NBC Salutes Psychology Graduate for 'Making a Difference'

Satira Streeter, a clinical psychologist who studied at Old Dominion University while getting her doctoral degree through the Virginia Consortium, was featured on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams last month in a "Making a Difference" segment.

The 33-year-old psychologist, who got her consortium degree in 2001, was employed in prisons and Veteran's Administration hospitals before she decided four years ago to expend her savings on the community services center she founded in southeastern Washington, D.C. She worked without pay for three years at the facility-Ascensions Community Services, Inc.-before enough money started coming in from clients to provide her a salary.

Streeter chose a house in a residential neighborhood as the site of her clinic. She said she wanted the facility and its services to become part of the fabric of the poor community. The NBC report also noted that she volunteers at a nearby school and has helped to start a Girl Scout troop. It has been her "ultimate dream" to take care of her neighbors by offering affordable clinical services, she told the network.

Ascensions Community Services now employs a second psychologist, two therapists and an office manager. Through psychological and community interventions, it provides clients with assistance in improving their self-concept and interpersonal relationships. More information about the facility is at http://www.2ascend.org/index.html.

Part of Streeter's motivation for becoming a clinical psychologist, according to the report, was her mother having suffered from mental illness. She entered the Virginia Consortium program after graduating with honors from Wilberforce University in 1997. The College of William and Mary, Eastern Virginia Medical School and Norfolk State University work together with ODU in offering the consortium's program in clinical psychology.

Janis Sanchez-Hucles, chair of the ODU Department of Psychology, said of the report, "It was wonderful to see one of our graduates making such incredible contributions to her community."

The NBC report is at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/vp/30772240#30772240.