Meet our Chairs

Meet the Degree Program Chairs – Office of the Provost

M.A./Ph.D. Clinical Psychology

William James Jones – Chair

Dr. Jones is a licensed clinical psychologist and Associate Core Faculty in the Clinical Psychology program at Pacifica Graduate Institute. He is a winner of the American Psychological Association’s Division 39 Multicultural Scholar Award, and published an article in the Journal of Humanistic Psychology on the topic of self actualization. For the past few years, Dr. Jones has proudly served as an Adjunct Professor and taught several classes for psychology undergraduates at Azusa Pacific University, graduates of the clinical psychology Master’s program at Pepperdine University and 2nd and 3rd year clinical psychology doctoral students at Antioch University, Santa Barbara, and Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara. Member of the American Psychological Association – Certified Prepare/Enrich Facilitator – CDC Certified Life Coach.

Gioia Jacobson – Interim Co-Chair

Gioia Jacobson is a licensed marriage and family therapist and serves as Core Faculty and the MA Director of Research in the Counseling Department. Gioia received undergraduate degrees from Pitzer College in Psychology as well as English and World Literature: Creative Writing. Prior to completing her graduate work, Gioia studied holistic medicine for three years and obtained certification as a yoga instructor. Her current research focuses on ecopsychology as it relates to clinical practice.

Elisabeth Gonella – Interim Co-Chair

Elisabeth is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist working in the mental health and spiritual counseling fields for over 20 years and currently in private practice in Santa Barbara. She has expertise in working with adolescents and young adults which includes college-based counseling, private practice, wilderness based programs, emotional growth boarding schools and psychiatric hospital settings. She is experienced in acute psychiatric care and crisis management fostered by collaborative work in psychiatric care institutions.

M.A./Ph.D. Program in Depth Psychology with Specialization in Community, Liberation, Indigenous, and Eco-Psychologies

Susan James – Program Chair

Susan James is member of the core faculty at Pacifica Graduate Institute, and co-chair of the Community, Liberation, Indigenous, and Eco-Psychologies specialization of the M.A./Ph.D. program in Depth Psychology. Her work has focused on structural violence, transnational African spiritualities as resistance and innovation, visual design methodologies and research communication strategies. Her journal publications include American Journal of Community Psychology, Violence Against Women, and Women and Therapy. Susan earned a Ph.D. in Community Psychology from New York University, and has held faculty and senior research positions with various academic institutions and a national think tank.

Dylan Martinez Francisco – Co-Chair

Dylan Martinez Francisco studied liberal arts at Georgetown University and psychology at Adelphi University before completing his Ph.D. in Depth Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute—concentrating in Jungian and Archetypal Studies. His work focuses on C. G. Jung’s theory of archetypes—on archetypes as the deepest nature of the psyche and how they interconnect spirit, psyche, and matter as numinous and mythic powers that animate, govern, and structure the cosmos as a whole.

Keiron Le Grice – Co-Chair

Keiron is Core Faculty and Chair of the Jungian and Archetypal Studies specialization of the Depth Psychology program at Pacifica. He was educated at the University of Leeds, England (B.A. honors Philosophy and Psychology) and the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco (M.A. and Ph.D. Philosophy and Religion).

Glen Slater – Associate-Chair

Glen studied psychology and comparative religion at The University of Sydney before coming to the United States in 1992 for doctoral work in clinical psychology. He has been teaching at Pacifica for over twenty years and is currently the Associate Chair of the Jungian and Archetypal Studies specialization.

Mary Antonia Wood – Program Chair

Mary Antonia Wood is Chair of the M.A. in Depth Psychology and Creativity with Emphasis in the Arts and Humanities program, and the owner of Talisman Creative Mentoring, a practice that supports artists and creators of all types. Through one-on-one consultations, group workshops and classes, Wood assists creative individuals who desire a stronger and more authentic connection to the deepest archetypal sources of creativity. Wood has been a visual artist for over thirty years, working in a variety of media. Her work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions and has been collected by both public institutions and individuals.

Juliet Rohde-Brown – Program Chair

Juliet Rohde-Brown, Ph.D. is the Chair for the Depth Psychology: Integrative Therapy and Healing Practices doctoral specialization program at Pacifica Graduate Institute. She has been teaching psychology in higher education venues for over 20 years. Her clinical doctoral internship was completed at the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles and she has worked clinically in private practice and hospital settings. Before becoming a licensed clinical psychologist, she did integrative work as a hypnotherapist and trained in neuropsychological assessment and in-patient settings, among others.

Monica Mody – Co-Chair

Dr. Monica Mody is a Core Professor in the Mythological Studies with Emphasis in Depth Psychology Program. Her areas of specialization include decolonial, indigenous, and women of color paradigms and epistemologies; Anzaldúan frameworks; earth-sourced and feminist spirituality and ritual; poetry, divination, oracular speech, and arts-based research; and nondual embodiment, in conversation with ancestral lineages from South Asia. She is the author of the full-length poetry collections Wild Fin (Weavers Press, 2024) and Bright Parallel (Copper Coin, 2023), the cross-genre Kala Pani (1913 Press, 2013), as well as three chapbooks including Ordinary Annals (above/ground, 2021).

David Odorisio – Co-Chair

David M. Odorisio, PhD, is Co-Chair and Associate Core Faculty in Pacifica’s Mythological Studies graduate degree program. David is editor of A New Gnosis: Comic Books, Comparative Mythology, and Depth Psychology (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), Merton and Hinduism: The Yoga of the Heart (Fons Vitae, 2021), and co-editor of Depth Psychology and Mysticism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). He has published in Quadrant, Jung Journal, Philosophy East and West, The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, and The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, among other peer-reviewed journals. He currently teaches the following courses in the Mythological Studies program: Methods and Contemporary Issues in Religious Studies; Christian Traditions; Comic Books as Modern Mythology; and Dissertation Formulation.

Emily Lord-Kambitsch – Associate-Chair

Emily Lord-Kambitsch, Ph.D, is Co-Chair and an Associate Core Faculty member of the Mythological Studies Program. A scholar, poet-storyteller, and native of Santa Barbara, her lifelong exploration of classical mythology is rooted in the study of Greek and Latin language and literature. After completing a BA in Classics at UCSB, Emily received a Master’s degree from the University of Oxford, where her thesis focused on the healing of grief in Roman stoicism, and where she worked as a research assistant for the Oxford Emotions Project, a cross-disciplinary study of definitions of emotions in ancient Greece.