Harnessing Hope: Whitman Alum Helps People in Crisis Rebound & Rebuild

In January 2010, a catastrophic 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck the Caribbean nation of Haiti, devastating lives and communities and affecting more than 3 million people.

That spring, Kira Mauseth ’00 traveled to Haiti as part of a multidisciplinary medical crisis team. The Whitman College grad hoped she could make even a small difference in the lives of those recovering from the disaster. 

What she didn’t know at the time was the big impact the trip would have on her own life.

The team, including Mauseth, a practicing psychologist, set up a clinic on a soccer field. Over 10 days, they taught adults and children skills to manage the emotional and psychological distress often experienced after such traumatic events, focusing on tools for well-being, recovery and resilience.

“That was it,” she says. “I was hooked.” During her time in Haiti, Mauseth discovered not only a passion but also a way to create lasting support in affected communities.

The team partnered with local students who served both as translators and guides on cultural customs, norms and coping options. By the end of the second day, the students were suggesting which interventions, such as deep breathing or mindfulness, were most appropriate for which individuals.

It was an “Aha!” moment for the U.S. team. “My colleague and I looked at each other and realized we needed to train the students on how to teach the techniques themselves,” Mauseth says.

On the flight home, she and that colleague, psychologist Tona McGuire, developed the initial draft of the Health Support Team (HST) curriculum, which is designed to train local Indigenous survivors of any disaster on providing appropriate behavioral health support that can be adapted with cultural norms for their community. They continued to refine the train-the-trainer curriculum over the next two years, returning to Haiti seven more times.

Support on a Global Scale

Mauseth has since implemented the HST curriculum in dozens of sites around the world. She has trained teachers, pastors and others on how to meet the mental health needs of Syrian and Palestinian refugees in Jordan, displaced Ukrainians in Poland, and those affected by wildfires in Maui. No matter where she travels to help, she is always moved by the strength and spirit of local communities.

“The human capacity for hope and resilience is pretty much unlimited,” she says. “Hopefulness is fundamental to how humans operate in the world, and I have never seen more capacity for it than when I’ve been around people who have nothing else.”

In Haiti, for example, a grandfather told Mauseth that his sense of purpose was destroyed when he lost his wife, children, home and business during the earthquake. When she returned two months later, however, he told her he had found a new purpose: teaching his two granddaughters how to read, write and speak English.

“It has been an incredible honor to share in such poignant and significant experiences in people’s lives as they recover from very difficult situations,” she says.

Mauseth also provides disaster support closer to home. In 2020, she was named co-lead of the Washington State Department of Health’s Behavioral Health Strike Team, which was created to inform strategies to support the mental health of Washington residents during the COVID-19 pandemic. In that role, she gave more than 400 webinars on resilience, recovery and the impact of disasters on mental health.

‘I Love What I Do’

Mauseth, who grew up near Mount St. Helens, developed an interest in cross-cultural studies while taking a gap year in Australia after graduating from high school. Her travels influenced her decision to major in Anthropology at Whitman.

“One of the big lessons my parents taught me was that the two most important things you can spend your money on are education and travel,” she says. “Here’s the secret: They’re actually the same thing.”

Mauseth—who was President of Delta Gamma and met her husband, attorney Jensen Mauseth ’01, at Whitman—credits the college with also helping her learn more about herself and her core values.

“What I enjoyed the most was being part of a community of like-minded people who were invested in learning how to learn,” she says. “It was less about the content than it was about the process of becoming a critical thinker. We learned how to process information and navigate through murky issues in the world, which I think is more relevant right now than it’s ever been.”

After graduating from Whitman, Mauseth earned her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Seattle Pacific University. She opened her own clinic, Snohomish Psychology Associates, in 2008 and began teaching at Seattle University that same year. She later founded Astrum Health, a consulting firm that offers training and education on organizational change, workplace and team behavioral health, and disaster or crisis preparation or recovery.

“I love what I do,” says Mauseth. “It’s kind of all over the map, but I love it.”

The Resilience Doctor Is In

If Mauseth had a moniker, it might be Dr. Resilience. As a psychologist, she helps individuals overcome trauma and develop coping skills. As a consultant, she helps state agencies, school districts and other organizations prepare for and respond to disasters and critical incidents. And as a professor at Seattle University, she teaches courses and leads a research lab focused on resilience and disaster recovery.

Building a culture of resilience on college campuses is critical, Mauseth notes.

“Neuroscience has taught us several things about resilience, and one is that if people feel constantly under threat or are operating in crisis mode, they can’t learn new things or think creatively, and they lose the ability to problem-solve,” she says. “I definitely see one of my professional roles as helping people modulate out of crisis so that they’re able to think more clearly and learn more effectively.”

Mauseth points out that resilience is about more than overcoming adversity or surviving tough times. It’s a valuable skill people can develop to help them manage daily stressors.

“Resilience is found every day and everywhere. It’s not just in refugee camps in Jordan or Haiti, but among the staff at Seattle Children’s Hospital, in the classrooms in Everett and Anchorage, in the fire departments all over the region, and with educators and health care workers in their day-to-day efforts,” she says. 

“That’s part of what gives me so much hope in my own work: There are helpers and good people doing good work everywhere.”

Want to connect? You can reach out to Kira Mauseth at drkira@astrumhealthllc.org.