CAPS Staff
The CAPS staff is dedicated and committed to a respectful understanding and honoring of the social, emotional and cultural contexts represented by each individual student.
CAPS provides individual and group counseling, emergency and crisis intervention, prevention-oriented outreach and educational presentations, consultation and training. CAPS maintains strict confidentiality, establishes a professional atmosphere, and holds to the highest clinical and ethical standards.
In response to the changing needs of the Saint Mary’s College Community, the CAPS staff is committed to training, life-long learning and its own professional growth and development.
Dana L. Collins, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)
Director
Dr. Dana is a licensed psychologist who earned her Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Boston College, her M.S. in Counseling and Counselor Education from Indiana University, and her B.A. in Psychology from Spelman College. Prior to joining CAPS she was on faculty in the Department of Family and Social Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, NY.
Her work is deeply rooted in social justice values, and as a Black woman, she is committed to the empowerment of marginalized individuals and communities, addressing racial trauma, raising awareness about mental health and reducing stigma, and using mindfulness-based practices to work towards healing. As a clinician, she embraces an integrative approach that includes relational, CBT, mindfulness psychodynamic, and trauma-focused modalities. She is an Oakland native and loves being a current resident. In addition to being a mental health and wellness enthusiast she enjoys camping, hiking, cooking, gardening, meditating, national and international travel, and spending all the time she can with her baby niece.
Kristen Freeman, Ed.D., (she/her)
Staff Therapist
Dr. Kristen Freeman earned a doctorate from the University of Southern California in Education, and M.A. in Counseling Psychology, Marriage and Family Therapy from Santa Clara University. Dr. Freeman is a staff therapist in CAPS and visiting professor at the Kalmanovitz School of Education. Dr. Freeman brings over a decade of experience supporting diverse student population's mental health and well-being in a college setting. Her professional interest includes treating adolescents and emerging adults experiencing racial trauma, stress, anxiety, and depression and providing support during significant life transitions. Dr. Freeman's integrative approach is grounded in cultural, relational, psychodynamic, CBT, and mindfulness practice. Dr. Freeman’s culturally responsive and identity-affirming lens encourages insight, acceptance, and empowerment. Dr. Freeman also holds professional certifications in Mindfulness Meditation and Life/Career coaching. She will serve as Interim Clinical Services Coordinator while Dr. Cutshall is on maternity leave.
Cynthia Cutshall, Ph.D., (she/her)
Associate Director of Clinical Services and Operations and Outreach Coordinator
Dr. Cutshall completed her training at the University of Iowa, the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, and Humboldt State University. Before arriving at SMC, she worked in community mental health centers and skilled nursing facilities. In collaboration with the Director, Dr. Cutshall oversees clinical services and operations at CAPS. She provides care to Saint Mary’s students, and she consults with concerned faculty, staff, family, and friends. Dr. Cutshall also works with the Training Director to provide supervision to training therapists at CAPS, and she manages outreach programming. Dr. Cutshall primarily employs psychodynamic, relational, multicultural, and trauma informed approaches in her work. She helps students gain insight into their patterns of thinking, feeling, and relating so that that they can better navigate challenges in their personal and academic lives. Dr. Cutshall is involved in anti-racist work on campus, and she strives to educate herself about the delivery of culturally sensitive mental health care.
Carnetta Porter, Psy.D., (she/her)
Staff Therapist, African-American/Black Student Focus
Dr. Carnetta Porter earned her doctorate degree in Clinical Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology/AIU in San Francisco. Her research and clinical interests include linguistic code-switching and acculturative experiences, cultural/racial identity development and racial trauma. As a Black identified therapist, she brings to CAPS 30+ years of professional/clinical development operating through a multi-cultural lens working with diverse populations as a therapist and educator. As a staff therapist at Mills College-CAPS, Dr. Porter provided individual and group therapy to students, and facilitated a Healing Circle to address the unique challenges and needs of Black/African-American identified students on campus. Dr. Porter has held an adjunct faculty position at AIU/CSPP where she taught a course designed to develop first-year graduate students’ awareness of their individual cultural identities and acceptance of cultural differences in others. As a clinician, she embraces an integrative approach to therapy that includes psychodynamic, multicultural, cognitive-behavioral and trauma-focused modalities with a goal of empowering individuals to develop coping strategies to overcome and manage traumatic stressors that can produce identity crises and life/relational transitions in adulthood. She lives in Oakland, CA and currently practices as a professional therapist in San Leandro, CA.
Heidi Tend (she/her)
Office Manager
Heidi brings more than 28 years of logistics, managerial, and administrative experience. Prior to joining Saint Mary's, she served as Logistics Manager for EPC/Honeywell, where she managed such projects as courseware curriculum development, training certification, and training coordination. When you come to CAPS, Heidi will be your first point of contact. She will help to navigate you through the process of filling out a questionnaire and setting up an appointment to see a therapist. In her free time, Heidi LOVES DOGS, volunteers at a local animal shelter, and has one pet therapy dog of her own and one pup in training. She is also responsible for coordinating the pet therapy events on the SMC campus. She posts about these events regularly on Instagram and you can follow them on @smccaps.