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The CAMFT Educational Foundation was formed to support and enhance the profession of marriage and family therapy. The Educational Foundation fulfills this mission by providing scholarships, grants, and other assistance to persons pursuing the profession or conducting research relevant to the practice of marriage and family therapists, and also by engaging in other programs to enhance and expand awareness of the profession.
One of the hallmarks of a life well lived is giving back to make it better than you found it. With generosity, a plot of land becomes a community garden; a dilapidated building becomes a food bank; and a mental health profession becomes more robust and diverse.
Since 1977, the CAMFT Educational Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization, has awarded nearly $150,000 in scholarships and grants. Today, the need to create a more diverse mental health workforce has never been greater, and scholarships and grants help make the dream of licensure as a marriage and family therapist a reality for many.
There Are Several Ways You Can Make A Difference To the Educational Foundation:
Monetary gift: Donations by check or credit card are critically important to the CAMFT Educational Foundation, because they can immediately fund scholarships and grants.
Bequests to the Foundation are easy to arrange. Additionally, your bequest may be designated for a particular purpose; used to establish a new scholarship; or, given to honor you or a loved one. Learn more.
Your gift to the CAMFT Educational Foundation will allow your generosity to leave the MFT profession better than you found it!
Apply for an Educational Foundation Scholarship or Grant
Please consider making a contribution to allow the Educational Foundation to continue its legacy of awarding scholarships and grants to the next generation of marriage and family therapists! All contributions are 100% tax deductible.
Educational Foundation Scholarship Recipient Yasmeen Qtaish (Read More)
Yasmeen Qtaish is a Palestinian Muslim American who realizes the need for therapists who look like her and come from similar backgrounds. One of her goals after completing her graduate program is to educate the youth in her community about mental health and offer low-cost therapy services to destigmatize mental health and wellness. In her first practicum year, she provided individual therapy and co-facilitated a coping skills group for high school students. In her second practicum year, she plans to work with the transitional-age youth population to support them through emerging adulthood. Once she is licensed, Yasmeen would like to do her part in removing barriers to treatment and providing services to underrepresented groups, especially the Muslim Arab community. Yasmeen would love to give psycho-educational talks with individuals in the Muslim community at mosques to work towards breaking the rampant mental health stigma in this community. She is conducting her thesis project on the mental health stigma and help-seeking attitudes of Muslim Americans. She hopes this will increase her knowledge in this area and thus provide direction for treating this community. Additionally, she would like to work with families and couples to bolster their connections with one another, as she believes the problem does not reside in the individual but rather is a product of their environment and socialization process.
Ronald D. Lunceford Scholarship Recipient Tessah Schoenrock (Read More)
Tessah Schoenrock is a biracial female who deeply understands what it is and what it means to be a minority in America. Her Caucasian mother raised her in a majority White area, and while she was always conscious of her ‘otherness’ within her community, she didn't always understand the meaning behind it and how it fits into the context of society. Tessah has always been committed to social justice reform, especially for Black Americans. She chose to pursue Marriage and Family Therapy because she can combine her love of psychology with her passion for social justice and innate desire to help others. She recognizes there is a dearth of Black mental health professionals, and a cultural mistrust of health providers because of generations of being exploited and abused in the name of science. It is her goal to help Black and other minority people with their mental health. She will strive to normalize therapy and other mental health care, and to be able to provide free or low-cost therapy to underserved populations across the spectrum. While she is interested in working with African Americans specifically, Tessah also consider herself an LGBTQIA+ ally and embraces intersectionality as a significant contributor to her clinical work. She understands and speaks limited conversational Spanish, but her goals are to improve her skills and also learn American Sign Language to increase the scope of services she can provide as a future MFT.
Scott Hamilton and Frank Galassi Scholarship Recipient Tanya Winje (Read More)
Tanya Winje has accumulated over 25 years of professional experience in the field of social services before beginning her Masters in Psychology with an emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy. As an Indigenous-queer woman, her personal experiences have given her a unique perspective on the importance of providing accessible and culturally sensitive care to underserved populations. She has utilized this perspective in her work as a Graduate Assistant at the LGBTQ campus life/Pride Center, where she works to create a safe and inclusive environment for LGBTQ students. Tanya has also created an LGBTQ support group for grief, loss, and bereavement. Upon becoming licensed, she intends to specialize in working with LGBTQ+ individuals, couples, and families. In addition to providing direct therapy services, she also intends to be an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community within the mental health field by educating other mental health professionals about the unique needs of this community and advocating for policies that promote inclusivity and equity.
Clinton E. Phillips Scholarship Recipient Erin Heath (Read More)
A first generation college student, Erin Heath is earning her Masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at San Francisco State University. Before entering her master's studies, she created a volunteer-run art therapy program at Magnolia Women’s Recovery Programs for pregnant and postpartum women recovering from substance use disorders—many of them survivors of DV. After graduation, Erin wants to provide trauma informed psychotherapy by starting her own nonprofit that provides education, support, and healing for domestic abuse survivors. Using art therapy techniques, among others, she wants to help survivors rebuild their sense of self-worth in the process of creating, such as poetry, letter writing, mandalas, altars, watercolor, jewelry making, pottery, gratitude journaling practices, and many other media.
Gary Grossman Scholarship Recipient Daisy Padilla Flores (Read More)
Daisy Padilla Flores is a first-generation bilingual Mexican-American and first-generation college graduate, who is dedicated to providing mental and behavioral health treatment for children and their families in San Diego, CA. She was forced to become independent early in life, juggling two different cultures, languages, and larger societies simultaneously. However, her experience living at the intersections of these identities has motivated her to advocate for multicultural children, especially within the Latino population. She witnessed her parents’ separation due to domestic violence, her mother’s deportation due to her undocumented status, and adverse mental health issues because of these adversities. Daisy’s ability to overcome the challenges she faced motivated her to serve as a family therapist available to support children who have experienced generational trauma and she knew that she wanted to be involved in the early, most important, time of people’s lives: childhood.
Ronald D Lunceford Honorable Mention Krystal Perez Mercado (Read More)
Krystal Perez Mercado is a Latina from Puerto Rico who dedicated the last 10 years to support domestic violence, sexual abuse and trauma survivors inspired by her experience of a domestic violence relationship in a young age. The existing mental health and survivor support resources along with her support network encouraged Krystal to get out of that violent relationship. Krystal serves as a TCTSY facilitator and trainer, as well as the coordinator of the TCTSY certification program. Currently, her focus lies in combining bodywork with clinical counseling for children and adolescents. Her lived experiences made her dedicate herself to working in the social and mental health sectors supporting other women who lived similar experiences, showing them that a healthy and safe life is possible.
Educational Foundation Scholarship Honorable Mention Roberto Dantes(Read More)
Scott Hamilton and Frank Galassi Scholarship Honorable Mention Safa Faheem (Read More)
Safa Faheem is a queer, first-generation Indian woman raised Muslim, who knows firsthand the challenge yet importance of prioritizing one’s mental health after navigating through complex childhood trauma and the impacts of that in her adulthood. Safa has fundraised for Trans Lifeline, who are dedicated to improving the quality of transgender lives and also helped organize and volunteer at her workplace’s annual Trans Conference. Through her pursuit to become a mental health therapist, Safa wants to build a safe space for other Asian American queer folks to process their own internalized shame that may prevent them from unlocking their own potentials.
Emma Haren volunteers extensively in her community including the soup kitchens at her church, numerous women's shelters. She is also a peer mentor for her University’s “El Espejo” program and a peer mentor at an anorexia nervosa and associated disorders (ANAD) recovery center. After graduation, she would like to be a therapist specializing in the treatment of eating disorders and possible perinatal health, infertility, and postpartum depression. She would also like to become a clinical director of a treatment center or open up her own private or group practice.
Jackeline Grapa has delved into the critical area of researching the need for therapists who are not only clinically trained but also linguistically and culturally competent to serve Latinx populations. In her practicum she works with families of children ages 0-5 in two diverse settings: one focusing on a bilingual parent-participation preschool and the other on school-based therapy. She plans to pursue a Ph.D. to engage in research that is specifically tailored to the unique needs of immigrant children and their families in California.
Jenifer Rodriguez has worked as an advocate for children who are the unaccompanied and traveling alone and being exposed to dangers and traumatic situations. Currently, she works in a school based Department of Mental Health setting. When she completes her MFT program, Jenifer will continue working with children ages 0-17 in foster shelters and/or immigration centers, and as previously noted, with unaccompanied minors.