Dr. MJ Raleigh (she/her) recently left higher education to work as a school psychologist for the St. Johnsbury School District in Vermont. This position involves working with students from preschool to high school (ages 3 to 18 years) and collaboratively with fellow educators to create the best possible learning environment for each student.

MJ brings 30 years of experience in college mental health and several other areas of student affairs. Twenty five of those years have been spent at four institutions of higher education as either a director of counseling services, director of health services or a director of a wellness center.

MJ, who earned a Ph.D. in environmental studies at Antioch University New England, has considerable experience in counseling and leadership in higher education. “I’ve worked at universities large and small, urban and rural, public and private,” she said. “I’ve worked in student housing, health, wellness education and judicial services.”  has very diverse interests in the field of human-environment interactions, college mental health and higher education leadership.

A graduate of Castleton University in Vermont, MJ earned a master’s degree in counseling from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs and another master’s degree from SUNY Stony Brook in 20th century Irish poetry. Her research spans several areas, including the relationship between children’s exposure to nature and the development of coping skills for anxiety during college.

“My doctoral program was completed jointly in counseling and environmental studies,” she said. “My research focuses on childhood exposure to nature and it’s connection to the development of active coping strategies in adulthood.”

MJ’s other research and publications concern mental health ethics in higher education, threat assessment, and human development. She also has taught at Johns Hopkins and Antioch universities and at New England College, where she instructed graduate and undergraduate students. MJ is active in professional organizations. A past president and national board member of the American College Counseling Association (ACCA), past representative on the ACCA on the Governing Council of the American Counseling Association, she is also on the national board of Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education. She is a nationally certified counselor with licenses in clinical mental health counseling. MJ received a Presidential Honor in 2010 from the ACCA and an Outstanding Professional Leadership Award from the ACCA.