Are you on any research teams or have any specific areas of research or populations of interest?

I’m on Dr. Talapatra’s research team; particularly interested in early childhood, early indicators of ID, impacts of familial trauma

Why did you decide to get into the field of school psychology?

I have always loved the intersection of systems. To me, receiving training in schools and clinics, and learning to work not only with children but with teachers, parents, administrators, and community organizations makes my training feel very wholistic.

What do you think other prospective students should know about graduate school?

Graduate school is hard, but you knew that. I think prospective students should know that they should expect to not know things. A learner mindset will carry you through graduate school and also carry you through your career. I think maintaining a healthy curiosity about the field helps keep me going when I have busy weeks.

How do you find balance in your life?

I firmly believe that everyone in graduate school should rescue a dog. Daily walks with my rescue pitbull, Harley, keep me grounded. I wanted my identity during graduate school to be multifaceted, and I have found balance in moving my body (shout out to The Pilates Studio and Pearl Street Fitness) regularly and getting into estate sales. Having friends outside of graduate school also reminds me to take breaks and to talk about something other than psychology.

What part of our program stands out as unique to you?

I have such faith that everyone in my program are going to be just outstanding school psychologists. They are fierce advocates for children, and I have learned so much about what it means to be a practitioner just from listening and learning from them.

What motivated you want to run for SASP president this year?

I ran for SASP president because I wanted to create more actionable tenants for student support and equity through the SASP board. There is truly such motivation and capability on the SASP board this year, and I was excited at the prospect of getting to work with these peers outside of the classroom and clinic context.

What are some of your goals or plans for our program this year as president?

As a SASP board, we have really been discussing what our role and purpose is to the student body. A broad goal for SASP board this year is to increase the visibility of SASP in the program, and have students feel comfortable and willing to come to SASP with concerns or ideas.

Outside of SASP, what other activities, teams, job, etc. are you apart of within CFSP and/or outside of DU?

I am currently the Graduate Assistant for the Assessment at Accreditation Department here at Morgridge, working under Nicole Holland. I am a member of Dr. Talapatra’s research team, where we are focusing research efforts on Intellectual Disabilities and Graduate Training. I am also a member of RULER research study with Dr. Banerjee in collaboration with Dr. Bailey at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, where we are measuring the efficacy of a social-emotional learning program with preschoolers here in Colorado.

Any words of advice or message you would like to send to the CFSP family as our SASP president?

Keep going! It is hard but your work is impacting so many children, families, and systems.

Our school psychology program, here at the University of Denver, continues to be a well-respected and prestigious graduate program thanks to the amazing work our alumni have done in the field of school psychology, education, and mental health. Krista Klaboo is one of those alumni who falls under that category; Krista has been a large influencer and has made a significant impact for many years in school psychology and education across Colorado, from her work as a board member and president of the Colorado Society of School Psychologists. As the School Psychology and Special Education Evaluation Specialist at the Colorado Department of Education, Krista continues to strive to improve the quality of school psychology in the state of Colorado and bring equitable practices to marginalized populations, especially those from rural areas.

How did you decide to enter the field of school psychology?

I have always loved learning and had a fascination with how people learn. When I was young, I thought I wanted to be a Kindergarten teacher and follow in my mother's footsteps. I realized quickly that my love of education was rooted in mental health, working with students with disabilities, and advocating for equity and access for all. My meandering path before school psychology included being a Kindergarten teacher, special education teacher, and coach. During these experiences, I learned about school psychology and that this role was my dream mixture of my passion areas - mental health, disability, advocacy, and leadership. This led me to take a leap of faith and decide to go back to school. I stay in the field because I love breaking down barriers and roadblocks. Specifically, I am passionate about equitable access to mental health intervention and education support. I also love supporting the school psychologists across the state be the best they can be so that the students of Colorado are receiving the support they need and deserve to be successful in school and life. Overall, my passions for advocating for students and families, education policy reform, removing and reducing barriers to learning continue to drive me.

What have been the biggest barriers you've seen in really providing equitable education and mental health care throughout schools in Colorado?

I started to my career in rural North Dakota. I was actually a special ED teacher in rural North Dakota before I became a school psychologist. And so for us, we had one school psychologist for our whole district and I'd maybe see her once a month. Our counselor provided all the direct service and she was only in our building two days a week. And so just the access has been a barrier. I think now with telehealth, that is a big reduction in a barrier. Like more and more people are able to do telehealth and are open to doing telehealth. I would say, it's the shortage [of psychologists] and then it's also funding in our rural districts.

They [Rural districts] can't afford to pay the salaries that they have in the Metro area and so then school psychs don't want to work for $50,000. So the rural districts have a hard time getting people wanting to live there. Our mountain towns struggle with salary versus cost of living. I mean we do here in Denver too, but like Aspen, they have housing assistance because it's so hard to live there as an education professional. So some of our mountain towns are trying to provide things necessarily to have staffing. It starts there, right? So then we have to have the staffing to be able to provide the support and funding to staff.

And then this is something I really advocated for recently is that our Child Find obligations are an equitable obligation. Our families who don't understand the education system, maybe don't understand English who immigrated here, who are working two jobs. They don't know how to push those buttons. They don't know who to ask. They don't know what to say and so when I say Child Find is an equitable obligation, we have an obligation to all of our students, not just our students of families who are the squeakiest, right? Like we need to be able to evaluate and support all students, no matter how involved the family members are or not.

If you look at like the poor rural districts and families I worked with, who wouldn’t push for special education, they don’t know they had rights, they don’t understand any of it. And then I worked in Littleton Public Schools and I would have families come in with an advocate lawyer and immediately list out the evaluations. Like they had money, they had people and they were educated themselves. In North Dakota, I had families that were like, “oh, I have to come to the IEP meeting? What, what are you talking about? I’ll just trust you, do whatever you want to do.” Yeah, so it's just very different. It's not one is better than the other, they both have big cons and positives, but it's very different.

As the former president of the Colorado Society of School Psychologists, what kind of issues have you had to deal with in the past and what practices/policies have you really worked to put in place?

I was the CSSP president in 2019 and my main goal during that time, this was before COVID, was really addressing the shortages of school-based mental health providers. And then also really providing training around mental health intervention and various counseling approaches. As the CSSP president, you run the board meetings for the whole entire year, but then you also set the tone, set the message for the state conference that happens every fall. So you’ll kind of be the person that really decides what the theme is, who you want to bring in that are big presenters, and then then you really help the board do what they do well.

And then my role now as the school psychology specialist at the department of education in the special education unit, my whole job is to support school psychologists and school social workers in the state and then advocate up for what they need as well. So providing training down to the field and supporting the field, which is the core of my job, and then advocating at the state for their needs.

What do you see as your greatest contribution to school psychology as of yet OR what do you hope to accomplish/fulfill in the next 5-10 years?

Thus far, I feel like my most significant contribution to school psychology is the presence we have in the state department of education. State leaders know who school psychologists are, and they seek us out when they need help making decisions relating to our field. As far as my hope, I hope to help mitigate the shortage of school psychologists here in Colorado, and I hope to have better funding streams for mental health that are not reliant on special education funds or grants.

That’s awesome. You mentioned that you want to really improve the shortage of school psychologists, what are some ideas and ways that we can spread the awareness around what school psychology is and gather mor professionals in this field?

Well, there's a couple things that we need. We need funding, we need another program in our state, and our pipeline is not sufficient for the need. So we only have three graduate programs here in our state. We do not graduate enough people to fill our open positions, so either we need our programs to grow or we need a whole other program. My dream would be to add another program that's EdS-practitioner-focused and that's a hybrid model, and then that way we could start to fill some of these shortage positions that are just ongoing. So that would take funding, most likely national legislative funding, which NASP has been working on and yesterday they released it, but there's one hundred and eleven million going towards the shortages of mental health providers. Things like that are going to help. It's going help in five, ten years, but we need another program. We need people to become academics, we know that there's an academic shortage, so we need faculty to fill these spots. Honestly, our programs here in the state have not had an issue getting students. Yeah, that’s not really the issue. Our programs are all full and they are at capacity. So we need another program or we need our programs to grow. This isn't an issue just in Colorado, it's an issue in Wyoming, New Mexico, all the states around us, and so it's beneficial if any of those states would add in a program.

If you could go back in time to your first year of graduate school, what would you tell your younger self?

Many things. First, it is ok not to be the highest achiever and not be perfect. I would emphasize that I need to give myself grace and flexibility, and I would also make myself set boundaries earlier. Growing up, I was indoctrinated with the grind and give 110% mentality, and recently I have learned to control where and how I put my energy. I have to be selfish and put energy towards myself if I want to sustain long-term in my career and continue supporting others.

I like that statement, “knowing where and how you put your energy.” Is that advice that you would give recent graduate students entering the field to avoid burnout?

I mean, you can put all your energy into something and it might not fix it or you might stew on something, but you have to understand where you're putting it and how your energy is impacting yourself. And you have to put it to things you love, like your family, your friends. I work out every single day, I have to do that and if I'm not doing that, then I'm not going to be able to do my job. Not all jobs are going to be supportive of that and not all jobs are going to like healthy boundaries or want you to have them, but then you're going to find jobs like my job I have right now with the state that promote healthy boundaries.

How do you find balance in your life?

I think 1 to 1 balance is unachievable, and if you focus on spending equal time, you will constantly be fighting for something that is not realistic. Instead, I do small things every day (mental and physical hygiene) that release and restore my energy. A few practices and activities that I aim to do every day include moving my body, meditating, spending 15 minutes outside, and caring for my rescue dog. Finally, I can do these things because I have learned how to have and communicate healthy boundaries with work. I have firm rules and soft rules that I have shared with my supervisor and colleagues, and I ask them to respect them and, more importantly, help hold me to them.

How did DU’s school psychology program help prepare you for your professional career?

The DU program helped me develop various skills, including presentation, crisis response, and problem-solving skills. Also, during my time at DU, I was able to build relationships and connections, which has been an asset for me and my career.

How did you decide to enter the field of school psychology and why do you stay in the field?

My very first undergraduate class, "Learning and the Brain," was taught by an assistant dean who happened to be a school psychologist by training. At the end of the semester, she met with each student individually, and she offered me an assistantship in her office. She also gave me interesting assignments that were (unbeknownst to me) related to school psychology. She introduced me to my first cognitive test and paid for my fee for NASP which happened to be in Atlanta that year.

What are some of your areas of research interest?

Korean and Asian American Mental Health; Positive Psychology; Meaningful Relationships; Mental Health in Schools; Assessment

What do you see as your greatest contribution to school psychology as of yet OR what do you hope to accomplish/fulfill in the next 5-10 years?

My greatest contribution so far is training my students. When I am with a student, I think about all of the students and children they will be affecting in the years to come. My next goal is to bring greater mental health awareness and reduce its stigma to the Korean American community.

I'm really interested hearing more about your work with the Korean American community, especially around some of the stigmas you've seen and barriers around mental health in this community.

One of the things that's really important to me is that I don't want to be an academic in a white ivory tower. I don't want to be up in my tower telling people how to live their lives and doing my job in this ivory tower that no one knows about. It's really important to me that I use my expertise for the benefit of a community or a local community. So a lot of that came from work in DFW, where I started getting really plugged in with the Korean American community and where I noticed that there was such a lack of research work that was being done with this community. And it's like, well, if no one's doing this, somebody's got to figure out what's going to work for this population. And so there are a couple ways I'm coming at it; one is I do have a research study that's specific to Korean Americans, looking at some culturally specific variables that help Koreans to understand one another. And the other part is really just getting information out there. So recently I started a podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/1z5p6lCBPoqSZ4A6UXjuzH?si=2e19cc7e0f5742f6

The point of this podcast is that what I've noticed from my volunteer work with a nonprofit group [Mustard C Generation] that’s focused on Korean American mental health awareness and one of the things I noticed meeting other Korean American therapists and frankly mental health practitioners everywhere is once they leave graduate school, they don't have access to research articles anymore, and if they don't have access to the latest research, then how are they keeping up with their practice? And so what me and my podcast partner [CEO of Mustard C Generation] do is to break down both of those barriers by one, reading an article and each episode is just an overview of that article and making sure that it's talked about in easy to digest terms, that's translated so that it's meaningful for practitioners, and then of course at the very end, we always end with what are some possible implications for therapy or mental health.

Wow that’s awesome. Is there any related research work that you want to do in the near future, that students here in the program can be apart of?

I'm interested in how to get people of different cultures to communicate with each other better. And part of that, I believe comes from one's ability to develop meaningful relationships with one another. So there's a lot of tools out there, not just within psychology or counseling, but a lot of things out in the commercial world, such as there's a card game called We're Not Really Strangers, that helps people develop better relationships. Well, I was just curious and said, why not take a look at this and see if this would work for people of different cultures and help them to understand one another. So I contacted company they're like, “yep, go ahead, do the research study.” So at DU we're going to take international students and domestic students and see if it changes their perspectives. See if it changes their feeling of belonging at the university, to see if there's any effect of it that we can actually measure.

And so that's one area I'm looking at. What I hope to do after that study's over is take a look at another cultural difference that I think is often overlooked, which is first generation immigrant parents with their second generation children. It's two different cultures living in the same house. There's shared things, but there's also disparate things. And because of that, they need that connection, parents and children need that meaningful relationship, and so what I hope to do in the next phase is to see if any of these games that are out there are really beneficial and collect evidence to building a more, a meaningful relationship.

That all sounds like amazing work. How do you find balance in your life?

Boundaries are the only way I can maintain my own mental health. I cut off work in the evening, unless I just feel like doing it, and it's unusual for me to do a lot of work on weekends. For leisure, I enjoy playing video games, reading (fiction), spending time with friends, and watching shows on various platforms. Currently playing Hades on my Switch, reading the Stormlight Archive series by Brandon Sanderson, and watching Star Wars the Clone Wars series on Disney+.

It sounds like you do a really good job of finding balance in your professional life. How important do you think balance is for our own students in the program?

Yeah, I think I shared a lot of my interests and it's funny because those are the things I just enjoy and what I found is the things that I'm into oftentimes are the same things that a lot of my clients are. When I was doing my internships and when I was in the schools, they were also interested in those things and it helped me to connect with them to be able to talk about those things. So it really helps to build some of that connection and yes, I pursue my own interests, but I found that it does help with my professional life as well.

What part of our program stands out as unique to you?

I am impressed by the caliber of students. The questions and the lively discussions in class bring such energy that I thrive on in the classroom. I also enjoy working with the other SP faculty. I love how we get along so well.

Could you tell me more about what classes you're teaching right now and what that experiences have been like?

Yeah. Right now I’m finishing up the winter quarter and we're finishing up counseling one and then I'll be teaching counseling two in the spring, and the interventions course in the summer. And yeah, so far it's been great. The first quarter in the fall I was not teaching and so it did feel a little disconnected and I think once you're in the classroom, then you start to feel connected with the program because you're meeting the students and you're just more connected.

That’s great. How have your students been doing?

They’re doing great! I think one different take that I'm going with the counseling courses, is I’m focusing on MI [motivational interviewing] and there's a couple of reasons for that. First, there's a lot of research work that's been done with motivational interviewing that shows its efficacy. It's highly adaptable to lots of situations. But for me personally, the thing that put me over the top was when students get out into the field and it's been a few years since they've taken a counseling class, they might have forgotten stuff where they can't find their notes. If you pick up the motivational interviewing book, it starts with everything from the micro skills, all the way to the advanced skills. And so it's a go-to reference for them that should refresh their memories.

Any last advice or comments for the article?

I think now that COVID is kind of calming down a little bit and the restrictions are coming down. It might be possible to see each other more often and run into each other more often. So, I would say to any of the students, while the faculty I have already met, if they see me, feel free to say hi and come in if you want to meet and just have a chat. I would love to do that.

Why did you decide to get into the field of school psychology?

RW: I stumbled upon school psychology! My career path was originally in speech pathology. I completed a post-baccalaureate at Idaho State University and was a behavioral interventionist and habilitative interventionist for four years. In my fourth year as a BI I worked closely with the school psychologist. I would make sure the interventions were going to fit the student’s needs, have them be done with fidelity - I ended up doing a lot of the same stuff that I realized on a larger scale was what the school psychologist was doing. And I was like, “Oh! Great! I really like this!” And then I also saw some frustration – I became kind of frustrated with the special education system too and I saw how other students I wasn’t working with were really falling through the cracks, and so that was when I was like, “Okay, I’m really limited in my capacity as a BI,” because as a BI I was really only assigned to work with one student. So, I couldn’t make any systemic change, I couldn’t really have my voice be heard in that sense, and even in IEP meetings, I wasn’t necessarily invited to them, which I thought was crazy, because I spent all of my time with them. The schools did invite me to the IEP meetings because they wanted my input, but it wasn’t something that was required. And so, just after working with school psychologists, I really realized that this is something I’m really interested in.

AH: That’s amazing. I’ve heard that story before about just being so frustrated with the special education system, with schools in general, and just feeling limited by the confines of the role.

RW: Yeah, exactly. And something that we’ve talked about in VRT too is – at one of my other schools I’ve worked with – it was “an inclusive environment” but ultimately the students were just plopped in the general education classroom, nothing was adapted for them, and I was responsible for teaching them and I had no idea what to do. Just seeing those little pockets of like, “man this is not helping these students,” especially students with intellectual disabilities.

AH: Right – did you have a bunch of students with ID there?

RW: Yeah! I predominately worked with students with Down Syndrome, I had one student with FOXP1, and my main student that I worked with for a very long time had Autism. I worked with a lot of kids on the ASD spectrum.

AH: Well, I’m glad you found your way to school psych! You’re definitely making an impact.

What do you hope to accomplish in the next 5-10 years?

RW: Yeah! So, I think it kind of depends. I have these broad general ideas, but it really kind of depends I think on what my experiences are in my advanced prac and internship sites. Specifically, with hospitals or community placements, I’m trying to stay as open as possible to those experiences. But ultimately, I really want to be a really active NASP member. I want to stay on top of presentations and publications, and I would really like to stay within the research – have one foot within the research world for sure, but then I’m also really interested in – my Big Kid goal, I guess – is to start my own private practice. Or to find a private practice that aligns with, I’m hoping, early intervention, because I love the Littles, I love early childhood, and I think early childhood intervention is so important. I love consulting and working with families on those goals for their child. So, some kind of private practice with early childhood intervention would be amazing. And then, I’m also considering going back into the schools for a little bit too to pay it forward, since we do have such a shortage in the field. I think it would be really important for me to dedicate at least a couple years. And then maybe if I get burned out then go and venture, but I want to be able to support the school system as much as I can. So, I think it’s going to kind of shuffle around! The exact order I’m not really sure about, but, like I said, strong NASP membership, and then private practice, and I’m also interested in potentially writing social-emotional books. I think that would be really fun. Especially filling the gap literature on students with trauma – having a childhood book that helps students with that. Or, those more difficult, nuanced experiences for children that aren’t necessarily represented in the childhood books. Like adoption, having two dads, two moms – filling those pieces in the social-emotional world.

AH: Trying to make tools accessible for people who have nontraditional experiences.

RW: Exactly.

AH: Well, those are beautiful goals, and I have no doubt you will accomplish them. I can’t wait to see that! Definitely needed.

What do you think other prospective students should know about graduate school?

RW: I think it’s really important to know – at least in my year, especially introducing clinic rotations – is that growth mindset. Really leaning into it. Knowing that it’s not going to be easy all the time, and that’s okay. You’re going to struggle but you’re going to be able to learn through something. The struggle is making you a better practitioner, and being able to identify the areas of weakness and bolster that so that you can be as effective and efficient as you can with helping students and their families. So, that grown mindset is really big, and that you’re going to be pushed outside your comfort zone, and that’s also okay. Especially when it comes to you starting a new program, getting to know new people, getting to know how grad school works, even just at that systems level too. So, give yourself some grace, patience and kindness. And don’t be afraid to learn from your mistakes and not beat yourself up too much.

AH: That’s great. That’s so important. I feel like if you are stuck on that part, it makes everything so much harder.

RW: Oh, it does, it really does! I do have perfectionistic tendencies, and I feel like if you’re reaching for higher ed, you usually have those perfectionistic tendencies too, and it can be hindering sometimes if you’re so afraid to make mistakes. But, try it! Go and push yourself in the direction of where you’ve identified that weakness so that you can really become better.

How do you find balance in your life?

RW: I have to really make an active effort. It’s not always easy to keep that balance. I really try to take walks, and I try to carve out over the weekend some Me Time, and time with my fiancé as well. So, with balance, really having that external support system, and having that support system with my peers too, because they’ve been amazing with really helping me is so important. Like, “Okay Rachel, did you walk away from your assignment? Yes I did.” We do quality checks on each other to make sure that we are keeping balance. Having that support system in the program as well as having the support system of friends who aren’t in the program. Getting time with people who can help me walk away from my work and that stuff, and be able to channel it to hikes and painting and drinking wine and The Bachelorette! But again, it takes an active effort because it can be really easy to get into the cycle of work and sleep, work and sleep.

AH: That’s a great idea to have quality checks on each other – just check in to make sure everyone is doing okay.

RW: Yeah! That peer support is so important. I’m really proud of our cohort too, because we’re kind of like the COVID babies. So, those quality checks have become really big means of communication for us, which is invaluable. We do texting quality checks, or even in the GroupMe some people will send encouraging blasts of “Hey! You’ve got this!” Or even just seeing each other in MCE and not just asking the question, “You okay? Oh, good,” but actually having that question Are You Okay temperature check mean something. And I really think that my peers do mean it. And we mean it when we ask each other. We’re really using our micro skills with each other, which is super helpful!

AH: That’s awesome – that’s so important. I can’t even imagine going through so much of grad school during the pandemic. It’s very intense. So, that is wonderful that you all have found a tiny way to be so supportive of each other.

What part of our program stands out as unique/special to you?

RW: What feels really special to me is the thoroughness of the program. I know that when I’m on the other side of this, I’m going to be as prepared as I possibly can be to work in the field and I know that if I need something once I leave, or if I need to consult with any of our faculty that they would be so willing to help and be supportive, even once I’ve left DU. And I think that’s huge. I mean, Dr. Talapatra – I know that I could call on her; Dr. Allen if I have a quick question; Dr. McDiarmid if there’s a crisis; and even Dr. Miller who’s still involved in the community, and I know that if I had a question about anything within her wheelhouse; and now Dr. Kim – Dr. Kim seems like a wonderful addition to our team – I know I could call on them. And I think that is really special to be able to have that contact and have them be invested in our career and also our wellbeing. So, I think that is really special. Being thoroughly trained, having that support, and also how the program really does take into account our student voice. And how we’ve been able to provide feedback. The faculty create lots of opportunities for student feedback, and I think that’s really important too because we need to be able to appropriately advocate for ourselves. And with that comes those moments to be able to do so. I think that’s what makes our program really special.

AH: I agree, for sure. It does seem like they’re looking to invest in us and create colleagues, not just student-faculty, but with the end goal of one day viewing us as equals in the profession and creating that team environment to come back to.

RW: Exactly. And I feel like each year the course plan looks different and these things change, but it’s honestly based off of feedback. Like, okay, this sequence didn’t work, or trying to see if there was a gap in this year’s knowledge, let’s fill the gap by breaking Consultation into three classes instead of just one. I feel like they’re really adaptive to our professional needs. Versus saying, okay, this is the coursework, and this is the way it is going to be for forever and it’s going to be stagnant. I love how evolving it is.

AH: It’s responsive. It’s taking in the data, like our profession, and trying to adapt and improve and grow. I think it has grown a lot in the past 15 years even, and it’s always trying to be better.

RW: Yes, like you said - it’s that database. They’re really trying to practice what we see in the literature, and I think that is a really neat aspect of the program.