Roberts named interim Counseling Center director

Amber Roberts has been named the interim director of the Counseling and Career Development Center.

The announcement was made by H. Bart Merkle, vice provost for Student Affairs and dean of students, following the retirement of Barbara Palombi. “I appreciate the contributions that Barbara has made during her tenure at Grand Valley and I wish her the very best as she moves into retirement,” Merkle said.

Roberts began working at Grand Valley in 2002. She earned a doctoral degree from Purdue University and said she was drawn to practicing psychology in a university setting because of the students.

“At this time in their lives, there are a lot of normal, developmental issues that students have to deal with,” Roberts said. “I like working with this age group and helping them at this life stage.”

Grand Valley follows a national trend of more college students seeking counseling appointments. In 2009-2010, there were 7,700 individual appointments made at the Counseling Center, up from 5,900 in 2005-2006.

“Nationally, we’re almost hitting a crisis point,” Roberts said, citing reasons like improved access to mental health services, better medications and more students coming to campus on prescribed medications.

To better serve students, Roberts said the Counseling Center will soon hire a nurse practitioner who can prescribe medications. Roberts said that position will be shared with the Kirkhof College of Nursing, and will help alleviate the wait time for students who have appointments with the campus psychiatrist.