Enhancing student wellbeing, resilience, and leadership | with Dr. Tim Davis

Tim Davis, PhD, is associate professor of public policy at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and the Director of Leadership Coaching for BattenX, the executive training program. A clinical psychologist, Tim helps students, executives and teams achieve more by building resiliency, community and self-awareness. At Batten, he teaches courses on team leadership, group dynamics and emotional resilience.  

Davis’s leadership courses at Batten emphasize practical, experiential learning to build self-awareness. His students form teams to experiment with using different approaches to solving problems they experience as team members and leaders. His resilience-focused courses use the transition to and from college as a place for students to learn emotional resilience skills, life management skills, and foundational leadership skills that will help them deal with setbacks and career changes.

Prior to joining Batten, Davis served as the Executive Director for Resilience & Leadership Development at the University of Virginia.  He also previously served as the Director of the UVA Center for Counseling & Psychological Services and as Director of Clinical Services at the University of Michigan Counseling & Psychological Services Department. 

Education:

• Executive Coaching Certification from Georgetown University’s Institute for Transformational Leadership. 
• PhD in counseling psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park 
• MA in counseling psychology from Arizona State University.  
• BA in journalism & history from Indiana University

Topics we cover:

1. The bathtub epiphany moment that led Tim to psychology
2. Why Tim wanted to help people as a therapist 
3. Getting rejected from “safeties” but accepted to the #1 counseling psych program
4. Tim’s attitude toward research in grad school
5. Choosing a clinical path after grad school
6. Why Tim got training in more severe psychopathology
7. What Tim learned about college student mental health after working at 4 separate university counseling centers
8. The adolescent brain
9. The crisis of college mental health centers
10. Why Tim stepped away from his clinical positions
11. What piqued Tim’s interest in leadership and resilience?
12. How Tim fosters leadership, resilience, and emotional wellbeing for thousands at UVA through his courses
13. How are leadership and resilience related?
14. Can everyone be a leader?
15. What is Tim’s definition of leadership?
16. How is Tim’s clinical background still serving him?
17. What is one skill, quality, or general factor that has served you no matter where you went in life? 

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Music by: Adam Fine