Dr. Paulette DiSpagna is no stranger to accolades. She was recently honored with a citation from the City of Boston by Councilor-at-Large Julia Mejia as recognition for DiSpagna’s work with Great Egleston High School, and for earning her PhD in Counseling and Psychology at Lesley University. DiSpagna has been here before—in 2007, she was awarded a City of Boston citation for her work with Boston teenagers.
DiSpagna knew what she wanted from her graduate education—something in person, for that personal touch and attention. Then COVID arrived, and in-person classes had to go. But the personal touch did not. “Donna San Antonio is one of the best professors I have ever had, and I have done lots of school,” says DiSpagna, who had to do the majority of her program online.
Dr. DiSpagna tells The Lynx she grew up in what she describes as a “poor, single-mother-headed household in Boston.” She lived in subsidized housing and attended Boston public schools. She was the first in her family to graduate college and was drawn to Lesley’s intensive three-year cohort program.
DiSpagna says these foundations led her to a two-decade career of working with Black and Latinx young people all over New England. She’s an independently licensed mental health counselor in Massachusetts, has been one in Connecticut, is EDMR trained, and is TF-CBT trained. She also has a BA from Simmons, an EdM from Harvard, a post-master’s CAGS MH from Cambridge College, and adds to her crown now a PhD from Lesley University.
Addressing the crowd at the Leader Bank Pavilion as Graduate Speaker, DiSpagna urged everyone to fight against isolation and choose love. “I love you, friend,” she said. "The graduates, the family, friends, and staff at Lesley. I love you because you made it here. We made it. I love you because despite the world exploding around you, you continued to create. Create laughter, art, create joy, create connection and the ultimate goal community.”
These were not just feel-good words. This is the basis of her work. She went on to say, “Community is what the participants in my research created when their high schools, internships, immigration meetings, medical/mental health treatments, court cases and the world shut down during COVID.'
'In other words: You have everything you think you don’t. Now go out and continue to build a healthy community. Because all the success you are about to have...the way you are about to show out and show off...I am here for it, rooting for you, and I always will be a member of your community."
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