Dr. Vanessa Dahn

Hello! Allow me to share a bit about the experiences that have shaped me to be me! I have lived on the Eastern Plains of Colorado, about 24 miles east of the edge of Colorado Springs in a tiny town, for over 22 years. If you blink, you’ll miss the town! My family has also lived in various other places around the world, such as in Alabama Rucker, Kentucky Knox and California Irwin . Outside of the US I have lived in Germany, and as a child, I lived in Saigon, Vietnam - between 1969 and 1970--yes during the war!

I have been married for over 37 years to my high school senior sweetheart. We have five biological children ages 35-23 (3 boys/2 girls respectively). We have two grandbabies ages 13 and 11. We have helped raise nine nieces and nephews from dysfunctional homes and have adopted four of those children. We have also adopted into our family a teen boy who lost his mother when he was 10. We adopted another young man in the fall of 2012 who is a Halloween baby! We recently celebrated our 13^th high school graduate accepting his diploma! That is a total of 18 children thus far that we have raised! :o) My mother has also lived with us since my father died in 1999, so there are four generations under our roof! We are a very collectivistic family :o) My husband retired from the Army after 22 years in 2000, making me an official retired military wife.  My family is amused that I buried the hair clippers and the iron after my husband retired after spending many years wielding both tools! So it is easy to imagine that my hubby is now, once again, a hippie.

I attended Pikes Peak Community College earning both an AGS and an AA and belong to Phi Theta Kappa, serving the Alpha Gamma Alpha Chapter as Vice President and Hallmark Officer. My undergrad degree is from Colorado State University where I majored in Criminology and Sociology, graduating summa cum laude at the top of my class. I hold a master's degree in Sociology from the University of Colorado and belong to Alpha Kappa Delta. I also completed a master's in Counseling and Human Services, and belong to Chi Sigma Iota. I earned a third master's in Psychology from Northcentral University, and belong to the International Golden Key Honor Society. I recently completed a Doctorate degree working on research for Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine at Northcentral University.  My Dissertation topic was on the over use of psychotherapeutic drugs with male foster children. To sum it up I have about 259 college credits, of which 144 are graduate level.  Whew!!  That's A LOT of papers and books!!

In addition, my husband and I have owned and operated a State licensed Group Center for DHS boys between 12-18 since 2006. This is an eight bed, 24/7 care facility where I am the Executive Director. I am also a psychotherapist in the State of Colorado, and have been teaching online since 2006, and face-to-face since 2007. Teaching is my passion! As they say, "Do what you love, love what you do!"