Mary Kay Bradford Ivey ’63
Psychological Science is pleased to announce a new endowment given to award grants to support collaborative research in the psychological sciences between faculty and students. The generous donor behind this grant is Mary Bradford Ivey ’63. This endowment is dedicated to Florence Jenson Bradford ’33, mother of Mary Bradford Ivey ‘63. It was through her mother’s inspiration and enthusiasm for her alma mater that inspired Mary to attend Gustavus. In addition, having aunts, uncles, and cousins who also attended, Gustavus felt like a family tradition.
Just like her mother, Mary was actively involved in life at Gustavus and completed a double major in Social Work and Physical Education. She wrote for the Weekly newspaper, co-edited the Gustavian annual, swam in aquatic league, joined the TMT sorority, participated in a number of clubs, worked as a dorm counselor and was elected to the Guild of St. Ansgar honoring leadership and service. At her 50th reunion of graduation from Gustavus, she received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Gustavus.
Mary started her career teaching Health and Physical Education and, at the same time, continued her education at the University of Wisconsin where she received an MS in guidance and counseling. She worked as a counselor in the Amherst, MA public schools receiving national recognition for being one of the top 10 counseling programs in the country. While working, Mary continued her education and was awarded the Ed.D degree in organizational development from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
After marrying Allen Ivey, she and Allen founded Microtraining Associates that developed videos demonstrating all aspects of counseling. She co-authored counseling and therapy textbooks (Intentional Interviewing and Counseling, Essentials of Intentional Interviewing and Counseling, Theories of Counseling and Psychotherapy, Basic Attending and Basic Influencing Skills) translated into 25 languages, and numerous articles on counseling. Mary taught counseling courses at UMass, Amherst, Keene State, the University of Hawaii and Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia. She also served as a stress management counselor at Amherst College. The Iveys lectured around the world on microcounseling, developmental counseling, multicultural counseling and most recently, neuroscience and therapeutic life style changes. Mary was named as a fellow of the American Counseling Association (ACA), received the ACA Presidential Award and the Ohana Award for her work in multicultural counseling.
Mary has been most interested in the intersection of physical and mental health and how therapeutic lifestyle changes (TLC) affect a persons’ mental health and how stress affects the brain. For example, exercise, nutrition, sleep, cognitive challenges and social relationships. It is hoped that the person receiving this grant will study and further psychological, neuroscience and neurobiological research that focuses on helping people achieve optimal health. In the future Mary sees neuroscience becoming even more important with movement toward brain based diagnosis and treatment provided by neurocounselors.