Our first alumni spotlight of the 2016-2017 year shines on alum Kris Mohandie, who is also a current parent at the school. Kris arrived at Clairbourn in his 7th grade year, which he says, “…would have been a long time ago.” After graduating from Clairbourn, he went to La Salle and from there went to Cal Poly, Pomona, and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology.
From there, he went to the California School of Professional Psychology, Los Angeles, where he got a master’s degree and, later, a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. Today, he’s one of the country’s most respected and well-known clinical police and forensic psychologists.The alumni office was fortunate enough to spend half an hour with Kris, who reminisced about his time at Clairbourn, the beginnings of his professional career, and the many components of his job.
How did you get into psychology? When I was at La Salle, my school counselor, Brother William Carriere, was not only a Christian brother and a teacher but he was also pursing his psychology degree. We had this Religion and Psychology class, and that was my first exposure to psychology. It was cool. We did meditation and guided imagery and it was just an interesting experience. I didn’t really think that much about it at the time because I was actually going to go on to become a lawyer. I took some political science courses at Cal Poly and didn’t really care for them, but I liked psychology. Once I got my first psychology classes, and did well at them, I decided that’s what I wanted to do. So, it was more like happenstance, although I was always interested in human behavior. During that time in American history, there was a lot happening that was highly publicized. There were hijackings, high- profile crimes like those of the Manson family, and the SLA kidnapping of Patty Hearst. All that was going on in the news when I was a kid and a teen, and I think it had an impression on my curiosity about human nature. Plus, I always read The Hardy Boys books. Once I switched over to psychology, which was during my first year of college, you really can’t do it with just a Bachelor’s degree; you kind of have to go all the way if you really want to do anything.
How did you get from studying psychology to practicing it? Going through the program at the California School of Professional Psychology (CSPP), you do three internships. The first one I did was at the Anaheim Police Department, and I was exposed to law enforcement there. It wasn’t like I had a huge desire to go there, but it was available and I went. I was doing juvenile diversion counseling, and that got me interested in the police side of psychology. I was already interested in crime and serious, abnormal behavior from what I had seen growing up. But now, I was in a police department talking to detectives, and that would kind of foreshadow what would happen when I approached graduation and I needed a job. There was an unpaid part-time position at the LAPD that would enable me to get my hours for licensure. So, I went in and interviewed, and the guy that I interviewed with had founded the first police psychology program in the world. He hired me to be an intern. But, in the time between when he hired me to be an unpaid intern and the time I was to start, a paid position came up to be his assistant. He offered me that job, and I accepted. That was that. I was there at the LAPD from May of 1989 until May of 2003.
What did you do while you were at the LAPD? I got licensed and I ended up working there as a full-time police psychologist, and even ended up running that area for a couple years. I was able to develop my areas of expertise. I had another mentor who was a police psychologist from San Francisco, and he mentored me in doing other things like threat management. At the LAPD, I did a lot of therapy with officers, but I also got involved with using psychology for operational work, which is the application of psychology to crimes in progress or solving crimes. I learned how to consult with the hostage team, so I worked with SWAT and I worked with the hostage negotiation team. If there was something that happened where someone had taken hostages at a bank, or hotel, or was threatening to jump off a building, we would go with the negotiators and help them talk to those people.
Did you work any high profile cases? One of the more noteworthy cases would be OJ Simpson. I was at his house when he went on that famous, low-speed Bronco chase. He ended up back at his house, and I was in his house with a negotiator helping to talk him out of his Bronco, out of his suicidal behavior, and to surrender himself. That’s probably the most famous case I was involved in. But, I also worked as a consultant with the threat management team on stalking cases. I worked on the Steven Spielberg stalker case and several celebrity stalking cases.
How did your job evolve over time? There came a point where I was also working with other agencies. I still work to this day with the Pasadena Police Department and a few others. Up until last year, I worked with the FBI for a dozen years as a consultant in their behavior analysis program doing counterintelligence on national security matters. I’ve always worked forensic cases which is the interface of psychology and the courtroom. There are two facets to that work. One is civil cases—usually police shootings. Then, in the criminal arena, I will do homicide cases—usually serial or mass homicide cases. The issues are: are they sane or are they insane, why did this happen, and what was the motive. I’ve worked some pretty big cases including the Aurora theater shooting where I was a consultant to the prosecution.
How did you come to work in the entertainment industry? When I was at the police department, the entertainment industry work began because they would sometimes want a psychologist to talk about what happened at an incident. Local news would call, and my boss would say, “Why don’t you do this interview?” I started doing local interviews, and gradually that evolved into doing national interviews. I’ve regularly appeared on “Anderson Cooper 360,” and I’ve appeared on shows for all the major networks, for the BBC, and for cable channels Discovery, Investigative Discovery, and History. I hosted a show called “Most Evil” that went from 2014 to 2015. I did ten episodes as a host and it told the story of some pretty serious crimes. There were three crimes profiled in each episode and, for one of the crimes, I would go to the prison and actually interview the offender. I would tell the story and do the analysis of it to help people understand how such things happen. I’ve also worked behind the scenes in the entertainment industry. I’ve consulted on shows that were being produced to give input about the content. For example, I consulted on the movie Red Dragon and with the actor Ralph Fiennes. I actually spent a couple hours with him shedding light on the character he was playing. I shared with him videos of people that I’d interviewed—serial murderers and that kind of thing—and we’d talk about it. I consulted on the movie Copy Cat with Sigourney Weaver and Harry Connick, Jr. I actually created the plot for that film, although I didn’t get any credit. I worked on Batman Begins which includes that whole thing about delusions that came on when a toxic substance was inhaled. I spent a fair amount of time with the people who were writing that. The other part of the entertainment industry that I’ve work in is for competition and talent shows where we talk to contestants before and during the shows. I help the shows’ producers make sure they are getting people who are safe to do the show and who are able to able to deal with the stress.
In what ways have you been involved in threat management? I was involved with applying the technology used in regular workplaces to school violence. In that regard, I helped LA Unified develop their school violence program and I have consulted throughout North America on school and workplace violence. I regularly do lectures and workshops on violence-related topics. I also write academic publications on pretty serious topics such as mass homicide, hostage negotiation, and school violence. Plus, I’ve written a lot about stalking. So, I’ve really done a nice variety of work with law enforcement and the FBI, with both private and public companies, with the entertainment industry and schools, as well as in the courtroom. I’ve got to say, tracing it back to Clairbourn, while I was here only two years, it was a very academically rigorous environment. I remember some of the lessons I had from this place, particularly about grammar, reading, and writing. They were pretty impactful. I remember leaving here to go to La Salle, and I could coast a little bit.
What’s your favorite Clairbourn memory? I have a couple. We didn’t have anything as fancy as the current Costa Rica or Australia trips, but we had Yosemite, and it was fantastic. We were up there for a couple days, and I have such fond memories of that trip. We actually had a photography competition when we were there and we got awards for “best animal picture,” “best photograph,” or whatever. We had a photography class when I was here, and we actually had a dark room set up where we had a chance to practice the art of developing film. I remember the pool and we would have swim days. I remember going to a dance here, and I can remember the songs that they played for slow dances—Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” and the Eagles “Take It To The Limit.” I still have friends from when I was here and still see them from time to time. Lasting friendships can start here. It was two years that made a significant impact on my life. So, when my son was young and we were looking for a school for him, we decided to bring him here and he’s done really well. It’s a great environment with great learning experiences and the teachers are fantastic, challenging, and caring. Clairbourn encourages achievement, but it also balances it out with a compassionate atmosphere.
How do you balance a busy career with being a father? I had always told myself that when I had a kid I didn’t want to have to be someplace else. I wanted to be able to take him to school, pick him up, and have flexibly over my career. I’m able to schedule my work around my parenting needs. What I’m grateful for is that I get to be a very active parent. Of all the things I’ve gotten to do in my life, being a father has been the best and the most rewarding.
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