Messy Conversations in Class: Meet Your Professors -
4/13/2026

Conversation Overview 

Welcome to the new MC Time! We’ve moved to 12 PM PT/3 PM ET. 

Learn about Antiracist work included in our UGS courses. We are highlighting the work of two faculty this quarter, Mary Lou Finley & Carmela Maxell. 

Carmela “Dr. Max” Maxell

For over a decade, Dr. Carmela Maxell (PsyD, MA, MBA, LMHC, SUDP-T) has taught at Antioch University, bringing extensive clinical and leadership experience into the classroom. Her professional background includes work in Primary Care Behavioral Health, corrections, and chemical dependency treatment. She is a chemical dependency specialist, mental health clinician and currently serves as Director of a co-occurring substance use and mental health treatment facility in Seattle. Dr. Maxell holds an MBA in Healthcare Management and focuses on strengthening the business and systems side of clinical care while developing ethical, effective leaders in the behavioral health field. She has taught in both undergraduate and graduate programs, including courses in mental health assessment, testing and diagnostics, and social justice–focused topics such as environmental racism. Her teaching emphasizes practical skill-building, ethical practice, and culturally responsive care. In her spare time, she enjoys being with her children, playing the bass, and volunteering. 

Mary Lou Finley, PhD, MPH

  Undergraduate Studies,   Adjunct Faculty.

  Faculty Emerita, Antioch Seattle

Mary Lou  has  taught  social justice-related classes in the Seattle Undergraduate Studies program for many years.    She worked with others on the Seattle campus to found and then run a once-a-week  educational program for unhoused women in the downtown Seattle  area, a program that  operated for more than 20 years, and she led Antioch students on civil rights tours of the South for more than 10 years. She currently serves as a nonviolence trainer with several organizations.    She is a co-author  of Doing Democracy: the MAP Model for  Organizing Social Movements,  and co-editor of The Chicago Freedom Movement: Martin Luther King, Jr. and Civil Rights Activism in the North.