Who Is Helen DeVinney?
Helen DeVinney is a postdoctoral fellow at George Washington University who trains future clinical psychologists while also jumping headfirst into campus activism. Instead of leaving politics outside the classroom and clinic, DeVinney has embraced anti-Israel organizing through petitions, faculty activism, and highly politicized psychology spaces. Like a growing number of activist academics, she packages slogans about “colonialism” and “genocide” as part of professional psychology. When therapy starts sounding like a protest chant, it’s fair to ask where the education ends and the activism begins.
How Has Helen DeVinney Mixed Activism with Psychology?
DeVinney hasn’t just spoken out politically. She’s helped bring activist messaging into professional psychology, turning conferences and academic spaces into another platform for political organizing.
- April 2026 – a psychoanalysis conference co-chaired by DeVinney for the American Psychological Association Division 39 meeting encouraged attendees to resist “colonialism and genocide” and commemorate the Nakba. Apparently even psychology conferences aren’t safe from campus activist talking points.
What Activist Networks Is Helen DeVinney Connected To?
DeVinney’s activism fits into a much bigger network of faculty members pushing the same anti-Israel messaging across campuses. And her founding role in GWU’s Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (FSJP) chapter puts DeVinney inside one of the faculty groups helping organize and publicly support anti-Israel activism on campus.
- June 2025 – a petition signed by her titled “Stop the War on Iran!” placed her alongside broader anti-U.S. and anti-Western activist campaigns – ones that supported the regime of the IRGC.
- April 2024 – she signed a faculty letter that defended pro-Palestinian campus activism across the D.C., Maryland, and Virginia region under the banner of “academic freedom.”
- 2023 – worked alongside Lara Sheehi promoting anti-colonial and pro-Palestinian activism through clinical psychology. Sheehi has faced significant criticism of anti-Israel bias, and in fact left GW in the face of an investigation into her misconduct, making the partnership hard to ignore.
Conclusion: What Does Helen DeVinney Mean for GWU’s Standard of Professionalism?
Helen DeVinney is part of a growing trend where professors and clinicians stop acting like educators and start acting like activists. Nobody expects faculty to leave their personal opinions at home, but students should be able to expect that psychology programs won’t become another outlet for political campaigning.
As universities continue facing Title VI investigations and questions about campus bias, faculty members who blur the line between clinical training and ideological activism aren’t helping their students or their institutions. They’re helping turn the classroom into another front in the culture war.
