Brick by Brick

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The last post in this blog was about Timothy J. Feeney’s insistence on referring to himself as Timothy J. Feeney PhD or Dr. Timothy J. Feeney when he is neither, at least not in the United States.

As I stated earlier, both his masters and doctorate degrees were issued by a diploma mill called Greenwich University, a non-accredited college that floated back and forth from California and Hawaii in the 1990s before going to Norfolk Island off the coast of Australia in 1998. It closed in 2003.

In truth, Mr. Feeney has a good working knowledge of people with brain injury and, were he able to step up to the plate and shed the guise and present himself as he is, he could be a formidable and helpful presence in the world of community-based brain injury rehabilitation.

In his February 8 e-mail Mr. Feeney asserts that members of the New York State Department of Health have known all along that his degrees were issued by a diploma mill and were satisfied with this.

If Mr. Feeney’s assertion is true, it is deeply troubling and it is all a symptom of our culture’s addiction to dishonesty and penchant for greed.

Did members of the New York State Department of Health know Mr. Feeney’s degrees were, in short, bogus? Did the DOH know this and still sign Mr. Feeney and his company, School and Community Support Services of Latham, New York, to contracts for nearly 15 years?

What group of dysfunctional minds felt morally comfortable and at peace with the notion of giving so much influence to someone who has no doubt impacted the lives of hundreds of brain injury survivors, their families and community-based healthcare providers in New York State?

Mr. Feeney’s insistence on misrepresenting himself is, sadly, not unique. The tragedy for Mr. Feeney is that choosing to do so undermines the very real qualities and knowledge that he brings to the table because it destroys trust, and once trust goes out the window, one’s ability to be effective in their therapeutic endeavors goes out the window with it.

Here is a critical point to all of this, because it points to a larger picture. This writer and any reader of this essay would be flat out wrong to villainize Mr. Feeney or those DOH officials who, according to Mr. Feeney, knew full well the reality of his degrees. While Mr. Feeney et al are certainly responsible for their choices, we have all in one way or another contributed to the creation of a culture that promotes this kind of mindset, and thus we are all responsible for dissembling it, brick by brick, if you will.

We can and must hold people accountable, but we must do so without hatred, without cruelty. We must allow people to step up to the plate, apologize, make amends. We can dislike the choices, even hate them at time, but we are stepping into emotional quicksand if we allow ourselves to hate our brothers and sisters.

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TO DEGREE OR NOT TO DEGREE, THAT IS THE QUESTION

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To his credit, Timothy J. Feeney, a contract employee with the New York State Department of Health for nearly 15 years, recently acknowledged that his PhD was issued by a college that is not accredited in the United States.

In an unsolicited February 8 e-mail to readers of this blog, Mr. Feeney said he received his PhD from Greenwich University which, he writes, “functioned as an unaccredited institution in the US, moved it’s physical location to Australia, received legal accreditation in Australia for a two year period – period of time that my doctorate was conferred - and then lost that accreditation and closed) and no longer exists.”

Mr. Feeney appears to be partly correct. The Greenwich University Act of 1998 allowed Greenwich to function on Norfolk Island as a recognized university. However, according to a web-alert issued by the Australian Government, degrees issued by Greenwich were never recognized as valid on the Australian mainland and they have never been accredited anywhere in the United States.

According to an e-mail from Douglass Capogrossi, past president of Greenwich University and current president of Hawaii-based Akamai University (also non-accredited), Mr. Feeney is correct that his doctorate was issued when the Greenwich University Act of 1998 was in effect.

According to Mr. Capogrossi, Mr. Feeney's doctorate was issued on June 14, 1999 and his masters degree, also from Greenwich, was issued on August 27, 1993, before Greenwich moved to Australia and five years before the Greenwich University Act when, according to Mr. Feeney's e-mail, Greenwich was operating as a non-accredited school in the United States.

Greenwich University was located in California and Hawaii in the 1990s before relocating to Norfolk Island off the coast of Australia. It closed in 2003.

In his e-mail Mr. Feeney expressed concern that this writer was or is about to call him a fraud or accuse him of fraud. As I said to him in a subsequent e-mail, I have no intention of doing either.

In his e-mail Mr. Feeney further says I have drawn a conclusion about the academic integrity of degrees issued by Greenwich and “based (my) opinion on the fact that (his) Masters and Doctorate have been conferred by Greenwich University, which he has, in separate emails to myself and others, characterized as a Diploma Mill.”

Rightly or wrongly, Greenwich University is on numerous diploma mill/non-accredited schools lists on the web. The State of Oregon has compiled a comprehensive list of non-accredited schools and Greenwich is listed. It is also present on a non-accredited school lists that can be located by visiting the website for the U.S. Department of Education.

http://www.ed.gov/students/prep/college/diplomamills/index.html

As one who lives with a brain injury and one who advocates for all people with disabilities, it is true that I wrote Mr. Feeney e-mails asking him to clarify his education. He never responded to any of my requests. In fact, his e-mail to the readers of this blog represents the first time I have heard him acknowledge his doctorate was issued by Greenwich University.

Moreover, in his unsolicited e-mail to readers of this blog, Mr. Feeney says he is "very careful never to refer to myself as a psychologist." However, his profile in his company website says (italics are mine) "Tim has worked in a variety of capacities in human services including: special education teacher, program director of a state program for individuals with autism, coordinator of educational services, coordinator of behavioral services, staff psychologist, consulting behavior specialist, and an Assistant Professor of Special Education."

The issue for me is whether or not someone who has worked in the field of brain injury in New York State and a wide array of other localities has degrees that are recognize as valid by accrediting and regulating agencies.

However, according to Mr. Feeney, the New York State Department of Health is satisfied with his degrees and the NYDOH is fully aware that they were issued by a school that is not accredited in the United States.

In his February 8 e-mail he writes “I have been the Project Director for the NY State Neurobehavioral Resource Project for nearly 15 years, representing 3 distinct 5 year award periods. I have this job as the result of responding to a Request for Applications on three separate occasions. Each application required that I present my credentials for review. In each project award period I have been identified as the “key person” as a result of the DOH’s recognition of my experience and success as a clinician supporting individuals with brain injury and challenging behaviors. The Department of Health, the state office responsible for the Neurobehavioral Resource Project, is well aware of my educational history, the source of my degrees, and knew that I was undertaking graduate studies while working as the Project Director.”

I have offered more than once to sit down with Mr. Feeney and when he forwarded me the e-mail he sent to readers of this blog I again offered to sit down and talk with him. There has been no response.
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