Lisa Wholey, M.S., Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist with thirty years of experience. She has helped countless children, parents, and educators develop the cognitive, behavioral, and social-emotional skills of children and adolescents. Dr. Wholey is a senior clinician at the New England Center for Anxiety, where she applies principles of evidence-based treatments to anxiety, OCD, and related disorders, including generalized excessive worry, perfectionism, panic disorder, body-focused repetitive behaviors, social anxiety, separation anxiety, health anxiety, chronic pain, and sports and performance anxiety. She is also a consultant for West Bay Collaborative of the Rhode Island Department of Education, where she helps create courses for the state’s educators to support managing student anxiety in schools. Dr. Wholey earned a Masters of Science degree from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and completed a Master’s Thesis, studying the relationship between corporal punishment, coping strategies and caregiver involvement. Dr. Wholey earned her Doctorate from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in the school psychology program, an APA-accredited and NASP-approved program, where she completed a dissertation on the effects of picture rehearsal on the behavior of children with autism. She was selected for the esteemed pre-doctoral internship in Ossining, New York school district, followed by a position as a certified school psychologist in Elmsford, New York. Dr. Wholey completed post-doctoral training at the University of Rhode Island’s Psychological Consultation Center, in the Child Anxiety Program, under the supervision of Ellen Flannery Schroeder, Ph.D. She has worked as a consultant in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, School District and later worked as a certified school psychologist in Westerly and Jamestown School Districts. In schools, she offered various parent programs including executive functioning skills, positive behavioral interventions, self-regulation skills, anxiety, and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Dr. Wholey also worked closely with military families in the Jamestown school district offering information on topics that support the unique needs of their students. Dr. Wholey served as a member of the PLUS study for the Rhode Island Department of Education, where she participated in the development of creating guidelines for response to intervention in Rhode Island Schools. Dr. Wholey’s many pro bono contributions to the field include being a court advocate for victims of domestic violence and an activities facilitator for Alzheimer’s patients.
Dr. Wholey is always focused on teaching and learning. She was an instructor on behavior management at the Edith Winthrop Teacher Center in New York, spoke as an invited Guest Lecturer for the Exceptional Individual Course at the University of Rhode Island and, at the start of her career, worked as a farm educator at University of Rhode Island W. Alton Jones Campus teaching cultural history, agricultural sciences, and small scale organic farming to school age children. As a Board member of the Rhode Island Association of School Psychologists, Dr. Wholey informed fellow school psychologists of the major developments occurring in the field and presented on those professional topics. While employed with the Jamestown School District, Dr. Wholey was awarded the RISPA Professional Service Award for the quality of her work and her substantial contributions to the field. Dr. Wholey was employed as a treatment coordinator at the Groden Center, where she supported children with autism and was later promoted to Assistant to the Executive Director, June Groden, assisting her with research, staff training, and program development. Through Career Services at the University of Rhode Island, Dr. Wholey created and implemented the first Mentor Program for students with physical impairments and learning disabilities. Dr. Wholey has participated in research on parent child interactions and effects on literacy with Gary Stoner, Ph.D., and attitudes and perceptions of AIDS and aquaintance rape with Lisa Harlow, Ph.D. During her graduate education, Dr. Wholey was a research assistant at Rhode Island Hospital, Butler Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, assisting with studies of the Rey-Osterrieth Test, Bipolar Disorder, and methods to support parents with terminally ill children, respectively. Throughout her career, Dr. Wholey has shared her vast knowledge of anxiety, parenting, Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, behavior, autism, literacy, and assessment and intervention, at conferences and workshops. Dr. Wholey has served as a conference judge at the Massachusetts Undergraduate Research Conference in Boston, Massachusetts, and presented at state and national conferences. Dr. Wholey’s professional interests include parenting, anxiety, behavior, resilience, and mental health service delivery in schools.
Dr. Wholey is always focused on teaching and learning. She was an instructor on behavior management at the Edith Winthrop Teacher Center in New York, spoke as an invited Guest Lecturer for the Exceptional Individual Course at the University of Rhode Island and, at the start of her career, worked as a farm educator at University of Rhode Island W. Alton Jones Campus teaching cultural history, agricultural sciences, and small scale organic farming to school age children. As a Board member of the Rhode Island Association of School Psychologists, Dr. Wholey informed fellow school psychologists of the major developments occurring in the field and presented on those professional topics. While employed with the Jamestown School District, Dr. Wholey was awarded the RISPA Professional Service Award for the quality of her work and her substantial contributions to the field. Dr. Wholey was employed as a treatment coordinator at the Groden Center, where she supported children with autism and was later promoted to Assistant to the Executive Director, June Groden, assisting her with research, staff training, and program development. Through Career Services at the University of Rhode Island, Dr. Wholey created and implemented the first Mentor Program for students with physical impairments and learning disabilities. Dr. Wholey has participated in research on parent child interactions and effects on literacy with Gary Stoner, Ph.D., and attitudes and perceptions of AIDS and aquaintance rape with Lisa Harlow, Ph.D. During her graduate education, Dr. Wholey was a research assistant at Rhode Island Hospital, Butler Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, assisting with studies of the Rey-Osterrieth Test, Bipolar Disorder, and methods to support parents with terminally ill children, respectively. Throughout her career, Dr. Wholey has shared her vast knowledge of anxiety, parenting, Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, behavior, autism, literacy, and assessment and intervention, at conferences and workshops. Dr. Wholey has served as a conference judge at the Massachusetts Undergraduate Research Conference in Boston, Massachusetts, and presented at state and national conferences. Dr. Wholey’s professional interests include parenting, anxiety, behavior, resilience, and mental health service delivery in schools.