Appalachian Counseling and Psychological Services is happy to introduce our dedicated and talented staff.
Dr. Elizabeth "Sally" Condor
Dr. Condor became interested in neuropsychology in 1979 while working at the Veterans’ Hospital in Dallas, Texas. It appealed to her long history of interest in physiological psychology (the area she received her Master’s degree in) and brain function in humans. In 1980, she accompanied one of the neuropsychologists she worked with to a neuropsychology conference and began assessing veterans, beginning her career in neuropsychology. In 1982, she returned to UNC – Greensboro to begin work on her Ph.D. in psychology. Since her emphasis was in clinical neuropsychology, she welcomed the chance in 1983 to work with Dr. Frank Wood, who was the head of the Section of Neuropsychology of the Dept. of Neurology at what was then Bowman Gray School of Medicine. While in school, she continued working with Dr. Wood and the other neuropsychologists at Bowman Gray until 1989, seeing infants from 6 months of age to elderly adults to age 89.
In 1989, she began working at Thoms Rehab, now CarePartners, in the Dept. of Psychology. Dr. Condor worked exclusively with children at the Olsen Huff center in Asheville, NC, addressing developmental delays and difficulties. In 2000, she began at Skyland Behavioral Health Associates as a neuropsychologist and owner seeing children and adults.
In addition to assessing those with traumatic brain injuries, she sees individuals with ADHD, learning disabilities, neurodevelopmental disorders, along with a wide range of other medical and neurocognitive conditions that impact health and functioning.
Dr. Michelle Lechman
Dr. Lechman, earned her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Baylor University and completed her internship at Duke University. Dr. Lechman has been practicing as a licensed psychologist in Western North Carolina since 1995.
As a private practitioner, Dr. Lechman provided contract clinical services with several local residential and wilderness placements for over 15 years. She has served as Clinical Adviser, Clinical Director, and as a therapist for programs designed specifically for girls ages 10 to 16. Dr. Lechman has more recently devoted her practice almost exclusively to completing psychological evaluations. She has also been a contracted psychologist with several schools in the WNC area.
Dr. Lechman specializes in identifying learning disorders, learning differences, and giftedness. She is adept at identifying executive functioning challenges (e.g., attention problems, working memory weakness, impulse control issues, etc). She has a great deal of experience at making recommendations to parents and to school on how to take the results of psychological testing and turn them into the best chance for sucess in the classroom. She is also willing to support parents and families in understanding how to advocate for their children in the school system - be it seeking an IEP, 504, or enrollment in the AAG program at school or finding private resources for academic enrichment.
Ms. Tara Chandler, LCSW
Ms. Chandler earned her undergraduate from Antioch College in 1996, completing cooperative learning internships domestically and internationally all four years of her academic career there. Ms. Chandler served as recreational intern at the Edgewood Children's Center in San Francisco for extreme cases of sexual abuse as well as coordinator of the preschool program at the Vihiga Children's Center in Vihiga, Kenya.
She recieved her Masters in Social Work at UNC Chapel Hill in 2006 and her Clinical Licensure in 2011. Ms. Chandler was granted the NC Child Welfare Collaborative Scholarship for 2004 and 2005 academic years while at Chapel Hill. In 2005, she wrote the Kinship Care Handbook designed to help grandparents, relatives and other non-relative substitute caregivers who are helping children and families to avoid the foster care system. This book was adopted by the Buncombe County Department of Social Services and is still in use to this date. In 2008, Ms. Chandler was awarded the NC Innovative Practice by a Child Welface Scholar for her work on this project.
Ms. Chandler began working at the Buncombe County Department of Social Services in 2005 and remained there until 2011 working with families to avoid the foster care system. Ms. Chandler also created and piloted the Kinship Care Coordinator project before it was contracted to a private company in late 2012. This project identified the specialized needs of kinship providers, created the services they needed, and developed a self-help network for these providers.
Post-Licensure, Ms. Chandler began training in more specialized areas of focus around trauma, adolescents and young adults. Ms. Chandler has completed extensive training in both EMDR and Trauma Focused Cognitive Behaviroal Therapy. Since 2012, Ms. Chandler has worked with children from ages 6-17 and their families in an in-home therapy capacity as well as children and adults in an outpatient setting. Ms. Chandler is currently working at Skyland Behavioral with adolescents and young adults to resolve long term trauma and its complications. She is also a founding owner with Appalachian Counseling and Psychological Services and provides therapy services with ACAPS.
Mr. James Stewart
Mr. Stewart graduated Suma Cum Laude from Ashford University. He went on to complete his Masters in Counseling Psychology in 2014 at the Adler School of Psychology in Chicago. He completed his Licensure in 2016 and has focused on Psychological and Neuropsychological Testing during his time with ACAPS.
Mr. Stewart served in the United States Army before continuing his academic career. After having experiences on deployment that led to a desire to change careers, Mr. Stewart went back to school.During this time, he decided to complete his Masters in Psychology. Since that time, he returned to WNC to begin working in the mental health field. His experience has been with both outpatient and in-home treatment settings to support families getting back on their feet after life altering mental illness. Mr. Stewart is a founding owner of ACAPS.
Mr. Ron Pallick
Ron Pallick brings a varied background to his current position as an outpatient therapist, clinical addictions specialist, and group leader at ACAPS. Ron earned his undergraduate degree in the Social Sciences from the State University Center of NY at Stony Brook and was awarded his Masters In Social Work from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill in 2006. While attending university, Ron began working in community mental health by interning at Blue Ridge Center starting in 2000.
Ron has a strong history of building therapeutic skills with adolescents, families, and adults in recovery in a variety of settings. In the last ten years, he has spent time developing his skills set with families in crisis and individual in recovery. This required working with families in disarray due to oppositional behaviors, dysfunctional parenting styles and often substance abuse. Ron has also managed a Substance Abuse Intensive Outpatient Program (SAIOP) that provides treatment and education for people in the grips of addiction.
Ron is fluent in conversational Spanish which has proved to be a strong assessment in the mountains as the Hispanic population grows and is in need of professional caring services. Ron also brings teaching skills to his practice as he has taught in University and Community Colleges in the area in the Social Sciences field.
Mr. Jeremy Pearsall
Jeremy Pearsall has been a native of Western North Carolina for most of his life. Mr. Pearsall received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Mars Hill College in 1999.
He worked with disadvantage and at risk children during his college career in after school programs and summer camps. Mr. Pearsall specialized in helping children develop strong conflict resolution skills, self-esteem, and learning how to channel their difficult backgrounds into positive future goals.
Mr. Pearsall spent most of his professional career with the NC Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. He worked at the Swannanoa Youth Development Center with Juveniles who were involved with the juvenile criminal system. He developed a passion for juvenile offenders and their needs while serving as an administrator for 12 years. He discovered he had a keen ability to handle crisis and connect young people with needed resources both inside the facility and after they transitioned back to the community.
After state budgetary changes forced the closing of the detention center, he began a second career in community mental health by working with both adults and children in both the community and clinical settings. During this time, he developed a large cache of resources and knowledge of how to navigate the ever changing world of mental health.
As a program specialist at Appalachian Counseling and Psychological Services Mr. Pearsall brings over 20 years of caring about others and navigation of the mental health system to the table. He has a keen ability to connect patients to the right resources after testing is complete.
Ms. Jennifer Denny
Ms. Denny is an Asheville native who joined the ACAPS team in May 2016. Ms. Denny has 12 years of impressive knowledge and work experience in the Mental Health billing and office management fields. She manages ACAPS insurance relationships and oversees the billing office as well as maintaining professional relationships with other agencies in order to best coordinate care for our patients. Ms. Denny handles our accounts billable and patient financial relationships in which she assists patients with identifying their co-pays, coinsurances, and other financial matters.