Athletic Department To Host Dr. James Spencer

ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT TO HOST DR. JAMES SPENCER 

CHICOPEE, MA, Feb. 22, 2007 - Through a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Speakers Grant, the Elms College Athletic Department will host guest speaker Dr. James Spencer on Monday, March 5, at 7:30 in the Dining Hall Annex of the Mary Dooley College Center.

Dr. Spencer is an organizational and human resource consultant with over twenty years of experience working in the corporate arena. Most recently, Dr. Spencer has been working in the collegiate athletic environment, and his main area of focus has been with student-athletes.

Dr. Spencer's focal point for his talk will be stress reduction, and will cover seven uplifting principles which include, honor, wisdom, focus, leadership, responsibility, respect and spirit. "With regards to honor I will talk about standing up against harassment, intolerance, violence etc," noted Dr. Spencer. "In responsibility, I will talk about owning your choices - realizing that your choices determine who you are as a competitor and a person. It's about resisting choices that are harmful to your well being and the well being of others. And with regards to respect I will talk about competing with reverence towards others, humility, kindness, forgiveness, and compassion, turning away from behaviors of violence, retaliation, revenge etc," he added.

Dr. Spencer started his career organizing and coaching youth athletic programs and served as a college administrator for four years. He worked for the Massachusetts Trial Court System counseling inner-city youth at risk of incarceration. He was chosen by the court system to be one of the first to counsel and work with families victimized by domestic violence.

He specialized in working with men who batter and educated them on eliminating violence from their lives.

His Doctoral dissertation "Attention Control and It's Impact on Competitive Athletes" saw him working with a select group of high school athletes around shooting free throws in pressure situations. One of his athletes, Rumeal Robinson, eventually found himself playing for Michigan in the NCAA finals against Seton Hall.  This game came down to Rumeal successfully making two free throws to win the NCAA Division I National Basketball Championship with only seconds left on the clock.

Dr. Spencer trained under noted Sports Psychologist Dr. Harvey Dulberg before opting to work as a corporate consultant and now believes that his work helping companies and executives eliminate discrimination, harassment, and violence can be beneficial to the field of athletics.

Dr. Spencer has a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Boston College, a M. Ed in Counseling from Northeastern University, and a B.A. from Wilberforce University.

He is an advisory Board Member of The Family Center, Incorporated. (Formerly the Board Chair), Wheelock Family Theater, and a Board member of CitySkills Incorporated.