Our Staff
Get To Know Our Team of Professionals
Like all InnerChange programs, Fulshear Ranch Academy hires licensed master’s and Ph.D. level clinicians with extensive experience serving young women and their families. We’re proud of our collaborative, compassionate, and clinically sophisticated team. Here are just a few of our current team members:
 Dr. Norma V.L. Clarke, MD
Norma is a board-certified psychiatrist with extensive experience working with children, adolescents, and adults in acute care, residential settings, and outpatient settings. Norma spent five years prior to joining Fulshear serving as the medical director for the Adolescent Treatment Program at the Menninger Clinic. She takes a highly relational approach to working with Fulshear students, stating that she has “learned the value of careful history taking and slow and careful medication management for all diagnostic categories.”
Norma has expertise in diagnosing and treating bipolar disorders, personality disorders, PTSD, mood disorders, and psychotic disorders. She believes that medications do not represent the end point in a treatment plan; Norma believes that correcting dysfunctional habits of thinking and erroneous beliefs , and teaching stress management techniques are critical complements to psychopharmacology.
Norma takes a personal interest in every Fulshear student and says, “I love—and I mean it—watching the dramatic changes as the girls at Fulshear improve!”
In addition to her busy schedule as a psychiatrist, Norma finds time for hiking, nature, reading, cooking, and baking bread.
 Tom Kenneally, PsyD Counseling Psychology
Tom is a licensed psychologist who specializes in working with clients who are healing from traumatic experiences. A particular interest is in working with people who may have had multiple diagnoses and difficulties as a result of untreated trauma. The symptoms that look like a mental disorder are actually ineffective and harmful coping skills that people have used to manage the emotional pain and chaos stemming from their trauma.
Young adult women are particularly susceptible to being diagnosed with personality disorders and affective disorders (like Bi-polar and depression). Often when the trauma issues begin to heal, the symptoms of these diagnoses greatly reduce or disappear altogether. Tom uses a positive strength based solution focused psychology approach to enhance the client’s coping and healing abilities and replace the ineffective harmful behaviors with new ones.
Tom has been trained in EMDR, solution focused therapy, DBT, CBT, substance abuse treatment (addiction) and trauma work. Tom received extensive training in addictive behaviors and co occurring mental health diagnoses at his Doctoral internship at Hazelden Mental Health Center in Minnesota. He was part of a team that started one of the first dual diagnosis residential treatment facilities in the early 1990’s. Tom finds working with the clients at Fulshear an incredibly rewarding career. The strength and bravery of these young women enriches the lives of all who are part of their healing, peers and staff alike.
 Dale Erdmann, LCSW
Dale has spent his forty year career working in residential programs with adolescents and families who have had considerable issues with making the transition to early adulthood. He has specialized in working with adoption issues for most of his career and has specialized clinical training from The Kinship Center in southern California. These experiences have brought him to appreciate the value of working with a treatment team and helping students to take responsibility for their own lives such as the one at Fulshear Ranch Academy. One of the main keys to the success of this work is the trust that comes from honest communication between everyone involved in the process and this “work” almost always leads to growth. Witnessing and participating in that growth has been the “energy” for the career.
Dale enjoys spending time with his family, dogs and in the outdoors. He has been a voluntary blood donor for over 45 years.
 Shay Butts, Director of Admissions
Shay has spent much of her career in organizations dedicated to the empowerment and education of girls and young women. Prior to joining Fulshear, she was the program director for a non-profit organization serving girls, ages 6 - 17, with histories of abandonment, abuse, or neglect. Working for a large group of emotional growth boarding schools and programs, she developed and managed referral relationships with mental health professionals across the country. Shay is most proud, however, of her longstanding membership on the Fulshear team, where she participates directly and indirectly in the healing of young women and their families.
Shay enjoys spending time with her husband, three children, and Teacup Chihuahua. She also finds time for golf, cooking and reading.
 Dustin Oebel, Admissions Counselor
Before joining the Fulshear family, Dustin spent time serving as a Youth Pastor helping teenagers navigate through their junior high and high school years. He desires to be that positive influence in people’s lives and believes whole-heartedly in leading by example. Dustin brings a sense of excellence when supporting staff at Fulshear. Dustin truly enjoys being a part of the Fulshear family and assisting young women in becoming fully independent.
What Dustin loves most, though, is spending time with his wife and daughter. He also finds time to play his saxophone and golf.
 Christopher Brown, Therapist
Prior to joining Fulshear, Christopher was a program director responsible for overseeing multiple treatment facilities dedicated to preventative work with youth and young adults. Christopher greatly enjoys overseeing the residential operations of Fulshear, where he can apply his passion for counseling along with his management experience.
Christopher loves being a husband and dad, playing golf, and cycling.
 Julie Riley, MS, LPC-I
Julie is a graduate of the creative arts therapy department at Nazareth College in Rochester, New York. With a background in photography and graphic design, Julie finds the creative process vital in both the healing process and continued wellness. She has experience with medical art therapy, adolescent bereavement, autism, and family preservation/post adoption support; she also participated in a pilot program utilizing art therapy at a juvenile detention facility in Tanzania, Africa. At Fulshear, Julie is a member of the clinical team by offering individual therapy and facilitating art therapy groups. She also encourages creative development and self-exploration through an open studio art group.
Julie enjoys creativity, exploring, reading, writing, yoga, and spending time around the dinner table with family and friends.
 Tammie McLeod
Before joining the Fulshear family, Tammie spent time serving in a residential, therapeutic shelter for homeless women and children; as well as serving in an emergency shelter for youth. Tammie strives to be a positive influence on our young women, both in actions and words. She is committed to show up with a positive attitude, passionate energy, and a willingness to do whatever she can to encourage and influence our young women to be the best that they can be. Through hard work and personal commitment, she hopes to guide and support each student in their journey and to assist them in becoming an independent young woman.
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