The 2015-16 school year marks Ms. Gina Liberotti’s 17th year as a college counselor and fourth year as a member of Loyola’s Counseling Department.

Ms. Liberotti earned her bachelor’s degree in developmental psychology with distinction in the major at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and her master’s degree in social welfare with honors at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Prior to working as a college counselor, Ms. Liberotti worked for a variety of institutions around the Los Angeles metropolitan area including the County of Los Angeles’ child abuse treatment unit and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA). At CHLA Ms. Liberotti worked closely with physicians in the diagnosis, treatment and referrals for victims of suspected child abuse and neglect and with high risk youth in the Division of Adolescent Medicine.

In 1999 Ms. Liberotti began working at Notre Dame Academy as a college counselor, a position she held until transitioning to Loyola in 2012 when she realized “it was time to try something new.”

In addition to her role as a counselor, Ms. Liberotti is a co-founder and co-moderator of Cubs First, a program for first generation college-bound Loyola students.

“Along with Dr. Rodriguez, Dr. Mabra and Mr. Jordan, we have created and implemented institutionalized support for our first generation college applicant students,” she said.

Other responsibilities as a co-moderator of Cubs First include submitting papers to conferences and giving presentations “that are specific to the issues and concerns of first generation students.”

Ms. Liberotti said she remains optimistic that the moderators of Cubs First, along with the First Generation Student Association president Andrew Perez, will be able to attend 1vyG, an annual inter-Ivy conference for first generation students that is facilitated by students. This year the second annual conference will be held at Harvard University.

In addition to co-moderating Cubs First and counseling, Ms. Liberotti works as an outside reader for the University of California, Berkeley. Every fall for the past five years she is responsible for reviewing 600-700 freshman applications.

“I am in the midst of reading applications right now for Cal. That takes up about 20 hours more a week at this time of year,” she said.

On the weekends or in her free time, Ms. Liberotti enjoys spending time with her two daughters, golfing, hiking and playing with her two dogs and two cats.

Ms. Liberotti said she values the degree of community engagement at Loyola: “I appreciate the level of involvement here. We are all here all the time. The result for me is a sense of community, interconnectedness, and just plain fun –not to mention work too– that permeates all aspects of life at Loyola. I wouldn’t be anywhere else.”