Faculty Members of the Drama Therapy Program
Drama Therapy (MA)
Core Faculty
Renée Emunah, PhD, RDT/BCT (Board Certified Trainer of Drama Therapists), program chair, is the founding director of the Drama Therapy program. She is the author of the book Acting for Real: Drama Therapy Process, Technique, and Performance, which has been translated into Chinese and Japanese.
Renée is a Board Certified Trainer of Drama Therapists and the recipient of the National Association for Drama Therapy Gertrude Schattner Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Field of Drama Therapy. Author of numerous articles and chapters in the field, Renée served on the editorial board of the international journal Arts in Psychotherapy for 15 years.
She is a former president of the National Association for Drama Therapy and has worked for 30 years as a drama therapist, including 15 years specializing in group work with emotionally disturbed adults and adolescents. In addition, she founded and directed a community theater company for ex-psychiatric patients, for which she received a Commendation by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
Renée was among the first four drama therapists to be officially registered in the U.S. She is a pioneer in the field of drama therapy, and her work has been presented extensively at conferences and trainings worldwide.
In 2006, she was a keynote speaker at the Arts in Hospitals conference in Hong Kong, and in 2008, she was the keynote speaker at the National Conference on Drama Therapy. In 2006 and 2008, she taught drama therapy in Japan. She is a coeditor of the forthcoming new edition of the book Current Approaches to Drama Therapy. She was selected to be included in the 2009 edition of Who’s Who in America.
F. Antonio Ramírez Hernández, MA, PsyD, is nationally and internationally recognized for creating Centro de Capacitación para Erradicar la Violencia Intrafamiliar Masculina (CECEVIM), a methodology for working with Latino men who abuse their partners. His teaching interests include cross-cultural counseling, research design, and clinical case seminars.
Antonio wrote the book Violencia Masculina en el Hogar (Masculine Violence in the Home) (Editorial Pax, Mexico, 2000). He also wrote the chapter “CECEVIM—Stopping Male Violence in the Latino Home” for the book Programs for Men Who Batter (Civic Research Institute, 2002).
Gary Raucher, MA, LMFT, RDT/BCT, is a drama therapist with broad clinical experience in a variety of community agencies and hospitals, and in private practice. He is a senior member of the West Coast Institute for Developmental Transformations, a training program for an improvisation-based method of drama therapy.
In the 1990s he introduced drama therapy as a modality in support groups for people living with HIV. Keenly interested in transpersonal psychology, Gary has presented at national drama therapy conferences on the combined use of meditation and action techniques as a form of integral practice. He is vice-president of the National Association for Drama Therapy.
Adjunct Faculty
Deborah French Frisher, MPA, RDT, administrative adjunct faculty, is a Registered Drama Therapist, educator, activist, and director. Her work with teens led to the short film abus - NO WAY! which was distributed nationally by domestic violence agencies. She received her graduate degree from Harvard University.
She has a private practice in affiliation with the Lomi Psychotherapy Clinic in Santa Rosa, where she has been integrating somatic therapy with drama therapy.
Sylvia Israel, MA, MFT, RDT/BCT, Certified Psychodramatist (CP), Psychodrama Trainer, Educator, and Practitioner (TEP), is founder and director of IMAGINE Center for Creativity and Healing, a center for psychodrama, drama therapy, sandplay, and other expressive arts therapies in Marin County.
Eva Leveton, MS, MFT, a psychotherapist in private practice, has been teaching and doing therapy for 50 years both nationally and internationally. A founding member of the San Francisco Family Therapy Center, she was one of the first psychodramatists in the Bay Area.
She recently received the Zerka Moreno Award from the American Association of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama for her lifelong contributions to the field. She is the author of three books and many articles.
W. Randy McCommons, MA, MFT, RDT/BCT, has worked as a drama therapist in private practice and at Alta Bates Hospital Berkeley, CA, for 15 years. He is a past board member of the National Association of Drama Therapy and past president of the Northern California chapter. He is also clinical director of the Institute for Developmental Transformations West.
Susan Coto McKenna, MS, ADTR (Academy of Dance Therapists Registered), has worked for over 20 years in psychiatric hospitals using creative arts therapies with adolescents and adults. She is the supervisor of creative arts therapy interns at Alta Bates Hospital.
Marty Mulkey, MA, has worked as a drama therapist with veterans, survivors of sexual assault, chronically mentally ill adults, and substance abuse groups, and also has a private practice.
Sheila Rubin, MA, MFT, RDT/BCT, has a private practice in drama therapy, directs an intergenerational theater company, and specializes in directing self-revelatory performances.
Nina Strongylou, MA, MFT, RDT/BCT, is a psychotherapist and the supervisor of creative arts therapy interns at the adult psychiatric unit of Saint Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco. She is also a former vice president of the National Association for Drama Therapy.
Armand Volkas, MFA, MA, MFT, RDT/BCT, is the founder and director of the Healing the Wounds of History and Acts of Reconciliation projects, and of the Living Arts Counseling Center and Playback Theater Company. He has developed innovative programs using drama therapy for social change, conflict resolution, reconciliation, and intercultural communication.
