User:Nafshealer/sandbox

(Lady) Dr. Heather Laird is an American scholar and professor of Marriage and Family Therapy and Public Health. She is the President of the Center for Muslim Mental Health and Islamic Psychology a 501c3 nonprofit located in California and Maryland affiliated with the University of Southern California. She is also Managing Director of HRL Consulting. Dr. Laird has a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology and Marriage and Family Therapy from the Chicago School. A Master's in Marriage and Family Therapy (TCS), a Master's in Public Administration and Nonprofit Management certificate from Eastern Michigan University and a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and Arabic from Indiana University, Bloomington. She has further specializations and training in Trauma-informed therapies, Energy Psychology and Sex Therapy, Grief and Loss, and hosts Muslims and Mental Health on YouTube. She hosts MH90 – Mental Health in 90 seconds podcast and the Life of an American Muslimah podcast. She was a 2015-2016 AAMFT Doctoral Fellow of the Minority Fellowship Program and a 2016-2017 Albert Schweitzer Fellow. She has been awarded the Global Psychology Award (2015 & 2016) and the Community Partnerships Award (2016) and Community Service Learning Award for teaching (2018) She was awarded the Community Changemaker Award in 2017 from the Muslim Public Affairs Council.

Dr. Laird created and chaired the Moving Toward Defining an Islamic Psychology held at the University of Southern California in 2018. Held for a second year in 2019. This is a working conference brings together Islamic scholars and mental health professionals from around the globe to discuss defining Islamic psychology.

Dr. Laird serves on both the UsCC EE/ME subcommittee and participates in the FBAC for the Department of Mental Health Los Angeles. She has served on many community boards. While at TCS she had served on The Chicago School of Professional Psychology Diversity Advisory Board (2016-2017), the State of the Discipline Committee for MFT (2017) and the Distinguished Teaching Award Committee (2014), and on the AAMFT-CA Outreach Committee (2014). She was a steering committee member to the first World Congress on Muslim Philanthropy in Istanbul. She has presented on Muslim Mental Health topics in the United States and abroad in Europe and Asia.

Dr. Laird is a Lady by descendants of the Lord the MacClean Clan of Scotland.