New Counselor at MHCC: Collette Feasler
Photo by Lindsay Leeman
Mt. Hood Community College has a new counselor here to serve its students and help them with the trials and tribulations of college life: Collette Feasler, who was born, raised in and has lived around east Multnomah County their whole life.
“The eastside is my home and I’m so happy to give back to the community that helped nurture me into who I am today,” they told me.
Even more important, Feasler has strong personal ties to Mt. Hood. They grew up going to swim meets at the Aquatics Center and took their driver’s education classes here. Their mother earned an associate degree in Early Childhood Education here, as well.
To me, it is delightful to have someone who has their roots in East County here to advocate and support my fellow scholars.
Feasler earned a bachelor of science degree in psychology and master’s degree in clinical rehabilitation counseling from Portland State University. Clinical rehabilitation counseling is an awesome subset of counseling that focuses on an individual’s mental health, disability justice, and ability status throughout their lifespan, they said.
They worked their way through college as a Certified Nursing Assistant serving in assisted living, skilled nursing facility, and sub-acute mental health facilities along the way.
To me, this sounds like a heavy workload balanced with school, so they seem very familiar with the modern, hyper-busy student lifestyle.
More recently Feasler worked as a counselor for the past six years, before coming to MHCC. They served as a vocational rehabilitation counselor, which they called “a very rewarding position where I could support people with various disabilities (physical, mental health, cognitive, developmental, etc.).”
They said they hope to bring that level of support to their new position. One of the things that attracted them to Mt. Hood is that they would love to “make mental health and college success skills as transparent and accessible as possible for people (especially first-generation college students like myself),” they said.
“I am also really passionate about centering anti-ableism and anti-racism in the interactions I have with students, colleagues, and community partners,” they added.
I, for one, am very grateful to have someone I can relate to on many levels as one of the several great counselors we have here on campus!
*This article has been updated to reflect a correction in the type of pronouns Collette Feasler (they/them) uses.*
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