DIRECTORS & SUPERVISORS
Sandy Macias , Ph.D. | Director, The Gronowski Center
Dr. Macias began her career as a Marriage and Family Therapist working with abused and neglected children in the foster care system. She returned to school where she earned her Ph.D. in Clinical/Counseling/School Psychology from University of California, Santa Barbara. Upon graduation she became faculty at Palo Alto University (then Pacific Graduate School of Psychology). At PAU, Dr. Macias headed the Child and Family Emphasis and taught courses on child/adolescent development, child, couple and family psychotherapy, and clinical interviewing. Her research studies have included looking at how participation in attachment-based couple therapy affects couple and parent-child relationships; the intergenerational transmission of child maltreatment; and the impact of a police-mentoring program on juvenile offenders’ recidivism rates and attachment relationships. Dr. Macias currently serves as the Director of the Gronowski Center, where she maintains a culture of high-quality, evidence-based supervision and training, in line with the Association of Psychology Training Clinics. Along with directing the Center, she also supervises doctoral-level students, post-doctoral fellows, and provides didactic trainings.
Elena Herrera, Psy.D. | Assistant Director, The Gronowski Center
Dr. Herrera earned her doctoral degree from Pepperdine University and completed her internship at Casa Pacifica, a residential treatment center for children and adolescents with serious emotional disturbances. As a bilingual and bicultural Chicana, she has worked with a broad range of individuals from various economic and cultural backgrounds and has utilized her Spanish speaking skills to provide child and family therapy, crisis intervention, and assessment. For over seven years, Dr. Herrera worked for Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health in a child crisis clinic, juvenile justice programs, and adult urgent care. Most recently, Dr. Herrera worked at UC Davis and UC Santa Cruz Counseling and Psychological Services providing individual and group therapy, workshops, advocacy and support for undocumented students, first generation college students, and the Latinx community, and clinical supervision for pre-doctoral interns and post-doctoral fellows. Dr. Herrera is passionate about social justice, reducing treatment barriers, and promoting cultural humility.
M. Elisabet Revilla, Ph.D. | Clinical Supervisor and Director, La Clinica Latina
Dr. Revilla specializes in multicultural and community psychology, with an emphasis in Latino immigrants. Dr. Revilla graduated with a psychology degree in her country of origin, Argentina. She continued graduate studies and obtained a master’s degree in counseling psychology from Notre Dame the Namur University and a doctoral degree in clinical psychology from Fielding Graduate University. As the Community Health Awareness Council Director of Latino/Bilingual Services, she is in charge of creating and promoting new programs aimed to serve the Latino Spanish-speaking clientele. Dr. Revilla’s research interests and clinical expertise are on clinical supervision and training, acculturation, immigrant families, depression, anxiety, and trauma within the immigration/acculturation context. Dr. Revilla currently directs La Clinica Latina at The Gronowski Center where she supervises Spanish-speaking practicum students who provide bilingual and bicultural therapy services to the Latino community.
Matthew Skinta, Ph.D. ABPP | Clinical Supervisor and Co-Director, Sexual and Gender Identities Clinic
Dr. Skinta received his PhD, with a focus in clinical health psychology, at Kent State University in Kent, OH, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in HIV Behavioral Medicine at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, CA. Dr. Skinta subsequently directed and managed the research program from 2008-2013 at the Alliance Health Project (formerly AIDS Health Project) of the University of California, San Francisco. He is a board-certified clinical health psychologist, a specialist in the intersection of medical and psychological treatments. Dr. Skinta is also an experienced clinician and a peer-reviewed trainer of Acceptance & Commitment Therapy, as well as a trainer of Functional Analytic Psychotherapy and the use of compassion-based approaches in work with clients who struggle with shame. These approaches are integrated into his supervision, training, and clinical services in the Sexual & Gender Identities Clinic. Dr. Skinta has published in the area of shame, stigma and HIV, as well as cultural competency concerns when working with sexual minorities. He is the 2015 Chair of the American Psychological Association ad hoc Committee on Psychology & AIDS (COPA), where he is serving as a 2014-2016 member.
Yotam Heineberg, Psy.D. | Clinical Supervisor and Coordinator of Compassion-Focused Therapy Initiative
Dr. Heineberg earned his doctorate at the PGSP-Stanford consortium at Palo Alto University. His interests focused on the cycle of violence, trauma and aggression, which led him to seek out solutions to address these fundamental human problems through the vehicle of compassion. He went on to pursue post-doctoral training at Stanford's CCARE (Center for Compassion and Altruism, Research and Education). He trained in Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) with Professor Paul Gilbert, who developed the approach in the UK. At Palo Alto University's Gronowski Center, he offers supervision, clinical and didactic trainings in CFT, and compassion-focused approaches to healing. He continues to collaborate with the Compassionate Mind
Foundation, UK, and is a research fellow at Stanford with CCARE. His other professional interests entail using the internet towards compassion-focused interventions for both clinical and non-clinical populations.
Dr. Macias began her career as a Marriage and Family Therapist working with abused and neglected children in the foster care system. She returned to school where she earned her Ph.D. in Clinical/Counseling/School Psychology from University of California, Santa Barbara. Upon graduation she became faculty at Palo Alto University (then Pacific Graduate School of Psychology). At PAU, Dr. Macias headed the Child and Family Emphasis and taught courses on child/adolescent development, child, couple and family psychotherapy, and clinical interviewing. Her research studies have included looking at how participation in attachment-based couple therapy affects couple and parent-child relationships; the intergenerational transmission of child maltreatment; and the impact of a police-mentoring program on juvenile offenders’ recidivism rates and attachment relationships. Dr. Macias currently serves as the Director of the Gronowski Center, where she maintains a culture of high-quality, evidence-based supervision and training, in line with the Association of Psychology Training Clinics. Along with directing the Center, she also supervises doctoral-level students, post-doctoral fellows, and provides didactic trainings.
Elena Herrera, Psy.D. | Assistant Director, The Gronowski Center
Dr. Herrera earned her doctoral degree from Pepperdine University and completed her internship at Casa Pacifica, a residential treatment center for children and adolescents with serious emotional disturbances. As a bilingual and bicultural Chicana, she has worked with a broad range of individuals from various economic and cultural backgrounds and has utilized her Spanish speaking skills to provide child and family therapy, crisis intervention, and assessment. For over seven years, Dr. Herrera worked for Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health in a child crisis clinic, juvenile justice programs, and adult urgent care. Most recently, Dr. Herrera worked at UC Davis and UC Santa Cruz Counseling and Psychological Services providing individual and group therapy, workshops, advocacy and support for undocumented students, first generation college students, and the Latinx community, and clinical supervision for pre-doctoral interns and post-doctoral fellows. Dr. Herrera is passionate about social justice, reducing treatment barriers, and promoting cultural humility.
M. Elisabet Revilla, Ph.D. | Clinical Supervisor and Director, La Clinica Latina
Dr. Revilla specializes in multicultural and community psychology, with an emphasis in Latino immigrants. Dr. Revilla graduated with a psychology degree in her country of origin, Argentina. She continued graduate studies and obtained a master’s degree in counseling psychology from Notre Dame the Namur University and a doctoral degree in clinical psychology from Fielding Graduate University. As the Community Health Awareness Council Director of Latino/Bilingual Services, she is in charge of creating and promoting new programs aimed to serve the Latino Spanish-speaking clientele. Dr. Revilla’s research interests and clinical expertise are on clinical supervision and training, acculturation, immigrant families, depression, anxiety, and trauma within the immigration/acculturation context. Dr. Revilla currently directs La Clinica Latina at The Gronowski Center where she supervises Spanish-speaking practicum students who provide bilingual and bicultural therapy services to the Latino community.
Matthew Skinta, Ph.D. ABPP | Clinical Supervisor and Co-Director, Sexual and Gender Identities Clinic
Dr. Skinta received his PhD, with a focus in clinical health psychology, at Kent State University in Kent, OH, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in HIV Behavioral Medicine at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, CA. Dr. Skinta subsequently directed and managed the research program from 2008-2013 at the Alliance Health Project (formerly AIDS Health Project) of the University of California, San Francisco. He is a board-certified clinical health psychologist, a specialist in the intersection of medical and psychological treatments. Dr. Skinta is also an experienced clinician and a peer-reviewed trainer of Acceptance & Commitment Therapy, as well as a trainer of Functional Analytic Psychotherapy and the use of compassion-based approaches in work with clients who struggle with shame. These approaches are integrated into his supervision, training, and clinical services in the Sexual & Gender Identities Clinic. Dr. Skinta has published in the area of shame, stigma and HIV, as well as cultural competency concerns when working with sexual minorities. He is the 2015 Chair of the American Psychological Association ad hoc Committee on Psychology & AIDS (COPA), where he is serving as a 2014-2016 member.
Yotam Heineberg, Psy.D. | Clinical Supervisor and Coordinator of Compassion-Focused Therapy Initiative
Dr. Heineberg earned his doctorate at the PGSP-Stanford consortium at Palo Alto University. His interests focused on the cycle of violence, trauma and aggression, which led him to seek out solutions to address these fundamental human problems through the vehicle of compassion. He went on to pursue post-doctoral training at Stanford's CCARE (Center for Compassion and Altruism, Research and Education). He trained in Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) with Professor Paul Gilbert, who developed the approach in the UK. At Palo Alto University's Gronowski Center, he offers supervision, clinical and didactic trainings in CFT, and compassion-focused approaches to healing. He continues to collaborate with the Compassionate Mind
Foundation, UK, and is a research fellow at Stanford with CCARE. His other professional interests entail using the internet towards compassion-focused interventions for both clinical and non-clinical populations.