Center for Faculty Excellence New Faculty Member Spotlight: Meet Shawn Patrick

Purdue University Northwest’s Center for Faculty Excellence is pleased to introduce several new faculty members who have joined the university during the 2025-26 academic year.

Get to know more about Shawn Patrick, associate professor of Counseling Education!

What are you most excited about in your first year?

“Learning more about this campus community; interacting in-person again and getting to know the new students in my program.”

How do you spend your free time?

“I like to spend time with my family, whether that’s going to a cool restaurant or playing games at home. I love to travel and see new things, experiencing the unfamiliar.”

What might people be surprised to learn about you?

“I used to do improv — not professionally, just for kicks.”

Why did you get into your field of study?

“This field is all about how to be with each other, how people manage to form relationships in spite of all our complexities, challenges, differences and misunderstandings. The heart of this field centers on our innate connection with each other. As such, it has tremendous potential for liberation, for us to author the lives we know we need and deserve — even when confronted with strong external factors trying to tell us we can’t.”