Overview of the GLBT Religious Research Team
The GLBT Religious Research Team is comprised of graduate students and faculty interested in the religious/spiritual lives of GLBT individuals. The research conducted by this team includes independent research team projects as well as dissertation projects for students involved with this group. This page includes some brief information about each of the members of the research team.
Research Group Chairs
Margaret Arms, PhD |
Margaret Arms, PhD, brings to this project a deep and profound interest in the subject of this research group. Her clinical work and doctoral training are in the area of psychology and religion. Her work has focused, in part, on ways in which our religious beliefs and practices impact the well-being of our emotional and mental health, Likewise, she is interested in the impact of disturbing and difficult life situations or experiences (including religious prejudices) on spiritual beliefs and practices. Dr. Arms is a member of the adjunct faculty at COSPP, where she teaches in the trauma track and in the spirituality and psychological health program. Her teaching reflects over 20-years clinical experience working with spiritual issues as well as with other questions of meaning and purpose that emerge in the wake of trauma. Dr. Arms’ clinical work has occurred in a variety of settings from a community mental health center, to private practice, to serving as the executive director of The Shalom Center, an interfaith center working with spiritual issues of people affected by trauma. Dr. Arms has presented workshops, retreats, lectures, and training classes in the area of trauma and spirituality. Dr. Arms is a licensed clinical social worker with a joint PhD from the University of Denver and Iliff School of Theology in religious and theological studies in the area of religion and psychology. She has published in the Journal of Pastoral Theology and has a chapter in the book M. Fortune and J. Marshall, eds. (2002) Forgiveness and Abuse: Jewish and Christian Reflections. Haworth Pastoral Press. |
Louis Hoffman, PhD
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Louis Hoffman, PhD, is the Dean of Faculty and a Core Faculty member at the Colorado School of Professional Psychology. He serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the COSPP press and is co-editor of the recent book Spirituality and Psychological Health. Co-director of the God Image Institute, Dr. Hoffman's research and writing interests include the God image (how people emotionally experience God), religious/spiritual issues in psychotherapy, existential therapy, and the depth psychotherapy traditions. He has presented religious experience and diversity issues, including sexual orientation, at the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. Along with two other members of the GLBT Religious Research team, he has a book chapter on diversity and the God image in the forthcoming book The God Image Handbook: Theory, Research, Practice, which will be published with Haworth Press. |
Sandra Knight, PhD
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Research Group Team Members
Debye Galaska |
Debye Galaska is a fourth-year doctoral student in clinical psychology at the Colorado School of Professional Psychology, where she earned her MA in psychology. She is pursuing a concentration in marriage and family therapy. Debye received her BS in Civil Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She earned an MHS in Environmental Health Engineering from Johns Hopkins University and an MPA from the University of Oklahoma. Debye spent 19 years in the fields of occupational health and environmental protection. |
John Hoffman, PhD
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John Hoffman earned a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in higher education administration. He has spent over ten years working in administrative roles in academics, student affairs, and development and strategic planning. He spent six years as a dean of students in private Christian universities. John currently serves as a full-time lecturer at California State University, Long Beach where he teaches courses in leadership and management in the master's and Ed.D. programs. He also teaches as an adjunct in the masters and Ed.D. programs at USC. His primary research interests center on the influence of ethnic, gender, and religious diversity in college impact studies. John has also written and presented on new professional development, program assessment, and the development of intervention programs targeting at-risk behaviors. His work with the GLBT Religious Research Team is in the areas of statistical modeling and analysis and in the survey design, especially in relation to the collection and analysis of demographic data. |
Scott Boscoe-Huffman |
Scott Boscoe-Huffman is a second year doctoral student in clinical psychology at the Colorado School of Professional Psychology. He is working toward concentrations in Child and Adolescent Therapy, as well as, in Marriage and Family Therapy. His areas of research interest include religion, race, gender, and sexual orientation. He has spent the last fifteen years in program development, supervision, training, fund development, and management in non-profit organizations as a counselor, program director, and executive director. He was responsible for either direct creation or oversight of non-profit agency programs. The served populations included the acutely mentally ill, persons infected with HIV/AIDS, and foster children |
Beth Peterson |
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