Counseling and Psychological Services sees leadership change for fall 2021

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Penn State’s Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) will undergo a change in leadership for fall 2021. Ben Locke, who has served as the senior director for CAPS since 2016, will be leaving Penn State on Aug. 31. Brett Scofield and Natalie Hernandez DePalma will be stepping into the role of co-interim senior directors.

CAPS is a unit of Penn State Student Affairs and offers a wide range of services, including wellness and self-help options; group, individual, and couples counseling; crisis intervention; psychiatric services; and community education and outreach services for the University community.

"The quality of a university reflects the quality of its faculty and staff, and there can be no better exemplar of that truth than Ben Locke, whose leadership of our exceptional Counseling and Psychological Services has been extraordinary,” said Damon Sims, vice president for Student Affairs. “The growth of those services during Ben's time as executive director built upon a long history of success within CAPS but expanded upon that long history by adding support to students at all Penn State campuses that met even more of their emotional and psychological needs. It's cliché to say it, but Ben will truly be missed. We wish him well."

Locke has been with Penn State for 18 years and has served CAPS as assistant director of research and technology, associate director of clinical services and senior director. Locke will be moving to the role of chief clinical officer for Togetherall, which provides clinically moderated online peer support communities. 

During his tenure at Penn State, Locke also founded the Center for Collegiate Mental Health (CCMH), which is now the largest practice research network on college student mental health in the world. As its founding executive director, Locke facilitated the development of data standards for electronic medial record software and a proprietary data infrastructure to aggregate national mental health data.

During Locke's tenure as CAPS director, he oversaw significant growth as Penn State made major investments in mental health and wellness resources for students, including a substantial CAPS funding increase from President Eric Barron in 2017 and support from the 2020 and 2016 senior class gifts. 

Locke is also an affiliate assistant professor of in the Department of Educational Psychology, Counseling and Special Education within the College of Education and the Department of Psychology within the College of the Liberal Arts. He presents and consults widely about college student mental health in higher education and has published numerous peer-reviewed articles on the topic. 

DePalma will transition from her current role as the assistant director of clinical services at CAPS. In addition to her co-interim senior director duties, DePalma will also oversee CAPS clinical services, including rapid response and adjunctive services.

Scofield will transition from his current role as associate director at CAPS and will continue to supervise CAPS operations and research. In addition, Scofield will assume the role of CCMH executive director, overseeing an international practice research network of over 650 college and university counseling centers 

DePalma began as a staff psychologist with CAPS in 2010. She currently sits on the Penn State University Park CARE team and the Behavioral Threat Management Team. She has spent the last several years serving on the Gender Diverse Care Team, a collaborative effort with CAPS and University Heath Services. DePalma studies the impact of microaggressions on collegiate mental health and adoption of cultural humility in clinical work. She has presented nationally on the race dialogues program, microaggressions and racial trauma. She is also a member of the inaugural Big Ten Mental Health Cabinet, which promotes mental health and wellness for student athletes.

DePalma received her bachelor’s degree in psychology and child development from Tufts University and her master’s degree in counseling psychology from Boston College in Massachusetts. She received her Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Penn State and completed her doctoral internship with CAPS.   

"CAPS and its leadership have been an integral part of my professional experience at Penn State for over a decade,” said DePalma. “I’m grateful to be a part of this incredibly devoted staff and glad to support the students and stakeholders through the transition in leadership and return to in-person experiences for students. Ben’s compassionate leadership will live on in our clinical system and devotion to students. CAPS has and will continue to be a dynamic, iterative center that supports the campus community.”  

Scofield has devoted nearly his entire career to collegiate mental health, working as a clinician and administrator within numerous university-based counseling centers over the past 18 years. He has played a significant role within the Penn State Center for Collegiate Mental Health for the past 7 years, contributing to several publications on the topic of college student mental health and helping the center develop numerous tools that are used widely by college counseling centers nationally to advocate for services. Additionally, Scofield has significant experience in threat assessment and management, serving on the threat assessment teams at George Mason University and Penn State. 

Schofield received his bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and a master’s degree in psychology from the University of Maryland. Scofield received his Ph.D. in clinical-community psychology from Wichita State University in Kansas.

“Having worked in higher education systems for the past 18 years I've benefitted from incredible colleagues and mentorship. My time at Penn State has provided an invaluable opportunity to work closely with Ben Locke at both CAPS and the CCMH,” said Scofield. “Our center's goal is to keep vibrant our commitment to high quality care, ongoing evaluation of services and continued innovation aligned with student needs. This approach allows us to flexibly serve the collegiate community in response to the myriad changes that have transpired over the last 18 months. I'm sincerely grateful and excited for this opportunity to support Penn State CAPS and students during this transition.”