About Gradmentor

This site is maintained by Scott Kerlin, Ph.D., owner of Kerlin & Associates Research. A detailed summary of my extensive academic career history is located at LinkedIn.

My Ph.D. program emphasized intensive study of higher education organizational development, management & human resources, diversity & equity, counseling & mental health, career planning & assessment, interdisciplinary academic research, graduate student professional development, faculty development, and data analytics.

During the past three decades since completing my Ph.D., I’ve been a professional counselor, an academic research director, chief data and assessment officer, university adjunct professor, graduate student professional development manager and counselor, psychology and organizational research consultant, and a passionate advocate for personal and professional success.

I am a member of the American Psychological Association (APA), the American Sociological Association (ASA), the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT), the Organizational Development Network, the Healthy Minds Network (University of Michigan), the Association for Institutional Research (AIR) and the National Career Development Association (NCDA).

I maintain an updated Fall 2022 profile of my character strengths with Via Character Strengths and will be glad to share a copy upon request. My highest Via traits are (1) Honesty; (2) Perspective/Wisdom; (3) Appreciation of Beauty & Excellence; (4) Love; (5) Love of Learning; and (6) Gratitude. My profile in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) index is midway between INFJ (Advocate) and INFP (Mediator). According to the Strong Interest Inventory, my primary traits are Social, Artistic, and Investigative.

I’m a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada, but my strongest affiliation is with Canada and Canadian values. (The CBC is my main news source). I’m socially and politically progressive and humanistic, with a deep sensitivity to issues of social justice, women’s equality, sexuality and diversity.

I’ve worked for and studied at several major research universities and colleges in North America. These include Northwestern University (my undergraduate institution), University of Oregon (my graduate university including PhD), University of Washington, Washington State University, Oregon State University, Portland State University, Saybrook University (San Francisco), Lifewest College of Chiropractic Medicine (California), the University of British Columbia (Canada), Simon Fraser University (Vancouver, Canada), University of Victoria (B.C. Canada), Vancouver Island University (BC Canada), Queen’s University (Ontario Canada) and Lakehead University (Ontario Canada).

In addition to my career-based research experience, I have maintained an active research interest in several academic directions. Further details are available from my Gradmentor tools, graduate references, and research interest pages.

More About Me on a Personal Level

I’m currently based in the San Francisco Bay area, where I have made my home for the past 13 years. Previously I resided in British Columbia, Canada, in the cities of Vancouver and Victoria, along with Seattle and Portland during my immediate post-doctoral years.

I am married to my life-partner Kelly, who has been with me for more than 16 years, and we have been married since December 2019. Kelly is a mental health social worker in the San Francisco East Bay, and a candidate for the Masters in Social Work degree.

I have always known I am a highly sensitive person (hsp) but my first discovery of psychologist Elaine Aron and her books on this subject opened me to a world of greater understanding. I have tried to integrate much of my learning about HSPs throughout my Gradmentor site.

Recently, I participated in the Via Character Strengths Assessment and it gave me wonderful new insights about my personal strengths and values. If you have not completed this survey I highly recommend it. (The survey itself is free, full reports can be purchased at modest cost). I received 3 summary reports that I would be willing to share upon request.

I’m a frequent user of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Over the years, I consistently assess as an INFP. I also like to work with the Strong Interest Inventory. Over my lifetime I have always scored as “Social/Artistic/Investigative“.

In addition to a busy career in higher education, I’ve nurtured a lifetime passion for music, especially jazz and jazz history, photography (outdoors and portrait), traveling in the western mountains and coasts of the U.S. and Canada, writing (completed a 25-chapter novel the year after I finished my Ph.D.), human sexuality and LGBTQI issues.

Please feel free to write to me if you’d like to know more. I look forward to getting to know you!