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Posted October 9, 2025
Hello, and please allow me to introduce myself. I am the Interim President and Founding Member of the Pacifica Graduate Institute Alumni Association (PGIAA), Lupe Zuniga, PhD, Class of 1994, Clinical Psychology.
On behalf of my good board, we, the original Pacifica Graduate Institute Alumni Association, founded in 2011 and formed on April 17, 2013, as a California 501 © Nonprofit Corporation, are reaching out to you to offer our help to bring healing and to strengthen our beloved Pacifica community after/ during a time of great strife and change.
We have previously reached out to Dr. Colin Marlaire in June of this year offering our (PGIAA’s) help and have not had a response. Earlier this year there was a “Message from the Board of Trustees on PGIAA” clarifying that the “Pacifica Graduate Institute Alumni Association (PGIAA) is not the official alumni association of the Institute. Further, we are not in partnership with this entity.”
The above-referenced statement from the Pacifica Board of Trustees and the unresponsiveness from Dr. Marlaire is puzzling and hurtful and not in keeping with the Pacifica that we know and love and whose essence is enshrined in its motto, ANIMAE MUNDI COLENDAE GRATIA (For the sake of tending the soul in and of the world).
We wonder who, and how, the Pacifica Board of Trustees came to unilaterally make such a decision regarding disengaging from us, the Original and Official Alumni Association, without any input from the Alumni Association. Surely, particularly at this time, when in the world there is so much turmoil, unhappiness, and strife, we can come together in harmony to help assuage, correct, and heal perceived, or perhaps, in your eyes, real acrimony.
I/We welcome an opportunity to meet with you, the Pacifica Graduate Institute Board of Trustees, either individually or as an entirety, and at your convenience, to have heartfelt conversations with a sincere desire to bring about illumination and understanding to the current dissonance resulting, we are hopeful, in an eventual healing for all. As of now, I/We are truly in a quandary as to the state of affairs as it exists between the Pacifica Graduate Institute Board of Trustees and the Pacifica Graduate Institute Alumni Association. We remain optimistic that together we can arrive at a positive resolution and move forward together in harmony. I/We look forward to hearing from you.
With my warmest personal regards,
Lupe Zuniga, PhD
(818) 386-9130/Email: dr.lupe@roadrunner.com
Posted June 30, 2025
It has been some time since our last communiqué to you, much has happened and we come to you with information, albeit later than we would have wished. We appreciate your patience and understanding.
And, yes, YOU are our Cherished Alumni even though we may not have been able to directly respond to all of your emails and social posts due to our-of-date technology and missing the enormous help and guidance of the Office of Alumni Relations and its Director, our beloved Dianne Travis-Teague. Please know we are in the process of updating our outreach abilities to be better able to respond directly to you.
Firstly, a heartfelt THANK YOU for your help when your Pacifica Graduate Institute Alumni Association (PGIAA) reached out to you at the request of our Pacifica faculty and students to support and help them as they voiced their unhappiness to the Pacifica Board of Trustees with the “shifting away from the Pacifica mission to [foster creative learning and research in the fields of psychology and mythological studies, framed in the traditions of depth psychology].” You responded with your letters to the Pacifica Board of Trustees, social media posts and petitions.
It appears as if the ‘maelstrom’ is passing, and our treasured Pacifica mission enshrined in the motto, ANIMAE MUNDI COLENDAE GRATIA “for the sake of tending the soul in and of the world”, is once again being honored. We are in gratitude.
Secondly, know that your Pacifica Graduate Institute Alumni Association is intact, alive, and well. We are currently an Interim Board working to tighten, reorganize, and establish once again a permanent board to continue to move your Alumni Association forward toward full governance. In that respect, we extend an invitation to our alumni who have a love of Pacifica and are not afraid of hard work to join us on the PGIAA Board. Please visit our PGIAA website, and under the column ABOUT, proceed to EXECUTIVE BOARD AND GOVERNANCE, where you will find an Application to complete and then SUBMIT.
It is our wish to have a gathering in the new year, and so we welcome all the more enthusiastic souls to help in having that wish become a reality.
With our love and warmest regards,
Pacifica Graduate Institute Alumni Association Interim Board
Lupe Zuniga, PhD, Clinical Psychology, 2001
Holly Reusing, MA, Counseling Psychology, 2005, and PhD, Depth Psychology, 2015
David Baker, PhD, Clinical Psychology, 2001
Rita Bazeley, LMFT, MA, Depth Psychology, 2006
Nicole Freeman, LMFT, LPCC, MA, Counseling Psychology, 2018
David Davidson-Methot, PhD, Clinical Psychology, 2000
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Quotes Worth Sharing
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(Sister Corita)
Find a place you trust, and then try trusting it for awhile
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Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.
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It's important to ask yourself, How am I useful to others? What do people want from me? That may very well reveal what you are here for.
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Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough.
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Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.
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Be the change that you wish to see in the world.
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The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.
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The road ahead is not going to be easy. It never is, especially for folks like you and me.
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Pacifica Graduate Institute is a unique place, as anyone with an experience of it will attest. Among the questions most frequently asked of Pacifica alumni include “Why did you go?” and “What was it like?” This is dedicated to sharing reflections of the Pacifica experience. The Alumni Association of Pacifica Graduate Institute brings together favorite memories of teachers, students, staff, alumni, community, and visitors alike. Together, these personal gems convey a sense of Pacifica’s collective light.
PsyD Clinical 2013
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Pacifica has offered to me a unique perspective that spoke to me deeply. It allowed me the ability to explore and find my voice as a practitioner. I was enrolled at another very conventional university when I found Pacifica, or rather, when Pacifica found me! I didn’t know what Depth psychology was at that time, but i knew I had been introduced to something very special. It has truly been a transformative experience.
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