Jesma Candace

Dr. Jesma Candace serves as an Adjunct Professor in the PsyD program at Augsburg University since her 2022 graduation, where she was among the program's first PsyD recipients and its inaugural Preparing Future Faculty fellow. She concurrently serves in the Minnesota Army National Guard and delivers clinical care across inpatient, outpatient, day treatment, private practice, and correctional settings.

Her academic credentials include:

• PsyD in Clinical Psychology from Augsburg University (2022)
• MA in Clinical Psychology from Argosy University, Twin Cities Campus
• BSc in Psychology from the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus

Her research targets mental health and offending trajectory interventions for military veterans, immigrants, and incarcerated populations, investigating how social support and resilience counteract adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), trauma, and insecure attachment. Methodologically quantitative, her work bridges clinical, forensic, and multicultural psychology with applications in severe mental illness (SPMI) and medication-assisted treatment (MAT).

Professional recognition includes the Preparing Future Faculty fellowship, highlighting her pedagogical commitment to creating safe, bidirectional learning environments.

She has presented on violence risk assessment (2024), managing behavioral concerns in custody (2023), ACEs' impact on juvenile offending (2022), and culturally adapted cognitive behavioral therapy for Somali Muslim clients (2018).