Not everyone knows his name, but his impact is profound just the same

When Ed Fox’s name was called out as the winner of the President’s Award at the 2013 Chapman University Staff Appreciation and Awards Ceremony, he joked to his colleagues that they were probably the only people who recognized his name.

As associate director of Student Psychological Counseling Services, the licensed marriage and family therapist says he naturally tends to work “behind the scenes.”

But in nominating Fox for the top staff award, Jeanne Walker, Ph.D., director of Psychological Counseling Services, made a point to note that his influence on generations of Chapman students has been profound, regardless of name recognition.

“Over the 26 plus years I have worked with Ed, I can attest to the fact that he has not only helped students remain at Chapman to successfully graduate in spite of their individual life struggles, he has literally saved the lives of more than a few,” Walker wrote in her nomination letter.

Fox joined Chapman in 1986 as a counselor-in-residence in Harris Hall, now called Harris Apartments. He quickly found that working with college-age adults was his calling.

“I stayed because I love working at a university environment,” he says. “A student population is the best population to work with. They’re motivated, their bright, they’re at a phase in their lives when they’re trying to figure things out.”

In addition to working as a psychotherapist, Fox supervises interns who are state-registered counselors on their way to becoming licensed therapists. He’s also taught in the Department of Psychology.

But the heart of his work is in counseling. Increasingly, that makes for busy days at the Glassell Street center, primarily because the undergraduate and graduate enrollment combined is now about 7,000. But he says other changes have brought more students to their doors. Young adults who a generation ago avoided or dropped out of college because of conditions ranging from major depression to bipolar disorder are now succeeding in school, thanks to new drug therapies and therapeutic support. Moreover, all students are more willing to seek out help navigating the challenges of young adulthood.

“People are much more open to using counseling services than they were in the past,” he says.

So in the future, Fox might receive more emails similar to one sent recently by an alumnus he counseled back in 1986.

“He’s in his 40s now and has children who are college age. He just wanted me to know that things are going well. He said, ‘I think back to when I met with you and how confusing and chaotic things were and it’s just really nice to tell you how things turned out,’” says Fox. He smiles broadly and puts his hand to his heart. “That’s a gift.”