Rick Buckwalter serves as Assistant Professor of Psychology and Human Services, a role he has held since 2009. Rick holds both a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a Master’s Degree in Community Psychology from Northeast Missouri State University (now Truman State University). He is a Missouri-licensed clinical social worker.
Before joining the faculty at Quincy University, Rick had a lengthy career in the mental health field. He was a clinical therapist and member of management at a private psychiatric hospital, a clinical therapist providing outpatient counseling services, a consultant in numerous public schools, and a member of the management staff of a community mental health center. Rick worked in private practice and began teaching as an adjunct instructor in 2007. He fell in love with teaching, joined the faculty full-time, and coordinated the newly formed Human Services major.
Because Rick teaches both introductory and upper-level courses, he gets to see the trajectory of many students from freshman year to graduation. Rick finds witnessing the intellectual growth and maturity in the students over the course of their time at QU particularly rewarding. Outside the classroom, Rick enjoys advising students and assisting them with career and further academic pursuits.