Dr. Linda Rodgers

Dr. Linda Rodgers

Written by Meghan Rivera '19

“She is truly an inspiration, constantly putting others before herself and providing the UD counseling center with endless love and laughter”. “She has helped many women, including myself, by learning how to grow through trauma. She is a beautiful soul and the true representation of a powerful woman”. “She goes above and beyond to help the members of our group, making sure that we have a supportive, healing environment”. These are just a few of the several wonderful comments made about Dr. Linda Rodgers, a compassionate therapist at the University of Dayton Counseling Center.

For the past 20 years, the University of Dayton has been graced with Linda’s presence on campus. Born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Linda is the oldest of seven children and was the first in her family to graduate from high school. Linda received her undergraduate degree in Behavioral Sciences from Mount Mary College in Milwaukee. She then pursued her Master’s degree in Rehabilitation Counseling at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. During this time, Linda worked as a Rehabilitation Counselor helping individuals with both physical and mental disabilities. With a background in career counseling, Linda aided her clients in finding and establishing careers based on their interests and abilities. While working full time, Linda continued her education and received her doctorate in Counseling Psychology also at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She completed her internship at Grand Valley State University in Michigan, where she focused on diversity efforts among the student population. She also specialized in counseling survivors of sexual abuse. Her dissertation is entitled, “Exploring Vocational Outcome: Voices of Women Who Have Survived Childhood Sexual Abuse”.

After applying to several different institutions, Linda secured a position at the University of Dayton and began in August 1998. At the time, Linda was the first African American therapist at the Counseling Center in more than a decade. During her first few years, Linda served as the coordinator for Diverse Student Populations, which is now known as the Office of Multicultural Affairs. Linda was in charge of outreach programming for students of color on campus. This work involved her attending student organization meetings and writing letters to incoming students of color, informing them of Counseling Center services. In this role, she also ran an African American Women’s Support Group, which continued for eight to nine years. She also taught a graduate course in Multicultural Counseling and a course in the psychology department. Linda has trained practicum and intern students in career counseling and developed career seminars that ran for several years, helping UD students find a major or explore career opportunities within their major.

Linda enjoys working at UD and walking with students on their journey toward positive change. Currently, Linda runs a Survivors of Sexual Assault Support Group, which she began about six years ago. This group focuses on support and learning effective coping skills to help women recover from the trauma of sexual violence, regardless of where or when the trauma occurred. In her free time, Linda enjoys various forms of dance and exercise ( i.e., kickboxing, P90x), listening and collecting jazz and blues, reading both fiction and non-fiction books and going to movies and plays.