Women's Center Welcomes Patricia Stevens

The Women’s Center and Reentry Student Center at Utah State University has a new director. Patricia Stevens arrived on campus for the start of fall semester 2006 and is now learning the ins-and-outs of university life in Utah. Stevens joins USU following her tenure at Morehead State University.

A welcome reception for Stevens is Tuesday, Oct. 10, from 2:30-4:30 p.m. in the Taggart Student Center, room 315.

 

“Dr. Stevens is a great find,” said Mary Doty, director of USU’s Counseling Center and search committee chair. “She offers an impressive level of experience and expertise, both in women’s issues and administration, which the search committee believes will serve the Women’s and Reentry Student Center and the USU community very well. We are truly pleased to welcome her.”

 

Stevens’ career has taken her from the private sector, where she advanced from a mental health worker to a private counseling practice, to the ranks of higher education in Colorado, Kentucky and Utah. She has experience as a rape response counselor, substance abuse counselor and as a program coordinator for substance abuse treatment.

 

“When I read the ad for the director of the Women’s Center at Utah State University, I was impressed with the fact that the center had been here since 1974, had so many wonderful achievements and the strong support of the university and the community,” Stevens said. “I knew this was the next step for me — that I wanted to be here.”

 

Stevens holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Spring Hill College, a master’s degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and her doctorate in counselor education from Mississippi State University.

 

Stevens started her career as a counselor in a residential substance abuse treatment center in rural Alabama. She soon realized that more than individual counseling was necessary to effect change, so she returned to school to complete training in family counseling.

 

“My brother died because of his problems with drug use and I know that this significantly influenced my desire to work with others with the same problems,” Stevens said.

 

Later, Stevens authored a textbook to train other counselors who worked in this area. The book is now in its third edition.

 

“I returned to school again to receive my doctorate so I could teach at the university level and train counselors and family therapists,” she said.

 

She worked at the University of Colorado at Denver for 12 years, assisting with the development of the university’s family counseling program and training clinic, which also served as the student counseling center. In 2001 she moved to Kentucky as chair of the counseling and educational leadership department in the College of Education at Eastern Kentucky University. The move was initiated by family ties — finding herself in the caretaker role, Stevens wanted to be closer to her mother. The move also brought another change. She married her husband, John Peregoy. Following a two-year stay at EKU, Stevens moved to Morehead State University.

 

“I am at a time in my life where I want to give back to the profession and the community,” Stevens said. “I have been blessed to have caring and talented mentors in my life and hope I can serve in that capacity for students at USU. The Women’s Center offers me the opportunity to assist students — particularly female students who are in the same position now that I found myself earlier — in getting an education and improving their lives.