When Hye Ree Ahn began her studies at Adler University, she never anticipated that her graduate experience would one day connect to the legacy of a student she had never met. Yet as her training deepened, she found herself drawn to the same questions, values, and commitments that shaped Tiffany Gee’s journey.
Today, as she advances through Adler’s Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis in traumatic stress psychology, that connection is both personal and profound. Ahn is the recipient of the Tiffany Gee Memorial Scholarship, an award created to honor students who reflect the compassion and dedication to trauma psychology that defined Gee’s time at Adler.
Established by Gee’s parents, the scholarship supports emerging trauma clinicians committed to understanding, treating, and advocating for those affected by trauma — a mission Ahn shares deeply.
At Adler, Ahn has consistently demonstrated Gee’s values through her academic excellence, research, leadership, and clinical work. Her doctoral dissertation explores work fatigue, secondary traumatic stress, and burnout in women attorneys who work with traumatized individuals. It is a project that reflects her concern for those who provide care and advocacy to trauma survivors, inspired by her mother’s work in the professional field.
“If we want to provide trauma-informed care to our clients, it needs to be done from a broader perspective, not just in the therapy room, but a lot of trauma survivors are in legal involvement,” Ahn said.
A path shaped by purpose
Ahn’s path to trauma psychology began, as many callings do, with a simple question: How can I help people heal?
“I wanted to learn more about how to help people with traumatic stress,” she said. “I had a friend attending an Adlerian school and the values their school stood for — community, purpose, and social interest — really resonated with me.”
Those values became her compass. In a psychopathology course with Janna A. Henning, Psy.D., where she explored post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), somatic, and dissociative conditions that often accompany complex trauma, her fascination grew with the challenges that hide beneath a person’s everyday life. From there, Ahn committed herself fully to understanding trauma in all its forms — from research to clinical application.
Outside of her research, Ahn has been heavily involved in the traumatic stress psychology emphasis community. She joined the emphasis during her first year and later served as president of Adler’s Traumatic Stress Psychology Student Association (TSPSA), where she played a key role in planning events, fostering dialogue, and supporting fellow students’ professional development.
Currently, she is completing her postdoctoral position at Indiana University- Bloomington Counseling and Psychological Services. In addition, Ahn also works as a counselor at an Asian culture center, supporting students and community members.
Her days are filled with therapy sessions, case discussions, and reflection — work that continually reminds her why she chose this field.
Honoring Tiffany’s legacy
Ahn was a second-year student at Adler at the time of Gee’s death in February 2020.
“I remember very clearly how it was, how it impacted me,” Ahn recalled. “Her death happened at the time that COVID was evolving and there was so much hate around Asian people, so it was more feeling abrasive at the time. I was wondering if there’s anybody who’s like me in this school, and yes, there was a student like me, but this person is now not with us. That was very heartbreaking to me.”
The Tiffany Gee Memorial Scholarship supports students who share Gee’s passion for understanding trauma and her empathy for those who carry it. For Ahn, the award is both an honor and a reminder of the community that shaped her.
“When I heard I was nominated for this scholarship in honor of an Asian woman, it felt like a full circle moment,” she said. “This is so meaningful to me, not just on a personal level, but adds more meaning to my work. Something positive came from something so sad.”
Steps forward
In selecting Ahn for the scholarship, the psychology program faculty members described her as a student who embodies the values at the heart of the traumatic stress psychology emphasis: intellectual rigor, advocacy, professionalism, and an unwavering eagerness to deepen her understanding of trauma and healing.
The psychology department noted that her “thirst for knowledge and dedication to trauma-exposed clients bring Tiffany’s enthusiasm and commitment vividly to mind.”
“A lot of people who are walking to this field really understand the light and the darkness of the human mind,” Ahn said. “Tiffany’s death was a huge loss in the community. I didn’t know her personally, but she has impacted how I see the world, and how I connect with people. In some ways, that’s the greatest gift she gave me.”