This month: Linda Carlson

She’s our Treasurer and the Board’s fiscal conscience. She does a masterful job of translating the Chapter’s financial statements into layperson’s terms at Board meetings. We count on her to keep us aware of the financial impact of our decisions as a Chapter and we’re proud to feature Linda Carlson in this month’s Faces column.

Linda is an East Coast transplant; She originally hails from Cleveland, Ohio. She brings to the treasurer’s job many years of work in finance, beginning in the late 60s, and experience as a treasurer for several other non-profits. She has been in California since 1987, when she came out for a visit and ended up deciding to make this her home.

Linda has an undergraduate degree in psychology and an interest in spirituality and so, when she decided to return to school, it made sense to pursue a Master’s in psychology through the transpersonal program at John F. Kennedy University. She has continued to do accounting work alongside her private practice, where she works with adult women and children ages 3 to 12. She became connected with EBCAMFT when she took the place of our last bookkeeper, and she joined the Board as treasurer in 2001 when Chris Mauro, our last treasurer, left office.

Linda appreciates the social aspects of her volunteer work as Treasurer: “Being a therapist in private practice can often be a rather solitary profession, but being on the board has given me a valuable opportunity to meet other therapists.” Her hope for the future is to be part of a group practice that would provide a variety of therapeutic services to the public and provide collegial support to the therapists.

In her leisure time Linda enjoys singing with the Berkeley Broadway Singers, an 80-person singing group that specializes in singing Broadway and other pop music. She also enjoys exploring alternative medicine and studying various spiritual practices, particularly Native American spirituality.

This is Linda’s third year as Treasurer, and she is looking forward to passing her duties on to a new volunteer. We are grateful to Linda for her work, and hope we can call on her expertise for future projects in the Chapter.