Newswise — Martha Grace, chief justice of the Massachusetts Juvenile Court, will be the 2005 Commencement speaker at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology on June 5, 2005. According to MSPP President Nicholas Covino: "Justice Grace was the unanimous choice of the MSPP Board of Trustees to receive an honorary degree and to address our graduates. As a sitting chief justice, she took time to pursue advanced training in child development and knows more child psychology than most mental health professionals. She brings a psychological mind to her courtroom work with families and children in crisis and has made psychological consultation and training a priority for the judges and court personnel under her direction. She is the embodiment of justice that is aware of human complexity and informed by psychological principles."
What: MSPP CommencementWhere: 221 Rivermoor Street, West Roxbury When: Sunday, June 5, 2005, 2 pm. Before her appointment as chief justice in 1998, Justice Grace served for eight years as associate justice of the Worcester Juvenile Court. She earned a bachelor's in zoology from Smith College, a master's in history from Clark University and her JD from New England School of Law. Now in great demand as a panelist and lecturer, she has received numerous awards, including the YWCA-Katherine Erskine Award (1998), the St. Thomas More Society Ecumenical Award (1999), the Massachusetts Judges Conference Award (2000), the Distinguished Jurist Award of the Massachusetts Association of Women Lawyers (2002) and the Becker College Distinguished Friend of Education Award (2004).
In 2002, Grace completed a fellowship with Zero to Three, the Washington-based organization that promotes the healthy development of America's children from infancy to age three. She is a member of the Boston, Worcester County, Massachusetts, and Juvenile Bar Associations; the National Association for Women Judges; the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges; the American Judicature Society; the Supreme Judicial Historical Society; and the Massachusetts Judges Conference.
Also receiving an honorary degree that day will be Mr. Frederick Wiseman. An award winning, documentary filmmaker, Mr. Wiseman has built a unique body of work that critically examines complex social institutions and crucial societal issues. Often simply and boldly titled, his films tell powerful stories of human beings, human nature and intricate social systems. MSPP is proud to be among a number of institutions of higher learning to recognize his role as artist and educator.
MSPP offers a master of science degree in psychopharmacology and a doctorate in clinical psychology (PsyD) as well as advanced training in areas that span the evolving field, including geropsychology, organizational consultation and juvenile forensics, among others.
This year, the school will grant 28 PsyD degrees and eight master of science degrees in psychopharmacology.
Covino believes that the new MSPP graduates have been well prepared for a world in which the need for psychotherapeutic treatments and mental health medicines is growing.
MSPP clinical psychology graduates have already worked with individuals, families and institutions as clinicians and consultants, have already met some of the staggering mental health needs of children, the elderly and the under-served, as well as "those of means" burdened by depression, anxiety, individual and family conflict, notes Covino, adding that "The psychopharmacology graduates are a group trained and ready to work as partners with primary care physicians and pediatricians to bring accessible, integrated and complex mental health care to children and medical patients."
Founded in 1975, MSPP's innovative clinical teaching program has given rise to generations of professionals who are today's leaders in the field of clinical psychology as well as compassionate healers in their communities. Celebrating its 30th year, MSPP continues to build on the innovative legacy of the past, while creating new programs, methods and models for training young professionals to meet the challenges of the 21st century—challenges that will not only test their skills in new ways, but bring psychologists into nearly every facet of modern life
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