Staff Spotlight: Stuart Lee

“There are so many obstacles you can put in the way of a change that may be good for you,” explained Stuart Lee, a 2010 graduate of the Wright Institute’s Counseling Psychology Program. “I was coming up with every reason.” After two decades in the field of forensic science, Stuart overcame an array of obstacles and his own self-doubt and pivoted to a new and more fulfilling career in psychology.

Stuart was born and raised in the San Francisco area, where he lived with his parents and older brother. Both of his parents were immigrants from Korea and often hosted family members who had recently immigrated to the United States. Stuart was a quiet child who enjoyed building scale models of cars in his free time. “I was really into cars and nobody else in my family was,” he recalled. “So I would read magazines on anything about cars or auto racing.” He attended public schools in Oakland and was a straight A student, so expectations were high as he approached college. “Because my brother had gone to Berkeley, the expectation was that I would apply to UC also,” he explained. “There was no talk about community college or state colleges to try it out for a couple of years and then transfer.”

After high school, Stuart began his studies at the University of California at Berkeley. “My parents’ expectations were that my brother was going to be a lawyer and I was going to be a doctor and I didn’t really question it,” he reflected. “I enrolled in all of the pre-med courses, but my heart wasn’t in it, I was just going through the motions.” Stuart was a commuter student and was working part-time at a grocery store during college, so he wasn’t able to immerse himself in the college environment like many of his peers. Halfway through his time at UC Berkeley, Stuart told his parents he wanted to transfer to another state school and major in business, but they encouraged him to stay the course. Stuart graduated from UC Berkeley with a BA in physiology in 1983, but the next steps in his path were unclear.

Many of Stuart’s friends were going into law enforcement after college, so he began thinking about how his physiology degree could be put to use in a crime lab. He volunteered at the Oakland Police Department crime lab and realized he found the work interesting. “We had a family friend who worked for the LA County Coroner's Office, so I went down there and toured the Orange County lab,” he recalled. “I met Margaret Kuo, who was the director of that lab, and she offered me a trainee position as a criminalist.” Stuart moved out of his parents’ home for the first time and spent two years working as a criminalist/toxicologist in Orange County, analyzing body tissues for the presence of controlled substances.

Eager to move back to the Bay Area, Stuart took a position as a criminalist at the San Francisco Police Department crime lab in 1989, then was hired by the Oakland Police Department crime lab in 1990 when a similar position became available. “Usually you train in drug analysis first at these crime labs and then you can branch off,” he explained. “After one year, I began training in the latent fingerprint section, processing evidence for latent prints and conducting fingerprint comparisons.” He then trained in the forensic biology section, examining physical evidence for the presence of biological fluids and conducting DNA analysis. Stuart enjoyed the analytical nature of this work, but working at a crime lab meant that they were always overworked, under-resourced, and understaffed.

From 1988-2009, Stuart testified in many court cases as an expert witness in the areas of forensic biology, latent fingerprints, and drug analysis. “The defense attorneys were always trying to find where you messed up, anything to create some kind of doubt,” he recalled. “That part was challenging because you couldn't make a mistake - you had to be perfect all the time.” The importance of the work he was doing in the lab, providing court testimony, and the need for perfection made the work quite stressful.

In the early 2000s, after many years in the field of criminalistics, Stuart decided it was time for a change. He asked himself if this was the work he wanted to do until he retired and his answer was a resounding no. “I was into my own personal psychotherapy and I remember thinking that I've always been kind of an introspective and introverted person and I was curious about that,” Stuart shared. “So I took a Careers in Psychotherapy course through UC Extension and it felt right.” Prior to taking that course, Stuart had considered moving into business or accounting, but psychology seemed like a much better fit. Despite this realization, it still took him five years to push past all of the barriers to change that he had put in place and apply to a psychology graduate program.

One day in 2007, Stuart’s wife heard an advertisement on the radio for the Wright Institute’s Counseling Psychology program, where you could take weekend classes and still work full time while you were in school. “I thought, ‘I can do this. I can still work and not make the decision to change careers yet,’” he reflected. “Then after I applied, I remember thinking, ‘There's no way in heck they're gonna accept me!’” As someone with a science background, he felt like he had nothing to contribute. Fortunately, he found support from his therapist, family, and friends, who assured him he was on the right path. Stuart was accepted to the Wright Institute and heard exactly the message he needed to hear at his orientation: “You belong here.”

As a student at the Wright Institute, Stuart really enjoyed the small class sizes and personal attention that a small institution can provide. “I didn't want a UC experience, where it was TV screens and big auditoriums,” he explained. “I remember thinking, I'm going to need some guidance, structure, and support to tell me it's okay to keep doing this.” Stuart felt like he was in a place at that stage of his life where it would be all too easy to go back to the lab and settle, but the professors and community at the Wright Institute gave him the support he needed to continue on this new journey. “My first instructor was Steve Polin, who taught Theories in Counseling, and then he also taught the last class, Clinical Psychopharmacology,” he recalled. “I'm so glad he was my first instructor because he truly inspired me and, to this day, he's still my mentor and dear colleague.” The biggest challenge Stuart faced during his graduate studies was adjusting to the change in career paths. “It took a different mindset, going from a place of certainty to uncertainty,” he reflected.

During his second year at the Wright Institute, the program director at the time, Dr. Milena Esherick, asked the cohort of students if any of them had an interest in helping with field placement. “I was the only one that raised my hand, so that turned into accompanying her on site visits,” Stuart recalled. “We had our first one on Yerba Buena Island, I remember, and I just watched her interview the training director there, learning about their program and what they could offer our students.” He went on several site visits with Dr. Esherick, then she began to cut the strings and let him fly solo. Stuart graduated with his MA in counseling psychology in 2010, but he didn’t leave the Wright Institute. Instead, he continued on as the Field Placement Assistant for the program while continuing to gain supervised clinical experience hours towards licensure. Stuart has worked with adults with severe and persistent mental illness at a day treatment center, older adults in an assisted living community, adolescents in a school-based setting, and adults and couples in a community based group practice.

Stuart’s role as the Field Placement Assistant, which began as a part-time position, continued to evolve and grow into a full-time opportunity. In 2014, once he was licensed, his title was changed to Field Placement Director. Stuart will always be grateful for Dr. Esherick’s leadership, guidance, and her belief in him to take on this significant role. Over the years, Stuart has developed and cultivated relationships for the Wright Institute with over 90 local agencies. “The most rewarding part has been working with knowledgeable, dedicated faculty and staff at the Wright that care about this program, always going above and beyond for our students,” he reflected. “Working with our stellar students and being a part of their academic and licensing journey has been a joy!” The relationship-building component of field placement is what drew Stuart to the field initially and what has kept him there all these years - he truly loves forming bonds with and supporting growing clinicians.

Recently, Stuart made the difficult decision to move on from his position as Field Placement Director. He plans to focus more on his private practice, working with adults and couples, which he opened in Oakland in 2014. Stuart has always been too busy with his work at the Wright Institute to take on many clients, so he’s looking forward to the opportunity to see more clients. He’s planning to focus on his own professional development as well.

After seventeen years at the Wright Institute, as a student and staff member, Stuart has a lot of valuable advice to pass on. To prospective students, and particularly career-switchers like himself, he reminds them that, if a part of them is calling for this profession, they should listen. “You have a lot to contribute, even if you don’t have a psychology background, because you bring yourself to this work,” he advises. “It's not all about your previous work experiences, your personal lived experiences also inform your work as a clinician.” Stuart’s advice to current students is to go easy on themselves, accept uncertainty, and allow the process to unfold. “I remember thinking early on that I should have known who I wanted to work with and what my theoretical approach was,” he reflected. “ Then I realized I didn't have to know and, actually, the more I didn't know the better. Just let this unfold and trust yourself.”

In his spare time, you’ll likely find Stuart on walks “getting his steps in,” always listening to music, and spending time with his family. He still builds scale models of cars like he loved to do as a child, but also owned a 1967 Chevrolet Camaro for years and enjoyed working on it and taking it to car shows. Stuart also loves playing musical instruments. He has experience playing the clarinet and saxophone and is looking forward to learning to play his tenor ukulele made by the Kamaka family in Oahu. “I also had a long stint with Taiko drumming, so I am thinking about returning back to that,” he shared. “There's something very spiritual about the Taiko journey.” Other plans for his next stage in life include learning more Japanese and, being the dog lover that he is, adopting a rescue dog.

Looking back, it’s clear that Stuart’s decision to raise his hand to say he was interested in helping with field placement years ago made a huge impact on his career trajectory and the field placement program at the Wright Institute. We are so grateful for his work at the Wright Institute over the last decade and a half and wish him the best of luck in his private practice and all of his future endeavors.