Faculty Profile

Munyi Shea

Munyi Shea
(Hong Kong)

Professor of Counselor Education

Email: mshea@spu.edu
Phone: 206-281-2369
Office: Peterson Hall 310


Education: BS, University of Washington, 2001; BA, University of Washington, 2001; PhD, Columbia University, 2008

Dr. Munyi Shea joined the School of Education in 2016, after teaching and serving as associate professor of psychology at California State University, Los Angeles, a minority-serving institution.

Dr. Shea is a counseling psychologist whose research is focused on Asian and Latino immigrant mental health, help-seeking behaviors, and culturally responsive prevention and intervention. She has developed and evaluated several school- or community-based prevention and intervention programs, including bullying prevention for Asian and Latino school-aged children, a cognitive-behavioral guided self-help program for Latinas with eating disorders, and a peer-led, strengths-based support program for college-going mothers. These projects were supported by internal and extramural funding from multiple sources, including the National Institute of Health and the American Psychological Association.

Dr. Shea’s professional accomplishments include several research awards, such as the Early Career Award for Research from the Asian American Psychological Association, the Outstanding Research Award from the American Education Research Association, and the Outstanding Contribution to Scholarship on Race and Ethnicity Award from the American Psychological Association (Division 17, Counseling Psychology).

At SPU, Dr. Shea continues her line of research on understanding mental health challenges and help-seeking barriers faced by individuals from diverse backgrounds, and seeks to improve the delivery of psychological or counseling services to underserved communities. She frequently collaborates with colleagues from various disciplines, both inside and outside of SPU, and provides research mentorship to students who are equally passionate about enhancing the academic, social-emotional, and/or spiritual well-being of school-aged and college-aged students.

See more about Dr. Shea’s current projects, presentations, and publications here: https://sites.google.com/site/mshealab/


Selected Publications

  • Shea, M., Wong, Y. J., Nguyen, K., & Baghdasarian, S. (2017). College women’s subjective femininity stress, gender solidarity, and help-seeking intentions: The mediating roles of help-seeking attitudes and social stigma. The Counseling Psychologist, 45, 438–461.
  • Shea, M., Wang, C., Shi, W., Gonzalez, V., & Espelage, D. (2016). Parents and teachers' perspective of school bullying among Asian and Latino immigrant children. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 7, 83-96.
  • Cachelin, F., Shea, M., Phoutdavone, P., Wilson, T., Thompson, D., Strigel, R. (2014).  Culturally adapted cognitive behavioral guided self-help for binge eating: A feasibility study with Mexican Americans. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 20, 449-457, doi: 10.1037/a0035345
  • Shea, M., Wong, Y. J., Wang, S., Wang, S., Jimenez, V., Hickman, S. J., & LaFollette, J. R. (2014). Toward a constructionist perspective of examining femininity experience: The development and psychometric properties of the subjective femininity stress scale. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 38, 275-291. doi:10.1177/0361684313509591
  • Shea, M., & Yeh, C. J. (2008). Asian American Students’ cultural values, stigma, and relational self-construal: correlates of attitudes toward professional help seeking. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 30, 157-172.

Please view Dr. Shea’s CV (PDF) for additional information.

Why I Teach at SPU

Munyi Shea, Associate Professor of Counselor Education

“I teach at SPU because it is uniquely situated at a place and time where we are called to address complex problems with innovative strategies and deep compassion.  As an educator, I come alongside my students to inspire and guide them in discovering their passions, persisting in their aspirations, looking outwardly and giving their best to serve their communities.”