Amer Al Ansari, MD, PhD
Clinical Psychopharmacology
Carley Benton, PhD
Biology, Neuroscience
Özlem Eylem-van Bergeijk, PhD
Özlem Eylem-van Bergeijk, PhD, was born and brought up in Cyprus. Her background is in clinical psychology. She completed her studies at the Institute of Psychiatry, King`s College University of London, and specialized in clinical assessment and therapeutic approaches, while working with adolescents presenting with self-harm.
Funded by a personal grant from the European Commission, Eylem-van Bergeijk completed her PhD at VU Amsterdam University, where she investigated the feasibility and effectiveness of an e-mental health intervention for suicidal ideation among Turkish migrants in the Netherlands and in the UK. During her study, she collaborated with the Centre for Psychiatry, the Queen Mary University of London as a visiting research fellow. She received several public engagement grants and recognitions from prestigious bodies for bringing various disciplines together to increase suicide awareness among Turkish migrant populations throughout her PhD. Eylem-van Bergeijk also received a full-tuition scholarship from the Beck Institute in Philadelphia, in the United States, to attend the Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Depression and Suicide workshop where she met Prof. Dr. Aaron Beck and Dr. Judith Beck.
Currently, Eylem-van Bergeijk works as a research lead with a mental health company (Cerina), developing CBT-based, Artificial intelligence-supported mobile applications for psychological disorders. She joined Webster Leiden Campus’s faculty of Behavioral and Social Sciences in Fall 2022 to teach the Introduction to Psychology (PSYC 1100) course.
Christine Fitzgerald, MA
Stella Gryllia, PhD
Economics, Statistics
Stella Gryllia earned her PhD in Linguistics from Leiden University in 2009. Prior to that, she obtained her MPhil in Linguistics from Leiden University, and her BA in Philology from National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece). After receiving her PhD, she moved to Berlin and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Potsdam (Germany). During the past four years (2014–2018), she was employed by Leiden University, carrying out research for the project “Understanding Questions”.
During these years, she also taught statistics to BSc and MA students of linguistics and supervised a number of MA and PhD theses. Her research interests include prosody and its interfaces with other modules of the grammar, as well as quantitative methods in linguistics.
Despoina Kairi, MA
Clinical Psychology
Despoina Kairi acquired her Bachelor of Psychology in Athens. During that time, she studied for 6 months in South France, as an exchange student. In 2011, after having worked in a community house with people suffering from psychological disorders and mental retardation, she came to the Netherlands and acquired her master’s degree in Clinical Psychology at Leiden University. She was trained in life coaching during her studies, and her main interest is on how therapy contributes to the improvement of people’s life suffering due to psychological/psychosomatic disorders.
Currently, she is participating in a project in Amsterdam regarding intercultural adaptation of expatriates in the Netherlands.
Internet: Innerpiece Psychologie Praktijk
Marcel de Lijster, MBA
Strategic Management, Organizational Behavior
Marcel de Lijster is the business owner of "Down 2 Earth Dutch," With his company, he helps organizations to build programs for skills management and lifelong learning that support the continued employability of employees.
Before becoming an entrepreneur, de Lijster worked in the financial industry as a banker. He has 27 years of working experience in the financial industry, for 23 of which he held leadership and management positions. He worked at one of the largest banks in Holland. He can be branded as a real people manager. He is also an "acknowledged" coach and helps people with their personal and career development. He has experience and knowledge of strategic management, organizational behavior, leadership, change management, risk management, and financial control.
He holds an MBA with an emphasis on Management from Webster Leiden Campus. He has been a member of the Webster faculty since 2004 and teaches courses in Organizational Behavior, Management, Managerial Leadership, Decision Making, and Strategic Management.
Erika O’Donnel, MA
Health Psychology, Clinical Psychology
Kim O'Meara, MA
Psychology, Gender and Sexuality
Paul Rakowski, MA, MS
Head of Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences
Trauma Informed Therapy, Addiction/Recovery
Paul Rakowski, MA, MSc, is credentialed in the United States as a licensed professional counselor (LPC), licensed addiction counselor (LAC), national certified counselor (NCC), approved clinical supervisor (ACS), and master addiction counselor (MAC). He is an NIP-registered Clinical Psychologist in the Netherlands. He has over 13 years of experience as a trauma informed therapist and specializes in trauma, addiction/recovery, couples’ therapy and clinical supervision. Motivational Interviewing and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) provide a strong foundation for his work with clients. In addition to his clinical practice, Rakowski has served as an adjunct faculty member in the Counseling Psychology and Counselor Education program at the University of Colorado-Denver and at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. He has also taught courses in biology, health/wellness and animal behavior as well as First-Year Experience courses for incoming University students. Rakowski is a strong advocate for social justice within public health and currently volunteers at De Regenboog Groep in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Malinda Reuijl, MA
Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders
Sheetal Shah, PhD
Counseling
Sheetal Shah, PhD, is the academic director at Webster Leiden Campus, Webster University USA. As an educator and change maker at heart, she is a psychologist with a global orientation. She has had the privilege of applying many psychological theories to different contexts in the real world - for example, in education, public health, leadership, global citizenship and grassroots-level work.
Shah specializes in the field of counseling for chronic illnesses and trauma; her research interests are focused in the field of modern-day slavery and human trafficking. In 2012, she founded the Bijlmer Project, a research project investigating the needs of victims of human trafficking, and now volunteers with the intervention phase of the project, Bridge2Hope that addresses the psychosocial and vocational needs of sexually trafficked women and men in the European Union. This project has also been a successful experiential learning component for many courses that are taught in both the psychology and global citizenship programs at Webster’s Leiden campus.
Part of Shah’s philosophy of teaching has been to connect students to real-world problems, or what she calls the "classroom outdoors" or "classroom in the community" format. This approach focuses on using experiential learning components in the field to build on the theoretical underpinnings that students learn in the classroom. Having studied both in India and the UK, and having worked with an American educational system within a Dutch/European setting, her familiarity with diverse curricula has helped her understand and effectively respond to the evolving needs and dynamics of the international student profile that universities cater to as part of their global network.
Katie Lee Weille, PhD
Organizational Behavior
Doron Zilbershtein, PhD
Entrepreneurship, Organizational Behaviour, Well-Being
Doron Zilbershtein is a family man, an avid sailor, a former naval officer and a naval architect who has resided and worked in 15 countries. Hopefully, the Netherlands will be his last port of call. Zilbershtein holds a BSc in Naval Architecture/Ocean Engineering, an MBA in Entrepreneurship, and a PhD in Business Administration with specialization in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. Zilbershtein is also a passionate educator who continuously seeks out creative ways to coach, mentor and engage committed learners, and delivers relevant content in an inspiring, fun environment.
Did we mention FUN? Beyond lectures, Zilbershtein uses gamification principles, (e.g., role playing, simulation games) to stimulate the learning environment by making it fun and rewarding. He makes extensive application of digital tools and encourages learners to experiment and step out of their comfort zone by challenging the status quo.Over the past 19 years, Zilbershtein has taught diversified subjects: Research methods, entrepreneurship, international management, hospitality operational excellence and HRM. He always flavors his lessons with real-life anecdotes and relevant industry knowledge. Zilbershtein has also supervised learners at the bachelor, master and doctoral levels.
Zilbershtein practices his passion for helping others as an entrepreneur. His family-owned company, Wellennium, coached and mentored young adults, and in 2018, its internship program was nominated for Beste Stagebedrijf [best internship company] 2018, demonstrating the family commitment to making a positive impact on the lives of others. Zilbershtein’s interests include human behaviors and well-being. He genuinely enjoys mentoring learners on a broad range of soft skills, including mindset, cross/multi/intercultural communication, active listening, inquisitive mind, self-esteem, attitude and self-efficacy, among others.