Lorain native selected for STEAM panel

Considered among top performing women of color

Patricia Arredondo, Ph.D., a Lorain native and second-generation American, began her academic career as a first generation student at Kent State University, earning a bachelor’s degree Spanish and journalism.

Now, after more than 15 years of holding various senior leadership roles in higher education, Arredondo was selected as one of 25 top-performing women of color psychologists.

Arredondo will be featured on the American Psychological Association’s “I Am Psyched” National Tour panels, “Firsts: Women of Color Changemakers.”

The panel is the sixth to join the touring exhibit, which was inaugurated July 17 at the annual STEAM Fair and Reception in Washington, D.C.

Arredondo is scheduled to be on the panel at the American Psychological Association’s annual convention in San Francisco from Aug. 9-12.

The American Psychological Association’s “I Am Psyched” tour began in Houston in January and will conclude in November, will visit universities in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Colorado, California, Washington, Florida and Washington, D.C. through November.

“[The panel]’s not for me,” said Arredondo, who now is president of the Arredondo Advisory Group and faculty fellow at Fielding Graduate University. “It’s about how it can inspire other women, especially Latina women, because there’s only four circulating on this panel.

“I want women to be inspired to stay in [the field], because being in the academy is rough,” she said. “It’s not always an easy place to be, because you’re always being judged for what you’re doing.”

Arredondo earned a master’s degree from Boston College, followed by a doctorate in counseling psychology from Boston University in 1978.

In addition to holding positions such as the associate vice chancellor for Academic Affairs for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee from 2007-2012, and president of the Chicago School of Profession Psychology, Chicago campus, from 2013-16, Arredondo founded Empowerment Workshops Inc. in 1985, a consulting firm offering business strategies to incorporate diversity in the workplace.

Arredondo has written and co-written seven books and over 100 journal articles, training videos and book chapters.

Her eighth book titled, “Latinx Immigrants: Transcending Acculturation and Xenophobia,” is projected to be released in fall 2018.

Arredondo said growing up as a part of Lorain’s immigrant population, had an impact on her sense of diversity, identity and mental health.

“I always notice the difference in Lorain and how people were treated differently because of race or ethnicity,” she said. “It’s not as if anybody overtly did anything to me, but I observed many other situations where there was hostility or a lack of respect toward immigrants.”

Arredondo