Paula Thompson working with a student. Photo by Lee Choo.

California State University, Northridge kinesiology professor Paula Thomson has been named one of the top female professors in California by StateStats.org.

Thomson has been at the university for seven years. Prior to joining CSUN she taught and/or choreographed at the Julliard School of Music, Stratford Shakespearean Festival and Canadian Opera Company.

Her research, started when she worked at York University in Toronto, Canada, focuses on dissociation, trauma, and metabolic disorders and their effects on creativity.

“When I came to CSUN, I immediately began collaborating with Dr. Victoria Jaque,” said Thomson. “She is truly the most significant faculty member in my research process. I basically consider my research as our research. It has been a privilege to further the field of creativity and the relationship to dissociation, trauma, attachment and psychophysiology in performing artists, athletes and patients.”

StateStats.org representatives said the list is designed to highlight post-secondary educators who have been recognized recently for excellence in the classroom, on campus, and/or in the community.

StateStats.org is a nonprofit organization that builds free, open source tools with the goal of increasing accessibility to education and information through the use of new technologies.

California State University, Northridge has more than 36,000 full- and part-time students and offers 69 bachelor’s and 57 master’s degrees, 28 teaching credential programs and two applied doctoral degree programs. Founded in 1958, CSUN is among the largest single-campus universities in the nation and the only four-year public university in the San Fernando Valley. The university is home to dozens of nationally recognized programs where students gain valuable hands-on experience working alongside faculty and industry professionals, whether in the sciences, health care and engineering or education, political science, the arts and the social sciences. While regionally focused, the university’s faculty and administrators recognize the important role its students and alumni play in shaping the future of the state and the nation.

Awards, College of Health and Human Development, Faculty and Staff News