LIONTalks

This episode was presented by Chaun Young, our intern for season 2!

Dr. Michael J. Murphy was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, the grandson and namesake of an impoverished Irish immigrant from County Kerry, Ireland. Born at the midpoint of the Baby Boom generation, he sat in classrooms with 65 other students and a single teacher and graduated from a high school with 3600 other students. As the son of a high school and community college English teacher, he loved literature and majored in philosophy at Holy Cross College, graduating in 1974. He then worked for a time at a residential school in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts, which began his long career in human services. After obtaining a Master’s Degree in Counseling at Springfield College he worked as a protective Services worker and Court Investigator before heading to east Texas to begin his doctoral experience in Commerce. He participated and completed the program in Marriage and Family Therapy and Counseling and after graduating in 1983 worked for a brief period at a counseling center in Greenville. He then headed back east and was employed as a psychologist and then as Clinical Director at a mental health center in North Adams, Massachusetts. He completed post-doctoral residencies and was licensed as a psychologist in 1986. During this period many State psychiatric hospitals were closing and Dr. Murphy participated in and completed a training program in forensic psychology through the University of Massachusetts Department of Psychiatry and, over the next twenty years, completed forensic evaluations in criminal and civil cases in the Massachusetts Superior and District courts and secure psychiatric hospitals. During this period he was also designated a Qualified Examiner and assessed sexual offenders and testified in hundreds of civil commitment cases. Most recently, Dr. Murphy was Chief of Mental Health for the Vermont Department of Correction, supervising mental health services throughout the state’s eight correctional facilities. In 2018 he relocated to Cape Cod in Massachusetts and opened a private practice in psychotherapy in Falmouth. Dr. Murphy has three adult children and enjoys cycling as well as hiking and distance swimming in Cape Cod’s bays and shores. Dr. Murphy recently published a substance abuse-related recovery book, Opioid Odyssey; A Happy Opioid Crisis Book About What Works, now available on Amazon and other booksellers. He previously published a book on fathering, Popsicle Fish: Tales of Fathering and has published hundreds of newspaper columns, for which he was awarded the National Society of Newspaper Columnists Award.

Relius Johnson is currently the Assistant Director of Multicultural Affairs at the University of Texas at Arlington. He is an August 2016 undergraduate alumnus of Texas A&M University Commerce, May 2018 graduate school alumni of the University of Central Arkansas and is set to graduate with his PhD in August 2020(August 2020) from Louisiana State University. Relius’ dissertation looks at Black self-identifying student’s experiences with respect to racial inequalities on-campus and the role of BLM on their respective campus. Additionally, this study will help understand the students’ perspectives of how University administrators have responded to calls for them to devote more attention and resources to address racial inequities on-campus. While at TAMUC Relius was initiated into the Zeta Tau Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated, crowned Homecoming King and served as an AAMMP Mentor, the VP for CAB, and an SGA Senator. He was also a member of the Honors College, a Lead Resident Assistant, and Exec Team Member for Orientation. Relius strives to engage as an agent of positive social change by acknowledging, activating, and self-interrogating the complexities of one’s identities, experiences, privileges, and ideologies. Relius is also a motivational speaker and uses his story to promote the mindset of “Greatness is a STATE of Mind”. Relius’ motto is to use your past to influence a better future. Relius plans to challenge and support the people he interacts with to be the best them that they can be including himself.

Stormy Malone, a 2014 graduate of A&M-Commerce, is a licensed clinical professional counselor and doctoral student in community psychology at Wichita State University. She is in the second year of her program where she works as a research assistant and provides online counseling part-time. While at A&M-Commerce, Stormy was active in Residential Living & Learning, Greek Life, and a Regent's Scholar. Following graduation, she attended the University of North Dakota where she completed her master’s degree in counseling. As a graduate student, she also worked at a local homeless shelter and co-facilitated a group for domestic violence offenders. Stormy spent 2 years after her graduate program working as a therapist at a non-profit counseling organization. She then chose to return to school and is now working on her Ph.D. Stormy’s main research interest is compassion fatigue. Her work and research interests include diversity, health and wellness, and non-profit community organizations.

Yaw Jason Osei, works as Technology Director for Campbell Independent School District. Osei is originally from London, England, and has resided in America for 8 years. He began his journey in America as a Baylor Student-Athlete, where he studied Film and Digital Media with Computer Science in addition to playing on the Baylor Bears football team. Jason transferred to TAMUC where he would finish his college football career and graduate, with honors, from TAMUC with a degree in Radio and Television with Computer Science. Osei worked as a graduate assistant at TAMUC and earned his Master of Science. In addition to Technology Director, Osei is establishing a career in Martial Arts and professional wrestling. Osei currently is an MMA Fighter, with a winning record, and in 2018, he was invited to tryout with World Wrestling Entertainment in Orlando, Florida. Osei believes a lot of his success was gained from positive connections and from a positive mindset towards his goals. His favorite quote is:  “There are no limits to what you can accomplish, except the limits you place on your own thinking” – Brian Tracy