Secretary

Melisa B Bailey (she/her/hers) is the Associate Director of Training and Development for the Behavioral Health Dept at Howard Brown. In this role, Melisa oversees the graduate student clinical training program for Masters and Doctoral level students and supports staff in obtaining terminal licensure. Melisa received her Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology and has worked in community mental health, college counseling, and private practice. She has been affiliate faculty at The Chicago School and adjunct faculty at Adler University and has taught Diversity, Systems Theory, and coursework in LGBTQ care. Clinical interests include training and supervision, identity development connected to sexuality and gender, parenting and family creation in queer relationships, and affirmative care for trans and gender expansive individuals.

In my own words, I work hard to ensure that the training program at Howard Brown functions to train students and not see them as just part of our workforce. I see clinical training as a time to help students develop and hone their clinical voice AND it is a time to learn about creating sustainable practices that help students stay in the field. As someone who has worked serving the LGBTQ community for most of my career, I have a goal to increase the number of LGBTQ competent clinicians in the world so that clients in these communities can get good care wherever they go. I am often looking for ways to increase that goal and to support trainees, therefore joining the leadership team for ACEPT feels like a way to help support students and training sites at a broader level.