Mick can hardly control his enthusiasm for THRIVE: “This is the best job in the world! I get to work with a small team of outstanding professionals both in the United States and Uganda. Together, we think critically and creatively about ever-new strategies to support individuals who, for far too long, have been relegated to the margins of society.”
For well over a decade, Mick has had a passion for working with immigrants and refugees. He met his first refugee client – a young man from Rwanda – during his clinical residency in psychiatric chaplaincy at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, GA. From there, Mick continued a career in pastoral counseling before transitioning full-time to refugee resettlement work in Lowell, MA. Prior to joining THRIVE, Mick lived in Cambodia, spearheading a nation-wide urban refugee project in partnership with the UNHCR. From 2014-2015, Mick was a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, where he taught trauma recovery.
A graduate of the University of Chicago, Yale University Divinity School and the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma, Mick has also studied at the European Graduate School and completed the Tilburg University Regional Course on Statelessness. He has been an invited speaker to the First Global Forum on Statelessness in The Hague, the Asia Pacific Sociological Association, Duke University, Yale University and the University of Chicago, among others.
“THRIVE is just beginning to unleash its potential as a leader in holistic, psychosocial rehabilitation. For every survivor that we help become a THRIVER, there are hundreds more waiting for the tools to transform their lives. I am so excited to see where this journey will take us. Moreover, I am confident the future is filled with hope for no other reason than TOGETHER WE THRIVE!!!”
