Mary McNaughton-Cassill Ph.D.

Mary McNaughton-Cassill, Ph.D., received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the UCSD/SDSU Joint Clinical Doctoral program in San Diego. She is currently a professor of Psychology at the University of Texas at San Antonio, where she teaches Abnormal Psychology, Theories of Learning, Psychology and Health, Physiological Psychology, and Stress Management. In her 25 years at UTSA, she has also served as the Associate Dean of Undergraduate Affairs, and the Interim Director of the Teaching and Learning Center.

Awards she has won include the Chancellor’s Council Teaching Award, the UTSA Student Government Distinguished Faculty Award, the Honor’s College Outstanding Mentorship Award, the Howe Service to Students Award, the UTSA Diane Abdo Outstanding Advisor Award, the Minnie Stevens Piper Teaching Award, and the UT Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award. She has also been elected to serve as a lifetime fellow of the UT System Academy of Distinguished Teachers.

She conducts research on stress and coping and has published numerous articles on news media-induced stress and the stress of modern life. She has written two books about coping with stress. The first, Mind The Gap: Coping With Stress in the Modern World, was published in 2013, and the second, Give Way: Coping with Social Stress in the Connected World, is coming out in 2020. She also edited a book called Adapt and Overcome: Essays on the Student Veteran Experience.

In addition, she is an active member of the Green Cross Academy of Traumatology, a non-profit group that provides mental health support in the wake of disasters. She has responded to the tornado in Moore, OK, Hurricanes Ike, Harvey, and Maria, and the Paradise, California fire. At this time, she is working to provide stress management assistance to individuals, such as grocery store workers, who have become non-traditional first responders because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019, she was the recipient of the GCAT Directors Award for service to the organization.

On a personal note, she is married to UTSA Biology Professor Dr. Aaron Cassill, has twin daughters who are now making their own way in the world, and lives with three domesticated, and two semi-feral cats. Although she has been in Texas since 1994, she is still quick to tell people that she spent the first half of her life in California. In her spare time, she is an avid gymnastics fan, enjoys skiing and reading, and pretending—that she can garden and make crafts.