About Your (HOL) Instructor- Dr. Costa

Instructor Name: Pamela Costa, Ph.D. ("Pam" or "Dr. Costa")

Email Address: pcosta@tacomacc.edu (However, contact me directly via CANVAS is preferred)

Office Hours: MWF 7:30-8:30am; 10:45am-12:30 and by appt.

Preferred method of contact: CANVAS Inbox

• If you fail to receive a response from me within 24 hrs (M-F), please send a 2nd message. 

About me:

In 1995 I began teaching at TCC, after previously teaching at Pacific Lutheran University. I began my academic career at a community college in So Calif., very similar to TCC and actually earned a C- in General Psychology! Not giving up, I continued on and transferred to Loyola Marymount University and eventually earned my PhD in Clinical Psychology in 1989. I also worked at Western State Hospital and Madigan, where I completed a post-doctoral residency in neuropsychology. Hence, my passion for the science of psychology stems from my work with people with chronic mental illness and a desire to ensure that ALL of my students help in a united fight to reduce the stigma surrounding mental illness.

I live in the Tacoma area with my husband, teenage daughter and a black labrador retriever.  Yoga and spending time with extended family are ways I like to relax and unwind.

I know how important the outcomes of your classes are and I am here to provide support and guidance so that you can be successful. As you are making a commitment to your education, I am making a commitment to helping you.  Please don't ever hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about your class.

 *Communication

I check in to Canvas DAILY, so the best way to reach me is via the Canvas Inbox system. 

It is my intent to help you succeed in this class. All I ask in return is that you keep me informed if you start having trouble and contact me before you fall more than a week behind. It puts too much pressure on us both to try and catch up if you are more than a week behind.

 Ways I will communicate with you:

I will communicate regularly with you during the quarter. Some of my communications are directed at the entire class and others may be one on one communications with an individual student. I offer you a number of ways in which we can talk to each other.

Canvas Inbox

The Canvas email system is separate from your TCC email (they are in two totally different places with different addresses and everything) - so please do not confuse checking your Canvas email with checking your TCC email. Again, the BEST way to reach me is via the Canvas Email system, as I hover over our Canvas class throughout the day!  Admittedly, I do not check my TCC Email account nearly as frequently because there I receive non-student (i.e, administrators, publishers, meeting requests, etc...). Students are my #1 priority and the Canvas Email system is limited to JUST my students, so I check it frequently.

 Announcements:

I use the announcement feature in Canvas to communicate to the class as a whole. You can see the announcements by going to the course tab or on the announcements page in Canvas. You are responsible for any information found in the announcement section.

You should check the announcements at least twice per week to be sure that you are up-to-date on everything. You can sign up for automatic notification of new announcements through the Canvas notification page.

If the TCC Portal is down, you can still access your email by clicking on the link http://outlook.com/owa/student.tacomacc.edu  and typing your normal MyTCC username/password.