{"id":703,"date":"2026-09-22T11:00:25","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T18:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coenewscenter.sites.unlv.edu\/?p=703"},"modified":"2026-09-22T11:00:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T18:00:25","slug":"alumni-spotlight-melissa-lozito-haskins-08","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coenewscenter.sites.unlv.edu\/?p=703","title":{"rendered":"Alumni Spotlight: Melissa Lozito-Haskins \u201808"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"533\" src=\"https:\/\/coenewscenter.sites.unlv.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-704\" srcset=\"https:\/\/coenewscenter.sites.unlv.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-1.png 400w, https:\/\/coenewscenter.sites.unlv.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-1-225x300.png 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Originally posted: Jul. 17, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By: COE Communications Staff<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Name:<\/strong>&nbsp;Melissa Lozito-Haskins&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Degree:<\/strong>&nbsp;\u201808 B.S. Human Services&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Current Employer:<\/strong>&nbsp;Empowering Minds PLLC<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>What led you to pursue a degree in human services?&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I knew I wanted to work in a helping field, but didn&#8217;t yet know what shape that would take. Being nominated as a peer counselor in high school had given me an early taste of informal counseling, and the human services program aligned with my values and offered concrete tools for making a meaningful difference in people&#8217;s lives.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>What advice do you have for current UNLV students?&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tell your professors what you actually want &#8211; not just the polished version. When I met with Dr. Larry Ashley about my first internship and my interest in deeper community involvement, he told me about an internship working directly with him where I got to experience a bit of everything our field had to offer. It was such a valuable experience.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>What&#8217;s something people should know about you?&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My husband and I are committed animal people and gamers. We share our home with three dogs &#8211; Jackson, Toby, and Sif &#8211; and three chickens named Beakachu (Beak for short), Stardew, and Leia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Are you a COE alum? Let us know what you\u2019ve got going on by submitting a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.unlv.edu\/unlv-magazine\/class-notes\">Class Note<\/a>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.unlv.edu\/education\/alumni\">getting involved<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Originally posted: Jul. 17, 2026 By: COE Communications Staff Name:&nbsp;Melissa Lozito-Haskins&nbsp; Degree:&nbsp;\u201808 B.S. Human Services&nbsp; Current Employer:&nbsp;Empowering Minds PLLC What led you to pursue a degree in human services?&nbsp; I knew I wanted to work in a helping field, but didn&#8217;t yet know what shape that would take. Being nominated as a peer counselor in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,32],"tags":[16],"class_list":["post-703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-counselor-education-school-psychology-and-human-services","category-general-college","tag-alumni"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coenewscenter.sites.unlv.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coenewscenter.sites.unlv.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coenewscenter.sites.unlv.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coenewscenter.sites.unlv.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coenewscenter.sites.unlv.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=703"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/coenewscenter.sites.unlv.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":705,"href":"https:\/\/coenewscenter.sites.unlv.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703\/revisions\/705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coenewscenter.sites.unlv.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coenewscenter.sites.unlv.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coenewscenter.sites.unlv.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}