Elisa Bolton has been named the director of Psychological and Counseling Services (PACS) at UNH after having served in the role on an interim basis twice since 2016, including a year-long stint from September 2020 to September 2021.
Bolton’s first day as permanent director was Sept. 20, 2021.
Some of Bolton’s strategic priorities are centered on recruiting new staff to fill open positions in the PACS office and supporting and retaining current staff members, she said, adding that she will be “working to grow our support of an inclusive and equitable work environment and to further develop our ability to provide culturally sensitive therapy and programming.”
She also said she’d be “working to launch a new collaborative campaign focused on promoting student well-being, maintaining our robust suicide prevention efforts and continuing to grow our training program.”
Bolton arrived at UNH with 20 years of clinical, research and teaching experience as a clinical psychologist, having worked with the National Center for PTSD, Dartmouth Psychiatric Research Center, Brown University and Veteran Administration Medical Centers in Boston, Massachusetts and Manchester, New Hampshire.
Bolton completed her graduate studies in clinical psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. During her tenure at UNH thus far, Bolton has provided clinical supervision and mentored doctoral interns during their APA accredited internship. In addition, she chairs the UNH Suicide Prevention Partnership Council, which is responsible for coordination of the campus wide suicide prevention and awareness efforts.
