Psychology doctorate recipient of national award

Christine Chee, a graduate of ASU’s Counseling Psychology master’s and doctoral program in the School of Letters and Sciences, will receive a national award from the American Psychological Association next month in Hawaii.

Chee will be the recipient of the 2013 Outstanding Early Career Award for Ethnic Minority Psychologists in Trauma Psychology. She will receive the award on Aug. 2, at the APA Annual Convention in Honolulu.

“Our faculty is very proud of Christine. She is an exceptionally caring person who is dedicating her life to helping others,” said Sharon Robinson Kurpius, professor and interim faculty head of counseling and counseling psychology in the School of Letters and Sciences. “Even as a doctoral student she was sensitive to how race and culture influence the health and wellness of her clients, and she is now using this sensitivity and caring to help veterans who have experienced the trauma of war.”

Chee graduated from ASU in December 2008 and did her APA accredited pre-doctoral internship at the Southwest Consortium Predoctoral Psychology Internship at New Mexico Veterans Affair Health Care and Indian Health Services in Albuquerque. For her post-doctoral internship, she was a Clinical Psychology Postdoctoral Fellow at the Biomedical Research Institute of New Mexico Veterans Affairs Health Care Research Service. Currently she is employed at the Women’s Stress Disorder Clinic in Albuquerque, N.M., where her duties include mental health assessment, individual and group psychotherapy, psychoeducation services and continued professional development.

Her academic career started at the University of Arizona in Tucson, where Chee received her bachelor's degree in psychology. Chee has participated in approximately 25 presentations on a variety of topics, including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Native American Veterans’ Military Service and Historical Trauma, Education and Training Opportunities for Native American Evaluators, Issues and Strategies for Counseling Native American People, and Ethnic Identity and Self-Esteem Among Native American Students.

Chee has been published several times, including in the Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development and through the National Science Foundation.

Despite the accolades and achievements, Chee is giving credit to others for her success.

“I have been so fortunate in my studies and career to have had plenty of people mentor me along the way,” Chee said. “I also have a very supportive spouse, family, in-laws and extended family from on and off the Navajo reservation. Having that support system in place is vital to achievement.”