Regis announces new associate dean for Division of Counseling and Family Therapy

The Regis University Rueckert-Hartman College for Health Professions announced that Megan Murphy, Ph.D., will start as the next Associate Dean for the Division of Counseling and Family Therapy on July 1.

Murphy, who has been a professor and the director of the Couple and Family Therapy Master’s Program in the Department of Behavioral Sciences at Purdue University Northwest since 2013, will take over the position for Betsy Hall, Ph.D., who has served as the permanent associate dean since 2020. Hall, who began at Regis in 2005, will retire on May 6. 

Murphy received her bachelor’s degree from State University of New York College at Geneseo in psychology and sociology, her master’s degree from Colorado State University in Marriage and Family Therapy and her Ph.D. from the University of Georgia in Marriage and Family Therapy. She began as assistant professor at Iowa State University in 2002, and in 2008, she became director of clinical training for the Department of Applied Psychology at Antioch University New England. She has been teaching Marriage and Family Therapy for more than 20 years and has spent 15 of those years as Program Director or Clinical Director.

Murphy also served on the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education from 2015-2017 in addition to serving on the Marriage and Family Therapy Licensing Board for the state of Iowa. She was also a Region Representative on the Board for the Indiana Association for Marriage and Family Therapy.

Murphy’s scholarly work centers on power dynamics in relationships, relational ethics, diversity and social justice and narcissistic abuse. She recently co-edited, with Rebecca Harvey, Ph.D., the second edition of the Handbook of LGBTQ-Affirmative Couple and Family Therapy (2021, Routledge) and co-edited with Lorna Hecker, Ph.D., the second edition of Ethics and Professional Issues in Couple and Family Therapy (2016, Routledge). She has maintained a small private practice in which she sees individuals, couples and families.

As Regis welcomes Murphy, the University is celebrating Hall’s legacy.

Hall, who began her career at Regis in the role of assistant professor in 2005, was promoted to associate professor in 2009, and full professor in 2014. During her 17 years at Regis, she has helped lead efforts for curriculum and program development of the Post-Graduate Certificate in Depth Psychotherapy (formerly Transformative Counseling), coordinated practicum and the remediation committees and was the chair and program director for the Master of Arts in counseling program.

In 2013, when the former Graduate Counseling Program in the College for Professional Studies became the Division of Counseling and Family Therapy in Rueckert-Hartman College for Health Professions, Hall was selected as the assistant dean for the Division of Counseling and Family Therapy, overseeing the division operations, administrative staff, affiliate faculty, new student orientations, admissions and other leadership roles and responsibilities within the division and the college. Hall served in that role until 2019, when she stepped in as the interim associate dean for the division. She was also selected as the permanent associate dean for the division in 2020.