Faculty

Gail Solt, M.A., Program Director, Sport Psychology
B.A., California State University, Hayward, 1965
M.A., John F. Kennedy University, 1987

Professor Solt has taught Sport Psychology as Life Skills, Performance Enhancement, Group Process, Optimal Performance, and Adolescents in Sports. She currently oversees the Sport Psychology Program at JFK University. Her professional focus has been on work with children in sports. She initiated the work with at-risk youth at the challenge camp at the Oren Allen Rehabilitation Center in 1993 and, in 1996, she developed the LEAP program, which has become the cornerstone of the fieldwork experience for students. She also designed the Linked MA-PsyD program. Gail has served as the director of Sport Psychology conferences at JFK University from 1989-1995, the Director of Continuing & Extended Education from 1998-2006, and acting Dean of the Graduate School of Professional Psychology from March-October 2006.

Gail has had a private practice in sport psychology since 1987, working with individual athletes and teams, including the UC Davis tennis team. She has presented at Association of Applied Sport Psychology (AASP) conferences, given a number of professional presentations, appeared on television and radio shows and been interviewed by magazines and newspapers. She has been a board member of Community Violence Solutions and the Junior League of Oakland/East Bay.

M.A. Sport Psychology Core Faculty

Alison Rhodius, PhD, Director of Research
BSc (Hons.), Psychology, University of Stirling
MSc, Sport Science, Liverpool John Moores University
PhD, Sport Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University

Dr. Rhodius is the Director of Research for the Sport Psychology Program at JFKU, she teaches the Introduction to Sport Psychology class, Sport Psychology A and B, some of the group supervision classes for the students and is in charge of all the MA research theses. She is the coordinator of the MA/PsyD linked program. She is also adjunct faculty for the PsyD program in GSPP in the capacity of dissertation proposal instructor and acts as chair of several dissertations on sport-related topics. She is certified as a sport psychology consultant through the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP), on the USOC (United States Olympic Committee) Register for Sport Psychology and is a Chartered Psychologist in the U.K. with the British Psychological Society (BPS). She has her own private practice in the San Francisco Bay Area and works with athletes and coaches from all sports, and specializes in elite performers in individual sports. She worked with the British archery team for several years and worked with both the U.S. team and the team from India after moving to the States. She is the only person to be on the international governing body's (FITA) approved expert list for sport psychology, has traveled the world working with archers and coaches and regularly writes for the international archery magazine, Archery Focus. 2004 was a monumental year and involved traveling to India, Thailand, Italy, Turkey and Athens to work with the elite archers from various countries. At the Athens Olympics she worked with the U.S. archery team and the British number one archer, who won the bronze medal.

Alison may be contacted at 925.969.3414 or by email at arhodius@jfku.edu

Karlene Sugarman, M.A., Director of Certificates and Fieldwork Coordinator
B.A., St. Mary's College
M.A., John F. Kennedy University

Karlene is an Associate Professor in the Sport Psychology Program and teaches Ethics, Performance Enhancement and Developing a Consulting Practice. She also oversees all the Sport Psychology internships

Karlene has a consulting practice in the bay area and works with many athletes and teams from recreational to professional in sports such as gymnastics, figure skating, tennis, baseball, softball, volleyball, soccer, football and golf. She has been the Consultant for the University of San Diego baseball team since 1999.

Karlene is the author of Winning the Mental Way. She is a member of the Association of Applied Sport Psychology (AASP) and was a member of the Sports Science Committee for the U.S. Tennis Association, Northern California until the committee was dissolved in 1999. She has written articles for magazines such as Collegiate Baseball, New Living, U.S. Handball, FastPitch World, and U.S. Roller Skating. She has been interviewed for numerous newspaper and magazine articles, and radio talk shows. She was the guest speaker for the First Lady's Luncheon at the 1999 Northern Marianas Sports Challenge in Saipan. Karlene was also interviewed with the late Dr. Bruce Ogilvie on the television show "Great Leaders". She has been a guest lecturer for the University of Loughborough in the UK, and the Rocky Mountain University of Health Professionals in Utah. She was the keynote speaker at Dominican University in February 2007 for the PsiChi Society Awards Ceremony.

Alette Coble-Temple, PsyD
B.S., Santa Clara University, 1993
M.A., Sport Psychology, John F. Kennedy University, 1995
PsyD, John F. Kennedy University, 1999.

Dr. Coble-Temple teaches Counseling Skills I & II, Psychological Dimensions of Youth Sport, Psychopathology in Sport, and Clinical Sport Psychology. Dr. Coble-Temple integrates performance enhancement training with clinical skills to provide culturally sensitive services for individuals, families, and teams. She actively maintains a consulting practice. Prior to coming to JFK, she worked as a therapist with adolescent girls in a residential treatment facility. Dr. Coble-Temple does ongoing work for the Board of Prison Terms as an independent evaluator for mentally disordered offenders. Her professional interests include injury rehabilitation, team cohesion, performance anxiety, and culturally competent psychotherapy for persons with disabilities. Her personal interests include traveling, public speaking, skiing, and spending time with her family. Alette may be contacted at 925.969 3439 or by email at act@jfku.edu

Adjunct Faculty

Gia Biagi, M.A.
M.A., University of Georgia

Gia has over 12 years of experience in the Sports Management field. She started her career at Stanford University, as the athletic department's marketing coordinator fulfilling sponsorship contracts and managing a $1.3 million budget. Moving to Santa Clara University in 1996, Gia became the Assistant Director of the Bronco Bench Foundation where she raised money for athletic scholarships and organized a range of fundraising events. From 1999 to 2001, while obtaining her Master's in Sport Management from the University of Georgia, she managed the ITA and Southern Collegiate Men's Tennis tournaments as well as worked on the 1999 Women's Final Four and the 2000 Super Bowl. Going back to Santa Clara's Athletic Department in 2001, Gia became the Director of Ticket Operations and Special Projects and then joined the Women's Professional Soccer Association's San Jose CyberRays as Director of Ticket Operations in 2003; there she increased group ticket sales by 40%. Since the leagues closure, Gia has worked as a contractor on special events and at the ticket office of HP Pavilion and San Jose Spartan Stadium.

Carrie Cheadle, M.A.
B.A. Psychology, Sonoma State University
M.A. Sport Psychology, John F. Kennedy University

Carrie has a private practice consulting with teams, organizations, and individual athletes, helping to improve performance through increasing self-awareness and strengthening mental skills. Carrie works with clients and provides workshops across the country. She has worked with high school and collegiate athletes as well as elite and professional athletes competing at national and international levels. She has worked with athletes and teams in many different sports and specializes in working with cyclists, track racing, mountain biking, triathlon, and endurance athletes. She also runs the mental skills training program for Diabetes Training Camp (DTC); a fitness and multi-sport training camp for people with diabetes. Through DTC she also provides workshops for healthcare providers teaching the fundamentals of behavior change and goal setting. She is a member of APA Division 47 and a Certified Consultant through the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP).

Randall Cockshott, PhD
M.A., Sport Psychology, John F. Kennedy University
PhD, Florida State University

Dr. Cockshott provides sport psychology services to both individuals and teams of all competitive levels in the sports of tennis, golf, basketball, football, baseball, track & field, and swimming and diving. Dr. Cockshott's professional area of expertise includes stress management, motivation, and team cohesion. He has served as a consultant for several of Florida State University's athletic teams, including the Men's Tennis team and Men's and Woman's Diving team as well as consultant for El Salvador's National Institute of Sport (INDES). Dr. Cockshott is a certified consultant through the Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology and listed on the United States Olympic Committee's Registry of Sport Psychologists. Dr. Cockshott is currently completing hours towards licensure as a psychologist and is the primary individual responsible for conducting neuro-cognitive assessments in a study of the effects of Deep Brain Stimulation surgery on cognition in individuals with advanced Parkinson's disease at UCSF and the San Francisco VA Medical Center.

Michael Forde, MSc
MSc, Liverpool John Moores University

Michael is currently the Performance Director for Chelsea Football (soccer) Club in the English Premier League. He has been is a personal and organizational consultant to several leading professional sports in the UK including Bolton Wanderers Football Club, Wigan Warriors Rugby League team and England Rugby Union and numerous others including athletes from professional cricket, PGA golf and motor racing. His academic background is in Sport Science (BSc) and Sport Psychology (MSc) with additional qualifications in Counseling. Mike has presented at numerous conferences in the UK, Europe and the US. He has been a co-guest speaker (with John Murtough) for us on the topic of "Reflections on providing full time sport psychology support with two English Premier League Professional Soccer Clubs: Understanding the roles of the modern sport psychologist within the volatile world of Professional Team Sports".

Jeff Greenwald, M.A., MFT
M.A., John F. Kennedy University

Jeff was ranked #1 in the world in 2002 in the Men's 35 age division in singles and #1 in the U.S. in both singles and doubles this past year. He is the author of the recently released CD-audio program, Fearless Tennis: The 5 Mental Keys to Unlocking Your Potential, now on Amazon.com. He holds a master's degree in clinical psychology with a specialization in sport psychology from John F. Kennedy University. Jeff has been a keynote speaker, focused on performance enhancement, for such diverse organizations as the United States Tennis Association, the USPTA, UCLA Medical Center, NBC and numerous universities, and tennis and golf clubs in the U.S. and Germany. He is a member of the National Speakers Association and is in private practice in San Francisco conducting high-performance training for corporate employees and competitive and recreational athletes in all sports. His seminars in the sports world have ranged from tennis, golf and fitness club owners and directors; to college coaches; to league captains; to parents seeking guidance on relating effectively to student athletes.

Tonya Johnston, M.A.
M.A., John F. Kennedy University

Tonya maintains a sport psychology practice in the San Francisco Bay Area. She works with professional and amateur athletes from a variety of sports including equestrian, volleyball, figure skating, baseball, golf, cycling, bowling, swimming, rodeo, basketball, rowing, and tennis. Tonya specializes in equestrian disciplines such as hunter/jumper, three-day eventing, and dressage. Clients in the hunter/jumper discipline range from youngsters just starting out in the pony divisions, to professionals in the grand prix. She conducts sport psychology clinics and consults with individual clients throughout the US. Tonya has appeared in Ride, Hoofbeats, and Riding magazines.
Tonya teaches Optimal Performance A/B and Psychology of Injury at JFK. For 12 years she was Director of JFKU's Challenge Camp, an internship placement in which optimal performance techniques are taught to incarcerated youth as life skills.

Bruce Keeler, PhD
PhD, University of California, Los Angeles

Dr. Keeler received his doctorate in the area of Sport Psychology through the Kinesiology Department at University of California, Los Angeles. He is an AASP Certified Consultant and is listed on the United States Olympic Committee Sport Psychology registry. He has an extensive background in research and applied Sport Psychology in the area of competitive youth sport and performance enhancement for elite athletes.

Zoe Knowles, MSc
MSc, Liverpool John Moores University

Ms. Knowles is a senior lecturer in coaching science and sport psychology at Liverpool John Moores University in England teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She is an accredited sport psychologist with the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES) and on the British Olympic Association's (BOA) register of sport psychologists. She currently works with the Great Britain archery team and in GB modern pentathlon and Premier division soccer. Zoe also coaches at the elite level and works with two gymnasts within the GB Under 12's squad. Her PhD is exploring the psychological processes of reflection and the professional development, using reflective practice, in coach education. She has written several peer reviewed articles on reflective practice for coach education publications and presented at many international conferences and workshops on this specialist topic. Reflective practice is now a compulsory component in BASES accreditation for sport psychologists and Zoe is an advisor for this process. She is a guest speaker for us on the topic of "Reflective Practice in Sport".

Arman P. Medina, M.A.
B.S., Applied Economics, University of San Francisco, 2005
M.A., Sport Management, University of San Francisco, 2008

Tom Morin, M.A., MFT
M.A., John F. Kennedy University

Tom is a psychotherapist in private practice with offices in Oakland and Marin County. He teaches Introduction to Psychology and Abnormal Psychology at Chabot College in Hayward. Tom also works at MPI Treatment Services, a Chemical Dependency treatment center in Oakland. At JFK Tom teaches Couseling Skills I and II, case seminar and a class on substance abuse in sports. He is also a supervisor and was named JFK's supervisor of the year in 2003. Tom is a former swim coach and was Matt Biondi's personal coach for the 1992 Olympics.

John Murtough
BSc, Coaching Science, Liverpool John Moores University
MSc, Coaching Science, Liverpool John Moores University

John is currently in charge of the Youth Acadmy at Everton Football (soccer) Club in the English Premier League. He returned to Everton after being the senior sport scientist and sport psychologist with Fulham Football Club also in the English Premier League. He has additional qualifications in Counseling and has presented at numerous coaching and sport psychology conferences throughout Europe and the US. John has worked at all levels of player development from under 16 through to senior international first team players. He has been a co-guest speaker (with Michael Forde) for us on the topic of "Reflections on providing full time sport psychology support with two English Premier League Professional Soccer Clubs: Understanding the roles of the modern sport psychologist within the volatile world of Professional Team Sports".

Mark Nesti, PhD
Dr. Nesti is a reader in the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences at Liverpool John Moores University in the UK. Mark is BASES accredited and has worked as an applied sport psychologist for almost two decades. He has an extensive publication record that includes published papers from his PhD on the psychology of anxiety and has recently made several conference presentations that highlight the importance of the spiritual aspect of the sport experience. He is the author of the book "Existential Psychology And Sport: Theory And Application" published by Routledge. He also is currently working part-time with one the of the top soccer teams in the English Premier League. He has been a guest speaker for us on the topic of "Existential Psychology in Sport".

Ken Ravizza
Dr. Ravizza is a professor in the Division of Kinesiology and Health Science at California State University at Fullerton. He teaches courses in the areas of Sport Philosophy, Applied Sport Psychology, and Stress Management. He has been a Sport Psychology consultant for the U.S. Olympic Field Hockey, Water Polo, and Baseball teams along with numerous individual Olympic Athletes. He also worked with the USA Softball team in preparation for the 2000 Olympics. Ken has been a Sport Psychology Consultant for the Anaheim Angels, the University of Nebraska and Arizona State Football teams, Cal State Fullerton Baseball, Gymnastics, and Softball teams, and Long Beach State Baseball team. He has conducted over 100 Sport Psychology Workshops nationally and internationally. He is co-author of the book Heads-Up Baseball. He also sits on the editorial boards of the journal The Sport Psychologist and Quest. He is a Fellow in Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology.

Sara Robinson, M.A.
M.A., Sport Psychology, John F. Kennedy University, 2006

Ms. Robinson currently supervises interns in the program. She runs her own sport psychology consulting practice, specializing in work with youth and adolescent athletes. Sara is a member of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP), and the American Psychological Association (APA) Division 47.

Maureen M. Smith, PhD
B.S., Physical Education, Teacher Certification, K-12, Ithaca College, Ithaca, New York, 1989
M.S., Physical Education, Ithaca College, Ithaca, New York, 1990
M.A., Black Studies, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, 1994
PhD, Educational Policy and Leadership, Area of concentration: Cultural Studies of Sport. The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, 1999

Thomas L. B. Tracy, PsyD, LEAP Coordinator
B.A Psychology, University of California Santa Barbara, 2001
M.A. Sport Psychology, John F. Kennedy University, 2006
PsyD, John F. Kennedy University, 2008

The LEAP program works with at-risk high school student athletes. Dr. Tracy supervises and supports sport psychology student interns working with sporting teams in the LEAP high school setting. Dr. Tracy teaches Psychology of Group Interpersonal Communication in the Sport Psychology MA Program, and is also the Coordinator of the Summer Challenge Camp. In addition, Dr. Tracy also teaches the Clinical Dissertation Proposal Sequence for the Doctor of Psychology Program. Dr. Tracy's experience providing psychological services has included performing neuropsychological and psychodiagnostic assessments with children and adults, providing individual and group psychotherapy and psychological assessment to undergraduate students, performing play therapy with children, training and observation in Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), conducting applied behavior analysis with developmentally disabled individuals and their families, and facilitating Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) groups with adults in residential substance abuse treatment. At the University of California Santa Barbara, Dr. Tracy participated in health psychology, social psychology, and autism research, and focused primarily on the psychophysiology of anxiety in various social and motivated performance situations. Dr. Tracy's dissertation research at John F. Kennedy University focused on the experience of an exercise withdrawal syndrome among high-frequency exercisers. Tom may be contacted at 924-969-3432 or by email at ttracy@jfku.edu.

Stephen A. Wallace, PhD
M.A. Physical Education/Motor Learning, Kent State University
PhD, Physical Education/Motor Control, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Dr. Wallace contributes to the GSPP Sport Psychology Program by teaching courses in Kinesiology and Motor Learning. He has taught at several universities over the last 30 years including, UC-Davis and the University of Colorado at Boulder. Currently, he is a Full Professor at San Francisco State University in the Department of Kinesiology. Along with an extensive teaching and research record, Dr. Wallace has also made extensive professional contributions to the field of Kinesiology. Dr. Wallace served as President of the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity. He is a Fellow in the American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education. He is a reviewer of several scholarly journals and granting agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the Technology Foundation STW (Dutch funding agency). He recently served on a National Science Foundation Panel on Human Social Dynamics reviewing grant proposals in Washington D.C. His current research interests include the control of prosthetic devices for people with upper extremity amputations, and also the importance of physical activity to health and well being.