CLU names dean for new graduate school

Rick Holigrocki to lead Graduate School of Psychology

Download photo

As dean at the University of Indianapolis, Rick Holigrocki has developed curricula and worked with faculty in other graduate health departments at the private college to launch new programs and research activities.

(THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – April 1, 2014) Rick Holigrocki, the dean of the School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Indianapolis, will be the first dean of California Lutheran University’s new Graduate School of Psychology.

Holigrocki will begin Aug. 1.

As dean at the University of Indianapolis for almost four years, he has developed curricula and worked with faculty in other graduate health departments at the private college to launch new programs and research activities. He also led the School of Psychological Sciences as it secured re-accreditation. He previously served as associate dean, director of clinical training and a faculty member in the School of Psychological Sciences.

Holigrocki, a licensed clinical psychologist, has researched parent-child interaction throughout his career. He has also investigated a range of topics including Chinese parenting, domestic violence and depressed mothers.

A native of Canada, he earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and sociology from York University in Toronto and a master’s degree and doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Windsor in Ontario. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in clinical psychology and worked as a staff clinical psychologist at the Child and Family Center at the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kan.

Holigrocki is a fellow of the Society for Personality Assessment, a delegate of the National Council of Schools and Programs for Professional Psychology, and past president of the Indiana Society for Psychoanalytic Thought.

CLU’s newly incorporated Graduate School of Psychology offers master’s degrees in counseling psychology and clinical psychology and a doctorate in clinical psychology. Programs are offered on the main campus in Thousand Oaks and at the Oxnard Center. Students gain experience by providing low-cost counseling and psychotherapy at CLU’s Community Counseling Centers in Thousand Oaks and Oxnard. The Thousand Oaks clinic will move to a new state-of-the-art training facility in Westlake Village this summer.

©