked out so excited; I knew that I had found my real passion. My teaching and research work today is focused on a combination of the things I love that found me along the way: multicultural counseling and education, clinical supervision, and training and supervising counselors-to-be. I chose to come back to the University of Baltimore because it was such a special and life-changing place for me. I wanted to work with diverse, talented students and help them find their passion. If you’re considering UBalt, come by and meet us -- it’s a pretty great place to be!