Clinical Faculty
Full-time clinical faculty in the M.S. in Addiction Studies
Nicholas Gallucci, Ph.D.
As a clinical psychologist, Dr. Gallucci is a generalist with a particular interest in the training of addiction counselors. He received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at University of Louisville. In 1985 he collaborated with Paul Baer, Ph.D., Chair of the Psychology Department at Baylor College of Medicine, on training programs for addiction counselors. In 1999, he established the only undergraduate psychology courses that meet IC&RC criteria for the certification of Addiction Counselors in Connecticut (CT) at Western Connecticut State University (WCSU). He participated in the development of the Master of Science program in Addiction Studies at WCSU. His research includes the study of patterns of addiction with the MMPI-2 and MMPI-A. More recently, he has studied applications of the Social Ecology Model in the prevention of substance abuse among collegian student-athletes.
Mary Murphy, Ph.D, LADC (Program Coordinator)
Dr. Mary Murphy is a licensed clinical psychologist and licensed alcohol and drug counselor (LADC). She holds a Ph.D. from Yeshiva University and completed her fellowship training at the Yale University School of Medicine in addiction research. She has served as Principal Investigator on several grants and published studies involving her work developing motivational counseling interventions for persons with substance use disorders. In addition to teaching in the Masters in Addiction Counseling program and supervising our students on internship she also teaches in the undergrad program and supervises psychology majors while on internship as well.
Outside of WCSU, Dr. Murphy owns a private practice where she specializes in therapy, biofeedback, executive functioning coaching, and psychological testing. Her expertise is in ADHD, substance use disorders, and co occurring disorders. Dr. Murphy’s counseling practice focuses on cognitive behavioral therapy (learning coping skills), biofeedback (to help reduce stress and improve focus / attention), and executive functioning coaching (to help children and adults learn important skills related to planning, organizing, and prioritizing school, home and work tasks). Her testing practice focuses on psychological evaluations for both children and adults.
Shane Murphy, Ph.D.
Dr. Murphy’s clinical and research expertise is in health and sport psychology. He received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Rutgers University, specializing in cognitive-behavioral therapy. He worked for two years at the Rutgers Alcohol Behavior Research Laboratory, and after completing his post-doc at the Medical University of South Carolina he became the first full-time sport psychologist for the US Olympic Committee (USOC). He provided mental health services to athletes at the Olympic Training Center (OTC) in Colorado Springs and to the USA Olympic team at the 1988 and 1992 Olympic Games. He developed a multimodal substance use prevention and assessment program at the OTC and hosted the influential Alcohol and Sport Conference at the USOC in 1990. In 2001 he joined the faculty in the Department of Psychology at Western Connecticut State University to develop training in health psychology. He became Chair of the Department in 2013.
Dr. Murphy is currently researching the reliability and validity of the proposed diagnosis of internet gaming disorder. His interests and skills in health psychology motivated him to co-develop a new evidence-based graduate training program for alcohol and drug counselors, the M.S. in Addiction Studies, which began admitting students in fall 2019. He has over 20 refereed publications, 20 book chapters, has written 3 books and has edited three major volumes in sport and health psychology. He served on American Psychological Association’s (APA) Council of Representatives 2016-2018 and most recently served as a member of the APA’s President’s Advisory Council on Applied Psychology.
Adjunct clinical faculty in the M.S. in Addiction Studies
James Poling, Ph.D.
Dr. James Poling received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Temple University in 1994. From 1994 to 2012, Dr. Poling served as both an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University and as a Research Scientist publishing over 68 peer-reviewed scientific articles related to the treatment and genetics of substance abuse and mood disorders. He has served as a referee for over 10 prestigious journals including Psychological Bulletin, Neuropsychopharmacology, Biological Psychiatry, and Addiction. Dr. Poling has also served as the Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator on over 8 separate National Institute of Health grants. From November 2012 onwards Dr. Poling has served as Director of Psychology for Connecticut Valley Hospital.
Maria Sangiorgio, M.D., M.S.
Dr. Maria Sangiorgio received her MD from Albany Medical College in 1992. She then received her M.S. in Patient Oriented Research from the Columbia University School of Public Health in 2001. She is trained as both a neurologist and behavioral health provider. She completed advanced fellowship and residency training at leading institutions at NYU, Columbia University, and University of Rochester in internal medicine, neurology, and behavioral health. Her research and clinical practice has been in treating depression, OCD, ADHD, and substance use disorders. Prior to joining our adjunct faculty, Dr Sangiorgio’s teaching experience spanned through the levels of middle school, high school, and medical school. She is a strong proponent of comprehensive approaches to care, addressing psychosocial issues as the key influencers of medical outcomes.
Robin Woodward, LADC
Robin Woodward is a Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor (LADC). She has 20 years’ experience working with individuals diagnosed with substance abuse disorders. She has worked in both residential and outpatient hospital settings. Since 2010, she has been both an academic advisor and adjunct professor in the field of addiction studies. Throughout different Connecticut colleges, she has taught co-occurring disorders, public health, biology of addiction, drugs and behavior, addiction counseling I, internship I, and internship II. She currently owns a private practice and works with individuals diagnosed with co-occurring disorders.
