Ahead of the Game: How the founding of AUCCCO helped prepare outreach pros to own the main stage in the current college mental health climate
June 10, 3pm-5pm, Savoy Room
Abstract: This address will be a retrospective look at how the first national outreach conference and subsequent establishment of AUCCCO in 2008 was perfectly timed - avant-garde in unpredictable ways - synchronized precisely with an exponential increase in the universal demand on college counseling centers. Since that date college counseling has wrestled with defining the role and scope of service delivery to students. It will discuss the intentional creation of the mission statement, values, and bylaws and how they have helped arm outreach and counseling center clinicians with tools and support to establish the pivotal role outreach service delivery plays in advocating for campus climates to manage the pressures facing college counseling and the rising generations. It will look at how creating a forum for discussions with like-minded professionals surrounding systems/campus-level interventions, increase in administrative positions within centers, training future outreach professionals, advocacy and support for under-served populations, and establishing more multi-tiered outreach programs has elevated the quality, effectiveness, and importance of mental health outreach on college campuses. It will outline why the founding principles of AUCCCO are as relevant today as they were almost 2 decades ago. It will also include some discussion about how values and skills involved in outreach delivery are being used in settings outside of college counseling in the professional sports world.
Biography: Dr. Tom Golightly is a Clinical Sport Psychologist with Intermountain Healthcare assigned to work exclusively with the Real Salt Lake organization, which includes MLS, NWSL, and MLS Next Pro soccer teams. He is also the Mental Wellness and Mental Performance Consultant for the Utah Mammoth in the National Hockey League. Tom was raised in a military family and moved frequently throughout his upbringing. He spent his high school years in Oklahoma and claims that as home.
Tom graduated Summa cum Laude from The University of Arizona in the year 2000 majoring in psychology and Italian. He completed his Ph.D. at Brigham Young University in Counseling Psychology in 2007 following an APA-accredited internship at Texas A&M University. He spent some time at the Texas Tech University Student Counseling Service before returning to BYU for 16 years as a Clinical Professor in Counseling and Psychological Services. He served as Outreach Coordinator throughout his time there.
Tom found energy and professional footing in outreach service delivery. He was fortunate to be a founding member of AUCCCO and served among giants on the National Steering Committee from 2009 to 2013, hosting the 4th Annual Outreach Conference in Park City in 2011. He served as Steering Committee Chair beginning in 2013 and guided the committee to establish bylaws to formalize the structure of AUCCCO as an organization. As the Steering Committee transitioned to the Board of Directors, Tom became the first President of AUCCCO in 2015 and served as Past- President in 2016. He organized a second National Outreach Conference in Salt Lake City in 2015. After his time with AUCCCO, Tom spent 8 years as an Advisory Board member for the Collegiate Clinical/Counseling Sport Psychology Association (CCSPA), the largest international organization for clinical sport psychologists working in elite sport. He also spent several years as a member of the National Mental Health Task Force for the NCAA.
Tom always played a part in psychological service delivery to student-athletes throughout his training and professional career but became the Assistant Director of Mental Wellness and Performance for the Dept of Athletics at BYU in 2014. He was a team psychologist and managed the treatment team responsible for the mental performance enhancement and mental health service delivery (including outreach!!!) for all the intercollegiate athletes at BYU for 10 years. He also accumulated vast experience with professional athletes in various sports through his private practice. Tom transitioned away from full-time college counseling in early 2024 into his current positions with RSL and eventually the Mammoth.
Tom appears frequently on regional TV and radio shows speaking on various mental health, relational, and performance psychology principles. Tom enjoys staying physically active, cooking, reading, watching any competition he can find on TV, spending time with his spouse Shauna and their four to six adult children - depending on how you count the son-in-law and daughter-in-law - and enjoys the occasional round of golf. He will enter a new phase as “Papa T” this fall welcoming his first granddaughter in September.
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