“I started as an elementary education major with a double minor in psychology and English literature but decided that education was not for me when I was a senior. I found instead that I loved psychology. I had Professor Leo Schneiderman for abnormal psychology and absolutely loved his class.” Goodwin began her career path teaching fifth-grade and then became a guidance counselor and eventually a director of guidance. “I did psychological testing for children with special needs in schools part time while I was home with my daughters when they were young.” She taught at a college while studying psychological testing and abnormal behavior and child development before becoming licensed in Massachusetts and opening her private practice in 1978. “I started doing work for the Massachusetts courts in 1982 and I received my Ph.D. from Walden University in 1996.”

A typical work day for Goodwin can take her from counseling to meeting with lawyers to seeing patients in her private practice before preparing for a deposition and writing reports. In the evenings and every other Friday she goes to Boston to focus on her job as commissioner. “About 50 percent of my practice isclinical work where I see clients. The other 50 percent is forensic evaluations — civil and criminal cases which have been assigned by the courts.”

While at Eastern, it was Betty Tipton, dean of women, who encouraged and inspired Goodwin. “She pushed me and taught me that as a woman, I could be whatever I wanted to be. She saw something in me that I did not know about myself at the time.”