Global Advancement of Counseling Excellence (GACE) is a model initiative launched by Palo Alto University (PAU) to address the global need for highly trained mental health professionals.

Rooted in understanding of the foundations of human behavior, the GACE model provides students with the tools they need to work with their immediate community to meet the ever-growing need for mental health support and treatment.

 

Leadership

Founder, Dr. William Froming

The GACE initiative was founded by Palo Alto University Provost Dr. William Froming, whose life-long interest in healing victims of genocide and other forms of crisis and trauma, has taken him around the world to partner with mental health professionals and train students.

Contact: wfroming@paloaltou.edu

China Outreach, Dr. Hui-Qi Tong.

Dr. Tong is passionate about program development and bringing western-developed mental health training programs to non-Western education and training systems.

Contact: htong@paloaltou.edu

Latin America Outreach, Dr. Eduardo Bunge and Dr. Betty Gomez

Dr. Eduardo Bunge, Visiting Professor at Palo Alto University and Dr. Betty Gomez, Director of the renowned Aiglee Foundation in Buenos Aires, are working together to bring the GACE counseling program to Latin America, with early efforts in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile.

Contact: ebunge@paloaltou.edu

Rwanda: Dr. William Froming

Dr. Froming is trained as a research psychologist in personality and social psychology.  He has long-term interest in pro-social behavior, moral development, self-awareness, and the relationship between thought and action.  Along the way Dr. Froming became a student of the Holocaust and genocide--tragedies of epic proportions that demanded psychological analysis.  He has incorporated Holocaust events and people into his teaching, visited many sites in Europe, and befriended amazing people who survived the nightmare.  In 2004 he first went to Rwanda where genocide occurred in 1994.  He was deeply moved by what he learned and was struck by the parallels between the Holocaust and the genocide in Rwanda.  This has led to two parallel developments.  The first is that he has led multiple groups of faculty and students on teaching trips to Rwanda.  The goal is to assist in the building of a graduate program to train students to treat trauma survivors.  Second, the commonalities between the two genocides triggered his desire to explore other genocides, such as those in Armenia and Cambodia, to better understand the conditions that give rise to such events.  In 2008 Dr. Froming was an invited speaker at the Raphael Lemkin Seminar for Genocide Prevention in Auschwitz, Poland, where he lectured on these topics to government officials from around the world.

Contact: wfroming@paloaltou.edu

India, Dr. William Froming

Dr. Froming is currently working to build a partnership in Bangalore, India, where the need for mental health counseling far surpasses the number of counselors available to provide need.

Contact: wfroming@paloaltou.edu

Support GACE Today

Palo Alto University is actively seeking donations and other forms of support to carry out this important work. Strengthening mental health approaches and services abroad by equipping practitioners in other countries to help others in a culturally appropriate context is part of the foundations of GACE. Philanthropic support is vital to expanding this important GACE work. Learn more about how to support GACE today.

Photo: Students in a classroom at the Fundación Aiglé in Buenos Aires)

Palo Alto University

PAU is a private university founded in 1975 and located in Palo Alto, California that offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in psychology.  The institution changed its name in 2009 from Pacific Graduate School of Psychology (PGSP) to PAU to reflect the fact that it now has undergraduate programs. The WASC Senior Colleges and Universities Commission (WSCUC) has accredited all PAU degrees.